[0:00] Good morning, once again. Thank you. I did forget to tell you, October giving and attendance! reports are back there. Welcome to pick those. I forgot to tell you that. Steve Sasson, mid-1970s, invented something new, came up with something new. It was a early version of a digital camera all the way back in the mid-70s. His company gave him approval to go ahead and patent it, which he did, and then he presented what he had invented and created to the leadership of his company, who then rejected his idea and said, no, we don't want to try to produce such a thing. Of course, today, a digital camera is pretty standard equipment. Most of you have one in your pocket on your phone, and you can take some incredible pictures compared to the, if you remember back in the mid-70s and 80s, some of you who can go back that far, the kinds of pictures you were able to produce back then, often very cloudy or grainy. And the company that rejected his idea, a little company by the name of Kodak. Kodak, who has recently come out of bankruptcy, and they don't produce film or cameras anymore. The only thing that they produce today are batteries for electric vehicles. Much, much, but I think they missed the boat on that one. Now, as terrible as it might seem to miss the boat on something like that, something like a big financial thing, how much even worse is it for us to miss the boat on something that would impact our eternity? And yet, that's what we see happening in our text today in Luke chapter 11. We see it all around us today as well. People who hear the truth of the gospel and decide to reject it, maybe not even understanding or wanting what it is the gospel promises for them. The text that we're going to look at today, beginning in verse 29 of chapter 11, it's labeled this way on your notes, a day when Jesus wasn't very Christ-like. I put
[2:42] Christ-like in quotes because people have a misunderstanding, I think, of what Jesus is supposed to be like. He's supposed to be mild-mannered. He's supposed to be soft-spoken. He's never supposed to get upset. He doesn't do those things. We don't see that today. We see Jesus actually speaking pretty sharply to the people that he addresses on this day. We see it in other places as well, but when we look at it here today, it is quite interesting to see his reaction to the people that have gathered to listen to him.
[3:18] So in Luke chapter 11, verse 29, when the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. Thanks, Jesus. Now, can we say the same thing?
[3:34] Yeah, every generation, because of original sin, because we're all born into sin, because we've all sinned, we all can say that we're a part of an evil generation. And then he said, it seeks, he says, it seeks for a sign. This generation seeks for a sign. It wants another sign. It wants more. Even though Jesus had already performed all these miracles, incredible amounts of miracles, all of his teaching, all of that combined, and they're saying, yeah, give me one more. Come on, let's, come on.
[4:08] We want to see more fireworks. We want to see more action. Let us see something just a little bit more, please. And it's quite interesting when you consider, uh, in John chapter 21, verse 25, this is the last verse of John's gospel. He says, now, there are also many other things that Jesus did where every one of them to be written. I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. So we're only given in the recorded account of the four gospels, a few of the number of the miracles that Jesus did. And there's quite a few listed in the four gospels. The people would have witnessed or would have heard about many more. And yet they were still just, I want one more, just one more. Give us, give us one more. That's all we need is just one more.
[5:00] Well, the rest of verse 29, Jesus says to them, but no sign will be given to it, to this generation, except the sign of Jonah. Now, this is kind of an odd statement. The sign of Jonah, what in the world is, is that all about? Well, it's, it's interesting. Matthew also records this conversation and Matthew's account kind of handles it in a little different way. The direction of his statement goes in a little different direction. The emphasis on what happened to Jonah three days in the belly of this large fish, and then vomited out on the beach. He compares that to what Jesus is going to be experiencing in the resurrection. Three days in the ground and then resurrected from out of the ground. And he said that that is what the reference to Jonah was. We're going to see here in just a little bit that, that Luke takes a little bit different tack in, in the sense of Luke's preaching in the city of Nineveh. And it's,
[6:06] Nineveh is this, is at the time of, of Jonah, a large city that would eventually be the, the, the nation, the capital of the nation of Assyria that would come in and defeat the Northern kingdom of Israel and take it into captivity. So Jonah hates this Gentile city. And that's the emphasis that Jesus is making here. Even this group of Gentiles, these Ninevites who were wicked, incredibly wicked, child sacrificing, murderous, the way that they would kill people was, was grotesque and, and just horrible. And yet this is a city when Jonah preached to it, it repented. Its king and the people of the city repented of their wickedness and trusted in Jehovah God. Quite interesting that, that Jesus would bring this up. So no sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah.
