The Rainbow Cult of Death (Genesis 9, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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May 13, 2024

Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Rainbow Cult of Death

01:10: This is the on -time crowd. I thank you guys for being here right at 1045. Well done, yes.
01:17: Many people show up during the singing or shortly thereafter. So the on -time crowd has made it.
01:24: So hey, Mike O 'Neill, raise your hand. Hey, everybody, this is Mike O 'Neill. I have been in a, it's not a random thing here.
01:32: There's a reason I'm pointing out Mike O 'Neill. Mike O 'Neill is the coach of track and field at King's Christian School.
01:41: And he doesn't just like play on his phone while the kids have to run. He is very involved with the kids.
01:48: He teaches them. He prays for them. He loves them. And he's one of the greatest coaches you could imagine.
01:53: Well, this guy has a special opportunity for us to help support the
01:59: King's Christian track and field team. Where are you guys eating dinner on Tuesday night?
02:05: Panera bread. Panera bread, all right. If you don't have plans yet for where you're gonna eat your dinner on Tuesday night, the
02:13: Panera bread in Marlton on Route 73, right? Between 4 p .m.
02:19: and 8 p .m., listen, on that day only, this Tuesday, 20 % of all the proceeds goes to Mike's program.
02:28: All right, so we wanna be a support of that. So if you can, if you don't already have plans for this Tuesday night, go to Panera bread between 4 and 8 p .m.
02:37: And you gotta put in the code and make sure it's registering. They'll show you how to do that there. Are you gonna be there,
02:43: Mike? All right, you'll get to hang out with Mike. All right, teenagers, if you're 13 to 18 years old, there's going to be a new
02:53: Sunday school class for you on the case for Christ. Kevin Lindaberry is going to be teaching that during first service beginning on May 26th.
03:04: So two weeks from now, we're starting case for Christ for teenagers ages 13 to 18 during first service at 9 a .m.
03:14: So you gotta get up real early to come study the case for Christ. Next, we have a baptism service.
03:22: Maybe you've never been to one of these before, but it's usually in June. We have a baptism service on June 9th out in the field here.
03:29: It is so much fun. We have a water slide for the little kids. No adults on the water slide, please.
03:36: Kids only in the bathing suits. So for the kids who have a water slide, we'll have a cookout that day, plenty of food.
03:45: It's gonna be a lot of fun, a picnic on June 9th. If you've never been baptized, it's not too late for you to sign up for that.
03:52: But we do wanna work with you. Pastor John has been teaching a baptism preparation class and we can get you in on that.
03:59: All right, now for the highlight of the morning. This is our recognition of mothers for Mother's Day.
04:09: I would like to ask all the children in the room to please come line up right over here.
04:16: Just be in a big group. Come on up, come on up. I'm gonna have you guys be my runners to bring a flower to each of the moms.
04:24: We won't make you give a speech or anything. All right, come on up, kids, come on.
04:36: You're a kid if you're 18 or under. If you're on crutches, you don't have to do it. No, make her do it.
04:44: All right, your dad says you have to. Okay, I'm gonna read three quotes about motherhood and then we are gonna say a prayer and then we're gonna ask the kids to bring flowers to the moms.
05:00: We'll have them stand up in just a minute. Leviticus 19 .3, every one of you shall revere his mother.
05:07: It's in the Bible, revere your mother. And adults as well. See if you can guess who said this quote.
05:15: Last name Washington, but you don't know which one. If I have done anything in life worth attention,
05:23: I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother. Booker T.
05:30: Washington. My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.
05:36: All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education
05:43: I received from her. All of his accomplishments he attributes to his mother, George Washington.
05:52: Wonderful quotes. All right, so at this time, I'm gonna ask the moms to stand. All moms, young and old, to stand.
06:02: And we're gonna give you flowers, but first we wanna pray for all the moms as you're standing and pray a special blessing.
06:08: Guys, remember also that Mother's Day can be a particularly difficult day for many people. Those who have lost their mother or whose mom is sick like mine in Florida, or perhaps a woman who desired to be a mom, but the
06:22: Lord never gave that gift. It can be a painful day. Let's pray for a special comfort on all women as well.
06:29: Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this Mother's Day and we desire to honor and revere the mothers in this congregation.
06:39: And so Lord, we wanna pray blessing upon them and ask that you would strengthen them to do the work you've called them to do.
06:46: Their job does not end when the kids leave the home or when they turn 18. Being a mom lasts a lifetime and I pray that you would strengthen these dear women for the work you've called them to do.
06:58: Give them perseverance, give them patience, give them love, give them the full fruit of the Spirit in their lives and bless them.
07:06: Help them to be filled with a godly sense of pride. As Paul says, he takes pride in the churches in the same way that they would delight in their children and recognize that this is your gift,
07:18: God, that you have used them in their children's lives in such a positive way. So we pray also,
07:24: Father, for those who are hurting on this day, for those who have lost their mothers and we do thank you for our moms.
07:31: Each one of us in this room has a mom, Lord, and we thank you for them. Even those that have gone to be with the
07:37: Lord, we thank you, Lord, for their race that they have run well. And Lord, we give you all the praise for what you've done through our moms in our lives.
07:47: Thank you for our moms, Lord. We give you all the praise and glory and we pray now, Lord, that the moms would be blessed by this token of a carnation, reminding them that they are revered and honored.
07:59: In Jesus' name, amen. All right, with that, children, all the moms that are standing deserve a flower.
08:07: If you wanna bring one to your own mom first, that's great. And you are free to go.
08:17: And kids, after that, you can return to Children's Church. Did you get one,
08:29: Viv? Okay, I'll get you one. You can get two, though.
