Hijacking the Rainbow (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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 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.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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 divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name's Mike Abendroth. At the risk of promoting my own stuff.

The book is out, Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise. Quick read, 30 short chapters.

Suggest you read one chapter a day to get your mind right, cool hand Luke style about this topic.

Believe me, if you do anything except sleep all day, you will be bombarded with another view of sex and sexuality and how to think about it.

So this is a good mooring for good anchoring of the soul to the Bible, how should

I think about it? Now, I first started writing it because I was talking to my son about the subject.

Proverbs two, my son, Proverbs five, my son, Proverbs six, my son, Proverbs seven, my son.

How important it is for fathers to teach their sons how to be on time, how to have good manners, how to shake hands and look people in the eye.

Well, I'm sure all that's fine and dandy, but what about sex? You have to teach your children about sex.

So that's what this book is about. You're not gonna find any gross language in there or anything like that.

Especially good, I would imagine for men's groups. If you've got a men's group, you're looking for a new book to go through, you can do that.

I think the website allows you to order up to 10 books or something like that. If you wanna order more and get a deal or if you're a bookstore and you want to do that, you can email me and we'll work something out.

And I guess you promote it because I promote Bethlehem Bible Church, I promote No Compromise Radio, why?

Because there you'll hear the truth about Jesus Christ, the only one who never compromised.

So there's my commercial, you can order. Yes, in fact, it should be on Kindle sometime soon.

We'll probably wait till the end of the year or early in 2016.

So give it a shot. Putting the finishing touches on Evangelical White Lies, the next book and maybe some

No Compromise Parenting stuff. The subtitle of that one is, in my mind,

Common Parenting Mistakes because I know better than to write a parenting book when I've got kids from 23 to 14.

We have a lot of work to do. I do declare. If you want to write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com,

that would be fine. If you want to complain about skulls on desks, take it up with your senator.

Rainbows, the last two times on this particular day, I don't know what day this is being aired. Oh, I got back from Rome.

Technically I leave tomorrow, but by the time the show airs, it will be already done.

And it was a great trip. Lots of good food, lots of espresso, gelato. I had 30 hours to teach the entire book of Romans and we made it to chapter two.

Don't kill me. Took my wife, Kimberly, and we had our 15th wedding anniversary in Rome years ago.

And it was one of these, I had points for the flights. I had a free hotel.

I had a friend who had a hotel there, really nice one, someone new, a travel agent. And it was fun, but we walked a lot of places and just ate street food because we didn't have a lot of money.

So this time we, normally when we stay at a hotel, you think, okay, $15 at Courtyard Marriott for breakfast.

I'll just bring my own little oatmeal. Plus I like oatmeal in the morning anyway. Well, I don't know if I like it, but I'm just used to it now.

But to be at a hotel where they have breakfast and then we have dinners out as a group for camaraderie and fellowship.

And I know I'm taking the word fellowship out of context when I make it for food or with food, but to have good food around.

This is with the European Bible Training Center. Christian Andreessen runs it.

He's a master seminary graduate. If you are a church, you're part of a church,

I guess you can be a church, but if you're listening and you have influence in your local church and you're looking for people to support.

Years ago, when I got to Bethlehem Baptist Church at the time, we, I'm going to exaggerate some.

We had 30 people we supported at $20 a month. And some were people who gave inoculations for typhoid overseas.

Some build, they built log cabins, some did water, some were dentists, some were missionaries.

And that's an exaggeration, but sometimes you'll have folks like that. I'm glad there's people that do that. But what we try to do at Bethlehem Bible Church is to support people overseas that are doing what we're doing here.

So we're trying to train up men along with their spouses for gospel ministry and disciples, 2

Timothy 2, verse two. So why support people that are digging wells overseas when this is what we're doing here?

I'm not trying to tell you don't support those who dig wells overseas unless they don't give the gospel, right?

You do the well and then off you go. What will happen with the TMAI, the

Master's, I don't know what it stands for, TMAI, Master's Seminary Grads, and they will basically do what we're doing here, and that is training up men and women in local church contexts for gospel ministry.

