Hijacking the Rainbow (Part 2)

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The Danger of Drift (Part 3)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I think I was complaining a few weeks ago or months ago, the show that never ends because there�s another day, that is
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No Compromise Radio. Somebody wrote in and said, �I was encouraged by some of the things you�ve said.
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If it�s too much and you can�t go on, fine, but it�d be nice if you kept going.� So in honor of Greg, that�s what
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I�m going to do. Even though we get blocked by certain Twitter folks, we just keep on going.
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Thanks to Nate, who put together a little picture of what �henno� means. I appreciate that.
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Remember our slogan here is �Always Biblical, Always Provocative, Always New Shows for Fred.�
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That�s what we do. I�m actually scheduled to interview
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Fred Butler coming up in December. So he said, �When would it be played ?�
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Probably sometime in February. I said, �That�s correct, February 2018.� See, we plan. Just like with Hootsuite, we have all the
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Facebook and Twitter tweets and Facebook entries already planned.
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I�ve got them all planned. Today is November 5th in real time, so you can calculate how far off this is.
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I have the Twitter Hootsuite, Facebook Hootsuite set up through January 14th.
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So daily entries all the way through then, so I don�t have to bother with it. So if it�s in the middle of the day and you think
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I should be studying and there just was a post, well, now you know. See how that works?
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If you�ve got show ideas, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you have complaints, the
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Tuesday guy at NoCompromiseRadio .com. We have been talking about rainbows, the hijacking of the rainbow.
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Remember we talked about that last time? Rainbow is a powerful symbol. Well, it�s more than a symbol.
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You can get into the details of the science behind a rainbow and refraction and reflection and optimal 42 degrees double rainbows.
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When there�s salt water, the rainbows are affected a little bit versus regular rainbows, regular water rainbows.
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What�s regular water compared to salt water? Lake water, plain water, normal water, a non -saline water.
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What would that be called? See, I�m trying to figure these things out as we go. If only we had a staff.
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Well, in a sense we do and by the way, I�d like to say thank you for some of those staff members who work behind the scenes and make
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No Compromise Radio go. I talk, everybody else does the rest and off we go. Rainbows should make you think of something and if you buy into all the world�s craziness, you will think of other things.
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So on this show, part two of rainbows, we are trying to unhijack the rainbow so you think biblically about rainbows.
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Nazi symbols, peace symbols, symbols are very important both in the
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Bible and in life. My favorite symbol of all time has to be the cross and you can think of substitutionary atonement.
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You can think of Jesus becoming a curse for us, Deuteronomy 21, 22,
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Galatians 3. You can think Jesus is no longer on the cross. He�s been raised from the dead.
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Sometimes study Acts and see the focus on the resurrection in Peter�s preaching and Paul�s preaching and how important it is the ultimate vindication of Christ Jesus and the validity of his resurrection, validity of his life sealed by the resurrection.
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And we have been talking about rainbows in the Bible. Three particular places that I wanted to go to to discuss rainbows.
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Now the word rainbow in Genesis 9, remember that�s where we were last time so this is a quick review so the show could stand on its own.
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Solo shows, in case you missed last time, shame on you, but you can always go back and listen to it.
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It is a new show for it so you can take care of that. God is the one who sees the rainbow.
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It�s primarily in Genesis 9 a sign to him. When the bow is in the clouds,
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I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
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So, Genesis 6, wickedness, all those vegetarians were so wicked.
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It�s true. That�s not why they were wicked, because they were vegetarians, but they just, people didn�t eat meat before that.
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Genesis 6 goes on to describe the flood, 7, 8, remember
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God remembered Noah, and then we move to chapter 9. Well, the word bow, you might have a translation that says rainbow, it�s really the word for the war bow.
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If you think of archery, you will think rightly, and you have
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God putting a sign in the clouds that he has kept his covenant with Noah and that he�ll never destroy all flesh with water again.
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When you read about bows in history of the world, and of course in biblical history, bows, like the weapon, you don�t want to be on the receiving end of that.
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Here we have now with the rainbow, which way is, if there was an arrow in the bow, what way would it be facing?
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Well, not toward earth, but the bow is hung up. If you hang up bicycles in your garage, there�s a certain way to hang bicycles up.
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If you hang, I don�t know, snowboards, there�s a certain way to do that, or surfboards.
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In our garage, we have a two -car garage, and guess how many cars go in the garage? I hate to admit it, but it�s true.
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We have a little split -level ranch, not proud of that, but we�re glad to have a home, and it is a two -car garage, and one side of the garage has my weights in the center.
