Participants: Terry McComb
Series Code: OR
Program Code: OR000003
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00:01 In the beginning, the earth was without form and void.
00:07 Then God said, "Let there be light." 00:10 And there was light. 00:14 And God divided the light from the darkness. 00:17 So the evening and the morning were the first day. 00:30 So the evening and the morning were the second day. 00:34 Then God said, "Let the waters 00:36 under the heavens be gathered 00:37 together into one place, and let the dry land appear. 00:41 Let the earth bring forth grass and herb 00:44 and the fruit tree that yields fruit 00:45 according to its kind. 00:47 So the evening and the morning were the third day. 00:51 Then God made two great lights. 00:53 He made the stars also, so the evening 00:56 and the morning were the fourth day. 00:59 Then God said, "Let the waters abound 01:01 with an abundance of living creatures, 01:03 and let birds fly above the earth across 01:06 the face of the firmament of the heavens." 01:10 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 01:15 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth 01:17 living creature according to its kind, 01:19 cattle and creeping things and beast of the earth. 01:24 Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, 01:27 according to Our likeness. 01:29 So the evening and the morning were the sixth day." 01:34 And on the seventh day God ended His work 01:36 which He had done and He rested the seventh day 01:38 from all His work which He had done. 01:40 Then God blessed the seventh day 01:42 and sanctified it because in it He had rested 01:44 from all His work which God had created and made. 01:49 And indeed it was very good. 01:53 Well, it's a real pleasure to welcome you again 01:55 to our seminar, "Origins, The First Week of Time." 02:01 And this evening, we're gonna be taking up 02:05 a very fascinating, but every night of this seminar, 02:08 I think is my favorite. 02:10 And so I have a hard time trying to decide, 02:12 but tonight is a very important one. 02:15 And so as we begin this evening, let's begin with prayer. 02:20 Holy Father, we just thank you for the blessings of this day 02:24 and we ask that the same creative energy, 02:27 Your Holy Spirit, which was active 02:30 in that first week of creation will be active here tonight 02:34 and will create in our minds a fresh encounter 02:39 with Your own divinity because we ask 02:42 that You will bless a planting 02:44 of Your word tonight in our hearts. 02:47 We ask this in Your Holy Name, amen. 02:52 When God creates, He separates. 02:56 And we discover on day one, 02:59 He separated light from darkness. 03:02 On day two, He separated water from water. 03:06 And tonight we will discover 03:08 that He is going to be separating on this third day, 03:13 He's gonna separate land from water. 03:17 And then with that land for the first time 03:20 He's gonna take something He's already made 03:22 and made something else from it. 03:26 And when God creates, He separates. 03:30 And He is always in this separating business. 03:35 In fact, when sin came into our world, 03:38 it separated this world from its Creator. 03:43 And when sin comes in, it separates people from people. 03:47 And when the Creator comes in your life, 03:48 He wants to separate sin from your life. 03:50 Is that good news? And He will--He as Creator, 03:54 He is able to do all these things. 03:56 In fact, the whole Bible 03:58 from Genesis to Revelation is all about separating. 04:03 He has a "called out people." 04:07 And when the world with so full of sin in Noah's day, 04:11 He separated those who would follow Him 04:14 from those who would not. 04:15 And there was a remnant that survived the flood. 04:20 And after that, when God's people again got into sin, 04:23 He called His people out of Egypt. 04:26 And God is always doing 04:28 a separating business when He is creating. 04:31 And we're gonna discover that in more detail 04:35 as we continue with this week. 04:38 And so, "All the earth is the Lord's, 04:41 and He has set the world in order." 04:45 First Samuel 2 verse 8. 04:49 And you know that little world as we see it out there 04:51 from outer space as we take a look at it-- 04:54 What is passing through? 04:56 They look pretty carefully there. 04:58 The Bible says, "He hung the world on nothing." 05:02 And science comes along and says, "That's right." 05:05 And in Job, God asked Job the question. 05:10 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" 05:17 Where were you? Well, we're gonna look at that 05:20 more carefully tomorrow night that passage. 05:24 And so when we think about the foundations of the earth, 05:27 so far we've discovered in this creation story 05:31 that there are at least three foundations. 05:36 Sound waves did the creating. 05:38 God spoke and that, when God speaks, that's not hard air. 05:43 That is a tremendous release of energy. 05:47 And then they created light. 05:50 And then last night we discovered 05:52 that He separated water from water. 05:56 And tonight we'll discover He will be continuing 05:59 in the separating business. 06:04 When God created light on day one, 06:06 I would like to suggest it is said 06:07 a great ball of water spinning. 06:09 It might have looked something 06:10 like this Hurricane Ike, 900 miles across. 06:14 It filled the whole Gulf of Mexico as it went in. 06:18 And with our technology today, you can see where the light 06:22 and the darkness divide on planet earth. 06:25 And as the light approaches, the earth takes shape 06:28 like clay passed beneath the seal. 06:31 It is robed in brilliant colors. 