08:37: We have extra. All right, if you're a mom and you didn't get one yet, just yell, hey, what about me?
09:36: No, all right, everybody's got one. All right.
09:48: With that, we do have one other special moment today. Today is just special all around. We are going to call on Gary Kamlin to come and bring us an update from his recent mission trip to Portugal.
10:07: Hi, good morning to all of you. I am Gary Kamlin. A lot of you are getting to know me, but I realize that we're still relatively more recent here.
10:19: We have been back for almost two years. We ministered in Portugal on -site for 26 years.
10:27: Now we're back semi -retired, but sometimes it feels like I'm as busy as before, if not more.
10:36: I still do teaching online, and we still do a lot of things just to promote missions.
10:43: And I don't know, is that, we can put the map up there just to show people.
10:49: I like to always start by showing people where Portugal is because a lot of people ask me, how's the weather down there?
10:57: It's not down there, it's over there. So, and by the way, the weather is very nice.
11:03: Go over and visit and have a great time. So we went, now this is kind of a first missions moment.
11:11: We haven't done them for a little while, but we're hoping to do them more often now with other updates about other missionaries that our church is supporting.
11:22: But your church, this church has supported us for many years, and we're so grateful for that and prayed for our ministry.
11:32: And trips back to Portugal are relatively easy because there's direct flights from Philly to Lisbon.
11:40: So we're making actually three trips back this year, and our first trip was in March.
11:46: And the Lord blessed us tremendously. We had a great time, and we were able to see new leadership in action at both the
11:57: Bible school and also the church that we were a part of in Portugal. Young people taking over the reins of leadership and doing a great job.
12:08: While we were there, I just wanna highlight two things that took place during our time there.
12:14: We can go to the next slide, which is a group of students and staff gathered for just an informal time.
12:23: While I was there, all of our teaching at this point is online. It went online during the pandemic.
12:31: We decided to stay online because we were attracting students from outside of Lisbon.
12:39: And in fact, I still teach one subject per semester. I'm online here from the
12:46: States. We live in Hainesport now. And so I can teach online. And in my class at this point,
12:52: I have, for instance, a couple, a Brazilian couple that lives in Switzerland, but being
12:59: Brazilian, they speak Portuguese. I have a student that logs on from Angola.
13:04: So our reach is much broader at this point. But while I was there, we had a week of hybrid classes, which means we had students physically present, but we also had students joining us online at the same time.
13:21: And with the technology nowadays, we can do that. And it went very well.
13:26: And this was taken during that week. We had great times in class, great times of fellowship during the evening after the classes were done.
13:36: Just really good to be there. I also wanna show you another slide. We can go to the next slide.
13:43: That is a picture taken during a small group meeting. Another couple that you support here at Cornerstone is
13:53: Israel and Sarah Quintani that are involved in church planting in Portugal.
14:00: And what they're trying to do at this point is plant an international church in the area where they live, where there are many internationals.
14:10: It will be services in English to appeal to the international community.
14:16: But as it happens, there are a lot of Portuguese people who speak fluent
14:21: English that also enjoy being part of an international church. So there at the very beginning stages, this was taken on Easter Sunday afternoon.
14:32: They invited Terry and I to come and share with them from the word of God. This is the core group that they're forming.
14:40: It's not yet the church, it's the core group. And they're hoping to build from here to attract other people to share the gospel.
14:49: And we hope that an international church gets on its feet. The next step, because their living room, this is in their living room,
14:58: Israel and Sarah, and it's small. This is about all that we can fit at this point.
15:04: And we're hoping as it builds, their next step would be to rent a facility.
15:11: He'll raise money to be able to rent a facility for at least a year and get that international church started.
15:18: But we saw God work in so many different ways as we met with other people and neighbors and just seeing his hand at work as we've returned to the
15:31: States was just so encouraging for us. We returned really pumped, really encouraged by the ministry.
15:38: Just two more slides. We'll be going back again. But before that, during the year, the school is celebrating 50 years of ministry.
15:52: And we're having celebrations in various parts of Portugal. But one of our celebrations will actually be here in the
16:01: United States in Lancaster, not very far away, because one of the original directors of the school is now living at Calvary Homes in Lancaster.
16:10: And he can no longer make the trips back to Portugal to celebrate there. So we're bringing one of the celebrations to the location of Calvary Homes.
16:22: And as it happens, the school has had five directors over the course of its existence.
16:29: And all five of us will be there on site and we'll get to take a picture of the five directors that have led the school over the years.
16:38: So that's a real blessing. But then the final slide that I wanna show you is that in July will be our next trip back to Portugal, beginning of July.
16:49: And we are helping lead a team from Emmanuel Baptist Church here locally,
16:55: Maple Shade. They have been there two times already. They're going back for a third visit.
17:01: They will be ministering with a work project on the campus, helping with a vacation
17:07: Bible school in one of the local churches. So you can pray for us as we go back once again, just a short visit this time, two weeks, we go back with this team that their ministry would be fruitful and that God would protect us during this time.
17:26: But thank you very much for your interest and for those of you who did remember to pray for us.
17:39: Gary, I have to say, I am jealous of your baritone voice. Man, you should be on the radio.
17:45: Hey, let's pray for this Portuguese mission and then we'll go into worship. Gracious heavenly father, we wanna lift up the
17:53: Portuguese Bible Institute and we pray that you would strengthen the students, build them up in the knowledge of the faith and raise up leaders that will take
18:02: Portugal for Christ. Lord, we pray for Israel and Sarah Quintani with their new church plant of multinational people coming together.
