(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hey guys, thanks again for checking out our channel. We appreciate you as always. And this little sermon that you're about to watch is just something that we did about priests and the Bible's very interesting to see how we went from having a priesthood to becoming a priesthood. Anyways, if this blesses you, if you could just do us a favor and share it with somebody, we'd greatly appreciate it. All right, enjoy the message. God bless. All right, amen. Genesis chapter number 14. So last week we took a look at qualifications for a pastor. This week we're gonna do an overview of the priesthoods in the Bible. I'm gonna call this the evolution of priests. Now we're gonna look at three different time periods in the Bible. So before the formation of the nation of Israel, the actual formation of the nation of Israel and of course the New Testament. We're gonna see what changed during all three of those and what all three of those actually have in common. And from studying this out, it couldn't be more, I don't know, fitting that this is June and that the thing that they all have in common is very applicable to that. But you'll see that here in just a moment. So you're in Genesis chapter 14. The first thing we're gonna look at is this man by the name of Melchizedek in the Bible. You're gonna see that he is a king and a priest. Now this first, what I'm calling a priesthood in the Bible is very vague. There's not a whole lot of information to really go through. We don't know a lot about the religion, but there's definitely enough in there for us to glean some insights. So let's start this off here and look down at verse number 18. So the Bible says this. It says, and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God. So obviously God is already working in the life of Abraham. He's already told him that many nations of the earth would be blessed through his name and through the actions that he takes in his very own life, okay? But what I find strikingly interesting here is that this is pre-nation of Israel and we see that there is a priest, okay? There's a priest on the scene. He's a priest of the most high God. And you guys know the story. We just read it, okay? Lot already over in Sodom and Gomorrah and gets kidnapped by this league of kings and Abraham's like, I'm not gonna let this stand. I'm gonna go rescue him. And here the priest comes out completely endorsing that battle and blessing Abraham in the process. And that's the second thing you're gonna see here. Look down at verse number 19. So the Bible says, and he blessed him, okay? So this is Melchizedek here, and he blessed him, blessed Abraham and said, blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. So obviously here, you know, again, we're not giving a lot of insight to who Melchizedek was and things like that. That'll be a study for another day. But we know that he understands Abram's role in that time period. He knows that he's blessed of God, which is why he comes out to meet him. But yet he's obviously in a higher position. You'll see that here as we go through. Look at verse number 20. It says, and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. So what this is saying is that Abram gave the high priest here, Melchizedek, tithes of all the spoil that he acquired during the battle, okay? So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna back up a verse. And I want you to notice somebody who's also here. So get the picture, okay? You have Abram just come back from the slaughter of the kings is what it says. And there's another fellow here by the name of Bera. We'll call him Bera, B-E-R-A, okay? And you say, who is that? Well, that's the king of Sodom. Look at verse number 17. So you back up to verse number 17 that says, and the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kedorlaomer and of the kings that were with him at the Valley of Sheva, which is the king's dale. So you've got this blessing going on, this little mini church service we'll say. And then you have a Sodomite king present there. And the way I read it, and I see this picture in my mind, like this king just walks up and he's just pacing back for just antsy. He's got an agenda. He wants something, okay? He wants something out of this return from Abram. Let's see what it is. Look at verse number 21. Says, and the king of Sodom said unto Abram, so after obviously this interaction here, he finds, you know, a pause in conversations like, ah, let me slide in here. So verse 21 in the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. Okay? And this is the heart of these people. You all know this, okay? They don't care so much about the materials. They want people. Remember we talked about this on Sunday. They want recruitment. It's no different. There's nothing new under the sun here. Okay, look at verse 22. Very important to understand this. It says, and Abram said to the king of Sodom, you know, pay attention to what Abram says here. We don't have a lot of conversations in the Bible between God's people and sodomites. And here's one for you. Abraham said unto the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. Like how he just throws that right out there. Okay? He just throws that right out there. Gives God all of this glory, but look at his statement here. He's already premeditated this. Look what he says. He says, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. So he's already sworn something. He's already determined something here. Okay? And you say, well, what