06:35 And so we read, if you have your Bibles, 06:38 I invite you to turn to Genesis, 06:41 the very first Chapter 06:42 and I hope in your homework assignment, 06:45 you're reading through Genesis one and two everyday, right? 06:50 All away through, so we get a good sweep of this. 06:54 And I'll be reading tonight from the New King James Version. 06:59 And we will begin reading tonight with verse 9. 07:05 "And then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens 07:09 be gathered together into one place, 07:12 and let dry land appear." And it was so." 07:18 I want you to notice that when God said that, 07:21 what came out of it was dry land, not swamp ooze. 07:25 It says, "It was dry land. 07:27 And He called dry land Earth, and the gathering together 07:31 of the waters He called Seas. 07:33 And God saw that it was good." And then God said, 07:38 "Let the earth bring forth grass, 07:41 the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree 07:44 that yields fruit according to its kind, 07:47 whose seed is in itself, on the earth," and it was so. 07:51 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed 07:55 according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, 07:59 whose seed is in itself according to its kind. 08:03 And God saw that it was good. 08:07 So the evening and morning were the third day." 08:12 And so, water was the primal substance 08:16 that God used to create land. 08:20 And He separated land from that water. 08:24 We discovered the human infant 08:26 is created in a water-filled womb. 08:30 We discovered that the human body 08:32 actually operates in a 75% water base. 08:37 We find that water seems to be the very key 08:40 to life in so many, many ways. 08:44 And by the word of God the heavens were of old, 08:47 and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 08:49 by which the world that then existed perished, 08:52 being flooded with water, Second Peter 3:5 to 6. 08:57 And so we read in our scriptures tonight. 09:00 And God called the dry land Earth. Genesis 1, verse 10. 09:07 Now this dry land was not muck or swamp ooze. 09:12 This land was very different from the soil 09:15 that we see in our world today 09:18 because the flood in Noah's day reshaped 09:22 the whole earth as is recorded 09:24 in the seventh Chapter of Genesis. 09:27 The earth is like a sponge, 09:30 and the waters under the earth, Exodus 20 verse 4. 09:34 And we know that the water is 09:35 under the earth is called the aquifer. 09:39 And this aquifer is a unique thing. 09:45 And the Bible tells us in Genesis 2 verse 6, 09:48 "That a mist went up from the earth and watered 09:51 the whole face of the ground." 09:53 And we find some remnants of that aquifer 09:59 even in a world today, in the valley 10:01 that I grew up in Pine Mountain Valley, Georgia. 10:05 We discovered that the water that they drink in Georgia 10:10 actually came out of a spring that originated 10:14 in Pennsylvania, but it came out in the ground in Georgia. 10:19 And we know that these waters 10:21 and aquifers are most fascinating. 10:24 There is a spring in Hornsby, Northern Florida. 10:28 I think that is a remnant one. 10:29 It's underground water systems. 10:31 The spring pours forth 58 million gallons 10:35 of fresh water a day at 72 degrees. 10:40 And divers have gone there 10:42 and explored this underground stream 10:45 and gone eight miles back in underneath the ground. 10:49 And I think that's a remnant of that underground water system 10:52 that once worked on planet earth. 10:56 We discover--we could spend easily a whole nine hour seminar 11:02 just on the sea, its saltiness. It is 3 to 4 percent salt. 11:07 In the Mediterranean is eight to twelve percent salt, 11:12 where it's lowest is in the polar seas. 11:15 But the sea is not the same saltiness everywhere. 11:20 And there are streams in the sea. 11:23 And they flow the Gulf Stream moves north 11:27 starting at the Gulf 70 miles wide and 3,000 feet deep, 11:32 that's about 1,000 Mississippi Rivers, 11:35 all moving forward at 86 degrees. 11:40 And that Gulf Stream moves towards the north. 11:44 At the same time, the Great Polar Stream also moves 11:48 towards the south like one giant circle 11:52 of water going up and back. 11:55 One is warm and the other is cold. 11:58 We have the tides that sweep in and around our earth 12:01 every 24 hours twice, they go up or down. 12:05 At St. Maloes, it is 50 feet. 12:08 At the Bay of Fundy, it's 100 feet. 12:10 The Southern Ocean, it moves at a 1,000 miles an hour. 12:14 In Germany, it moves 50 miles an hour. 12:17 And so the ocean, God said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, 12:22 and no further, shall thy proud waves be stayed," Job 38:11. 12:28 The gathering together of the waters He called seas, 12:30 and the Bible says, "And God saw that it was what, good." 12:34 He called it good. 12:36 And today, three quarters of the earth surface is sea. 12:41 I would like to suggest that in the earth made new. 12:44 According to Revelation 21 verse 1, 12:46 there will be no longer the great giant seas 12:49 such as we see in our world today. 12:52 These oceans I believe came as a result of the flood 12:56 in Noah's day, and when that water ran off, 12:58 that's where it went was to the oceans 13:02 and the earth was reshaped. 13:04 The Bible promises a new heavens and a new earth, 13:07 and there will be no more giant seas such as we see today. 13:12 And so the scripture says in Job 12 verse 8, 13:15 "Speak to the earth and it will teach you." 13:18 And as we take a look at the earth 13:20 and the soil, 1/7th of the earth's surface is desert. 