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It�s a little weight room, and it�s got the washer and dryer and a sink there, the garage sink, the scrub sink, the paint sink, the
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I don�t know what goes in that sink. That�s where we wash the dog if she gets hit by a skunk, sprayed by a skunk.
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On the side of that, there are all kinds of surfboards. They just seem to multiply, lots of bikes hanging from the ceiling, and then the other side is just kind of a walkway and more bikes, snowboards.
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I remember the old days when we would walk down to the pond. We lived on a little lake, and four kids,
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Kim and I have four kids, and we would collect ice skates. So they would always have ice skates, and we�d go down to the pond, and we�d bring some metal chairs because those are good for kids to learn how to ice skate with if they can just push those.
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If they get tired, they can just sit, and or if I want to work out, you sit on the chair and I just push you around the lake.
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Well, by the time you get first kid�s skates on, get them to stop crying and the helmet all adjusted, and then the second kid, then the third kid, then the fourth kid, you put your skates on, the first kid�s already ready to stop.
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Put your own skates on. Well, they just had to sit there in the snow and the ice and cry.
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That�s what they had to do while I skated a little bit. The bow is a military bow, and often in the
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Bible, you read about the wrath of God using the figurative language, using the language of a bow, so we can understand how angry
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God is with sin and sinners, how righteously indignant he is.
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Listen to Lamentations, because when you do listen to Lamentations, in light of our conversation today, you�ll be,
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I hope, more impressed that God now is merciful, doesn�t flood the earth again with the symbol of the rainbow that he would see.
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How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud. This is
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Lamentations 2. He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel. He has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
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The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the inhabitants of Jacob. In his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah.
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He has brought down to the ground and dishonored the kingdom and its rulers. He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel.
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He has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy. He has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.
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And now we come to our point. He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe.
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And he has killed all who are delightful in our eyes. In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his fury like fire.
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Lamentations 2. 1 -4. The language, he�s bent his bow like an enemy. This is a military bow that is set in the sky now and we see all the particles of light and we can talk about that like we did last time.
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My point is this, how good of God, how merciful of God, how longsuffering of God, where he could continue to judge like that now, but he makes a promise and a covenant to Noah and we are the beneficiaries of said covenant.
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In the same manner, Habakkuk 3. Listen to the word language of the bow.
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When you think of bow, you should think of weapon, the weapon bow.
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That�s what you should think of. And what if God had a bow aimed at you? Do you think he�d miss? Habakkuk 3.
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8. Was your wrath against the rivers, O Yahweh? Was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation?
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You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows.
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Selah, let that sink in. Pause. Reflect. You split the earth with rivers.
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The mountains saw you and writhed. The raging waters swept on. The deep gave forth its voice.
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It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place, at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.
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God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent,
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God will wet his sword. And now we come to the language for the show today.
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He has bent and readied his bow. He has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
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With the rainbow in the sky, God looks at it. It�s primarily for him to remember, as we think of things with anthropomorphic language, there�s a disarmament, and God will not destroy the earth with water.
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Yes, there�s going to be a flood of fire in the future, but the earth will not be, because of God�s grace and mercy, flooded again.
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God is merciful toward sinful mankind. God has put his bow away.
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He hung it in the clouds. The battle is over. There is peace, a covenant of peace.
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He�s no longer pointing the bow at us, and we have like a peace treaty with God.
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Now, what you probably have forgotten, there�s no rain before the flood, right?
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No rainbow needed, and now we have the flood, and now God gives his rainbow.
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This is not going to happen again. Did you know the Mesopotamian � I don�t even know how to say it.
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I know meso is split, and pot is river, split river.
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Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, which describes a flood, does not have any sign of the rainbow.
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In our reading of the Bible, when you think of rainbow, you should think to yourself, not
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LGBT, but you should think of Genesis chapter 9. What else should you think of when it comes to the rainbow and God?
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As you think through rainbow theologically, the theology of rainbows, what should you go to next?
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The answer is Ezekiel chapter 1. Ezekiel chapter 1, you will see the glory of God.
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You will be reminded of God�s faithfulness when you peer into the vision where Ezekiel, probably on his 30th birthday, gets ordained into gospel ministry.
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There�s a rainbow, and when the rainbow is around the glory of God and around his throne, you are going to be reminded among many things, amongst many things, amid many things, that God is faithful.
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Ezekiel chapter 1, it�s fascinating to read, and I would take Abner Chow�s view, that Ezekiel 1, with the vision of the glory of God, is describing the same event as Isaiah 6, describing the same event as in Daniel 7, describing the same event as in Revelation chapter 4 and 5.
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Different, maybe synoptic views of that. Well, let me just read to you Ezekiel, and there are many words that talk about likeness of, appearance of, as, like, similes, those types of things.