[7:11] For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the son of man be a sign to this generation. This preaching that Jesus was doing, Matthew would highlight the resurrection, the coming resurrection of, of Jesus. And then he brings up a second illustration from the old Testament, the queen of the south or the, the queen of Sheba he refers to. This is modern day Yemen, most likely is where she would be from on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. She herself was a queen with much power and wealth, but yet when she heard of Solomon and all of his great wisdom and all of his great resources and, and army and all of that, she had to see it for herself. And so we have recorded in first Kings, the story of her coming to visit Solomon and wanting to test him, question him to find out really how, how wealthy was his wisdom, how wealthy were his riches, all of, all of that. And, and so Jesus in reference to that says the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
[8:36] The queen of Sheba, she was just going to check out what Solomon was all about. She heard stories of Solomon of his great wisdom, of course, which indeed God did give to Solomon, this great wisdom. And she went out of her way to travel with all of these great resources, the gifts that she brought was no small task. And, and yet she was willing to go and to hear and to give honor to the God of Solomon. And yet Solomon was just a man.
[9:10] Something greater than Solomon was here. Jesus himself. Jesus is God in flesh. Jesus, who, when he speaks, he speaks the very voice of God. Something greater than Solomon is here. And you people are scoffing at it. This generation of people are scoffing at the words of Christ, the very words of God. You're, you're making fun of it. You're, you're, you're saying, Hey, let's have another one. Let, let us see more. And so at the end of the world, at, at the judgment day of this generation, the queen of the South, the queen of Sheba will be able to stand up at your judgment. Jesus says this. And she, her testimony of how she figured that, that the, the wealth of God's wisdom was so worth it and you rejected it. And her traveling to see Solomon will stand in condemnation of this generation who rejects the Jesus who is standing right in front of you. The kingdom of God who is standing right in front of you. He goes on again, the men of Nineveh will rise up this wicked people of Nineveh who repented of their sin and put their trust in Jehovah God.
[10:40] that generation of Nineveh will be able to then stand at the judgment with this generation. When the generation standing, who was standing in front of Jesus at that moment and saying, just give us one more sign. The Nineveh of, of the generation of Jonah would be able to stand up and say, we heard the preaching of, of one who came from a fish and that preaching convicted us and we repented of our sin.
[11:10] And you, the very son of God, someone greater than Jonah rejected it for they repented. They repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Jonah represented Jesus, Jesus being in the ground for three days, dead and buried. Jonah in, in the belly of that fish is a picture of that. It, it, it, and it really happened by the way, what happened to Jonah really did happen.
[11:41] I can't explain it. I don't know. I don't know how God did that, but I know that he did. And I don't have a problem with that because I believe Genesis one, one Genesis one, one says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If I believe that all this other stuff about Jonah and, and the red sea and the Noah and the ark and all of that, that, that becomes like play child thing. I mean, it's easy for God, right? If he created all of this from nothing, then all of this becomes very simple for him to do because he is simply because he is God. So I accept it and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Jesus is standing in front of them. We've talked about this. He's presenting to them the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is at hand. That drum beat is getting louder and louder and louder and louder. The kingdom of God is at hand and it's standing right in front of you. You need to trust this messenger from God. You need to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, because it is at hand. It is right in front of you. It's incredible to me. Even the people in, in, in Christ's day, they don't even have some of the resources that we have. They had Jesus standing in front of them, but some of them maybe got one look at him, one hearing from him. And some of them trusted their life to him, even in that moment. Think, think about what we have in terms of a, an advantage that we have. They didn't have a completed new Testament. They didn't have a Bible put together in a, in a leather package or a hardback package like we have. We, we have all the books of the Bible, old and new
[13:40] Testament right in front of us, convenient as can be so that we can read about all of these stories. We have the gospel of Luke that we've been studying for the last six months or so. We have it right in front of us. We, we can read all of these things. We have it right there in front of us. We have the record of the record of his birth. We, we, we know what happened at the birth of Christ.
[14:08] We, we, we know the events. We, we know what happened. We, we celebrate it once a year. We have all of that. These people didn't have that. We have the record of the events of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and all that went into that. They didn't have that yet.
[14:30] They, they, they, we have all of the eyewitnesses who would have been able to give testimony in a court of law that yes, they were witnesses to the resurrected Christ. They saw him die. They saw him alive. They, they could give testimony that it absolutely happened. It's real. He is real.
[14:52] We have the testimony today of, of, of people all around us whose lives have been changed by their faith in Christ. We, we have so much, we have this wealth of resources that were given.
[15:05] And yet for so many people, they, no, I don't know. I don't know if I believe the Bible. It's, it's, it's just man's word. It's not God's word. It's just written by man.
[15:16] Oh, if you only knew, if you only knew what it is that we have as this resource in front of us, the, the testimony of all of these people, we're all just deceived though. Don't you know, we're all self-deceived because we need a crutch. We need a religion. We need Christ as a crutch. And so I, you know, people don't need that. I don't know.
[15:45] What's true of that generation, I think is true for many people in our generation as well. Here's, here's what we find. And you have this on your notes. Why, why was Jesus, why did it seem he was so, I don't know if he was like literally angry, but he was certainly frank here. He was certainly upfront with them and telling them the truth as they needed to hear it.
