Hebrews

[0:00] As you look at your scripture sheet, you will note that at the bottom of the page, we are discussing the difference between the priesthood that was standard in the time in which this was written, as contrasted with the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[0:20] And as is evident throughout the epistle to the Hebrews, the writer is establishing the superiority of the person of Jesus Christ in every way.

[0:31] And he is using one of the most sacred institutions to establish that. And that is the priesthood of Aaron that God originally established and made Aaron the head of that priestly tribe.

[0:48] Actually, it even predates Aaron because it originated with the thirdborn son.

[1:01] Let's see. Judah, Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, the thirdborn son.

[1:13] Levi, of Jacob, who is established as the priestly tribe. And then all of his descendants will continue that line. And that will be through Moses and through Aaron, of course.

[1:26] And that will be the priestly line. The royal line is the fourthborn son. And that is Judah. And that is to be kept distinct. But as we've already noted, our Lord Jesus Christ has a priesthood that is utterly unique.

[1:40] That is not from the priesthood of Levi, but it is from the priesthood of Melchizedek. And we are talking about how Melchizedek is a type of the Lord Jesus.

[1:53] And that there are just two individuals in this priesthood, even though in the priesthood of Aaron and Levi, there were thousands of priests, but there are just two individuals in this.

[2:04] And that is the type, Melchizedek, and the antitype, Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of that. And as we saw in the later portion here of chapter 7c is what we're on at the bottom of the page, And I may so say, Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham.

[2:29] And we just want to remind you that Levi wasn't even born when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. But he was in the loins of Abraham.

[2:42] And that, of course, is transferred to him. And verse 10 indicates that he was yet in the loins of his father Abraham. So, turn the page now, if you will.

[2:54] 7d. When Melchizedek met him. That was in connection with the episode that we looked at earlier that we'll not go into now.

[3:05] But the conclusion of that is, then in verse 11, If therefore perfection, or completion, is probably a better way to render that, whereby the Levitical priesthood, or under if 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?

[3:34] It's a little bit confusing on the surface, but in reality, it's actually quite simple. And what he is saying here, he's making a case for the temporal nature of not only the priesthood, but the whole sacrificial system.

[3:50] And this is going to be a really quantum leap for many of the Jews to make. Because they viewed the Mosaic law, the establishment of the priesthood, the sacrifices, etc., to be something of an enduring, permanent kind of nature.

[4:11] And probably the reason they concluded that was because God is eternal. God is perfect. God's law is perfect.

[4:23] Therefore, the law must be eternal also. But it was never intended to be. And this first institution, the Aaronic priesthood, was never intended to be permanent.

[4:34] It was a temporal thing from the beginning. This is going to be very, very difficult for the Jewish people to grasp. Matter of fact, they have not grasped it yet.

[4:45] Several years ago, when we were in Israel, we had opportunity to meet with a number of rabbis.

[4:57] And they fielded questions that we Gentiles, who were there as kind of like tourists, were invited to ask. And I asked this rabbi a question.

[5:07] And I said, well, since you no longer have a temple, which was the only accepted place to offer sacrifice, and since you are no longer able to do that, how can you practice Judaism when the very heart of it is remove that of animal sacrifice?

[5:31] And he said, well, that's a good question. But he said, we pray. And I said, you pray? You're using prayer to be the replacement for the animal sacrifice?

[5:44] And he said, yes, that's what we do. Well, can you imagine? Can you imagine Aaron and the other priests in the temple a couple thousand years ago telling God, actually, we're tired of killing all of these animals and all of the blood and everything.

[6:05] We're not going to do that anymore. We're just going to pray. Can you imagine God saying, oh, well, okay, that'll be fine. No, not hardly. But this is an instance wherein the capacity to offer that animal sacrifice is removed from them.

[6:23] And God effectively removed it from them with the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. and so on. Now, the point that the writer of Hebrews is making here is that institution was never intended to be permanent anyway.

[6:38] It was just interpreted by many of the Jews. That it was to be permanent. But God is making it very clear. And we'll see this eventually, if we get there, in Jeremiah 31.

[6:51] Where a new covenant had been planned all along. So let's get back to the text here. Verse 11. There wouldn't be any need.