13:26 We also find that 1/7th of the earth's surface 13:31 land is frozen tundra, mountains, 13:34 or tropical rain forests. 13:36 It may come as sort of a shock to us to realize 13:40 that the real reality is one-fourth 13:43 of the earth's land surface is tillable farm land. 13:48 And just think of it, that one-four 13:51 is what feeds our hungry world. 13:55 Is what fed you your supper this evening, 13:58 and that what's feeds you everyday 14:01 is this one-four of the earth's land surface. 14:04 It has eight chemical elements, 47% is oxygen, 14:09 27% silicon, 8% aluminum, 14:13 5% iron, 11% calcium, magnesium, 14:17 potassium, sodium, and 7% is made up of 80 other 14:22 odd elements or rare elements, if you please. 14:27 It comes as we take a look at earth. 14:29 Sometimes, we think earth, well it's just dirty. 14:31 You just walk on it. 14:32 But the real truth is that nearly all the minerals 14:36 of this earth are in some form of a crystal. 14:40 And every one of those crystals 14:42 obey the law of their design. 14:45 Rubies always have the design of a ruby crystal. 14:49 Diamonds, the diamond crystal. 14:51 And what's amazing is nearly all of the precious minerals 14:55 are actually only so many modifications 14:59 of simply plain old clay. 15:03 Just a slight variation of the molecules 15:07 and we get nearly all the elements 15:09 that make up our world today. 15:12 And we read in the Bible and then God said, 15:17 "Let the earth bring forth grass, 15:20 the herb that yields seed, according to its kind, 15:24 whose seed is in itself on the earth." 15:28 And we will notice that it specifically 15:30 says the green herb. 15:33 And the green herb is a fascinating herb 15:37 because it is composed 15:40 of a little element called chlorophyll. 15:45 Say it with me, chlorophyll. 15:47 You may have never thought of it this way before, 15:50 but chlorophyll happens to be that living green 15:54 connecting link between the inorganic world 15:58 and the organic world. 16:00 And that connecting link is what makes 16:03 life possible on planet earth. 16:06 It is one of the foundations of life that the Creator 16:10 created on this third day. 16:14 And it may not come as a surprise to discover 16:18 that chlorophyll is actually 16:21 only one molecule different from human blood. 16:26 All you have to do is change one molecule of magnesium 16:29 for iron and the whole thing turns red. 16:33 And if I wish to get sick 16:35 and I wanted to help my body make good blood, 16:38 could you guess what food 16:40 I think we ought to be eating? It would be eat your greens. 16:45 And I don't have to ask you, 16:47 but in the North American diet today, 16:49 what element in our diet is largely missing? 16:54 And you're right, it's greens. 16:56 You can go to a restaurant and they'll serve you 16:58 a little salad, but to get real 17:01 and honest the goodness greens, 17:02 you got to look around to get it. 17:05 And so the Bible says, "According to its kind, 17:09 whose seed is in itself," Genesis 1 verse 11. 17:14 When we take a look at the wheat fields that grow, 17:21 those wheat fields are a living green. 17:26 And probably at least in North America, 17:28 the green that's probably most common is the wheat field. 17:34 And when you take a look at a wheat field very closely, 17:37 you begin to look at some pretty 17:40 incredible miracles and marvels. 17:44 And so as we think about those wheat fields, 17:46 it's--it's the most famous of the grass family is wheat. 17:52 Man has carefully cultivated and studied it for centuries. 17:56 And upon close investigation we discover, 17:59 it really isn't very simple for every one 18:02 of those kernels has the potential of reproducing 18:06 the entire plant from which it comes. 18:09 And only that, but it has flowers. 18:12 And when you look real carefully there you see 18:15 the male part of that flower on the wheat plant. 18:20 And that male part that is stamen 18:25 multiplies very rapidly. 18:27 There is the anther part. 18:29 But the female part of flower is almost never seen. 18:32 And the reason that it is almost never seen 18:35 is because that part of the flower 18:37 is only open for 15 minutes. 18:40 That once in a life time opening at just the right time 18:45 is what makes wheat plants multiply 18:48 and produce their crops. 18:51 It's only open for 15 minutes. 18:53 If it's not pollinated in that 15 minutes, it never will be, 18:58 and that is what creates the wheat harvest. 19:02 And so, you know, time are like seeds. 19:10 Time is potential. 19:12 A seed is not a harvest, it's a potential harvest 19:17 depending on what you do with it. 19:20 And our life is sort of like those wheat kernels. 19:26 We have--we live our life one moment at a time. 19:30 It's a form of grace that you didn't earn or deserve. 19:33 You can't hoard it or store it. 19:35 You must spend it at a steady rate of 24 hours everyday. 19:40 And once they're spent, they're spent. 19:43 And those flowers, they're open for 15 minutes, 19:46 that once in a lifetime happening 19:48 is what makes it possible for you to eat you toast 19:52 this morning, if it was made out of bread. 19:56 And time are like seeds and what we do 19:58 with those moments are incredibly important. 20:02 If you waste two hours each evening for 75 years 20:08 and you've wasted 54,750 hours of the time of your life. 20:15 That amount of time, two hours every night for 75 years 20:20 and you would have earned 20:22 the equivalent of 20 college degrees. 20:27 And so the question is, what are you doing 20:28 with those two hours of prime time every evening 20:33 which are about for many people? 