is it? Look at verse 23. And he says that I will not take from the thread. He says that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet. And that I will not take anything that is thine lest thou should say I have made Abram rich. So Abraham, he knows that these people have a reputation for extorting people, okay? And for cheating, lying, stealing, being very disgusting. He knows this. So he's already sworn that he's not gonna take, look at the language here. Verse 23, that I will not take from a thread. Okay? And you don't want a piece of thread from this guy's clothing. He wants nothing at all from this person, not even a shoe latchet, okay? And he says, and that I will not take anything that is thine lest thou should say I have made Abram rich. And so what are we looking at here? First priesthood, that's what I'm calling it, okay? First priesthood, pre-Israel here and what do we have in this religion of the world? Okay, endorsed by God. The priest of the most high God is staying there. Obviously he's standing there rather and he's endorsing this because he doesn't say anything. He doesn't rebuke Abraham. He's not like, oh, be nice and just love on him and maybe we'll win him over. No, I just picture him like, just like smiling like hit the road, okay? Abraham's rebuke is good enough. Melchizedek stays silent, which is obviously an endorsement. So what do we have here? We have that pre-Israel religion, okay? Obviously rejecting Sodomites. So we have this King here completely rejecting him, wants nothing to do with them and that's gonna come into play later. Now you can leave your place there and go to Exodus chapter number three. And what we're gonna do next is we're gonna look at Jethro, okay? Jethro is a priest in the Bible. He is Moses' father-in-law and just for the sake of this study, I'm gonna call him the bridge priest, okay? I'm gonna call him the bridge priest because he's the last rogue kind of priest we just see in the Bible pre. Obviously Israel at this time is already formed, but they're in bondage in Egypt and Moses is in the process of being lifted up to go rescue them. But what I find interesting here are several things about Jethro, okay? So Jethro is this priest. The Bible says he's the priest of Midian. And a lot of people say, well, he was a pagan guy, a pagan priest. And I think when you really look into this, you will beg to differ, okay? So really quickly, let me just give you four quick things about Jethro, also known as Hobab and Raoul in the Bible, okay? Again, Moses' father-in-law, okay? You're in Exodus chapter three. We're gonna read verse number one, but what you wanna understand here about Jethro is that Jethro, or I'm sorry, about Moses met Jethro after he fled Egypt. And so the beginning of these two people here in the Bible, you see a picture. Jethro is kind of a picture of Christ, because what does Jethro do? Well, he receives Moses. Moses pictures the nation of Israel. What does Jethro do? He gives Moses his daughter to wife, nourishes him, gives him wisdom, gives him knowledge, gives him a place of refuge. That's exactly what God does to the nation of Israel. And so number one, I already mentioned this, Jethro is the last, what I'm gonna say, rogue priest to be in the Bible before we see the Levitical priesthood come on to the scene. We know that Moses trusted him, because during the plagues of Egypt, the plagues on Pharaoh, we know that Moses sent his wife and Moses' sons to live with Jethro. And number three, I want you to see how Jethro praises God here. Actually, you're in Exodus three, keep your place there. Go to Exodus 18. Let me just, I was gonna skip this, but I think it's important. Go to Exodus chapter number 18. So this is after, obviously, Moses has brought in the children of Israel out of Egypt. It's having some issues here with the people. They're stiff necked, but there's a reuniting here. Jethro has brought Moses' family to him. Look at verse number nine. It says, Exodus 18, nine, it says, And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. Look at verse 10. And Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. So look at Jethro's attitude here, how he's giving God glory. Now look at verse number 11. It says, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. Some people might say, well, before this, he wasn't sure. I don't think we have enough to really draw that conclusion. And looking after that, it says, For in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them. So he's just basically referencing the culture, the attitude of the world around him. He's saying, you know, these people that doubted the true and living God, there's a pride that goes with that. And this story here, how God has rescued these people is proof that he's the God of all gods. That's basically what he's saying there. Verse 12 says in Jethro, Moses' father-in-law took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Sounds to me like this is not his first rodeo. This is not the first time he has done this. It says, And Aaron came and all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. Now remember the Levitical law and the law being handed to Moses takes place after this incident here. So you got Moses, you've got Aaron and you've got these people here partaking in this sacrifice or these offerings that Jethro is doing, which is another reason why I do not believe that he was a pagan priest. Number four, go to, jump down to verse number 18. And we're gonna look at this here that Jethro gives Moses godly wisdom. So