[16:05] And here's the first thing that people had already more evidence than they needed. They had enough. They had enough evidence. Absolutely. They had seen enough. They'd heard enough. They didn't need more. More evidence is, is, is not generally what people need, even though they, they might say, I need more. I need more. There's something, there's something at play when people are saying, I need more, I need more information. I need, I need more in order to respond to this.
[16:37] The people that they, they refused to respond to the things that they already knew. They already knew the truth. Jesus had proclaimed it. They already had seen him do all of these things.
[16:49] They just did not want to respond in that way. And here's what's true again on your notes. If a person doesn't want to believe, and this gets to the core of, of what's going on for many people back then and many people today. If a person doesn't want to believe, it won't matter how much evidence is provided. It won't be enough simply because they don't want it. And they'll use their, well, I don't know. And, and I need to see more and I need to hear more. And they'll use that as an excuse for why they don't believe, but why they don't believe comes from something, uh, a little bit more on the inside. John 319. This is Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus. Uh, he says this, and this is the judgment. The light is coming to the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. This gets to the core of, of why people are looking for more information. And, and, and sometimes there are, sometimes people do genuine, genuinely need more information. And so we need to be in a position to give them the information that they need so that they can make the decision to trust Christ as savior. But once someone has heard and they begin to reject, this is what's going on. It's something within them that says, oh no, if, if I accept Christ as my savior, that means that my life is going to have to be different. My life is going to have to change. And I don't know that I necessarily want that. So I, I, I'm not going to come right out and say, I love my sin. It's not socially acceptable. Maybe in some circles it might be. So I'll just say, I'm not ready. I'll just, I'll just say, I don't have enough information. I'll, I'll just say, I need to see something more. That's, that's what's happening. Uh, here, here's what's true. We find God when we look for him and we sincerely desire to find him.
[19:14] This is when it will happen. This is the promise of the old Testament. This is the promise given to Israel and captivity. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. The principle is true for us today. Someone has a desire for, for the Lord in their life. It's like, sometimes people ask me the question, well, Rich, what about, what about like that, that tribe of people that lives on an Island somewhere or deep in the Amazon and they've never heard of Jesus. What will happen to them? Well, for them, they have the testimony. When they walk outside their front door, they look at all of creation and, and what do they see? They see creation. But instead of saying, Hey, I see created things in front of me, there must be a creator. Where is the creator of all of this?
[20:02] Instead of that, they say, no, you know, I think the moon is a God. And I think the sun is a God. And that tiger that I see running across the plane, I think that's a God too. Or that cow or whatever, whatever, whatever it is that they, they, they look at things of the earth, the created things, and they turn them into their gods. They make idols of them. And, and that's what they worship and their own conscience condemns them because they reject the God of creation.
[20:32] I'm of the belief. I'm kind of of the mindset. Um, and this is just my, my thinking here. This forever, whatever that's worth, it's nothing compared to, to this. But in my thinking, if someone walks out their front door and they see creation and they say, there must be a God who made all of this. I'm of the mindset that God's going to send that man, a missionary and they're going to, they're going to hear the gospel and they're going to respond to it.
[20:59] And they're going to trust Jesus Christ as their savior. And, and that's, that, that is the truth of the gospel. We need to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. Now, another story, World War II in Britain, they had these blackouts at night where if you were living in a populated area, you could not have your lights on in your house at all after dark. It was against the law. And that was to protect your house and, and the city from nighttime raids from Nazi Germany that they were bombing England. And during the first month of these, there were quite a few accidents because you, you couldn't even have your headlights on in your car. So if you had to go out at night and drive, you had to do it without headlights. And so they had a real tough time struggling with this, but there was some lore that began to build in England during this time about these fighter pilots who had this incredible ability to see even in the darkness and to shoot down Nazi bombing planes. One of them got the name of, of cat eyes Cunningham. His name was Cunningham and they called him cat eyes Cunningham because he was so skilled at being able to shoot down enemy fighters at night, even though there's no light around. What, what made that him able to do that? He shot in one night, shot down three different
[22:45] German planes and, and he was made famous in England because of it. Well, what happened is England leaked out some information about how their fighter pilots were able to see. And they gave credit to carrots of all things. They said that for months now we have been feeding our fighter pilots carrots and whatever it is in carrots that allow their eyes to be able to adjust and see better at night.
[23:21] That's, that's what we've been doing. And our pilots have been on this diet for months and they began to recommend that the general population in England also eat carrots. And so the government started producing, you know, telling them how to plant them and grow them in their garden and how to prepare carrots and recipes and all this kinds of stuff. And, and so everyone started growing carrots and they had an overabundance of carrots in Britain during world war two, even in the United States, people in the United States took hold of this and began to grow carrots. And while I want to be able to see better at night too. And all of this, even in Germany, the German government started growing carrots and feeding it to their pilots. Interesting thing was there was no benefit to carrots in terms of increasing anybody's ability to see at night. What the government was really doing was putting out all of this misinformation on purpose because they did not want to give up the, the, the idea.