20:35 The only two hours you really have much control over. 20:38 And some people are getting college degrees 20:40 in the boob tube. 20:42 They're getting college degrees with their lifetime. 20:44 There are lot of things. 20:46 But my question to you is simply this. 20:50 Worship the one who created the law of seeds. 20:55 And on this third day that yields its fruit 21:00 according to its kind, whose seed is in itself. 21:06 That great law that came into existence on this third day, 21:12 which is the foundation to life, 21:15 is the foundation of the redemption plan 21:18 that simply called genetics or say with me, 21:23 the law of the harvest. 21:25 We're familiar with it. 21:27 Let's look at it a little more carefully. 21:29 This law of the harvest. 21:32 In Deuteronomy 30 verse 19, 21:35 God said, "Today, I am giving you a choice 21:38 between life and death, between blessings cursings. 21:42 You choose life, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying Him, 21:47 and committing yourself firmly to Him. 21:50 This is the key to your life." 21:54 And when you plant the right seed, dear people, 21:57 you can see the end from the beginning 22:00 because if you're planting that seed, 22:02 you know what the harvest is going to be. 22:06 So in Galatians, the 6 Chapter verse 7, the Bible tells us 22:11 very clearly, "You reap what you sow." 22:15 Many people don't believe that. 22:16 And particularly the younger generation today, 22:18 they believe you can sow well those in your youth 22:20 and not reap them when you get older. 22:23 I got a surprise for you. 22:25 It doesn't work that way. 22:27 You sow wild oats, you reap wild oats. 22:30 But there is good news about this harvest. 22:32 So don't be deceived. 22:33 God specifically says, "Don't be fooled. 22:37 Don't let me kid you. 22:39 God is not mocked, for what we sow, we will reap." 22:44 And the Bible says, "If you sow to the flesh, you reap death. 22:47 If you sow to the spirit, you will reap life." 22:52 What I'm about to share with you is--is one of the most 22:55 fascinating stories that I have found 22:59 in the world of nature. 23:00 I think it is so fascinating 23:02 that it's gonna be our next book. 23:05 and that is what I call 23:07 "The Gospel According to Blackberries." 23:10 How many people like blackberries? 23:13 And you probably have eaten blackberries 23:17 and they are very good to the taste. 23:21 But how many have ever picked blackberries? 23:26 Is there a problem with blackberries? 23:29 Yeah, there is. 23:31 And those blackberries while as very delicious, 23:35 they can also pack a real wall called pain. 23:40 And so I want you to tell you a good news story tonight, 23:43 "The Gospel According to Blackberries." 23:45 And it works like this. 23:46 Luther Burbank was a plant musician. 23:49 And in 1880, on his 10-acre farm in Sebastopol, California, 23:55 he wanted to develop a thornless blackberry. 23:59 Can everybody say amen to that? 24:01 Yes, that's a very good idea, but the question is, 24:04 how you're gonna develop a thornless blackberry? 24:07 You know, just how would you go 24:09 about developing thornless blackberries? 24:13 Well, Luther Burbank was not a trained man 24:18 of educational universities. 24:20 He had a very simple science. 24:22 And he understood the law of genetics 24:26 that God created on this third day. 24:29 Say with me, after its kind. 24:33 Luther Burbank believed that if you plant the right seed, 24:36 you're gonna get the right harvest. 24:37 Now that's no brain or science, isn't it? 24:39 That's real simple. Anybody can understand that. 24:42 Kids can understand that. 24:43 And so he set out o develop a thornless blackberry, 24:49 but he had a problem. 24:52 According to Genesis 3, verse 17 and 18, the Bible says, 24:56 "Cursed is the ground for your sake, 24:59 and both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth" 25:03 And so when Luther Burbank decided 25:05 to take the thorns out of blackberries, 25:08 what was he really trying to decide to do? 25:10 Well, he was trying to decide to take 25:13 the curse of sin out of blackberries. 25:16 That's a redemption plan for blackberries, right? 25:19 I mean, I-- I'm not being facetious, 25:22 I'm trying to be very scientifically accurate. 25:24 That's true, isn't it? 25:26 He is going to take the curse of sin out of blackberries. 25:28 Now the question is, how're you gonna do it? 25:32 Those thorns, anybody has dealt with blackberries 25:35 in the wild know for well, those thorns are positively wicked. 25:41 And they can draw blood 25:43 and they're very difficult to deal with, 25:46 so how're you going to do it? 25:48 Well, Luther Burbank operated his science 25:52 on two simple principles. 25:55 And I'd like to suggest if you're thinking tonight 25:57 those two simple principles are the principles 26:02 of the redemption plan for mankind. 26:07 But it was also the redemption plan for blackberries 26:09 as we shall see in a moment. 26:12 Burbank followed two simple principles. 26:16 Principle number one, he cultivated the best. 26:20 And number two, he destroyed the rest. 26:24 It worked like this. 26:25 Luther Burbank looked around and he discovered 26:28 that there was a Wachusetts thornless blackberry. 26:32 It really wasn't thornless. 26:33 It just had less thorns than any other. 26:36 And so he would plant 1,500 seedlings 26:40 of the Wachusetts thornless in his blackberry farm 26:43 there in Sebastopol, California. 