When I say men and women, I mean men to do the preaching and the women. I know there's some classes they could take, kind of Sam Wives classes and other introductory classes, so they could be a better helpmate to their husband.

That's what I'm saying, men and women. Call me a sexist, I know, that's fine.

Virginia Slims, did you know Marlboro was first a cigarette for ladies? So there, take that.

Christian Andreessen, EBTC, they have another extension in Switzerland, and they have affected countries like Poland, the

Czech Republic, and lots of places around there, Belgium, and that is a great place to start.

So TMAI in general, if you'd like to support someone, you can find a Master's Seminary Grad there, and in particular,

Christian Andreessen. Marco has been on the show before, Tao has been on the show before, and some who have been trained there,

Erotic and Atomic have been trained at EBTC. I happen to be, full disclosure, an adjunct professor for that training center, which doesn't mean anything except I get to go over there once or twice every few years to teach, so there we have it.

Rainbows. The rainbow, if I say Word Association Rainbow, if you're not careful, you might say

LGBT, Gay Pride Parade 1978, Gilbert Baker, Paramount Flag, Rainbow Push Coalition, Jesse Jackson, Anti -Reaganomics.

You could say all kinds of things, but we've been looking at what does the Bible say about rainbows?

What does the symbol of the rainbow mean to God? Well, we looked at two passages, and today's the third one.

Two passages before today, we looked at Genesis 9.

It's a covenant that God gave, and when he would see it, he would remember there's mercy and judgment, and he's not going to be having divine vengeance anymore.

He has put the bow up. He's hung the bow up. It's a war bow, no longer shooting shafts of water destroy the earth.

There is peace. There is a disarmament. There is God promising. Great is thy faithfulness.

That's what you should think of when you think of rainbows. Genesis 9. It is a bow, a military bow, a war bow, and ESV just says bow, but that helps you, and rainbow is an

NES, and it's used for that. Look at the rainbow next time. How's it shaped? Well, it looks like a bow.

Where's it pointed? Well, it's not pointed down. It's hung up in the sky. No more arrows of water to flood the earth, and we then looked at Ezekiel chapter one.

When you see the throne room of God, the Daniel seven or Isaiah six, and now in Ezekiel one, well, how does it describe who

God is? Three different angles, almost like Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the synoptic gospels, all describing certain things that Jesus did from a different angle for different purposes.

I think so too with Ezekiel one. And you see the glory of God, and what do you notice there is a rainbow.

There's a bow of reminding us of the faithfulness of God.

Surrounded by the radiance of God, you see like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh, Ezekiel one, 28.

God shows mercy in the exercise or lack thereof of judgment of the people for their sins.

And we closed with a discussion that the bow was not hung up when it comes to Jesus Christ.

He in our place was punished, and God shot him as it were with the vengeance of an unfurled wrath of God, because God hates sin, and Jesus was the sinless sin bearer.

Well, today on No Compromise Radio, we're going to look at number three, the third illustration in the

Bible that I want you to be focused upon so you can think of rainbows properly.

Okay, Revelation chapter four. Revelation chapter four. Now in context, there's been the introduction, chapter one about Jesus.

There are the seven letters that Jesus writes to the seven churches on that post route, postal route.

Genesis chapter two and three, mostly with commendations followed by warnings, but a couple with just commendations only.

Then we move to chapter four and five, which proceeds six to 18 with this tribulation.

And maybe things are going to be so bad in the tribulation, you might question who God is. And I think

Genesis, excuse me, Revelation four, God creator, Genesis five, God the redeemer, will fix your mind against bad thoughts about God in Revelation six to 18.

I don't know why I keep saying Genesis, because the flood, rainbow, Genesis nine. The headquarters, as people have called it, of heaven is seen in Revelation chapter four.

God is a creator. He has a plan. The world is full of evil and wickedness and sin and rebellion, but God's not far off.

