Stealing From God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A. The Battle of Yesterday
A. The Battle of Yesterday
The battle against atheism is dead. “The Big Bang is Dead”.
B. The Battle of Today
B. The Battle of Today
The battle against powerless spirituality is alive and well.
C. The Answer for Everyday
C. The Answer for Everyday
In every age, Jesus is the answer.
What we find in Genesis 8 is that Noah has been saved from the wrath of God. He steps out of the ark, and because of the mass of water that rose from the deep, and the deluge of water that fell from the sky, the structure of the earth has changed, there is death and judgement everywhere, and he slowly walks out of the ark after a year, and he can see nothing but death and decay, bones of those who tried to get into their own boats and climb to their own heights, and the world has changed.
Then, the very first thing he does is he sacrifices to God. And the Bible says that it was a pleasing aroma to God. Then God begins to speak to Noah, and tells Noah of His covenant and the sign of the rainbow.
There are all kinds of superstitions around rainbows, and the most common one we know is that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Some say that it’s impossible to find the end of the rainbow, but Elizabeth, the kids, and I were driving around up here and found the end of the rainbow. Some of you won’t believe me but the end of that rainbow was right on top of a chicken house!
The rainbow is not superstitious. It is a sign of covenant that God made with all of creation.
We are approaching the month of June, and unfortunately we have an entire month in our nation where companies in the United States bow down to the crowd that have tried to steal the sign of the rainbow.
The marketing scheme of the LGBTQ crowd is that the rainbow represents their spectrum, and that it represents their love, and it boasts of pride and self-indulgence as a good and healthy thing when it is the sin of pride and sexual self-indulgence that cause God to flood the world in the first place.
But from the time that God flooded the earth, and by His strong hand caused the waters to recede, the rainbow belongs to God, no matter how aggressively satan tries to steal from God.
What we need to recognize from this text today is the Symbol, the Significance, and the Strength of the rainbow God hung in the sky.
I. The Symbol
I. The Symbol
A. Forgiveness is Available
A. Forgiveness is Available
Pride (both the attitude and the movement) says that no forgiveness is necessary, God says that forgiveness is available.
The rainbow symbolizes the peace between God and the world.
And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
1. A Sacrifice Involved
1. A Sacrifice Involved
2. Forgiveness is Given
2. Forgiveness is Given
B. Completion is Attainable
B. Completion is Attainable
Pride and the sexual revolution says that completion comes from embracing self, but God says that completion comes from denying self.
The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
We know God’s sign is the rainbow, and that it’s been hijacked by satan for the purposes of perversion.
The symbolism of the rainbow shows us forgiveness and appeasement, but it also shows us completion in a reliance upon God.
Roy G. Biv
There was a friend that I had in elementary school and he helped me pass my test on the water cycle.
Evaporation, condensation, precipitation.
Along with that test, I had to remember the colors of the rainbow, and my friend Roy G. Biv helped me out.
Roy didn’t sing, but the letters of his name are the colors of the rainbow.
Red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet.
How many colors is that?
That’s seven colors.
When it comes to the Bible, the number seven represents being finished or completion.
You cannot find completion in yourself, completion comes from above.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
To be access God, we need to be complete.
When the Bible says, “born again”, it literally means “born from above.”
A rainbow is not man made, it is a matter of physics, it is created by God, and it has come from above.
Salvation is not man made, it is a matter of grace, it is given by God, and it has come from above.
II. The Significance
II. The Significance
A. The Significance of Its Origin
A. The Significance of Its Origin
Pride promotes human effort as the origin of blessing, God reminds us that He is the origin of blessing.
“And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you,
Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;
and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Because of Adam and the sin nature we inherited, everything that originates with man breeds evil.
But when God originates something, it is good, because God is good.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
When we see the rainbow, we are reminded that God is the originator of everything that is good. That truth should remind us that man cannot experience anything good without first receiving what is good from God.
1. Don’t Forget the Origin of Blessing
1. Don’t Forget the Origin of Blessing
Don’t start thinking that you are source of your own success. Without the hand of God, without all that God has made and placed on this earth, we could not experience any blessings. Everything good comes from God.
2. Don’t Neglect the Origin of Blessing
2. Don’t Neglect the Origin of Blessing
Forgetting is a failure to recall or remember; Neglect is worse. It is a choice or an abandonment. It is habitual and careless. It is a moral failure.
We can remember God…we say, “God has blessed me!” but we neglect Him because we don’t obey Him. We neglect Him because we don’t consult with Him. We neglect Him because we don’t serve Him. We carelessly abuse His grace, knowing that He is there, knowing that He has called us to gather together and to serve Him, knowing that He has called us to trust Him with 10% of our money (tithe), and we just say, “Ah well, I’m not going to do that right now.”
What we’re saying to God is, “I know what’s right, I’m just not going to do it.”
Pride promotes human effort as the origin of blessing, God reminds us that He is the origin of blessing.
B. The Significance of Its Design
B. The Significance of Its Design
I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
Dr. John MacArthur makes a stunning and beautiful observation about the design of the “bow.”