26:45 He looked them all over 26:47 and he looked them very carefully 26:50 and the ones with the least thorns, 26:55 he let them live, put a little yellow ribbon around them. 26:58 And then, he only had 10 acres 27:00 and so he destroyed all the rest. 27:03 And he took out all the rest of the blackberries 27:05 and kept only the ones with the least thorns. 27:10 What did he believe? If you plant the right seed, 27:13 you're gonna get the right harvest. 27:14 And so he planted 1,500 seedlings, 27:16 looked them all over, and then he worked, 27:19 cultivate the what? Best. 27:21 And he did what? He destroyed the rest. 27:24 And that's a Biblical principle by the way. 27:27 Reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin 27:30 and alive on through God's word. 27:33 And so that's what he did. 27:35 He cultivated the best and he destroyed the rest. 27:37 He planted 1,500 seedlings, looked them all over, 27:40 the one with least thorns, 27:41 he let that live and he destroyed all the rest. 27:44 And then, he took those seed children 27:46 and he planted them, 1,500 seedlings of them 27:49 and then he looked them all over 27:51 and the ones with the least he what? 27:54 Cultivated the best and he destroyed the rest. 27:58 And then he took those seed children, 28:01 now the third generation planted 1,500 seedlings of them 28:05 and looked them all over. 28:06 The ones with the least thorns, he let those live. 28:09 And then he destroyed or say it with me, 28:11 he cultivated the best and he destroyed the rest. 28:17 And that was his simple science. 28:21 And you know what happened? 28:23 When he planted the fourth generation 28:26 of seed children of those blackberries, 28:29 he got 1,500 seedlings, no thorns. 28:33 Ain't that awesome? 28:34 Now what does God's word say in the Ten Commandments? 28:37 That the curse of sin goes to what? 28:40 The third and fourth generation. 28:43 And Burbank proved that he could take the curse of sin 28:48 out of blackberries in four generations. 28:50 And I get excited when science comes on and says, 28:53 "You know what? This book's right." 28:56 This is absolute clear science 28:59 as was demonstrated in Burbank's 10-acre farm. 29:03 Now there was just one small problem. 29:08 Those bushes that were totally thornless had small nubby, 29:15 tasteless, insipid fruit on it. 29:19 Now what good are thornless blackberries with yucky fruit? 29:23 Are you with me? 29:25 But he got rid of the thorns, all right. 29:27 But now he's got yucky fruit. 29:30 Let me ask you a question. 29:33 Have you ever met a thornless Christian? 29:38 All right, somebody who said, "You know, 29:39 I--I don't smoke and I don't dance, 29:43 and I don't run around, and I don't do this, 29:45 and I don't do that." 29:47 But you'd hate to live next door to them. 29:51 Do you know what I mean? 29:52 Hear me very carefully. 29:53 Just because you don't drink, smoke, dance, 29:55 and run around, because you don't do bad things, 29:58 does that make you righteous? No, that's not righteousness. 30:03 That's just badness held in check. 30:05 And people who look at that, might think you're very, 30:08 very righteous and even fool yourself and them, 30:11 but that doesn't make you righteous 30:13 just because got rid of the thorns. 30:16 What God is looking for is fruits, fruits of the spirit. 30:22 And that's not what you don't do. 30:24 I've conducted lot of funerals 30:26 and I stood by the casket and I've looked in on that casket 30:29 and I'm yet to see a corpse, smoke, 30:32 drink, dance, or run around. 30:34 And just because you don't do bad things, 30:36 that doesn't make you really 30:37 any better than a corpse. Is that right? 30:42 Now, what did Burbank do? 30:46 He got rid of the thorns. He got yucky fruit. 30:48 Well, he understood just one simple science. 30:51 He looked around and he found some blackberries 30:54 that had luscious, delicious fruit, 30:56 and he crossbred those into his thornless blackberries, 31:00 and guess what? You're right, he got his thorns back. 31:04 He got rid of the thorns. 31:06 But now as he began to crossbreed flavor 31:09 back into those thornless blackberries, 31:12 he got the thorns back. Hear me carefully. 31:16 This man believed the law of genetics. 31:19 Don't be deceived. He wasn't deceived. 31:21 He labored on year after year after year after year 31:27 planting 1,500 seedlings, looking them all over. 31:29 What did he do? He cultivated the best 31:32 and he destroyed the rest. 31:35 And he did this year after year after year. 31:39 And this is what he discovered. 31:40 "Every alternate generation of seeds produced 31:43 only bushes with thorns. 31:46 A characteristic in a plant which has existed 31:48 for unknown generations is likely 31:50 to be more difficult to change." 31:52 And he discovered every other generation 31:55 that he planted was almost totally thorns, 31:58 but he did not give up. 32:00 The scripture says, "We're saved by hope." 32:02 And Burbank believed the law of genetics. Do you? 32:08 He did. He kept working on year after year 32:14 after year after year after year. 32:18 How long do you want me to say that? 32:20 I don't think you want me to say it as long as he did it. 32:24 This is an amazing story. A true story of science. 32:31 Burbank labored away year after year after year. 32:37 And finally, in the year 1911, hear me carefully, 32:42 30 years later after beginning 32:47 his experiments with blackberries, 32:50 Burbank had full luscious, 32:55 delicious berries growing 32:59 on totally thornless bushes. Amen? Amen. 33:05 He worked the law of genetics all the way back to Genesis 1, 33:08 I would like to suggest. 