Marv's Final Message Part 5

[0:00] Loving Father, we are so grateful for this time to gather together. Thank you for making it possible for each one to be here. For those unable to be with us this morning, for whatever reason, we pray your blessing upon them even as we are blessed here. What an enormous privilege that none of us begin to fully understand of what it means to be a member of the body of Christ, precious, precious blood of Christ, having placed us there by his own substitutionary death.

[0:31] We can't get over that, and we don't ever expect to, and we thank you for the wonder and the truth of it. We ask that your plan and program will become clearer and more appreciated as a result of our gathering this morning. We pray for open hearts and open minds to what you have for us from your word.

[0:53] We pray especially now that you will deliver me from human opinion, personal viewpoint, and allow the truth of your word to come through. And Father, we know we as flawed human beings all have an imperfect theology, imperfect logic, imperfect understanding. And we just pray that you will enable us to get above and beyond that and proclaim your word in its truthfulness and with clarity.

[1:26] And to that end, we will thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. I have a question for you right at the outset. It's a simple question, but it's a very important one, and it is this. If you could make a list of all the things in this world that you would love to change, if you just had the ability to wave a magic wand and change a whole lot of things that are on your list, what would you put on that list? What would you change?

[2:11] I'm sure if we took a poll and went around this auditorium, we'd find all kinds of answers, and we would find a lot of you exercising the same thing and the same kind of concerns. And what you need to know is, before we get into our study, what you need to know is, God already has such a list. And if you will look in your bulletin, you will see that Dr. Dwight Pentecost, who for many years taught theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, compiled God's list and put it in this document called Conditions Existing Within the Millennium.

[2:52] And it was taken from his book on things to come. It actually consists of what is wrong with this world and what it will take to make it right and what, in fact, God will do to make it right.

[3:11] And these things called Conditions Existing Within the Millennium are identical to what we are considering called the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of Heaven Come to Earth.

[3:24] Let me make this clarification statement up front right at the beginning. When we talk about the Kingdom of Heaven, we are not talking about the sphere and the place where God dwells and is right now.

[3:38] And when believers who die in the Lord are absent from the body, present with the Lord, they go to Heaven. Heaven is that place to which Jesus ascended in Acts chapter 1, when before the apostles, He literally elevated and went right out of their presence into Heaven itself.

[4:00] When we talk about the Kingdom of Heaven, that's not the Heaven we're talking about. The Kingdom of Heaven, so frequently referred to in the Scriptures and to which we will be referring to this morning, is right here smack dab on planet Earth.

[4:17] It is this sphere. It is the Kingdom, and the reason it's called the Kingdom of Heaven, is because it is Heaven's Kingdom brought to Earth, as is manifested in the prayer with which we are all familiar, so that God's will, it's a prayer for, Thy Kingdom Come.

[4:39] That's a prayer. That's asking God to bring the Kingdom. Thy Kingdom Come on Earth. So that God's will will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven.

[4:53] And anybody who thinks it is now, is looking at a different Earth than I am, because there's no faint resemblance to it.

[5:05] However, when that Kingdom does come, it will be as it ought to be. And God has that list, and this is the same Kingdom of Heaven that John the Baptist preached, that Jesus and the Twelve Apostles proclaimed this reality in saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

[5:28] That means it is really close by. It is at the threshold. It is ready to break forth. And I am of the opinion that the miracles that Jesus performed, that were His most famous calling card, was nothing more than an advanced, sneak preview, in small ways, of what the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is going to be like.

[5:57] because everywhere Jesus went and everything He did, He was God's repairman. He healed the blind, He healed the sick, He gave sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, raised the dead, all around.

[6:11] These are Kingdom kind of conditions. And it is important that you make that connection. And then Jesus gave the Twelve Apostles the same authority to do likewise.

[6:23] And they went out, and the Scriptures tell us, all four of the Gospels tell us, that huge numbers of miracles were performed, and the people were just absolutely stunned.

[6:34] Great crowds got it. Well, of course they did. Great crowds, people brought their infirmities and their weaknesses and everything to see Jesus and to hear Jesus. And sometimes He would spend hours all day long dealing with people as only the great physician could.

[6:53] and His exploits were noised abroad everywhere. And all that did was bring more people out for more crowds. So it is important to keep in mind the connection between Jesus and His miracles and the Kingdom of which He spoke.

[7:12] In Matthew, I'm sorry, we're going to be spending most of our time in Matthew, but in Luke's Gospel, when Jesus made the statement, and I think it is very telling and very significant, he said, when he was criticized by the elite, by the deep state of Israel, the shakers and movers, the people who were religiously in charge, and be reminded, the people who were really in charge in Israel was Rome.

[7:41] And Rome had thousands of soldiers stationed right there in Israel for years, collecting taxes and making demands and all the rest of it.

[7:51] They were the political authority. And the Jews, Israel, chafed under that authority. They hated the Romans with a passion. And the main reason they did, of course, was because Rome was polytheistic.

[8:06] They worshipped many gods, whereas Israel worshipped the one true God. And the soldiers would come in carrying their guidons and marching and having these images and false gods on them, and it would just make the Jews absolutely livid.

[8:21] And some of them were reduced to tears because they saw what was happening in what was supposed to be the chosen land among the chosen people.

[8:32] And yet these pagans were here desecrating the land. So there was real animosity between the Jews and the Romans, but the Jews had been disarmed because the Romans came in and collected all they could, the swords and the knives.