18:12: Lord God, we pray that your Holy Spirit would fill Israel to lead that and his wife,
18:18: Lord, and that that would actually take root in a powerful way this year. We pray they would have a rented facility,
18:26: Lord, and even if maybe we would have some hand in that in helping support this mission. Lord God, we pray that the church would be established in Portugal.
18:34: We pray in Jesus' name. And now father, we pray for our worship service that we now would come in spirit and in truth to bring our best offering in song, in prayers, how we listen to your word.
18:46: God, I pray that we would bring an offering that you find acceptable in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand.
18:52: Amen. Let's stand and as we get the song rolling, I wanna invite you if there's a mom near you, wish her a happy Mother's Day.
18:59: If there's a friend or just a brother or sister in Christ, just we'll take a couple seconds while we get this song off the ground.
19:05: Just be back in time for the chorus. Now the first service was much louder.
19:25: ♪ Blessed be your name in a land that is plentiful ♪ ♪
19:32: Where streams of abundance flow ♪ ♪ Blessed be your name, blessed be your name ♪ ♪
19:45: We're found in the desert place, but walk through the...
19:58: ♪ ♪ Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise ♪ ♪
20:06: When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will stay ♪ ♪
20:13: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name ♪ ♪
20:21: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glory ♪ ♪
20:28: Sing! ♪ ♪
20:34: Blessed be your name, the sun shining down on me ♪ ♪
20:40: The world's all as it should be, blessed be your name ♪ ♪
20:49: Blessed be your name, I'll grow my grace of learning ♪
21:05: Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise
21:13: When the darkness closes in, Lord, still
21:18: I will stay Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be
21:25: Your name Blessed be the name of the
21:31: Lord, blessed be Your glorious name
21:36: Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be
21:42: Your name, Blessed be the name of the
21:48: Lord, Blessed be Your glorious name.
21:54: You give and take away, You give and take away,
22:01: My heart will choose to sing, For blessed be
22:08: Your name. You give and take away,
22:14: You give and take away, My heart will choose to sing,
22:22: For blessed be Your name. Blessed be the name of the
22:29: Lord, Blessed be Your name, Blessed be the name of the
22:37: Lord, Blessed be Your glorious name. Blessed be the name of the
22:45: Lord, blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the
22:53: Lord, blessed be your glorious name
22:58: You give and take away, you give and take away
23:07: My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name
23:15: You give and take away, you give and take away
23:23: My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name
23:38: Lord God, you are so good to us. Who is this
23:46: King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. The Lord who fights all of our battles for us.
23:53: Amen. If you've come in here this morning and your heart is heavy, you're weighed down with the burdens and the cares of this world,
24:00: Lord, I just want to encourage you that we have a God who can meet you where you are and lift your eyes.
24:12: He will be the lifter of your head. Amen. And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
24:27: No matter what comes my way
24:32: I will overcome I don't know what you're doing
24:41: But I know what you've done And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
25:11: There's peace that outlasts darkness And hope that's in the blood
25:20: There's a future grace that's mine today
25:25: That Jesus Christ has made So I can face tomorrow
25:34: For tomorrow's in your hands And all
25:40: I need you will provide Just like you always have
25:48: And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
25:58: No matter what comes my way
26:03: I will overcome I don't know what you're doing
26:11: But I know what you've done
26:16: And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
26:31: There's mercy in the waiting And manna for today
26:40: And when it's gone, I know you're not
26:45: You are my hope and stay And when the sea is raging
26:53: Your spirit is my help You fix my eyes on Jesus Christ You say that it is well
27:07: Oh, I know that it is well
27:12: And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
27:22: No matter what comes my way
27:27: I will overcome I don't know what you're doing
27:35: But I know what you've done And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
27:53: I know how this story ends
28:10: We will be with you again
28:15: You're my savior, my defense
28:24: No more fear and fight for death
28:33: I know how this story ends
28:39: We will be with you again
28:48: You're my savior, my defense
28:55: No more fear and fight for death
29:03: We know how this story ends
29:09: We will be with you again
29:18: You're my savior, my defense
29:25: No more fear and fight for death
29:31: I know how this story ends
29:37: And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
29:46: No matter what comes my way
29:51: I will overcome I don't know what you're doing
29:59: But I know what you've done And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
30:11: And I'm fighting a battle you've already won
30:40: Reaches of heaven, starry eyes
30:50: Eyes of evening, dancing in silent skies
30:59: Brilliance of morning, breaking day
31:08: Oh, let their praise, praise
31:14: His name Oh, praise
31:21: His name Oh, praise His name
31:27: Let all His wondrous works Declare His praise
31:41: Mighty as mountains, peaceful plains
31:51: Snowfall and fire, thundering ocean waves
32:01: Kings and their kingdoms, age to age
32:10: Oh, let their praise, praise His name
32:19: Oh, praise His name Oh, praise
32:27: His name Let all His wondrous works
32:33: Declare His praise Oh, praise
32:40: His name Oh, praise
32:45: His name Let all His wondrous works
32:51: Declare His praise
33:03: King enthroned in majesty
33:08: All things made by His decree
33:13: Hear creation's melody Praise Him, praise
33:22: Him Everything with life and breath
33:27: Everywhere from east to west Every heart raised from the dead
33:36: Praise Him, praise Him Angels echo the refrain
33:46: Jesus left for sinners slain Name above all other names
33:55: Praise Him Oh, praise
34:01: His name Oh, praise His name
34:07: Let all His wondrous works Declare His praise
34:17: Oh, praise His name
34:22: Oh, praise His name Let all
34:27: His wondrous works Declare His praise
34:42: Oh, praise His name
34:47: Oh, praise His name
34:52: Let all His wondrous works
34:58: Declare His praise
35:03: Oh, praise His name
35:09: Oh, praise His name
35:14: Let all His wondrous works Declare His praise
35:55: So, Father, we want to thank You for the covenant that You made with Noah, that when
36:00: You make a promise, You keep it and You keep on keeping it. You are a faithful God.