[7:23] If that first institution was intended to be complete, or as the word is used here, perfect, then there wouldn't be any need for bringing the second one in.

[7:35] But it never was intended to. Verse 12. And that is simply saying that the law of Moses that worked and implemented the Levitical priesthood, the sacrificial system, and all that it contained, the law of Moses was for that.

[8:04] But that ceased to be. And that's going to even put the law of Moses in a completely different track than what it was originally.

[8:16] And that's the whole point. In fact, that's the burden of the writer of Hebrews. It is an upgrade. A radical updating from what had earlier been established under the law of Moses.

[8:30] It was never intended to be permanent. And yet, so many of the Jews back then, and today, assigned permanence to it.

[8:40] So let's read on and see how this develops. For the priesthood being changed, for he of whom these things are spoken pertains to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.

[8:58] For it is evident that our Lord, that is Jesus, sprang out of Judah. He was from the fourthborn son of Jacob, Judah.

[9:12] Not from the tribe of Levi. Of which, and he goes on to say, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

[9:25] And it is yet far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

[9:46] And that is, of course, in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, if you will take your new sheet here, in 7F, which would be page 1066 down at the bottom.

[9:59] After the power of an endless life, and that, of course, is speaking of Christ. For he testifies. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

[10:13] And that, of course, is speaking of the Lord Jesus. And this is an utterly unique priesthood, in that there are just two people in it. In the Aaronic or the Levitical priesthood, there were thousands of priests.

[10:26] But in this, just two. The type, Melchizedek, the antitype or fulfillment, the person of Christ. And what this does, it assigns another office, another legal office, to the person of Christ that he otherwise would not have had.

[10:44] Because he is already established as the king. The king of the Jews. And his genealogy is given in Matthew chapter 1, and then through Mary in Luke chapter 3.

[10:59] So his kingship and right to rule and sit on the throne of Israel is established. But he doesn't have a priesthood. Oh, yes, he does. He has a priesthood through the order of Melchizedek, which there are just two members.

[11:13] So he is already established as the prophet. And that we saw earlier in Deuteronomy some time ago, where the Lord, where Moses said, The Lord our God shall raise up a prophet like unto me, and him shall you hear, and so on.

[11:29] And that is speaking of Christ. So here we have all three offices implanted in this one person, Jesus the Messiah. Prophet, priest, and king.

[11:43] That means he encompasses every possible area or jurisdiction that could be needed. Nothing lacking. And he is the only one who operates and fulfills all three of those offices.

[11:57] We have established before that if you were the king, if you were the king of Israel, even if you were King David, you could not, you were forbidden to offer animal sacrifice.

[12:10] Because that was not your bailiwick. Yours was to rule as king, not to serve as a priest. You could not do that. And if you were a priest, you could not serve in the function of sitting on the throne as a king.

[12:23] Because that was out of your bailiwick. But Christ fulfilled all three of those offices. He is the only one who did. Prophet, priest, and king. Yes. Did the Jews have a record of this Belshazzar deck?

[12:36] Any kind of a written record of him or not? I really can't answer that other than what, well, they would have the record that is recorded in Genesis.

[12:47] Where he surfaces. And this is what he is referring to here. So, they would have that. And one of the really big problems with Judaism, and they place so much emphasis upon genealogy and ancestry.

[13:04] That is very, very important to them. And that, by the way, is why you find the genealogies of Christ in Matthew and in Luke. That is critical. Those are not just a bunch of names that are difficult to pronounce.

[13:16] I mean, they have really practical value. They authenticate the royal lineage of Christ to sit on that throne. And when the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., virtually all of the genealogical records going back thousands of years were destroyed.

[13:40] They were all burned up. And it's kind of like our local county courthouse burning down. And all the birth and death records and marriage records and everything is all burned up.

[13:53] So that nobody has any viable record of those. That's exactly what happened. So the Jews today have difficulty in trying to even determine what line they're from.

[14:04] However, there is a very important difference. And that is Jews today who are named Levy, L-E-V-Y, or Levy, and Cohen, C-O-H-E-N, Cohen.

[14:22] And there are a couple of other names. They still maintain a connection to the priestly line. But that's the only one that can be identified. And it's interesting that it is a priestly line.