33:10 And he proved that you could do this. 33:13 But more than that, that law, I believe, 33:15 is such exciting good news for you and me 33:18 because here's the point. 33:19 The same law of genetics that is our curse under Adam, 33:24 that same law of genetics is our hope 33:27 when you plant the seed of the woman, 33:30 the seed of Abraham, the seed of David 33:32 that seed implanted into your heart will reproduce itself 33:38 in your heart of clay just as surely 33:41 and just as certainly, as did the law of curse 33:44 in the first Adam reproduced sin after its kind? 33:47 Are you with me? It's the same law, 33:50 but it's a different seed. 33:52 It's a seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, 33:53 the seed of David. 33:55 That seed of righteousness from the seed catalog, 33:58 his word will reproduce itself surely 34:01 and accurately in your life of clay as in mine, 34:06 and the Creator who created that law of genetics 34:09 knows that that law is absolutely certain. 34:12 And if you're cultivating the right seed, 34:14 God can look at you today as a finished product 34:18 because all it needs is time. 34:20 And through the Creator of all time, time is meaningless. 34:24 And if you got the right seed 34:26 and you're cultivating the best 34:28 and you're destroying the rest, 34:29 God can look at you as a finished product 34:32 because the law of genetics is absolutely certain 34:37 because the Creator made it that way. 34:42 Is that good news? 34:43 Well, you know, I--I don't like preachers 34:46 that shout and--but this is such good news, dear people. 34:50 I have a hard time containing myself 34:52 because this is such good news. 34:55 The redemption plan was created 34:56 on day three in the law of genetics. 35:00 And God knows that. 35:01 And Galatians 6:7 and 8 says, 35:03 "Don't be deceived, God is not mocked 35:05 what a man sows, that he will also reap. 35:08 He that sows to the Spirit 35:09 will of the Spirit reap life everlasting, 35:12 and he that sows to the flesh 35:13 will of the flesh reap corruption." 35:15 Do we have a choice? 35:17 And the harvest is absolutely certain. 35:20 In fact, in Second Peter 1 verse 4, 35:24 I just want to read this to you 35:25 because this is God's word is His seed catalog, 35:32 if you please. You ever thought of it that way? 35:34 God has a promise for every problem on planet earth. 35:38 And if you will cultivate the seeds from this seed catalog, 35:42 the harvest is sure and this is what it says. 35:44 "By which are given unto us exceeding 35:46 great and precious promises, 35:48 that through these you may be a partaker 35:51 of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption 35:55 that is in the world through lust." 35:58 Look this great promise up. 36:00 It's the greatest single promise 36:02 in all of Holy Scripture that I know of Ephesians 3:15 to 21. 36:08 It is so awesome that you would almost think 36:11 it was blasphemous to read it. 36:14 Now this is the formula for power, E = MC2. 36:19 This is the formula for power or energy. 36:22 If matter were reduced to pure energy, 36:25 it would equal its weight times the speed of light squared. 36:30 The reverse is also equally true. 36:32 If you had enough energy, 36:34 you could create matter from energy itself. 36:37 And that's exactly what the Word of God says, 36:41 "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, 36:44 and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." 36:48 God created the law of genetics with what? Sound waves. 36:54 And those sound waves is His word. 36:58 In fact, they have gone on to study. 37:01 And they have studied the atom and the neutrons 37:04 and the protons and the electrons, 37:06 and they divided it on down to quirks 37:09 and then they think that the thing that keeps 37:11 those apart are actually sound waves. 37:14 Isn't that amazing? Now I want to give you 37:17 another formula for power. 37:19 This is so mind boggling. I want to read it to you. 37:21 I found it in an old book written 37:24 about 100 years ago by the title "Education." 37:28 And this is what it says. 37:30 You might want to jot this down on your notes 37:33 or somewhere and it's taken from page 126, 37:37 "The creative energy that called the worlds 37:40 into existence is in the Word of God." 37:46 Did you get that? 37:47 The same part of the created world is in this book. 37:51 "And this word imparts power. 37:54 It begets life. Every command is a promise." 37:59 God never commanded anything. 38:00 He didn't also supply the divine power with which to do it. 38:04 Isn't that a wonderful plan? 38:05 "And then accepted by the Will received 38:08 into the Soul that brings with it, 38:10 the life of the Infinite One. 38:11 That life of the Infinite One transforms the nature 38:15 and recreates in the soul the image of God." 38:19 Now there is a formula for power second to none. 38:24 And you have access to that in your Bible. 38:27 And God wants us to take access of it. 38:31 Notice it says, "That yields fruit according to its kind, 38:35 whose seed is in itself." 38:37 I'd like to suggest for you that God's word 38:40 is His seed according to the parable in Luke 8 verse 11, 38:45 when Christ gave that parable, 38:46 He said, "The seed is what? It's the word of God." 38:52 And it says, "He sold His seed." 38:55 But notice, Psalms 1 verse 2, 38:57 "But his delight is in the law of the Lord." 39:00 That word law there is Torah. 39:02 It means the first five books of the Bible. 39:04 "And in His law he meditates day and night. 39:10 And God's word is a seed catalog, 39:13 Your word have I hidden in my heart, 39:15 that I might not sin against You." 39:20 Have you hidden God's promises in your heart? 