36:07: Great and precious promises You have given unto us. Lord, and You keep Your word. Help us to trust in You more for having heard
36:15: Your word today. Help us to have hearts filled with gratitude and put a fire in our hearts to go tell the world what we have heard.
36:23: In Jesus' name. Amen. In the winter of 1941, extreme cold weather stopped the
36:33: German army's advance to Moscow. If it hadn't been for the freezing of their guns and cannons, it may have been that Hitler would have overrun
36:45: Moscow. But because God in His sovereignty, in His providence, caused that winter to be so cold, the
36:54: German army failed. 30 years later, in July of 1971,
37:03: Stephen Schneider, who was a climate researcher for NASA, from the
37:08: Goddard Space Flight Center, wrote an article in the New York Times that had this nation panicked.
37:17: Schneider wrote, there is coming a cooling to the earth that could trigger an ice age, in his words.
37:29: The fear in 1971 was not global warming, but global cooling that could trigger an ice age.
37:36: In 1975, the panic reached a fever pitch when Newsweek wrote, there are ominous signs that the earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically.
37:50: They warned of drastic decline in food production because of the cold temperatures.
37:57: This was on the heels of three decades of global cooling. And the speculation amongst these climate scientists, like Stephen Schneider, the climate researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center, the common orthodoxy of the scientific community was that we are emitting too many aerosols into the atmosphere, which is having a cooling effect on the climate.
38:22: And it could trigger an ice age and lack of food that we're all going to die. Well, over the last 10 years, the scientific orthodoxy is exactly opposite.
38:35: NOAA, N -O -A -A dot gov, reports that all 10 of the hottest years in recorded history, which began in 1880, all 10 of them have happened in the last 14 years.
38:49: And nine of them have been the last 10 years. So you include 2010.
38:54: And they say that we have never seen climate increase like it has over the past decade.
39:02: Global warming. Well, they call it climate change because they're aware that these ideas have fluctuated over time.
39:10: But here's the interesting thing. In 2012, they measured the ice in the
39:17: Arctic. And the Arctic ice caps are measured at what is called the
39:23: September minimum. After the summer, ice has melted off, and it reaches a low point in September every year.
39:32: In 2012, there were 3 .4 million square kilometers of ice left in the
39:40: Arctic. 3 .4 million square kilometers, according to government data.
39:47: As of 2024, that amount of ice has increased to 4 .87
39:54: million square kilometers. A 44 % increase in the level of ice at the
40:02: September minimum in the Arctic. So it's interesting that the 10 hottest years in the history of the world have resulted in a net 44 % increase in Arctic sea ice.
40:17: Can you tell I'm a little skeptical? They say that 76 .343 % of statistics are made up on the spot.
40:28: Well, whether you acknowledge that the data to be correct or not is in my mind immaterial.
40:34: I'm not a climate scientist, and I don't have a dog in that fight. Not too concerned about it either way.
40:40: In my view, my Christian worldview, God caused the climate to be drastically cold in 1941 because in his providence, he was stopping
40:50: Adolf Hitler from overrunning Moscow. Similarly, if the climate has been raising over the last 10 years so drastically, then my
41:04: God has a good and gracious plan to sustain the world. Could it be that with the explosion of world population, there needs to be higher temperatures because cold is the greater threat, not heat?
41:17: And heat actually produces more evaporation from the oceans and the lakes, which means more precipitation, more water for more people.
41:28: If there's been a raise in temperatures and there is a God, then I trust him with whatever he does with his climate.
41:36: That's the Christian worldview. Now, there were
41:41: Christian countries scattered across Europe, and the United States was once regarded as a
41:47: Christian nation, at least in terms of the general worldview of the population.
41:54: But that Christian worldview has been exchanged for a worldview that excludes
42:00: God. It's called secular humanism, and it's dominant not only in America, but especially in Europe.
42:06: And with the exchange of the Christian worldview for a secular humanist worldview, God is eliminated, and the result is this paralyzing fear.
42:17: Without a God who controls such things as climate, a spirit of fear has overtaken the hearts of men.
42:27: 2 Timothy 1 .7 says, God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self -control.
42:37: Climate change, fear, and anxiety is a symptom of departing from a
42:42: God -centered biblical worldview. Christians need to be aware of what time it is.
42:48: And by that, I mean more than the climate circumstances and what that implies, but what time we're living in.
42:56: As in the days of Noah, so it will be before the coming of the Son of Man. There's something in Genesis 1 to 11 which corresponds to the last days in which we live.
43:12: And climate change is a perfect example of a larger problem. Church, there is a cult of death that attempts to snatch the symbol of God's covenant mercy from the hands of Christians.
43:30: That symbol is the rainbow. And not only the symbol, but the worldview behind it is being exchanged.
43:40: As Romans 1 speaks of the exchange of God and his worldview for a lie.
43:49: We, church, need to constantly encourage people to return to the Bible because what we have in Genesis 9,
43:56: God's covenant with Noah with the symbol of the rainbow is actually a glorious promise of mercy from God and the promise of life, not only in this world, but in the world to come.
44:07: Without this, the world is paralyzed in fear and has nothing but death to expect.
44:15: If you believe in devastating climate catastrophe to come, then the solution, of course, is to minimize the number of humans that are born.