[24:34] They had this new technology that they had installed in their planes called radar. And they didn't want anyone to know, particularly the Germans to know that they now had the ability through radar to mark and go after their bombing planes. That's what was going on. This, this literal propaganda that people began to believe in. And, and we see that happening in a sense in our world today. It it's, we, we live, we exist in a world of darkness. It's, it's dark all around us.
[25:19] You have this on your notes. The world around us is in perpetual spiritual nighttime, a moral ethical blackout, if you will.
[25:35] And the propaganda of Satan and the world system has deceived us. And you might say, well, Rich, do you mean, did you mean to say on your notes has deceived them?
[25:51] As in the lost, they're the ones deceived. We're not deceived. And I would say, oh no, we're all deceived. We're all deceived and susceptible to the world system and the way that it sinks and the way that it operates and the way that it teaches the propaganda that comes from the world.
[26:14] We absolutely need to be relieved of this. And so we're told do not be conformed to this world. This is Romans 12 to, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. This is for us as believers.
[26:30] As believers, we come into our walk with the Lord filled with all kinds of nonsense from the world system about how life works. And Paul is admonishing us here to say, no, no, no, you need to reject that world system and the conforming of this world.
[26:51] And instead, you're not, your mind needs to be renewed. We need to be taught. And listen, for us believers, this is what we will be doing for the rest of our lives.
[27:05] Having our minds transformed by the word of God so that we no longer believe the lies of the world system and of the devil.
[27:17] And listen, even churches are guilty of spreading the propaganda. And so we have to be aware of this. We have to be students of the word of God for ourselves so that we can know that when we hear the lies, when we hear the propaganda, we can mark it, reject it, and trust what God has said in his word.
[27:42] That's on all of us to do this. And so what we need is the light of God's revelation. That is what we need to have.
[27:56] And this is how it works. This gets into the next portion of our text in Luke chapter 11, beginning in verse 33. Jesus is talking to this generation of people who he says will be condemned by Jonah, by the people of Nineveh, the queen of the south.
[28:16] They're going to rise up and condemn you because of your lack of faith, your lack of belief. And he said, no one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand.
[28:31] And you might think, well, this is similar to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, where he's telling us to be a light. And it's a little different here because he's talking about himself here.
[28:43] In other words, Jesus is saying, I didn't come with this bright light and put it under a bushel or bury it in the cellar. It's been out in the open.
[28:54] I have been teaching out in the open. I have been going in your synagogues. I have been teaching in the open air. I have performed these miracles in front of multitudes, in front of thousands of people that have seen and been witness to these miracles that I have been doing for these two, two and a half years.
[29:16] So no one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. Guys, you've seen the light, he's saying here.
[29:26] You've seen it. Now the responsibility for you to respond is upon you. And he says, your eye, singular.
[29:39] It's kind of odd here. Your eye, singular, is the lamp of your body. What does he mean by that? That when your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light.
[29:51] When your eye recognizes the truth, when the eye of your body recognizes truth and accepts that truth and receives that truth, then the whole body is full of light.
[30:05] Once you accept Christ as your Savior, you have him living within, and it lights up your whole self. But when that eye is bad, when the eye of your life rejects the gospel, rejects what Christ is preaching, what Christ is offering us, then your body is still full of darkness.
[30:42] Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you not be true light, lest it be darkness, lest it be propaganda, the world's ideas, the world's way of thinking.
[30:56] If then your whole body is full of light, if you've accepted Christ, you've accepted his truth, then he tells us, have no part with the darkness.
[31:09] It will be holy light. Your life will be holy bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. The way that you live, your lifestyle, will now represent what Jesus Christ himself represented.
[31:24] You will live like Christ. Your light will be the light of Christ within you that will go forth from your life, and other people will notice, and will take note of that light that comes from within you.
[31:43] So with that in mind, how this works itself out on your notes is this way. So the hope of humanity is found in Christ.
[31:55] When we respond obediently to the light that has been given, when we trust Christ as Savior, we'll receive more light.
[32:06] And that's true all along the way. As we open up the Word of God, and as we read, and we study, and we hear the truth of God's Word proclaimed, as we respond in obedience to the Word, He gives us more light.
[32:23] He gives us more understanding. He gives us more enlightenment. We understand it more. And the world's deceptions begin to fall away.
[32:37] The lies of the world, the propaganda around us, that begins to fall away. We begin to reject it. And again, this is something that we'll be doing for the rest of our life.