Before I read what Dr. MacArthur said, know that the word “rainbow” in v. 13 is not rainbow, it is the word “bow” as in a warriors bow.
Dr. John MacArthur
In ancient Near Eastern literature there are often deities depicted with a bow, wielding destruction.
And the Old Testament pictures God like that. Exodus 15:3 says, “The Lord is a warrior.” Habakkuk 3:9, “His bow is made bare.” Zachariah 9:14, “His arrows are lightning.” God is depicted as a warrior with a bow. In the Flood, God the Warrior shot His lightning arrows, pierced the earth, the earth broke open, exploded and then the sky fell, and certainly with it arrows of lightning and destruction. He bent His bow in wrath. But from now on – follow this – God has hung up His bow and He hung it in the sky where everybody can see it.
Why is that significant?
Because when we see the bow in the sky, we can know that God is not waiting to strike us down from heaven, because this is not the time of judgment. A day is coming when God will judge the world, but for now, God has hung up His bow.
Why has God hung up His bow?
Because He has a desire that all the world hear the name of Jesus. (Missiology, Ecclesiology, Evangelism).
C. The Significance of Its Visibility
C. The Significance of Its Visibility
Ezekiel is having a vision of Heaven where he sees God:
Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.
Go back to science class with Roy G. Biv and think about how a rainbow is formed.
A rainbow forms when sunlight enters water droplets, bends (refracts), separates into colors (disperses), reflects off the inside of the droplet, and then bends again as it exits.
Refraction— light bends as it enters the droplet.
Dispersion— different wavelengths/colors bend at slightly different angles.
Internal reflection— the light reflects off the back inside surface of the droplet.
Refraction again — the colored light exits the droplet toward your eyes.
“A rainbow is light being bent and separated into colors by water droplets.”
When we see the rainbow, we are seeing a reflection of the glory of God! Since Satan is a thief and a counterfeiter, he has stolen the rainbow to try and reflect the his own glory, and has tried to call what is perversion “love”. He has tried to make pride seem like it is a good thing, when it is a deadly sin, the one that got him cast out of heaven.
III. The Strength
III. The Strength
Man thinks that pride, arrogance, and self-reliance are the strength of life, but God says that humilty, meekness, and reliance on Him are the strength of life.
When we see the rainbow, we need to think promise. When we think of the promises of God, we need to recognize it’s strength, and that the rainbow illustrates that strength.
The Crown of the Board
In a house, you’ve got all the framing, and you have the boards that support the floor and the ceiling called joists.
When a carpenter is going to install the joist on a house, he is going to turn the board on its side and he’s going to find what is called the “crown”.
The crown of the board is where the board naturally curves upward, and the crown is going to go on top, so that the floor or the ceiling doesn’t sag.
When we see the rainbow, we know that we are always going to see the crown of the rainbow is pointed towards the sky, and it’s not going to sag, it’s not going to give way.
It is the same with the promises of God. The promises that God makes aren’t going to sag when the pressure is on. He is faithful to keep His promises.
A. His Promises are Strong in Every Season
A. His Promises are Strong in Every Season
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
Until the earth is destroyed in the end times, the sun is going to rise, the crops will grow, and the summer will come.
Even in the coldest winters of life, we can trust in the promises of God.
B. His Promises are Strong in Every Trial
B. His Promises are Strong in Every Trial
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
God has said in His word, that everyone who trusts in the name of Jesus will overcome sin, will overcome death, will overcome satan.
There is nothing in this life that can weaken the salvation of God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Has your pride been stealing from God?
Pride (both the attitude and the movement) says that no forgiveness is necessary, God says that forgiveness is available.
Pride and the sexual revolution say that completion comes from embracing self, but God says that completion comes from denying self.
Pride promotes human effort as the origin of blessing, God reminds us that He is the origin of blessing.
Man thinks that pride, arrogance, and self-reliance are the strength of life, but God says that humilty, meekness, and reliance on Him are the strength of life.
When we see the rainbow, we need to think promise. When we think of the promises of God, we need to recognize it’s strength, and that the rainbow illustrates that strength.
A. Are You Forgiven?
A. Are You Forgiven?
Forgiveness is available and God has made that abundantly clear.
The blood sacrifice that Noah made may have appeased God in this time of grace, but only the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ can appease God in the time when He comes again.
Completion is attainable and you cannot be made complete by looking within, you can only be made complete by looking above.
Jesus says, “you must be born again to receive forgiveness.”
B. Do You Remember God?
B. Do You Remember God?
Have you just lived your life without ever thinking about God?
Even worse…
C. Have you Been Obeying God?
C. Have you Been Obeying God?
Have you been saying to God, “I know what’s right, I’m just not going to do it.”
-Tithing
-Praying
-Evangelizing
-Thanking Him Daily
D. Are You Finding Your Strength in God?
D. Are You Finding Your Strength in God?
Man thinks that pride, arrogance, and self-reliance are the strength of life, but God says that humilty, meekness, and reliance on Him are the strength of life.
How do we rely on Him?
By praising Him.
By praying to Him.
By reading His Word.
By trusting God with [this person] or [that situation]
And then by doing what He has asked you to do.