44:25: Population control. And this is the agenda of the worldwide globalist elite in fear of climate change or perhaps utilizing climate change as a manipulative tool you have the drive to reduce population, to stop people from having babies.
44:45: And if a baby is born, to turn them away from what produces more life, that is to make them homosexual.
44:54: Or preferably in their worldview to limit population growth by killing the baby before that child sees the light of day through abortion.
45:05: This is a clashing of kingdoms, the biblical worldview, which holds to the covenant of Noah, which then leads us to the new covenant, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ versus a cult of death, which is trying to steal the symbol of the rainbow.
45:23: Turn with me to Genesis 9. We've been studying
45:29: Genesis 1 -11, and we have just a few more weeks because Genesis 1 -11 explains what is happening in our day.
45:39: Things are returning to the days of Noah. Genesis 1 says,
45:45: God created the heavens and the earth. The secular humanist worldview says there is no
45:50: God. Everything simply evolved from mere chance and matter. Where that matter came from, they don't propose.
45:57: But they claim there is no God. Genesis 2 says, God made them male and female.
46:04: And this distinction is good. It is a binary. But the world says there is no male and female any longer.
46:13: Genesis 3 says, Sin came into the world by disobedience, transgressing the law. The world now says there is no sin, only mistakes.
46:23: Bad judgment. Genesis 4 says, Cain killed Abel, devaluing the life in the blood.
46:31: And Lamech did likewise. But God says this is the case and the world rejects that and minimizes the value of life.
46:42: The image of God in an unborn child, discarded as worthless.
46:49: Genesis 5 is about family, the nuclear family, the line of Seth. And the world now tries to replace the nuclear family, which was in the very founding documents of the
47:01: BLM movement. Marxism, the intentional destruction of the nuclear family.
47:08: Genesis 6 is about angels, fallen angels, seeing that the daughters of men are beautiful and the result of this was the
47:19: Nephilim, the giants and the mighty men of old. The world says there are no angels or demons.
47:25: There is no devil. There are no spirits. There is only the materialism of what you can see.
47:32: Genesis 7 is about judgment. God floods the world in judgment. But the secular humanist worldview says there is no judgment.
47:42: Everything is a judgment -free zone. Genesis 8 promises mercy.
47:48: As the waters of the flood recede, God has mercy on the world. But there can be no mercy where there is no judgment.
47:58: And so Genesis 9, we have the absolute exchange of the beautiful promise of God in the
48:06: Noahic covenant for a counterfeit. Even co -opting the very symbol of the promise, the covenant of life for the sign of the rainbow representing a cult of death.
48:23: Let's read, beginning actually in chapter 8, verse 21 and 22. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, this is the aroma of a sacrifice.
48:34: Why is it that when the world has so few animals left on it that God would require the death of some?
48:41: We cannot understand that unless you know that every sacrifice in the Old Testament is pointing to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, the
48:51: Lamb who was slain. God is pleased by the sacrifice because God can look at a world that is sinful and be merciful on account of His Son.
49:02: The Son of God is the righteous one. And so the world does not get the wrath that we deserve because God mercifully sees us who believe in Him in the
49:14: Son. So it's by a sacrifice that God is pleased. Notice in verse 21, I will never again curse the ground because of man, not because man is fundamentally good, but the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.
49:30: This is mercy, not what we deserve. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
49:38: Now to the climate change alarmist, the Word of God offers you something so much better than the lie of the world.
49:47: Secular humanism would have you terrified. In fact, 30 -some percent, I think it's 31 % of adolescents ages 13 to 18 have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
50:01: If that's how many are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, how many are struggling with anxiety?
50:07: I don't believe it's a disorder so much as logic.
50:15: If a young person is logical and is being told that this world has five years left,
50:21: Greta Thunberg, 2018, it's logical to be fearful of the future.
50:31: It's a worldview issue. Al Gore in 2006 made a documentary claiming that all of the ice on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa would be fully melted within the decade.
50:47: That was 2006. In 2024, the ice on Kilimanjaro is still prolific.
50:53: It's robust. But the climate alarmist in 2006 was telling young people we only have 10 years left.
51:03: It's heating up. We're all doomed. The Christian has this to say to the world.
51:10: Mark this because you have a promise from God that the world does not have.
51:16: That's why they're so terrified all the time. You have life. You have something good.
51:23: And it says in Genesis 8, 22, while the earth remains, hear the word of the
51:28: Lord, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.
51:40: Covenants are established by blood. God sacrificed an animal in Genesis 3 and promising the
51:47: Messiah. This is the Noahic covenant, a promise mediated through Noah, but it's with the earth.
51:55: And God will be merciful to this earth so we need not fear the climate alarmism.
52:03: Did you guys know that this weekend there was a major solar storm on the sun, the biggest in 19 years?
52:14: It sent supercharged particles to the earth. The aurora borealis, the northern lights, were visible from New Jersey.
52:25: That's how supercharged this solar flare really was. Now, Tim and I went outside in the middle of the night and looked for it, but we didn't see it because there's too much light pollution in our area.
52:36: But if you got into a dark enough place, you could have seen the northern lights from New Jersey. I have a question for you.
52:43: What keeps a solar flare from happening 100 days in a row and incinerating this earth?
52:50: God. But if you don't have God, there is nothing in the naturalistic world that keeps this world so perfectly ordered.
52:59: And so all you have is fear of a climate disaster. You, church, have
53:06: Genesis 8 .22, an answer to the great fear and the great terror of our day.
53:11: They tried to terrify the world with a pandemic manufactured, or at least released, from a lab in Wuhan.