[32:58] Reading, studying, listening to, responding to, living in obedience to the Word of God as it is opened up, it is revealed to us. That process of mind and life transformation begins when we trust Christ as Savior, but will continue in our lives as we grow in our relationship with Him over time until we see Him face to face, until this life is over.
[33:28] And so, this is what it means to be a Christian. It means that we're growing. It means that we're pursuing. It means that we're living in relationship to Him, and it's an obedience relationship.
[33:40] Secondly, those who disregard the light that has been given remain blinded by this world's deceptions.
[33:51] That makes sense, doesn't it? So those who have rejected the gospel, who've rejected the witness that they have, even from just creation, if they've never heard the gospel, if they're not familiar with anything from the scriptures, if they reject what light they have been given, God is not responsible to give them more light.
[34:12] They've already rejected what's been given. And because they reject the light that they've been given, the world's propaganda, Satan's lies, for them, it seems good, it sounds good, it seems like it's light, and they're willing and able to be deceived by the world around them.
[34:40] And it will eventually lead to them facing eternal judgment. they continue to reject, they continue to reject, they continue to reject, that's what it leads to.
[35:06] it's interesting how Paul puts this in Ephesians chapter 5. For you were once darkness.
[35:24] Notice he doesn't say you were once in darkness. darkness. No, you, you were darkness.
[35:39] That's every one of us. He's writing to believers now in the book of Ephesians, he's writing to the church at Ephesus, so it's as if he could be writing this to us, and, and he's saying that you, before Christ, you were darkness.
[35:58] You were the very definition of your life is darkness. But no more. No more. Now you are light in the Lord.
[36:11] Now it's not your light, it's Christ's light within you so that you shine as the light of the Lord. and then, and then real simply live as children. That's how you're supposed to live.
[36:25] You, you are now called to live. If you've trusted Christ as Savior, you are being called to live like what you are. If, if you are light, you, your life should be light.
[36:40] You should live as light. That's what you've been called to. And, and, and so if someone says, well, I'm a Christian, but they're not living as light.
[36:51] Their, their, their life does not match up with what they say they are. And they're self-deceived. They're not who they say they are.
[37:04] What comes out of our mouth has to match up with the way that we live our lives. And so this is what Jesus is, is calling us to.
[37:17] And, and Paul is reinforcing that here in this passage. Now, as we make our way forward with this, I, I want to spend some time giving you three examples examples of the kind of propaganda, the kind of world's system, the way that it thinks, and then show you from the light of God's word, what it says about these topics.
[37:52] So these are three very different topics. They're, they're not related really in any way. And, and I could name, I don't know, a whole bunch of different examples, a whole bunch of different topics.
[38:08] I'm just going to focus on three. And if you apply what the, what we're talking about with these three to other areas of how the world thinks and what's popular and what's happening in our world today, you'll begin to see how God wants us to read and trust.
[38:32] Oh my, how things could be so different if we would just follow the leading of the word of God. The anxiety, the anger, the angst, the, we wouldn't have to do this.
[38:52] So, are you guys with me now? So three things we're going to talk about. The first one has to do with, with climate change. Okay. So we're understand, we want to understand the subject of climate change or overpopulation and the utter despair over the idea that, that our earth is going to be destroyed either through climate change or overpopulation.
[39:18] any of you see any news of this recently, news of, of climate change and overpopulation and things like that.
[39:30] One of the, one of the czars, if I could use that word, of this particular topic is Bill Gates. Bill Gates has been in the news for the last 30 years or more and he has been a huge fan.
[39:51] Well, that's not the right way to say it. A huge proponent of, we need to change our world because of climate change, because all this stuff, overpopulation and, and these sorts of things.
[40:05] And I don't know if, if, if any of you have noticed, because of the alarm that some in, in that world have been promoting, there have been all kinds of particularly susceptible young people who are saying our world is in trouble because of climate change and we have to take action or we're going to lose our planet.
[40:32] And then, depending on who they were and when they spoke, they would give a date. It's going to be 2012 or it's going to be 10 years from now or it's going to be in 2050 or in 1978 or whatever, whatever their current fad of the day was.
[40:49] To the point where we have young people today saying I can't have children. It would be irresponsible for me as a young lady to have children knowing what I know about our world, our planet, climate change, overpopulation, etc.
[41:10] I'm not going to have children. And what a devastating self-pronouncement to make upon yourself based on what is ultimately the lies, the propaganda, the blindness of this world.
[41:29] Let me, Bill Gates is just in the news actually the last couple of days, right? because he's been a, he's been, if you love fake meat, how many of you love fake meat?
[41:41] How many of you love eating bugs? Because this man has been telling us that we need to start eating fake meat and bugs in order to save the planet.
[41:53] What? Noah, were you eating a roach over there? Is that what that, eating a bug?
[42:07] Save Mother Earth. Oh my. He just said this like three days ago. Although climate change will have serious consequences, particularly for people in the poorest countries, it will not lead to humanity's demise.