39:23 The promises of this book, 39:25 the same power that created this world is in this book. 39:30 And when you put those promises 39:31 into your mind by memorizing and meditating, 39:35 then you have the divine life that created this world 39:39 that becomes part of your life. Do we need that? 39:42 Now notice carefully the little handout that I gave you. 39:46 If you take that little handout, 39:48 I want you to just look at it with me. 39:50 I want you to take it home. 39:52 But don't just look at it. I want you to make use of it. 39:58 Seven steps to mind renewal 40:01 by the implanting of the Word of God. 40:03 And the first in harmony with the great law 40:07 that strength is acquired by effort, 40:09 the first step is to receive the word. 40:13 Hear it, see it or read it. 40:15 And then the second step is to memorize, 40:17 "Thy word have I hid in my heart 40:19 that I might not sin against thee." 40:21 The third step is to understand it intellectually. 40:24 Look it up in a lexicon. 40:26 Find the meaning of that word. 40:27 And then four, visualize it. Use your imagination. 40:31 Make it come to life. 40:33 And then number five, personalize it. 40:36 The Creator is talking to you personally. 40:39 God so loved Terry that if Terry would believe in Him, 40:44 Terry would not perish, 40:46 but Terry would have everlasting life. 40:49 God is speaking to you personally. 40:52 Let Him speak to you personally. Personalize it. 40:55 And then step six, believe it. 40:57 Dissolve your doubts into belief 41:00 by a decided act of surrender of the human will to the divine. 41:05 And then act and do it. Don't be double minded. 41:09 And if you will do that, God's seed catalog will transform 41:17 your life from the inside out. 41:21 And I want to draw a conclusion to our message this evening. 41:25 Psalms 1:1 to 3, David said in his Psalms, 41:30 "They shall be like a tree." What kind of a tree? 41:35 I want to draw a conclusion 41:37 to this message tonight on the chalkboard. 41:42 What was it like to be a tree planted 41:45 by the rivers of water? 41:51 When David said, 41:55 "Those who love my law." 41:57 And the word is Torah, the Hebrew Torah. 41:59 It means the five books of the-- first five books of the Bible. 42:03 It's the whole thing. Not just the Ten Commandment. 42:05 Those who love your law and meditate on it day and night, 42:10 they shall be like tree 42:15 planted by the... 42:22 water. 42:23 Now when it said water, 42:25 what kind of water was it really talking about? 42:30 Actually if you look it up in the Hebrew, 42:33 you will discover that what it was talking about 42:36 was irrigation ditches. 42:45 And he said, "There will be-- if you will meditate 42:48 on My word day and night, 42:52 you will be like a tree planted by an irrigation ditch." 42:59 And he said, "If you will meditate on it day and night." 43:06 And that means you memorize it 43:08 because at night when you memorize it, 43:09 you can cough it up and think about it. 43:12 And meditation is sort of like a cow chewing its cud. 43:18 It will eat something, grass or whatever. 43:23 And then it chews on it. 43:30 And then it will swallow and it'll bring up a new one. 43:33 And I discovered the Word of God as you memorize it 43:35 and meditate upon it, 43:40 it gets older and then you pick a new one. 43:46 And as you pick a new one, the life comes back to it again. 43:59 Now these rivers, 44:05 irrigation ditches. 44:07 They actually get their water 44:14 from the mountains. 44:19 And that water-- 44:27 and they begin to fill the streams with this water. 44:31 And wherever that water goes, 44:36 what do we see happening beside it? 44:42 Trees will begin to grow, 44:48 wherever the water is. 44:58 And those trees 45:08 grow by those rivers of water. 45:20 And David said, "If you'll meditate 45:22 on my word day and night, your leaf will not wither." 45:33 And whatever you do and it says, 45:37 "Not only that, but they will bring forth 45:40 their fruit in its season. 45:52 And we know all about planting and reaping of a harvest, 45:56 it doesn't all happen overnight, does it? 46:40 And the picture 46:46 begins to take shape. 46:52 And the tree 46:58 will not wither, 47:00 and whatever it does will prosper. 47:15 I was talking to a gentleman. 47:22 I went to make a hospital visit. 47:25 I went to visit him. 47:26 We'll call his name Bill. 47:31 That was not his name. 47:34 He said, preacher, I don't have good news. 47:39 The doctor says, I have cancer of the liver. 47:43 And he was depressed. 47:45 I sat on beside him and I began to share 47:49 from the seed catalog 47:54 of God's word, some promises. 47:56 And as I shared those promises with him, 48:02 in a few minutes, I shared First John 1:9, 48:05 "If we confess our sins, 48:07 he is faithful and just to forgive us, 48:08 and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 48:10 Then I shared with him that promise, 48:13 that "He that hath the Son hath life." 48:15 I shared with him the promises of the seed catalog 48:18 and he began to accept those. 48:21 And I watched him change right before my very eyes. 48:27 And as he-- he only lived a week... 48:36 and I watched him change. 48:39 I was with him the night he died. 48:42 On the night he died, 48:44 he was laying there in his bed, 48:47 and he was just radiant. 48:49 I see people once in a while, 48:50 their face is just glowing. He was just glowing away. 48:52 And he was listening to a tape 48:53 that my wife had made 48:55 "When you walk through the valley." 