53:23: We were supposed to cede our rights to a globalist elite on account of this fear, but it didn't fully work.
53:33: The next one seems to be climate alarmism. Give power to those who purchase climate credits and will solve the problem for us.
53:44: But the Christian ought to have nothing to do. Sadly, I saw even at SEBTS, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a preacher named
53:53: Jonathan Mu, stand up and trumpet the very line of the secular humanist worldview that we need to be buying carbon credits.
54:02: If you fly in a plane, at least buy carbon credits to offset the trip that you took. And Christian, you need to understand that this worldview, the secular humanist worldview, is offering nothing but fear.
54:17: They're peddling fear. They're trying to terrorize, and Christians must stand against that nonsense, not give an inch.
54:25: The climate alarmism is part of secular humanism, and it's a straight -up denial of Genesis 8 .22.
54:33: Next, the value of life. I was questioning whether I would do the carnations for the moms this morning.
54:43: We don't do it every year. But when I saw what I titled my sermon and thought about it,
54:48: I realized I should probably do the carnations for Mother's Day. My sermon is entitled The Rainbow Cult of Death.
54:55: I don't know that that can stand on its own for a Mother's Day. But it's in opposition to the rainbow covenant of life.
55:04: The good news is that God values life and proliferates life, and we're fighting a worldview, fighting a battle against a culture of death.
55:17: Notice the parallels to the days of Noah. Genesis 9 .1 -7. And God blessed
55:23: Noah and his sons and said to them, listen, be fruitful and multiply. Not just add, multiply.
55:30: Have as many kids as you can and let them have as many as they can and fill the earth. Verse two, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea.
55:47: Into your hand they are delivered. So are you allowed to eat meat?
55:54: You sure are. And all God's people said, amen. You don't have to eat meat, but you're free to.
56:01: Verse three says, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants,
56:07: I give you everything. But notice verse four. It's not to be a gratuitous or a torturing of animals.
56:13: This is why he says, but you shall not eat flesh with its life. That is its blood. Let the animal that needs to be eaten be killed quickly and the life drained from that animal, life in the blood in order that it not suffer unduly.
56:28: If you're to eat meat, you are to still value lives. The brute beasts do not have a moral compass, but they still feel pain.
56:38: And God cares about animals. Look how he protects them in that command. It's not to be torturous ever.
56:46: We are to protect animals. That's what stewardship means. To have dominion doesn't mean to dominate and harm.
56:53: It means to care for. Verse five. And for your life blood,
56:59: I will require a reckoning. Can you be for capital punishment and be pro -life?
57:07: Yes, you better be. Because if you value life, you must allow government to keep life sacred, to protect life with capital punishment.
57:21: This is the point that God makes in this covenant, which still stands to this day. Look what it says in verse five.
57:27: I will require it and from man, from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
57:35: Capital punishment here, for the intentional killing, not manslaughter. But this is when someone raises their hand murderously.
57:44: Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. This is not vigilante justice.
57:51: By man is the institution here of human government. The New Testament will give us more light on this in Romans 13, one to seven, in second
58:00: Peter 2, 14. In Romans 13, four, it says that the governor does not bear the sword in vain.
58:08: He's the punisher of those who do wrong. And he praises those who do well.
58:14: So the sword of justice is put in the hands of a human governor.
58:21: God has established government here for God made man in his own image. And now a repetition in verse seven of what was really begun with Adam.
58:30: The creation mandate, Genesis 1, 26 to 28, to fill the earth.
58:36: He repeats it now here through Noah. Notice what happened when
58:42: Adam and Eve were given the command. They fell. Something was prohibitive of them to eat.
58:49: In that case, it was the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now blood is prohibited because God so values the sacrifice of Christ and that blood points to Christ.
59:02: Similarly, after the fall, Cain murders Abel. And so here in this redo, as God is restarting the world, it's as if Noah is the new
59:14: Adam and the same command is given that Adam received in Genesis 1, 26 to 28.
59:21: Verse seven, and you be fruitful and multiply. Notice how
59:27: God values life. It's a culture of life. He wants to see more and more procreation. He says, increase, not just increase, but what?
59:35: Increase greatly. This is a culture of life on the earth and multiply in it.
59:43: There has been an abject attack on the sanctity of human life made in the image of God.
59:49: It's called abortion. And I do have hope for this country because of the fall of Roe versus Wade.
59:57: God may yet be merciful to America because after 50 years of fighting against that travesty, now it has come down and has been trampled underneath the feet of Christians who have advocated for life for 50 years.
01:00:12: But there are individual states now that make their own laws. We live in one that has no regard for life.
01:00:20: Because secular humanism dominates New Jersey. The Christian worldview is very much a minority and a persecuted minority.
01:00:29: As many of you know, when we purchased land and tried to dedicate it to the Lord, someone implanted spikes in our pavement to pop all of our tires a couple of years ago.
01:00:41: There is a persecution against Christians who hold to the biblical morality. But this point, this point is non -negotiable.
01:00:53: These babies in the womb, they are the smallest and most vulnerable members of this society.
01:01:00: Soon as they're conceived, they bear the very image of God. Psalm 139 says God makes them in the womb and to so devalue their life that the culture of death now trumpets the right to kill them as their pillar of their political campaigns.
01:01:18: This should stoke a fire in the heart of every Christian. When political candidates run on the right, so -called right to kill, it is a violation of Genesis 9, 1 -7.
01:01:34: Every life, no matter how small, no matter how vulnerable, every life is made by God in His own image.
01:01:43: And we must fight for life. Next, you see the clash between the rainbow cult of death and the
01:01:51: God's religion of mercy, the covenant of mercy.