[42:21] People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Thank you, Bill Gates, for, I can breathe easy now because Bill Gates has said we're okay.
[42:41] Let me show you some passages of scripture. By the way, I believe the climate is going to change on our planet.
[43:02] I believe that our planet is going to burn in fire. Absolutely. Let me show you what I mean.
[43:13] I don't want to take you down this road too far. This is 2 Peter 3.10 and this is prophecy. This is what we know is coming for the world. But the day of the Lord will come.
[43:24] The day of the Lord is a reference to when Jesus comes back. It's a broad term that is a reference to when Jesus comes back and makes all things right.
[43:35] There's a kingdom. There is the end of all things. The final judgment and then heaven and earth. And somewhere in all of that is this.
[43:45] The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away. The heavens are a reference to the universe. Starry skies that you see. That's a reference to the universe around us.
[43:57] It will pass away with great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
[44:11] This is not because Bill Gates said so. This is because God has declared it.
[44:23] This is what will happen in preparation for the new heaven and the new earth. That you and I as believers will be living on forever and ever in all of eternity.
[44:34] But just as we will have resurrected bodies right? Are you grateful for that? No more decay no more old age no more sickness no more tears no you know my body works again.
[44:50] In preparation of that the earth Romans chapter 8 is also longing for that day when it too will be resurrected and this will be a part of the earth's resurrection.
[45:03] The new heaven and the new earth will not be just the old one done away with and the new one coming in it's the old one burnt up and then made new.
[45:16] It's as if it will also be resurrected in that way. And that's what we're looking forward to. So am I worried about climate change? Of course not.
[45:27] Do we have to worry about that kind of thing? Of course not. He said this back in his promise to Noah after the flood this was a part of his promise to Noah as long as the earth endures seed time and harvest so how long is the earth going to endure in its current state?
[45:44] All the way to 2 Peter 3.10 when God burns it up right? This is after the end of the millennial kingdom after the end of the judgment it's at the end of all things. We get when we think of heaven seed time and harvest cold and heat summer winter day and night will never cease.
[46:03] This is a promise from God. We don't have to worry about the seasons going away or the earth dying before God says it's time.
[46:16] we simply just don't have to be concerned about this. And the other thing that you see happening is people talking about an exit plan.
[46:33] Right? Last couple years right? Elon Musk wants to build the colony on Mars. That's fantastic. Go for it. I want you to know I have an exit plan too.
[46:50] I'm going to heaven when I die. That's my exit plan. Right? That's a better exit plan. I got Brett so excited he's laughing and leaving.
[47:05] It's so much better than what this world promises. the emptiness of this world. And what is out there there's just been a headline about all these UFOs that they've just cited.
[47:22] Any of you wonder about UFOs? Let me help you out with that. UFOs other beings on other planets and other universes or other galaxies or all of this kind of stuff.
[47:36] I want you to notice the language of the Bible and this goes all the way back to the beginning God created the heavens. What are the heavens? The stars, the universe, the galaxies and it's immense, right?
[47:52] I mean the word immense, the word vast, they fall short of describing how massive it all is. And the earth. Let me ask you, is the earth a part of the heavens?
[48:04] heavens? Yeah. Yeah, we exist within the heavens. We exist within the universe. When you see the word heavens, you could supply the word universe there.
[48:16] The earth, it's as if God is taking the earth out and separating it from the rest and saying there's something special about this earth. I'm doing something special here. Can you guess what the special is with earth?
[48:29] You live here, you can probably figure it out, as opposed to any other planet you've ever heard of, right? Any other planet you've ever heard of, could you just go and live on it? No, it doesn't work that way.
[48:44] This is Isaiah 45, 18. For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, the universe, he is God after all, who formed the earth and made it. He established it.
[48:56] He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inhabited. There's something unique about the earth than all of the universe.
[49:08] He formed the earth to be inhabited, to be lived on, to be populated, for us to be stewards of what God has given us.
[49:22] But the rest of the universe is what? Empty. in other words, there aren't any other people out there.
[49:34] There aren't any other species of people. There's nothing, none of that. But Rich, what about all these sightings? What about all these occurrences? Do you know who likes to toy with you?
[49:48] The demons. They want to keep you, as I said last week, they're not trying to make you evil. evil. They're just trying to keep you dead.
[50:01] And so if they can have you fooling around with and toying with UFOs and aliens and all of this, and ghosts, there's another one, ghosts, and people after they're dead haunting a house, and we just come through that season.
[50:17] it's just demons, literally, from their perspective, just having fun with your mind and destroying any view you have of what God has said and what is.
[50:35] So if you're playing around with ghosts and playing around with psychics and talking to the dead and all of that stuff, listen, you are playing with demons.