[14:35] Yes, Dan? Okay. If I were a Jew, I would say, yes, this is true. He was from Melchizedek. He's from this line.

[14:45] But he's just a prophet. He's not the Savior who sent my God. Is that what they can do? Yeah, well. I mean, even though this justifies it, they say he's not the one that promised one.

[15:01] Yeah, that's the majority opinion of the Jews today. When Jesus came, and that, as we pointed out to you, that has always been the critical issue for the Jew.

[15:16] And that is the identity of Jesus, whom we regard to be the Messiah, but they, of course, do not. And the implications of that are staggering.

[15:29] Yes, Dan? So, because of the destruction of the temple, that's why there isn't any kind of reference about Melchizedek for us? Yeah, that's, I'm sure that enters into it.

[15:40] Absolutely. Yeah. Paul? You know what? I never understood those. Whether you agreed with Christ, I mean, as abused in, but, you know, didn't believe he was the Messiah. I don't know when eventually common sense would have to kick in with the temple being destroyed.

[15:54] What do you think? I mean, because you always had a blood sacrifice. And, like I said, one, you know, said they prayed. But if they followed the law to the extent, they still had to have a blood sacrifice. And, okay, 70 years after Christ, you know, was resurrected.

[16:07] Yeah. You know, they lose the temple, but it never came back. Well, you know what I mean? Yeah, I see exactly what you mean. But there are a lot of times when people demonstrate that they can be very, very blind sometimes to the law of logic.

[16:21] And we also read in Romans chapters 9 through 11 that blindness in part has happened to Israel. Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. So there is a supernatural kind of blindness that has been imposed upon Israel.

[16:36] Not all of Israel. And Paul made that very clear because he said, hey, I'm Jew too, and I'm an exception. And I was not, I was blinded, but now I see. So, Joe?

[16:46] You know, I think we forget that, you know, God dealt with Gentiles long before he chose his people. Everybody was a Gentile until God brought up Abraham.

[16:59] True. And, you know, they strayed from God. I mean, they were Gentiles. And we had a chance back then as Gentiles. Be closely. But so God is trying something else.

[17:11] When he brought up Abraham, they're going to be the priestly people to worship or to minister to the Gentiles later on. That's what they were supposed to do.

[17:22] That's what they were supposed to do. But we are back in the program now, the church age, God's program, the Gentiles. We're back in. Yeah. I mean, he left us completely when he brought up Abraham and chose his people.

[17:34] He only dealt with them. Right? That's true. But before that, he was the God of the Gentiles. He was. Absolutely. And Paul makes that clear in Romans 2 when he talks about for the Gentiles who have not the law.

[17:51] That's the law of Moses. And the reason the Gentiles do not have the law is because the law was never given to the Gentiles. It was given to the Jew.

[18:03] Exclusively. The animal sacrifices and everything else was to be strictly Jewish. Gentiles were reduced to nothing but paganism and polytheism and the worship of idols and all kinds of stuff.

[18:18] And Abraham was called out of that because he was involved in that too. In Ur of the Chaldees, one of the moon worshipers. And he called him out of that unto a separate place and unto himself alone as opposed to all of the Gentiles.

[18:34] And bear in mind, you're talking about Jew and Gentile. Now, the Jew comprises two-tenths of one percent of the world's population.

[18:48] That is not only tiny. That's infinitesimal. Two-tenths of one percent. And all the rest of the world are Gentiles.

[19:00] Because in the Bible, a Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. And that pretty much is just about everyone. So, okay.

[19:11] Let's continue on here. For the law, verse 19. The law made nothing perfect. Nothing complete. And remember, Romans, we won't go there. But Romans 8, 1 and 2 and 3.

[19:26] Paul says, For what the law could not do. In that, it was weak through the flesh.

[19:40] God did in the person of his Son. So, what he is saying is, The law cannot do or provide what needs to be done because the law is applied to the flesh.

[19:55] Human beings. And human beings can't handle it. Why? Because of the sin factor. So, there is none that keeps the law. You know, there is none that does right.

[20:06] There is none that follows after God. So, what the law could not do, because it was powerless, and the reason that it was powerless is because it was dependent upon the flesh to keep it.

[20:18] And we, of course, were unable to do that. And the Jew was unable to do that as well. So, what the law could not do, Christ did in bringing in a better hope by the which we draw nigh unto God.