story goes, Moses is sitting down, he's judging the people, they're coming to him with hard things. And Jethro notices something off about this. Look at verse 18, it says, actually look at verse 17, it says, Moses' father-in-law said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good. Because Moses has taken a lot of responsibility onto himself and it takes a lot of time to settle beefs between people, it's very difficult. Verse 18, he says, thou wilt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee, thou are not able to perform it thyself alone. Verse 19, hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel. Now look what he says here, and God shall be with thee, be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. So again, this is not the words of a novice here, okay? He has been blessed with wisdom from God, he's giving God glory, verse 20, thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do. So he's all in on this, he understands the process, he understands that God is doing something great in the world now, and that this situation in the world where you just have isolated priests over here, or what have you, okay, is going to go away, it's going to be now centered and controlled into one nation. Look at verse 21, it says moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds and rulers of fifties and of tens. And it just goes on and he basically says if you do this thing, God is going to bless you. And of course, you read the rest of the chapter, it's very clear that Moses hearkens unto this wisdom and God blesses Moses as a result. Now go back to Exodus chapter number three. And let's look at something here about Jethro. So Exodus chapter three, verse number one. So this is going back, okay, predating what we just read here, okay. Exodus three, one says this. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, and here's what the narrator says about him. The priest of Midian and led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Orob. So what is this about? Let's go to Genesis 25 real quickly. Genesis chapter number 25. So basically what Jethro is, what we know about him is he is a priest or he is the faithful leader of the Midianite people, okay. So who are the Midianites? Well, the Midianites were descendants of Abraham, which would make them Semitic people, but not Hebrews. Okay, Semitic people, not Hebrews. And because they were descendants from Abraham, okay, you're gonna see that obviously we know the nature, we know the character of Abraham, how he loved God, okay. It's not a stretch to say that these people obviously knew who the true God was, okay. And it just blows my mind that people are just like, well, most scholars believe that he was a priest of this certain idol. It's like, that's not what it says. None of this stuff in the Bible points to that, okay. But again, who are the Midianites? Genesis 25, verse number one. It says, then again, Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah. Remember we solved this mystery a couple of weeks ago with, you know, is Keturah a concubine or a wife? And obviously when you understand that Sarai died, he probably took her to wife, upgraded her from concubine to wife. Verse two, and she bare him Zimran, Jokshan, and Medan, and here it is, and Midian, Ishbak, and Shua. So Midian, obviously right here, the son of Keturah, Abraham is his father. Obviously it would go off to be a people group fulfilling the prophecy again that God had told Abraham that many nations of the earth would be blessed through him, okay. So that is going to basically end what vagueness there is regarding priests before the nation of Israel. And the thing to remember is they did not tolerate Sodomites whatsoever at all, okay. Now go to Exodus chapter number 28, and let's look at the actual priesthood forming for the nation of Israel. You guys already know they are called Levites, descendants of Levi. Hey, remember Levi had his sons, he had Gershon with an N, and he had several other or a couple other guys already forgot their names. It's not important, but basically by the time you get to Aaron, you will see that the sons of Aaron would become high priests. And there are other Levites, like the Kenites that are other groups of Levi, the Kohathites, not the Kenites. They all have these different names. The Kohathites, they would take care of duties in the tabernacle, and then eventually go on to take care of duties in the temple after Solomon completes that. So let's look at this office here being established in the nation of Israel. Look at Exodus 28 verse one. So the Bible says, and there's obviously now God giving Moses all of the law, the statutes, all the information that he had to distribute and to eventually write down the first five books of the Bible. Verse one says this, and take thou unto the Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister unto me in, and here it is, the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithmar, Aaron's sons, okay? So in order for there to be a high priest at this time, they have to be the descendants of Aaron, and not all of them were qualified. We'll look at that here in a second. Look at verse number two. And thou shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty, okay? And when you study this out, you're gonna see that the Levites, they did not have a plot of land that they inherited, but rather what the other tribes of Israel did, the other 11 tribes, is they would tie, they would give their resources to help the Levites. So the Levites lived