[50:48] And that will not end well for you. Understand that this is, well, why is the universe so big then? Well, the heavens are telling the glory of God and their expanse, the immenseness of it, is declaring the work of his hands.
[51:07] When we discover, and I think it's wonderful that we are exploring space and doing all of this stuff, because all it's doing, and scientists are just being blown away day after day as they study the universe, and they come across these things that they can't explain, like how evolution is not possible.
[51:28] Any scientist worth their salt would be willing to admit that evolution is not possible. But because they have an agenda that doesn't include God, they won't admit it. Find yourself an honest scientist, or an honest evolutionist, and they will agree.
[51:45] It can't happen. They're still teaching it to our kids like it's fact. And they're still saying that the universe started from nothing, and it's like, yeah, it did.
[51:59] And it has a beginning. They're so frustrated. They don't know what to do with themselves because they recognize today that the universe had a beginning. How is that possible? Well, Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
[52:18] I've got to move on. These next two, I've got to do more quickly. Okay. Disillusionment over personhood, identity, gender, morality. Oh, my goodness.
[52:29] This is so huge in our world today, and I'm glad in some respects the world is coming to its senses, at least some aspects of this, the influence of godly people is making an impact here.
[52:41] So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created a male and female. He created them. So how many genders are there? 63. Listen, you might think in some respects that this is, you know, like we've defeated this and we've moved on.
[53:02] It ain't happening. There are still third graders out there having to answer questions on their intake forms at the beginning of the school year. What are your pronouns? They're still being challenged by teachers.
[53:15] Don't just assume you're a girl. Why do you think you're a girl? Because I have girl parts. Oh, you can't think that. It's still happening.
[53:29] So be aware. This is still what the world is pushing toward us. It's the same idea with marriage. God created marriage for one man and one woman for a lifetime.
[53:42] Here we go. It's not man with a man. It defies what marriage is or a woman with a woman. This whole idea of gay marriage.
[53:54] If you have to put an adjective in front of marriage or anything in front of Christian, you know that it's wrong. marriage is marriage as defined by God.
[54:07] There's no way around that. And again, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, it tells us the body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
[54:21] And he begins to list all these different sins and sexual immorality and homosexuality is all a part of that. And then he says, flee sexual immorality, all other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.
[54:39] There's a whole presentation I could go into, but I won't do it. Just understand, there's something different, there's something unique about sexual sin.
[54:51] It's sticky, it stays with you, even when you confess it and you get forgiveness for it, it sticks with you. you become one flesh with that other person.
[55:04] And there's nothing you can do to change that. You can be forgiven, you can move on, you can build a marriage and make it work and God honoring and wonderful, but understand there's something unique about sexual sin.
[55:19] So don't you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you've received from God, you are not your own, you are bought at a price, therefore honor God with your bodies. This is what we're commanded to do, this is how we need to live our lives, is in this way.
[55:37] Finally, real quick, we're going to talk about tolerance of a false religion that is hell-bent on raping, killing, and destroying all Christians and Jews. I don't know if you guys are aware of this particular religion that is out there, just in case you don't know, I'm going to name it.
[55:55] That false religion is Islam. and it's invading what our Western civilization countries, countries that have been based or built on Christianity or form of Christianity in one form or another.
[56:20] we see it happening in our nation. Right now, this Tuesday, people are voting in New York City and Minneapolis, two major cities in our country.
[56:33] They're voting for, more than likely the way it looks, Muslim mayors of those cities. And I saw this and I thought, boy, this is quite humorous.
[56:45] Liberal women in New York City this November. I bring Islam and the Sharia and this is what Muslims, this is their stated goal, this is their stated desire.
[56:57] I bring Muslim and the Sharia and the unassuming young lady says, but we still get to keep our rights, right? And that's the outcome.
[57:08] No, you get Sharia. This idea that there are peace loving Muslims, we need to be disassociated from that.
[57:27] Their stated goal is to conquer the world through their religion, through Sharia. And so they are obligated called to and obligated to lie to you about what their intentions are.
[57:46] But yet if you ask them what they believe, what they believe is that, for instance, it's perfectly acceptable for a Muslim man to rape a non-Muslim girl.
[58:03] As long as she is of the age, it is perfectly acceptable for them to rape someone who's not a Muslim, a girl. This is happening all over England and all over Europe.
[58:17] And the countries like Britain, if you want to look this up, they're turning a blind eye because they don't want to offend all these people who are immigrating to their country.
[58:29] But they've got citizens of a man with a 12-year-old daughter who's been raped, and he runs over to the house where all these Muslim immigrants are there, where she was gang raped in the house.
[58:45] And when the police came, they took him, the father, and put him in jail and left the house mates alone.
[59:00] Understand, this is normal for them. And once they get into a place of having authority in any region, they will institute Sharia law, and they will begin to murder, kill, and rape whoever is not one of them.