[20:34] And that is, it is through this one that we are brought nigh unto God. It is through the one who came to fulfill the law and replace the law by which we draw nigh unto God.

[20:50] And inasmuch as not without a note he was made priest, for those priests were made without a note, but this with a note, by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

[21:15] And, of course, this is speaking from the psalmist, and it is the Father speaking to the Son. It is God the Father speaking to God the Son in the Psalms saying, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

[21:32] The Lord swear and will not repent, that is, will not renege or will not change his mind, that priesthood is established eternally. By so much, by so much, was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant.

[21:50] And what is this better covenant? This is the new covenant. This is the covenant that Jeremiah is going to speak of later when he says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob, not like the covenant I made before with them, which they broke.

[22:13] And that's talking about the old covenant, the law. Joe. And now, isn't the temple of God here? Absolutely. Yeah. The temple of God is here now.

[22:25] The temple of God is spiritual now. It's moved from physical, the location on Mount Zion in Israel, where the Lord dwelt in the Holy of Holies on the mercy seat between the overarching cherubim.

[22:38] And he's not there anymore. Now, he's in you. The Spirit of God dwells in you. And I know it's a difficult concept for people to comprehend, to realize that God is in you and Christ is in you, the hope of glory.

[22:57] I remember Jed Rosenthal, who's a pastor at Grace for a while, came to know the Lord when he was in the Navy.

[23:08] And he became friends of this fellow who led him to the Lord. And he also had, of course, other Navy friends as well who were not believers.

[23:20] And Jed said, one night, they were pulled into some port and they were given liberty and he was going in town that night with a bunch of guys and enjoy their liberty, you know.

[23:31] And this fellow who was not a believer sidled up to Jed and said, you're going to liberty tonight? And Jed says, yeah. And he says, who are you going with? And he named this guy who had led him to the Lord.

[23:45] And he was going to take liberty with him. And he says, I want you to be careful about that guy. He thinks God lives inside of him.

[23:58] Wow. Okay. Little did he know. God doesn't live inside of you. That's the new creation that is in there in the person of Christ.

[24:09] What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God? You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's.

[24:20] So, if you are a believer in Christ, you do have God dwelling inside of you. And that's in the Spirit of God. And frankly, none of us, including myself, really understand that.

[24:32] But we believe it because the Word tells us. So, it's a beautiful concept. Continuing on. Inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest, for those priests were made without an oath, talking about the Levitical priest, but this, with an oath by him, that is, by God, who said unto him, and this is earlier we saw, where God could swear by none greater, he swore by himself, and we talked about the importance of swearing and the significance of that.

[25:04] The Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, that is, permanently established, as opposed to the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood that was temporary from the get-go.

[25:18] But this priesthood is eternal. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant, and that, of course, is the new covenant. And, they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.

[25:39] This is another reason why there had to be multiple priests. They were human. They kept dying. And, they had to be replaced by other priests.

[25:50] So, the priesthood was a cyclical thing. They just turned over and turned over because there was always a new generation of priests coming on that were born into the priestly family. But this man, verse 24, the contrast established here by this conjunction, but, but, this man, and that's speaking, of course, of Christ, because he continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

[26:21] And, because he does, he is able also to save them to the uttermost. that means, because he has an enduring, eternal priesthood, he is able to function on behalf of those who come to God through him because he is perpetually, always, available.

[26:49] He is able to save you to the uttermost. That means, all the way through to the end, whatever is required. He is there, he is available, he is adequate, and he can do what the original priesthood through Aaron cannot do.

[27:08] So, here we've got an ironclad demonstration of the superiority of Christ in his priesthood as opposed to the one that was established through Aaron.

[27:19] He is able also to save them to the uttermost. That means, to the very end, some translates it, save completely and all.

[27:31] One brother put it, that God is able to save everyone who come to God through him from the uttermost to the guttermost. He can save the lowest and he can save the highest.

[27:44] And if they come to God through faith in him, they are saved. And the reason for this is, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.

[27:55] This priest is not subject to death like the others were. This priest is perpetual and he continues on. For, verse 26, for such a high priest became us.

[28:10] In other words, it was fitting that we should have such a high priest. And Weymouth says, such a high priest as this was exactly suited to our need.