He's not a deist. He's not distant. He is going to do something about it. And he is to be worshiped for being such a king, so beautiful, so faithful,

Revelation four, after this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which

I had heard speaking to me, like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.

At once I was in the spirit, John said, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

Abner Chow's Theology of Visions book, Winfenstock publisher, says, and I believe him,

Ezekiel one, Daniel seven, Isaiah six, and here, Revelation four, are all describing the same scene.

Now there might be some differences here or there, but we would use synoptic discussions of the gospels to explain why those differences exist, and rightfully so, why they exist.

Revelation four, verse three, we come to our passage today on No Compromise Radio, and he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

What should you think of when you think of rainbow? You should think of Noah. You should think of flood.

You should think of God's covenant with Noah. You should think about grace in the midst of judgment, kindness in the midst of righteous indignation.

That's what you should think of, and by the way, that's a good way to think of Revelation, grace in the midst of judgment, kindness in the midst of righteous indignation.

That's what you should be thinking. The rainbow is a sign God is faithful.

God is faithful to himself. God is faithful to his word, and God is faithful.

Great is thy faithfulness. We did a funeral here, I don't know, 15, 18 years ago, a couple little babies, one -day -old

Lily and three -days -old Tori, and I remember with the family,

Iran and Cheryl, the parents, being in the room when we had to disconnect the babies from life support.

They were brain -dead, and we just were preparing, and then they would disconnect the baby and give us the baby, and it was intense.

And God was good and faithful, and he was a comforter, and we cried, the three of us sat in a room at St.

V's Hospital, and we just held that little baby, and they graciously let me hold the baby as well, and how do you recover?

Well, at least Tori's fine, and then two days later, the exact same thing happens, and I remember telling

Ron and Cheryl, I'm sorry I don't have any tears left. Years later, Ron told me that was very comforting to him because he didn't have any tears left either, and you feel guilty that you're not weeping over the first, second baby as you were the first, and there was a local mortuary, and it's called

Miles Funeral Home. They're over in Sterling, Mass., and I love to send people over there because they were kind to that family, and they said we'll do the arrangements for free, and they gave us a small casket, and both of those babies fit in that little casket, and we had a service here at the church, and it was pretty much standing room only at the church building, and I sat on the front row with Ron and Cheryl, and they had a little daughter too at the time, and we sat there, and I had asked them what song shall we sing, and they chose

How Great Thou Art, and Great is Thy Faithfulness, and I remember sitting on that front row with the family and looking at that little casket on the communion table there.

This is the table that we have for communion sitting right below the pulpit, and I just remember crying, crying, singing

Great is Thy Faithfulness, and when LGBT and others come along and they hijack the rainbow, a quick reading of the

Bible, you don't even have to get past Genesis 9 to find out, it means something completely different.

Yes, there are all kinds of people, all kinds of manifestations of sin as well, but God's faithful,

God is so faithful, and He has, thankfully, I had all kinds of manifestations of sin as well,

He saved me, and He could save those people marching with those rainbow flags, and when you see a rainbow flag, you should think there's grace in the midst of judgment.

God, give those people grace even though they have deserved judgment because that's exactly who I was.

Great is your faithfulness. Oh God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Great is Thy faithfulness. In our day and age, where people are unfaithful, people's words are not their bonds.

Till death do us part means until I get tired of you and can't reconcile and some other girl comes along or guy comes along.

Business deals. I mean, how long does it take for people to keep their word in business deals?

And think about our own lives. Okay, I mean, we can just be honest. I want to be a man of my word and I try to be a man of my word, and I remember if I'd say something to the kids,

I'd want to keep my word unless something else came up that prevented me from doing that or what

I told them was sinful or something, and I couldn't do that. That happened less often than when

I just either forgot, didn't care, tried to get around it. We won't do this, but I'll make it up to you.

I mean, how unfaithful are we? You know, Sinai and the commands are given and down the mountain

Moses goes and already the people are worshiping Yahweh in the form of a cow.

And you say to yourself, man, that's bad, that's wicked. Remember, they weren't worshiping Beelzebub.