off of the land so that they could take care of all of the priestly duties. Verse number three, and thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, okay? So this is now the beginning of what is referred to as the Levitical priesthood, the second group we're looking at tonight. Go to Leviticus chapter number 21, okay? And I mentioned this just a minute ago that the requirement to be a high priest was to be the son of Aaron. But what you're gonna see in this passage we're about to read is that not all of the sons would necessarily be qualified. Look at this here in verse number 17. It says, speak unto Aaron saying, whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. This would be looked upon today by the world as very judgmental, very harsh, very just wrong. Oh, just because somebody has a defect, you know, God is mean. And you'll find people that extract this and try to throw back in your face to say that God is against people that are handicapped and there's nothing further from the truth. Look at verse 18. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach. And then he defines what these blemishes are. Number one, a blind man, or lane, and look at the rest of the verse, or he that hath a flat nose or anything superfluous, okay? So anything out of the ordinary, a son of Aaron would not be qualified to be a priest. Here's number 18. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach. Oh, I'm sorry, look at verse 19. Or a man that is broken footed. Remember back then, they didn't have the technology that we have today. You broke your foot back then and healed up, deformed more than likely. And so God says, you're out, you are not qualified. So no broken footed, broken handed. Verse 20, or crook bat, okay? So you got real bad problems with your bag. Remember when I was a kid, I took this test from my back and they're like, you got really bad scoliosis, and I did. And so that would have thrown me out of the pool here. And he says, crook back dwarf, verse 20, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy or scabbed, or hath his stones broken. And you'll see why that's necessary in a second. Verse 21, no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron, the priest, shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire. He hath a blemish, and shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. Now go to chapter number 20, okay? Chapter number 20, remember, this is the second priesthood in the Bible, okay? Who could be a priest? Well, you had to be from a specific family. You had to be the descendant of Aaron, and you could not fall into one of these categories in Leviticus chapter number 21. Obviously female out, okay? Leviticus 20, look down at verse number 13. You probably already knew we were going there. Look what it says. It says, if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. So not only do we see the very first, what I'm calling priesthood in the Bible, the old world we'll just call it. Yeah, obviously post flood, but they did not tolerate Sodomites. We've got a very clear example of that, but also in God's nation, when God is in charge of a nation and he's the boss, okay, and there's no Congress, Senate, and all these politicians, it's God and then the king, or it's God and then the prophets, God and then the judges, okay? When God has that system, he does not suffer these people to live. And so you see now that there is a connection between these first two priesthoods. Sounds to me like God doesn't change, okay? But now what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the last priesthood. Let's look at this change over here in Hebrews chapter number seven. So go to Hebrews chapter number seven and let's look at something here. Okay, because you might not notice this. Obviously, you know, there's a ton of stuff in the Bible about the Levitical priesthood. We don't have time to look at all this, just a very vague, brief overview. Lots of stuff in there. Good to read on your own time because a lot of people today, and here's another good reason why you need this sermon, is because a lot of people today identify with priests and endorse these Catholic priests that are out here in the world today. They believe that their office is legit and you're gonna see why it's obviously not, okay? Now, Hebrews chapter seven, you're gonna see that there is a problem though with this priesthood, just like there was with the first one. Look at what it says here in verse number 11. So he says, Therefore, perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, look at this parenthetical statement, for under it the people received the law, okay? So remember, the Levites, what did they do? They not only took care of the duties of the tabernacle or the temple, the priests offered sacrifices, but they also were responsible for teaching law, okay? For making sense of the law and teaching the people. And so he says, for if under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron, okay? So I believe that Paul wrote Hebrews and I believe he's making a very logical point here in basically trying to get people to see that that system was never established to be forever. Okay, look at verse 12. For the priesthood being changed. You see that there? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law, okay? And so this should go without saying. Anybody today that's saying, oh, the Jews over in Israel, they're finding out and God knows who they are, they're finding out who the priests are and they're coming back and they're gonna offer sacrifices. You are so blasphemous. It's not even fathomable to me or to most of us. That is disgusting, okay? Let me show you in the Bible the very moment that this priesthood changed. Go to Matthew chapter number 27. One verse here. We're gonna look all the way over in verse 51. You will see the moment that this changed. Matthew 27 verse 51 says this is obviously after Christ was put to death on the cross. It says, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. Remember the role of the high priest, what he would do once a year. He would go in to the holy place and then into the holies of holies behind this veil, behind this temple. And he would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice onto the mercy seat, which was on the Ark of the Covenant. Now we did a study about this several months ago and we talked about how after the Babylonians came in, conquered the southern kingdom of Judah, destroyed the temple, brought the children of Judah to captivity and then under the Medo-Persian empire, they were allowed to rebuild. We demonstrated that that Ark of the Covenant was gone. Okay? And we don't know exactly how they were replicating what they were doing before in the temple during this time or leading up into this time. But basically when God tore that veil from top to bottom, which was a miraculous feat because I heard that thing is extremely durable, extremely long, took a very long time to make, but basically what was behind it was nothing. So God throughout their history was already setting the stage to prove that this priesthood was going away, that there was going to be a change in this. Now go to Revelation chapter number one, we'll look at a verse here and identify who are priests now, okay? Because there is still a priesthood on this earth today and well, who is it? Last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter one, look at verse number six. So the Bible says, referring to Christ, and he hath, or it says, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen. So when we start off, when we look at the first priesthood in the Bible, we see Melchizedek was a king and a priest. Now the last priesthood, which this one is forever, this one goes throughout all eternity, what happens? Well, we now are kings and priests. The one in the middle, remember, it was only men who had to be born into Aaron's family, no blemish, things of that nature. Go to chapter five of Revelation real quick. One more verse on this here, just to prove here. It says this in Revelation 5, 10, and hath made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. So we went from having a priesthood to becoming a priesthood, okay? And so what's different now? Well, what's different is that now it's everybody. You have women, you have men, you have children. If you're saved, if you're born again, you are a king, you are a priest in the Bible. And so therefore our sacrifices in what we do, okay, look a little bit different. And so just to kind of touch on that, go to 1 Peter chapter number two, and let's take a look at something here. We're getting close to being done. I just thought this would be a beneficial, fun little study to do tonight. So 1 Peter chapter number two, and let's look at verse number five to start this off here. So verse five, 1 Peter chapter two says this, says ye also, now that ye there, don't let anybody fool you and say, well, that's just the Jews. He's only talking to Jews. No, he's talking to born again Christians is what he's talking to, or who he's talking to. Verse five, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. Every Christian is the temple of God. The Holy Ghost dwells inside of you, okay? An obvious, very significant difference between our priesthood versus Israel's priesthood and the priesthood prior. Okay, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. Unholy priesthood, okay, unholy priesthood. Okay, so is a Catholic priest really a priest according to the Bible? Absolutely not, because he's not saved. You have to be saved in order to be a priest, okay? So it doesn't make any sense. But he says a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So what is acceptable to God? What is acceptable to Jesus Christ today? Is that the red heifer? Is that the coming Levitical priesthood over in Israel? No, there's spiritual sacrifices, okay? Sacrificing animals today is not accepted at all by God. He did away with that. The veil was torn, it's done, that's over. That is not supposed to ever come back. Very clear. One more time just so that we understand, okay? Ye also, verse five, as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. This is what God does, this is what the word of God does. It builds us up a spiritual house. Unholy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And we can spend a whole sermon discerning what those are. Obviously, in a quick nutshell, it's soul winning. It's edifying one another. It's taking care of each other, okay? That's what it is. Now let's just for sake of time, let's go ahead and skip down to verse number nine. So he reinstates this here and he says, but ye, okay, again, ye who are saved, ye who are born again, ye who are Christian, but ye are a chosen generation. So somebody says, well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's the Ashkenazi Jews. It's the Jews that are over there today. God knows who they are. They're chosen. That's God's chosen. No, no, no, that's not what the Bible says here, okay? But ye, that ye there is so important for you and I to grasp, to