[28:21] And that's the meaning of fitting. It means appropriate. It means able to do what was required. Here is the high priest, the Amplified says, perfectly adapted to our needs, who is holy, that is, separate, undefiled, harmless, and undefiled.

[28:42] Separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. And all of this is a description of the moral quality of this priest.

[28:56] And verse 27 says, who needs not daily as those high priests. And those high priests he's referring to is the contrasting high priest of the old covenant.

[29:08] and he is saying that Christ has an entirely different high priest than those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins.

[29:21] That's what the high priest had to do. When he went to make sacrifice for the people on behalf of the people, he had to first of all make sacrifice for himself. Because that's what made him then acceptable and eligible to offer sacrifice for others.

[29:37] But he had to be able to do that for himself. To offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people. For this he, and he's speaking of Christ, for this he did once when he offered up himself.

[29:58] For the law makes men high priests which have infirmity. This is saying the law of Moses, is that which established high priests and the order and their fulfillment.

[30:16] It was the law of Moses that did that, that made the high priests which have infirmity. But, the word of the oath, this is the oath that God swore regarding Melchizedek and Christ, which was, since the law, makes the son who is consecrated forevermore.

[30:41] Wow. All of this is designed to do just one thing, and that is demonstrate the superiority and the finality of the person of Christ to fulfill the priesthood, a prophet, priest, and king.

[30:58] In other words, you could not possibly have a more complete, fully functioning savior than what is there in the person of Christ.

[31:11] Prophet, priest, and king. Nothing is left out. Don, and then Roger. Mark, when this, I mean, this is directed right into Jude, now this would have no meaning for a Gentile at that time at all, would it?

[31:24] Right, no, absolutely not. No, application to Gentiles at all. Not here, no. We didn't compare the law with that, that's right. And the law, you know, the law of Moses, of course, was not for Gentiles, but the sacrifice that Christ made changed everything, because the cross, where Christ offered himself, made himself available, not simply to Israel, but to humanity.

[31:55] So, we've got a priest that is fully functioning for the entire human race. And this is reflected in what is referred to as the efficacious nature of the death of Christ, for whom was his death effective, or efficacious?

[32:20] it was effective for the entirety of humanity. It did not leave out one single person.

[32:32] Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. In the same way that Adam's sin brought death upon all men, even so in Christ, Paul said, shall all be made alive.

[32:52] And there we find what we have earlier discovered regarding the totality of the redemptive work of Christ. When Christ died, his death was just as effective and just as comprehensive in its application as Adam's sin was in his application.

[33:15] How many of humanity died in Adam? Everybody! The whole fell swoop! Everybody! And how many are made alive in Christ?

[33:27] Everybody! This is the totality of redemption. Not to be confused with personal salvation. The fact that Christ died for the sins of every single individual means every single individual is savable.

[33:47] It does not mean they are saved. It means they are savable. It means they could be saved because Christ died in their place making salvation available to everyone.

[34:01] This is not universal salvation. It is universal redemption. And it is because Christ died for the sins of the entire world anybody who puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ even if he is a murderer like Saul of Tarsus can be saved.

[34:26] No one is beyond the ability and the grace of God to save them provided they put their faith and trust in this one that God has provided our Lord Jesus.

[34:40] Joe? I tell it's kind of a joke but it ties in though. We're the temple God now. You know that's temple. And under the law the priests took care of the temple.

[34:53] Right? And they made sure it was order in shape and everything. And I've always felt that we should take care of our bodies by principle at least. I don't know where you find a verse in there that says it. But we should take care of our bodies because Christ is within it.

[35:05] Right. And most people here who know me know that I believe in exercise and proper diet and all that. Take care of your body. Now don't go to meddling Joe. So I really believe that.

[35:18] And I teach in Sunday school. Sunday school what time? And of course I was telling about taking care of your body and so forth. And this woman was a smoker. She was a smoker in school class.

[35:30] And she said, she said, Joe, does that mean I'm not going to get to go to heaven? She couldn't quit. She was trying to quit, but she couldn't quit her smoking. She said, does that mean I won't get to go to heaven?

[35:44] No, it only means you'll get there sooner. The tobacco will help you along. You get there quicker. So Joe, in other words, we're all priests.