01:01:57: You see it here in verses 8 -11. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,
01:02:03: Behold, I establish my covenant with you. See, God's covenant is a promise that comes from Him.
01:02:11: And to your offspring after you, with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth.
01:02:22: I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood.
01:02:31: And never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. Here the difference is between a
01:02:39: God who judges and a God who has no judgment or doesn't exist at all and so cannot judge.
01:02:47: It's really a rewriting of history. Our Bible, which records history from the earliest time, 3500 years old, records that this happened.
01:02:58: But secular society denies that there was a worldwide flood. And yet, records of a worldwide flood that covered the mountains exist in Hawaii before anyone reached that island.
01:03:12: In the Americas, the Native Americans had the same tradition in China and all over the world, which indicates history is history.
01:03:21: It happened. And the point here is God will not again send judgment. He is a merciful
01:03:26: God who is withholding judgment while the world rewrites history.
01:03:33: Next, this is the biggie. The cult of death would even steal from God his symbol.
01:03:45: And God said, verse 12, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you.
01:03:54: For all future generations, I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
01:04:06: When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.
01:04:17: And the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds,
01:04:22: I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
01:04:29: God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.
01:04:40: Now, how old is this book? How old is the
01:04:46: Torah as given through Moses recorded in the wilderness? 3 ,500 years old.
01:04:58: How well has this been disseminated so as to make people aware of God's sign?
01:05:06: The Bible is the most translated book in the history of the world.
01:05:12: It's the most printed book in the history of the world. It's the most read book in the history of the world. So if copyright law has any meaning at all, then what
01:05:24: God has said about the rainbow is an absolute claim, a copyright to that symbol.
01:05:33: The rainbow is a symbol that belongs to God. How egregious is it and how aggressive, how hyper -aggressive is it that the secular humanist worldview would try to commandeer
01:05:49: God's symbol of His covenant for their own purposes? And the great irony is that it is the patience of God, the mercy of God symbolized in the rainbow that withholds judgment from the world.
01:06:07: The pride flag is a display of arrogance by definition because pride and arrogance are synonyms.
01:06:18: Pride goes before the fall. It requires people like Nebuchadnezzar's idol to bow down and worship.
01:06:30: It requires people to affirm what God has called sin and even to celebrate, to take pride and join in the celebration.
01:06:43: And these two fundamental worldviews, the secular humanist worldview that has no sin because there is no
01:06:50: God and there is no judgment. Each one does what is right in their own eyes. This worldview and the
01:06:56: Christian worldview that we're reading about here cannot coexist. It's true that Christians are loving and we're merciful and we don't aggress because we believe in a
01:07:09: God who will bring judgment in His time and according to His plan.
01:07:15: So we express nothing but love, but we do trumpet the warning of God that those who do such things will stand before the creator of all the earth.
01:07:27: He has withheld mercy because He is good and the sign of the rainbow was a picture of that mercy.
01:07:35: But before it's too late, repent and believe in the
01:07:40: God of Israel. So what do we have now? We have fear and climate alarmism.
01:07:48: We have a cult of death, the killing of the unborn as the cornerstone.
01:07:54: A denial that there ever was a flood and ever will be judgment and a trumpeting of sexual sin.
01:08:03: But here's the warning. Even Noah fell into disgrace. Let's keep reading.
01:08:11: Genesis 9 verses 18 to 23. The sons of Noah went forth from the ark.
01:08:17: Who went forth from the ark? Were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.
01:08:28: Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.
01:08:38: And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
01:08:47: Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father.
01:08:57: Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness.
01:09:05: What does God do for sinners in their shame? Adam and Eve, naked and realizing that they're naked in the garden, they sew loincloths to cover their shame but that's woefully inadequate.
01:09:18: It doesn't cover. So God sacrifices an animal and makes a covering of the skin.
01:09:25: This points to Christ, the sacrifice. And by that death, he covers shame and nakedness.
01:09:31: In the same way, two of the brothers cover the nakedness of their father. But one of them exposes and even calls his brothers to come and see, mocking and even finding glee or delight in the fall of the patriarch.
01:09:50: Now it's questionable here whether something sexual was going on with the one son. It could just be that he was delighting in the revered one, now so debased.
01:10:01: The patriarch now exposed. Two things are necessary to understand at this point.
01:10:10: One, in verse 20 it says, Noah began to be a man of the soil. If this is new for him and he's never been a man of the soil, then isn't it possible that he did not know the power of fermented wine?
01:10:29: It's possible that he did not sin intentionally. That this was a surprise to him.
01:10:36: Drunkenness overtook him because he was not aware of the power of fermented drink.
01:10:42: It's possible. That's what Luther held and a majority of the commentators hold that view. It may well be.
01:10:48: But certainly what it shows us is that even a righteous man needs to continue to depend on the grace of God in our lives.
01:10:58: Any of us are prone to fall. Any of us are prone to stumble. And here it is only the grace of God that sustains
01:11:06: Noah. This gospel that we preach is not the righteousness of Noah or of his sons.
01:11:13: But it is the mercy of God. They were brought onto an ark and they were lifted up.
01:11:18: Their sin nature floated above the earth. It wasn't in them to save themselves.
01:11:25: God rescues sinners. And we must continue to depend upon his grace.
01:11:32: We live in a culture now that's got indecent exposure. Here sadly
01:11:38: Noah was indecently exposed. Now the culture has dragged queen story hours and the prevalence of pornography.
01:11:49: This is a new thing in the history of the world. There didn't used to be technology for what happens today.
01:11:55: And sadly there are new and more profound levels of evil that will come from newer technologies.