They were worshiping Yahweh. They just needed an image, fix their mind on the image. God is faithful no matter what.

God is faithful if you bury children. God is faithful when you bury your parents.

God's faithful as John Knox was said to be dying. Well, he was dying and it was said of him that because he couldn't talk, do you still believe what you preached about?

Free grace found in Jesus. Alone, if so, raise your hand. And he's alleged to raise his hand three times. Great is your faithfulness when you understand that God is faithful.

And the rainbow reminds you of that in Revelation 4. What happens?

What's the response? Remember the paradigms on No Compromise Radio, imperative, indicative, theology, methodology, doxology and revelation and response.

Here's the response, Revelation 4, verse 4. Around the throne were 24 thrones and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.

And from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.

And before the throne, there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature like the face of a man and the fourth living creature like the eagle in flight.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night they never cease to say.

And before I say what they say, I never cease to say. This is the response to the faithfulness of God.

When you know God is so faithful, when you know there's grace and kindness, even though there's judgment, and you know that Jesus is your substitute, you know that Jesus was your representative, you know that Jesus is your risen savior, you know that Jesus is making intercession for you, you know that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you.

If you were a Jew, you would not wanna be abandoned by God. And to think Jesus is abandoned by God, left by God as God the

Father turns his back, to use language of Ezekiel and Revelation, as it were, on the sun and pours out his wrath on the sun.

We are never forsaken because you have been forsaken,

Lord Jesus. My God, my God, Jesus said, why have you what? Forsaken me.

And if God has, the Father has forsaken Jesus, no double jeopardy.

We will never be forsaken because we're trusting in him, believing in him. And so the response is, holy, holy, holy is the

Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to him who was seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, O Lord and God, our

Lord and God, to receive glory and honor, power, for you created all things.

You're in control. Your purposes are going to be completed. You do as you want. And by your will, they existed and were created.

God, you are sovereign. God, you are faithful. God, you're worthy of praise.

You are a great creator. You are going to exterminate sin once and for all.

There is, in fact, victory in Jesus because the next chapter goes on to talk about Jesus, who is the

Lion of the tribe of Judah, but more so described as the Lamb standing as if slain.

Jesus Christ, as John terms him in an earlier book, 1 John, verse one of chapter two,

Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the one who's faithful. No wonder

Revelation 19 calls Jesus faithful and true. He is called faithful and true.

Can you imagine that? He is called faithful and true. He keeps his promises. Remember years ago, promise keepers with a bunch of more laws, seven more laws that we would break?

The one was dope because it was tied into racial reconciliation. And remember how dumb all that was?

Say, well, something good came out of it. Well, okay, I guess the ends justify the means to you, but theologically off base.

And of course it dies a slow death, maybe a fast death because it's this parachurch thing that just cannot survive.

It's just another men's ministry. I mean, someone just might as well write a sexual fidelity book.

That'll go fast too. I ordered 2 ,000 copies, so I have 2 ,000 copies.

All right, I'm not trying to hide anything. I ordered 2 ,000. It'll probably take a couple of years for me to sell 2 ,000.

But the other books that I've written, they've sold between two to 5 ,000 copies over 10 years.

Now see, if neutron bombs were still a possibility of going off, it would have been good because I could have been protected by books.

No, I guess that's shrapnel. Shrapnel doesn't like to go through books. So in World War II, quick run to your library so you could be crushed by the books.

Jesus Christ is faithful, absolutely trustworthy. He's true. And these are habitual present tenses in the book of Revelation.

Oh, the dragon's a deceiver. The prophet, the false prophet's false. They're false worshipers.

But Jesus says, I'm going to come again and make everything right. He will. He is God, the faithful God. Thy faithfulness also surrounds thee.

Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies. Faithfulness is the belt around his waist. They are new every morning.

God's loving kindnesses and compassions never fail. Great is thy faithfulness. And finally, not just Deuteronomy, not just Psalms, not just Isaiah, not just Lamentations, but Hebrews 10.

He who promised is faithful. And that is why we hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering.

My name's Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.