[35:59] I was looking at my phone, but what I was looking at here was the divine right of kings. And this is where it came from. It was practiced in the 17th century. And that divine right of kings also meant if you go against that, you're against God.

[36:14] Oh, yeah. And of course, this is where the Jewish, you know, divine right of kings. Of course, not only did the Jewish people follow this, but the kings of Europe also bought into this, and I think you might speak of theocracy, I'm not sure.

[36:36] Well, the divine right of kings, played very, very heavily in the revolution in the 1700s, because those who wanted to remain loyal to the crown of England, they cited that, the divine right of kings, which simply meant that because the king has a divine right to rule and reign, you do not have the right to rebel against him.

[37:09] You need to remain loyal to the crown. And these people were called loyalists. And by the way, many of them were persecuted by the revolutionaries.

[37:21] So much so, I mean, they burned their houses and things like that. And a lot of these people fled to Canada to get away from the revolutionaries.

[37:32] And as pointed out, and this is completely aside, but it's an interesting thing, that when this whole thing came down in the 1770s, the revolution, there were about one third of the population who was in favor of independence and revolting against the king, there were about one third who were loyalists who did not want to do that, and there were about one third who were uncommitted to either.

[38:01] They were just going to wait and see which way it went, and that would be the group they joined. So the country was pretty much divided over independence, and a lot of people don't realize that. My point is this was the same practice that the Jewish people believed.

[38:19] In other words, the divine right of king started in the scriptures. The divine right started there, and of course you would not want to go against it. Right, yeah, and you remember from your history in 1215, when King John of England was on the throne and was making some pretty radical demands, it was the gentry that got together, and they forced King John into this setting, and made a list of demands upon him, and it was called the Magna Carta, and that was 1215, and that eroded right there, some of the divine right of the kings, and that too also played into the mindset of our revolutionary fathers in the 1700s, so the Magna Carta and English law played very heavily into that.

[39:16] Okay, anything else before we, Dana? I was wondering, in the current Jewish Bible, is the last thing written 400 B.C., or are there new editions since then?

[39:29] I'm sorry, repeat that please. In the current Jewish Bible, what's the most recent writings? Is it 400 B.C., or has there been anything added since then?

[39:42] No, there's nothing really added in the Jewish Bible. The Jewish Bible ends with 2nd Chronicles. In our Bible, it ends with Malachi, but they have a different arrangement of the books.

[39:57] They have exactly the same books in their Bible that we have in our Old Testament, but they are arranged differently. Yet, the content is all there. It's all the same. It closed about 400 B.C., and there, of course, has been nothing added to it.

[40:20] Bill? Yeah, well, it's a very good question.

[40:38] It has to do with the Gentiles in the time of Abraham, or even before Abraham. What was their lot? And, the Apostle Paul makes it very clear when he writes Ephesians chapter 2, and he says, remember, you Gentiles, and when he addresses the letter of Ephesians and says, you, he's talking about the recipients of that letter.

[41:05] These were Gentiles in the city of Ephesus, where Paul had been and preached and established a church. And he said, remember, remember, you Gentiles previously were without God and without hope in this world, but now have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ.

[41:27] So, they were just into their paganism, they were into idolatry and everything else, and they had no hope. That was their state. And, I wish I could put a better handle on the phrase that Paul used in Acts 17, when he addressed the believers, or not the believers, actually the Athenian philosophers on Mars Hill, and he talked about the time before that God winked at.

[42:00] I've never quite been able to get a handle on that. But he's talking about prior to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, God winked at the sins of man.

[42:13] And I don't know how to interpret that other than it seems to indicate that God somehow made some kind of cut some slack for them or something. Because he goes on to say, in the same passage there in Acts 17, that we're in times past, the ignorance in times past, God winked at, but now, he said, but now, God commands all men everywhere to repent to repent because he has fixed the day wherein he will judge mankind by that man.

[42:50] And that man, of course, is Jesus Christ. So the cross changed everything. But prior to that time, the Gentiles were just without God and without hope in this present world.

[43:02] Pretty sad situation. But as I've said, thank God for the cross because that did change everything. Hey, appreciate you being here, guys. And I think, can we consider this chapter finished now, chapter 7?