01:12:06: Jesus warned in Matthew 25, as in the days of Noah so it will be before the coming of the son of man.
01:12:15: This is a sign of the times. The indecency of our culture needs to be covered and there's only one way.
01:12:26: Through the blood of the lamb. Lastly, you won't see it at first but next week we'll get into it.
01:12:32: What's happening here the last sign in verses 24 to 29 is about hatred for Israel.
01:12:38: Have you seen that happening on college campuses and around the world? And particularly from a certain tribe.
01:12:48: Canaan is the son of Ham. The Canaanites were the ones in the land when a certain
01:12:57: Semitic tribe who had been in captivity in Egypt is brought into the promised land and God in that theocracy uses them to judge the
01:13:07: Canaanites and then to subject them under their boot. Let's read it.
01:13:14: When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be
01:13:19: Canaan. A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said,
01:13:24: Blessed be the Lord the God of Shem and let
01:13:30: Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let
01:13:37: Canaan be his servant. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.
01:13:43: All the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. Some commentators again
01:13:51: I think the majority hold that Canaan was already alive and involved in this sin.
01:13:58: Maybe he's the first one to have seen Noah and then told his dad Ham who then tried to get the brothers to come in and see.
01:14:07: I think it's more likely though that this is prophetic. That God in his sovereign wisdom knew that Canaan would be passed over, would not be a man of God and they would then become the
01:14:23: Canaanite people. Notice though, and we'll close with this, that Israel is that Semitic tribe.
01:14:30: You'll learn this as we study through. Halfway through chapter 11 we get a genealogy of Shem.
01:14:36: Why would there be a genealogy of Shem? Because it will trace down from Shem to Terah and then to Abraham and we'll have the
01:14:45: Abrahamic covenant. Those who bless Abraham and the tribes of Israel will be blessed and those who curse
01:14:50: Israel will be cursed and here you see the seeds of that in what happened with Noah.
01:14:59: So it goes way back. What we see on the news note guys, the Palestinians are the descendants of the
01:15:06: Phoenicians, a Canaanite tribe and October 7th was an attack on Israel as they see their enemy, the people they hate.
01:15:18: It's the Canaanite people who surround Israel, who loathe the people of Israel and desire to see them driven into the sea, from the river to the sea.
01:15:31: And yet they must watch the enlarging of their enemy's tent as Israel becomes stronger and stronger, blessed by the
01:15:39: Lord. Their rage only increases and that is what we're seeing on the news today.
01:15:45: It goes all the way back to Genesis 9. So what's the application of this sermon? It's actually a really positive sermon even though it's called the
01:15:54: Rainbow Cult of Death. It's a reminder church, you have the Noahic covenant.
01:16:00: We don't fear what they fear. We have no dread as they do, Isaiah 8. We are not afraid of climate disaster, but instead we uphold life.
01:16:12: And here's what I want you to do. Going forth from this place, make note of what's in the application section and compare what the world is teaching with what we have in Genesis 9.
01:16:26: Listen to these six things. They have impending apocalyptic climate disaster.
01:16:33: We have a God that upholds the climate. They have impunity for those who shed the blood of the most vulnerable.
01:16:43: We say life is valuable and we uphold life in the image of God. They claim immunity from all divine judgment.
01:16:53: We warn of a coming day of wrath. They have insistent pride in the very things that warrants divine judgment.
01:17:03: We thank God for his mercy on us, the sinners. They have indecent exposure in rampant pornography and in the targeting of minors through drag queen story hours.
01:17:16: We have the covering of Jesus' blood, the clothing in His righteousness, not our own.
01:17:25: They have intense hatred for Israel. And we bless the people of God.
01:17:32: Let's pray. Father, it is sobering to realize the days in which we live that they are the days of Noah.
01:17:43: We look around us and we see this new cult, this new religion that has every aspect of religion without a
01:17:55: God. And we ask Lord God that you would give us victory over this rainbow cult of death, that it would not take over New Jersey and this country, but God that Christians would stand strong for life and liberty and even the pursuit of happiness.
01:18:16: Lord, we thank you for your mercy in the covenant with Noah that you do not just flood this earth with judgment, but you are patient.
01:18:25: And we thank you for the sign of that covenant, the rainbow. Remind us every time we see it that you are a
01:18:31: God of mercy who withholds judgment until the last day. Help us now,
01:18:37: Lord, to go out with power to preach like Noah preached to his generation.
01:18:45: We pray that you would remove the spirit of fear from any of our hearts, that we would not be afraid to offer life, because indeed we have the message of this new life.
01:18:57: Whereas all they're being offered by this world is death and impending doom.
01:19:04: So Lord, remind us of the treasure that we have in these jars of clay, an all -surpassing value.
01:19:12: We have Christ, the Son of God, and the shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of sin.
01:19:19: So empower us now to go out and tell the world in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand.
01:19:29: Jesus paid our sin debt in full. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
01:19:37: Amen. I hear the Savior say,
01:19:44: Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray.
01:19:54: Find in me thine all in all. Because Jesus has made it all, all to Him I owe.
01:20:11: Sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
01:20:31: Lord, now indeed I find Thy power and Thine alone can change a leper's past and melt the heart of stone.
01:20:52: Because Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.
01:21:02: Sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
01:21:22: And when before the throne
01:21:27: I stand in incomplete Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat.
01:21:44: Because Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.
01:21:55: Sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
01:22:05: Because Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.
01:22:15: Sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
01:22:25: Sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
01:23:00: And the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed.
01:23:10: And through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations. According to the command of the eternal
01:23:17: God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore, through Jesus Christ.