48:56 And he had his eyes closed and he says, 48:58 "Wow." He says, "That's so beautiful." 49:01 Then he looked at me. 49:03 Because he accepted the seed, 49:05 he was a cattle breeder. 49:08 He understood the law of genetics. 49:10 And I said, when you have 49:11 the seed of God's word in your heart, 49:16 the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, 49:17 the seed of David that seed will reproduce itself 49:21 and you'll partake a divinity. 49:23 And on the resurrection morning, 49:26 unless God works a miracle, 49:27 you're gonna go into the grave, 49:28 but on the resurrection morning 49:30 that divine power will respond to the call of the life giver 49:35 and it will bring you out of the grave 49:37 just as surely as his ongoing 49:39 commands brings winter 49:40 wheat out of the ground in the spring. 49:44 And that man caught that vision. 49:47 And that night before he died, he said, preacher, 49:50 I am happier now 49:52 than I've ever been in any moment of my life. 49:56 And dear people, 49:57 if He's good enough for when you're dying, 49:59 don't you think we ought to try Him 50:01 when we're living. 50:02 And let the power of that seed catalog transform 50:06 your life from the inside out. 50:09 Well, you know, this picture develops away, 50:12 but then it seems like in all of us. 50:21 We can have a picture that's looking fine. 50:28 And then-- 50:34 somebody-- 50:41 throws a beer can 50:49 or it could be a drug problem, 50:54 whatever it might be, it can come in 50:58 and it appears to ruin the picture. 51:03 And it seems like there's no hope. 51:06 Stuart Hamblen was such a man. 51:14 And he was a songwriter. 51:16 And one night he went to visit John Wayne. 51:20 And as he went to visit John Wayne 51:21 that night and they were visiting. 51:25 And John Wayne said, 51:27 "Stuart, is it true that you used to be an alcoholic?" 51:30 And he said, "Yeah, it's true. 51:31 I used to be an alcoholic." 51:34 And he said, "Well, Stuart, just between you and me." 51:40 He said, "Don't you get a little 51:41 hankering for the stuff once in a while." 51:43 You know, just a little bit of a hanker. 51:45 And Stuart Hamblen said, 51:47 "No, John, it's no secret what God can do. 51:53 Not even a little tiny itsy-bitsy bit left." 51:59 And so they visited on that night, 52:01 and as they visited on that night, 52:06 as they were leaving quite late, 52:11 as they were leaving, 52:14 John Wayne said to Stuart, "Stuart." He said, 52:16 "You ought to write a song about that sometime." 52:19 He said, "A song about what?" 52:20 He said, "About what you said, 52:21 'Its No Secret What God Can Do.'" 52:27 And so Stuart said, "Well, maybe I will." 52:30 So he got home that night. 52:34 He told his wife to go on and go to bed. 52:37 And he sat-- he sat on at his desk 52:42 and he began to write. 52:43 The clock was chiming out midnight. 52:45 "The chimes of timing out the news. 52:48 Another day is through. Someone slipped and fell. 52:52 Or was that someone you?" 52:54 And he wrote. It seemed like all night. 52:57 And finally had it all done, words and music. 53:00 And as he walked down the hallway 53:03 to where his wife was sleeping, he thought, 53:07 he looked at the clock on the wall. 53:09 And it was 15 minutes after midnight. 53:14 Words and music in 15 minutes. 53:18 "Its No Secret What God Can Do." 53:23 And dear people, Abraham was called 53:25 "The Father of the Faithful." He was called 53:27 "The Father of the people of Israel. 53:30 And Judah, he was called "The Father of the people, 53:34 the great community of the Muslim faith. 53:36 He's called "The Father of the Faithful of the Christians." 53:40 But Abraham looked for a city 53:43 whose builder and maker was God. 53:47 And by faith, Abraham died. 53:50 He never saw that city 53:52 whose builder and maker was God. 53:55 But if you will plant the right seed, 53:58 you'll reap the right harvest. 54:00 And God's word is His seed catalog, 54:03 and He wants us to have that seed catalog. 54:08 They're gonna start making that part choice. 54:11 "Choose this day whom you will serve, 54:16 gods of this world or the Creator as Lord. 54:19 But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 54:28 And as we close tonight, I want to pray. 54:34 I want you to take time with God's seed catalog 54:39 and allow the divinity power in this book 54:42 transform your life from the inside out. 54:46 Oh, God, help us to take the time of life 54:52 and get a college degree in Your Holy Word 54:56 that Your word-- 55:01 can transform our lives from the inside out 55:04 as we will partake of the seed of the woman, 55:08 the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, 55:11 and that seed will reproduce its life in our life today. 55:19 Dismiss us with that powers our prayer 55:21 because we ask it in Jesus name and all God's people said amen. 55:44 Worship Him 55:52 Worship Him, worship Him 55:58 Worship Him that made heaven 56:01 The heaven, the earth, the sea, 56:06 and the fountains of waters 56:12 Worship him that made 56:18 Worship him, 56:24 worship him 56:33 Fear God Fear God and give glory to him 56:39 Worship him that made 56:44 Fear God Fear God and give glory 56:49 Give glory to him Glory to him 56:57 The birds declare the glory of God 57:02 And the firmament showeth his handiwork 57:09 The earth is a void and a formless thereof 57:15 The earth is formed and regions fall 57:31 Worship Him 57:40 Worship Him, worship Him 57:46 Worship Him that made heaven 57:49 The heaven, the earth, the sea, 57:54 and the fountains of waters 58:00 Worship him that made 58:06 Worship Him, 58:12 Worship Him 58:22 Worship Him |
Revised 2014-12-17