understand. It is the Christian, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, not a Levitical priesthood, a royal priesthood. We serve the high king. It says an holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Then he expounds on this even further, okay? Remember, who is a priest today? Somebody who has been called out of darkness and into the light. Who's the light of the world? It's Jesus Christ. We know this. Verse 10, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy, okay? Collectively, every believer on the planet makes up this temple of God, this priesthood, this kingship, if you will. And it doesn't matter whether you are male, female. It doesn't matter what nationality you are. It is all in Christ, okay? And so last but not least, go to Jude, because I said, there's a common thread through all three priesthoods in the Bible. You know, I just can't not bother this here. So let's do this here. We're done right here. Jude chapter 18. I better not hear any pages flip. Jude one, okay? It's only one chapter. Look at verse number five. So the Bible says this. Remember, this is written to the priesthood. Every believer is a priest, okay? Look at this here, verse five says, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. Okay, Jude is trying to set the stage here for us to have the right mentality, okay? There are people that choose to believe not. And remember, you got three categories of people in the world. You've got people that are hanging in the balances, they're just not sure. I don't know whether to follow Christ. I'm not sure of something else. Okay, those are the ones that we're after, okay? Then obviously you've got the saved, you got the priesthood. And then you have this other group of people, the reprobates, they hate God, okay? And that looks many different ways. We've touched that recently. Hey, look at verse six. Because Jude's reminding us that God had destroyed people in Israel that just didn't believe or murmuring, just didn't want any part of it. Verse six, in the angels, which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved an everlasting chains under darkness unto judgment of the great day, okay? And they set in the stage to say this right here in verse number seven. Even as, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Right now, those people are roasting, sizzling, burning in hell, okay? And Jude wants us to have that picture. And he wants us to understand that that is a vengeance from God. So what's going on here? Well, it sounds to me like the final priesthood in the Bible needs to understand that that event is an example that we follow today. Now, obviously we can't go physically do anything to these people. I'm not saying that we should, that's not right. That's against the law. So how do we apply this to our lives? Well, number one, we don't let them in our lives. Hey, we don't let them into church. We don't let them try to pollute or intoxicate the priesthood. That's what we do. That's called being a good priest. That's called being a good king. Verse number eight, likewise also, look at what Jude says, these, who are these? These people he mentioned in verse seven, these filthy dreamers, look at the present tense of this, defile. You can say they did defile, okay? Likewise, so as they did, he says, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. And so again, we're gonna stop right there. You look at the way I broke this down, okay? Obviously just Melchizedek and Jethro. Jethro obviously wasn't like, I wouldn't say he was like a priest on the same level as Melchizedek, but he's just somebody that we see in the Bible. He's there. He apparently loves God. He has wisdom. He has insight. God used him to help Moses, to bless Moses' life. And so I'm just grouping those two together as like the pre-Israel priesthood. And we saw very clearly, they didn't accept the Sodomites, okay? And then you look at God forming the physical nation of Israel, and he establishes a tribe called the Levites. They take care of all the priestly duties. Obviously the sons of Aaron, they were the only ones that could become priests. They took care of the sacrifices, the offerings and things of that nature. And they had a very clear written instruction not to tolerate Sodomites, not to allow them to live in the nation, endorsed by God, the ultimate high priest. You fast forward to God changing that priesthood. And now every believer is a priesthood. Hey, we're growing. We're being built up into this spiritual house, ready and waiting for the marriage supper of the lamb and our new Jerusalem to come down. And we're told to look back into history and to learn from how God treated those people and apply that in a civil way today, which is what? We don't tolerate them in here. We don't allow them near our kids. We don't allow them in our families. We do not allow them around us, especially not in church, okay? And so, again, I'll just say this one more time. We went from having a priesthood to becoming a priesthood. And it's funny how all three of those categories have one thing in common, and that is they were all anti-pride. So as the Bible says, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not ever let somebody tell you otherwise. Let's stop right there and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for what you've left in the Bible for us so we could glean back into history and learn lessons from how you established and how you are growing the priesthood. And we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.