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Because how do you describe such glory using human terms? It�s difficult.
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In the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Kebar Canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
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On the fifth day of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, the word of the
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Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the
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Chibar or Kebar Canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.
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Ready? As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it was, gleaming metal.
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And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance.
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They had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.
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Chapter 10 will tell you these are cherubim. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf�s foot.
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They sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings, on their four sides, they had human hands, and the four had their faces and their wings thus.
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Their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face.
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The four had a face of a lion on the right side. The four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had a face of an eagle.
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Such were their faces, and their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while the two covered their bodies.
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And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went without turning as they went.
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As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures.
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And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro like the appearance of a flash of lightning.
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Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one of each of the four of them.
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As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction, their appearance was like the burning or the gleaming of beryl.
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And the four had the same likeness. Their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.
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When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome.
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And the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them.
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And when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went.
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And the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went.
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And when those stood, these stood. And when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
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Over the heads of the living creatures, there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe -inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads.
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And under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body.
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I wonder what all this sounds like. Sounds show up now in verse 24. And when they went,
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I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army.
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When they stood still, they let down their wings. And when there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads, when they stood still, they let down their wings.
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All right, you ready? No Compromise Radio, Rainbows, Genesis 9, now Ezekiel 1.
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And above the expanse over their heads, there was the likeness of a throne, an appearance like sapphire.
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And seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.
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And upward from what had the appearance of his waist, I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around.
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And downward from what had the appearance of his waist, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him, like the appearance of a, like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain.
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So was the appearance of the brightness all around. And such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the
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Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard the voice of one speaking.
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Now that was the ESV. New American Standard Bible translates chapter 1 verse 28 this way.
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Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
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This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
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Here we have the glory of the Lord, and he is with the people.
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God is surrounded by his radiance like the appearance of a rainbow. God has judgment, but God has mercy.
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God is faithful. God is holy, yet God is kind. The mercy and the kindness and the long -suffering of God, when you think of God and his glory, we think of, of course, justice, holiness, but we also think of mercy.
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When you see the rainbow, you think, great is thy faithfulness. That's what rainbows preach.
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God is faithful, and he's faithful to be just, and he's faithful to be kind. When you think of a rainbow, and you slip to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition, that's what you think of, or Gay Pride Parades, you have been the recipient of a hijacking.
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You have been the recipient of somebody's stolen your thoughts. There's been a theft, thief, thief.
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Number three, we're talking about rainbows. When you think of rainbows in the Bible, what do you think of?
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Now, I don't know if I have enough time for this one today, so maybe we have to do that next time. Rainbows are very, very popular today, and so what do you do when you see a rainbow?
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Well, I guess you could get mad, right? Maybe that would be one of the things you could do is get really mad at people who steal your rainbow.
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But I would like to remind you that once you too bought the lie that the world was selling, maybe it wasn't in particular rainbows, but because of the fall, listen, we're all thinking wrongly about all kinds of things.
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So before we get mad and say our enemies are people who have rainbow flags, I just want you to say to yourself every time you see a rainbow flag,
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God, you're faithful. God, you're merciful. God, you're righteous. And why don't you give those people that are carrying those rainbow flags, out of context, of course, would you give them exactly what those things show, mercy?
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The bow is hung up, and when you think of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bow is pointed downward.
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The bow was pointed. God had fiery shafts pointed right at the
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Lord Jesus at Calvary. Yet, God, because the
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Father loved sinners, the Son loved sinners, the Holy Spirit loved sinners and continues to do love sinners,
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Jesus is the one that was the recipient of divine wrath. And for the believer now, because of what the
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Lord has done, any future judgment, any future punishment, any future dishing out of what we deserve is already done.
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When it comes to judgment day, the bow will be hung up. Why? Because the bow is pointed down to Jesus at Calvary.
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And God assuaged His wrath, that is, the
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Son assuaged the wrath of the Father that was due rightly, justly, in a holy fashion.
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We deserve that. And the bow has been put up forever. So when it comes to judgment day, you may, at the great white throne, say to yourself, well,
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I have to go there? No, that's not for you. Yes, judge for things that you've done in the body, either good or worthless, 2
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Corinthians 5, yes. But when it comes to the great white throne, A, you won't be there. And B, if you were there, the bow is put up because the bow has been put down aimed at the
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Lord Jesus Christ on your behalf, in your stead. And a God who does that for you, then should we continue in sin that grace might abound?
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See, when you get the fact that God loves you and has punished
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His Son on your behalf, then you say to yourself, grace, grace, greater than all our sin.