[59:22] You say, well, Rich, how do you know this is true? Where is this coming from? Can I show you? This goes all the way back to the book of Genesis.
[59:35] In Genesis, God promised Abraham that he would be the father of this great nation. And he said, you will have a son, even though in my old age, you will have a son. My wife, she's old age, you're going to have a son, and when you have a son, you will then become this father of this mighty, great nation.
[59:57] But they short-circuited because they waited and they didn't have a son, they didn't have a son, they didn't have a son. And so finally, the wife of Abraham, Sarah, says, hey, it's not happening, why don't you go into my handmaiden, the servant girl, and sleep with her and get her pregnant.
[60:16] Don't recommend this, this is not good, and not for you to do. They were disobeying God, they were, in a sense, their lack of faith led them to disobey in this way.
[60:27] he had a child through that servant girl, Ishmael. Later on, God said, this is not the child of promise, this is the child of your flesh.
[60:41] The child of promise is yet to come. Finally, the child of promise was born, his name was Isaac. We got one promise given to Abraham, that there would be this mighty nation, and God would bless it, and all others would bless this nation, I will bless you, and all of this great promise of all of this land that was promised to Abraham is coming through this child of promise, but we got this covenant, we've got this promise that was given, but we got two sons.
[61:12] They thwarted God's plan. And so this is what was said of Ishmael's son. You are now pregnant, and you will give birth to a son, you shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
[61:29] Is this technically Isaac's brother? Yeah, it is, half-brother, right? Father is Abraham. He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.
[61:51] We were told this all the way back in Genesis chapter 16, that there would be a race of people related to the Jews, neighbors, brothers to the Jews.
[62:04] They both claim Abraham as father. Muhammad in a cave, 600 years after the resurrection of Christ, said he received revelation, an angel that appeared as light to him came and taught to him and told to him another gospel, another path.
[62:26] And from that birthed the Islamic religion and the worship of Allah, who's a false god, a pagan, false god.
[62:37] God's love, and all, if you are a student of world history, all throughout human history, you can see the enmity between Ishmael's children and Isaac's children.
[62:52] They have hated each other. Whatever peace accord we have right now in the Middle East is only temporary. temporary. It's currently being broken by Hamas.
[63:05] It's only for a time. We know that that's going to be a part of the end times during the tribulation, when that will also be erupting there again and again and again.
[63:18] It's been happening since this. And they have been living in hostility towards anyone who is Jewish or who are related to Jews, Christians.
[63:36] Romans tells us that we can claim Abraham as our father, that we've been grafted in. We are part of the promise as well. They hate anything having to do with Judaism, Israel, Christianity.
[63:55] They want nothing more than to destroy you because that is what Satan has wanted all of his existence. We need to be aware of this.
[64:07] Galatians 1.8, Paul said this, but even if we or an angel from heaven, originally from heaven, this is probably a demon, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you.
[64:24] Let him be accursed. This is what Muhammad is. This is what Islam is. This is what's creeping into our nation.
[64:35] We have it here in the state of Michigan, in Dearborn, where Sharia law is being enforced in Dearborn, where people who go into Dearborn carrying Bibles are arrested and put in jail for their own safety, not because they've done anything wrong.
[64:58] So we need to understand what's happening. We need to understand what the Word of God is teaching us. I have on your notes or passages of Scripture that you can look up for all three of these examples.
[65:14] What we're told, and I'll close with this, you're a chosen race. This is talking about us as believers. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
[65:34] This is how we ought to live, because this is who we are. As believers, we represent Christ, we represent the light of the truth of the Word of God, and the Word of God is truth, and we would do well to live by the Word of God.
[65:52] Let's pray. Lord, I pray that as we approach these difficult subjects and difficult matters, that our hearts would be drawn once again to the Word of God and what you teach us in your Word, and what you show us to be true.
[66:12] Lord, I pray that you would give us great wisdom and great discernment, that you would use us as lights of the gospel, that when we meet people who are without Christ, that we would be loving and kind and generous and willing to share the truth of the Word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, with those who need to hear it.
[66:39] Lord, give us discerning hearts to know truth when we recognize it, when we see it, and to know the way that the world thinks and acts and says, Lord, I pray that we would live as light because you have made us that light through Christ.
[67:05] Let us not hide it. Let us not be fearful of this world, but help us, Lord, to run to the battle and to preach the good news of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, and that through faith in Christ, we too can be saved and to know you for all of eternity.
[67:31] I thank you, Lord, that there are many Muslims who are coming to faith in Christ, recognizing the death and the destruction of their own religion, and choosing instead to trust Christ as Savior.
[67:48] Lord, may that be ever more the case in our world. Lord, we love you, and we praise you, and we ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
[67:59] Amen. Amen.