[8:52] So you disarmed the people? I won't make any analogies to that today, but I think you can understand what's going on.

[9:03] However, it was the religious crowd, the shakers and movers, called the council or the Sanhedrin. There were 70 of them.

[9:14] These were the most highly respected, influential, educated men in all of Israel. And their group of 70 was chaired by the high priest.

[9:26] they had all of the clout religiously. They were the ones that passed the laws. They were the ones that insisted on the law of Moses that it be complied with, with every jot and tittle and so on.

[9:40] And they would swallow, they were the ones Jesus said, you strain out a gnat so that it won't be in your diet and then you turn around and swallow a camel. Which meant that they were, of course, ridiculous in many of their demands, inconsistent, very legalistic.

[9:54] And Jesus said that they put burdens, demands, unreasonable, Mickey Mouse stuff, demands on the people that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.

[10:10] And they chafed under that. But, they had the religious power and authority. They were in charge of the synagogue. They were in charge of the temple and all of the rest of it. So, Jesus told them when they criticized him and said, yeah, you can cast out demons and you do, but we know how you do it.

[10:28] You do it through the power of the devil himself. Apparently, that constituted the ultimate insult because Jesus had been casting out demons by the power of the Spirit of God and they had just blasphemed the Spirit of God and said that Jesus was actually casting out demons by Satan himself when, of course, it was by the Spirit of God.

[10:59] And what that did, it created what we might call the final straw. It is if Jesus said, well, that's it.

[11:15] That's it. you were guilty of blaspheming and disobeying God, the Father, before I ever came on the scene.

[11:30] And then, when I did come on the scene, you've blasphemed me also, the Son. And now, you've blasphemed the Spirit of God.

[11:45] Three strikes and you're out. That's essentially what happened. That constituted a turning point in the life of Jesus and in the nation of Israel.

[12:02] So, this kingdom that they had come to announce, what happened to it? where is it? Why didn't it come to being?

[12:15] Take a quick look at that sheet you were given. It is unfolded. There are actually 20 W, X, Y, Z. I guess there were 23 different elements there.

[12:26] We're not going to look at them all, but I just, and they all come with references that you can consult with at your leisure. But these are conditions existing within the millennium and they are peace, joy, holiness, glory, comfort, justice, full knowledge, instruction, removal of the curse, sickness removed, healing of the deformed, protection, freedom from oppression, no immaturity, reproduction by the living peoples, labor, economic prosperity, increase of light, unified language, unified worship, manifest presence of God, the fullness of the Spirit, the perpetuity of the millennial state, none of which, none of which are in operation today, all of which should be.

[13:21] So why aren't they? Because we are powerless to make these things happen. We are limited to human authority, human ingenuity, and human power, and human wisdom, and we just can't do it.

[13:36] Now, there are elements who insist that they can. One of them was Karl Marx. He insisted that he could and that mankind could because they viewed humanity as being perfectible.

[13:53] That means you are capable of being a whole lot more than you are and the next generation more so and the next generation more so, but you have to do it under the right kind of government and that government is socialism.

[14:10] That government is communism. And if you will just instill that, you can see humanity rise to its intended state of perfection and all of these things will be common fare if you just elect us.

[14:28] Well, those of us who have been around the block a few times know hot air when we hear it and feel it and we know that that's what it is. These are all desirable things and these are all an opposite reflection of what's wrong with the world today.

[14:44] And when Jesus Christ comes, he's going to fix these things. He's going to change them. He's going to provide a reality that is described in all of these items.

[14:55] So, I want you to turn if you would please to what's happened to that kingdom. Where is it? Surely, this isn't it.

[15:06] And do you know there is an element that says, oh yes it is, but you've missed it. And do you know who these people are?

[15:16] Some of you do. Let me remind you. They constitute the majority of Christendom.

[15:30] What? Yep. They constitute the majority of Christendom. They are called amillennial.

[15:44] millennial. The word millennial means a thousand. A thousand years such as is referenced in Revelation chapter 20. And when you put the letter A as A in the alphabet, when you put the letter A in front of that millennium, in Greek it's called the alpha prefix.

[16:10] And it negates whatever comes after it. So you've got A millennium. Amillennial.

[16:21] And the word millennial is negated by the alpha prefix which literally reverses the meaning of it into no millennium.

[16:35] No millennium. There isn't going to be a millennium. And the reason there isn't going to be a future millennium of a thousand years is because this is it.

[16:49] We are in the millennium. But we say wait a minute what about these things? What about the they are being fulfilled not literally but spiritually.

[17:05] And our question is well what in the world does that mean? how do you fulfill these things spiritually? Read through the list. They are hard fast physical realities.

[17:19] What is wrong with this world? It does have a lot of spiritual ills. No question about it. But what is wrong with this world are the physical things also that you can see.

[17:31] We're surrounded. We're inundated in them. They're everywhere. Lying and cheating and corruption and murder and theft and death and all of those things. All of those negatives. They're as literal and as real as you can get.

[17:44] Now tell me how do you spiritualize those things? How do you make them spiritual? Well it's impossible. You can't. So where did this come from anyway? How did this get into the picture?

[17:57] Do you realize? You probably don't but I'm going to tell you that for the first about 300 years virtually everyone in the Christian community took these things literally and physically and fully expected them to be fulfilled in that same precise way.

[18:15] And something happened. Dramatic things happened that caused people to say wait a minute maybe we've got this thing all wrong. Now what I want you to do for just a moment try to put yourself in the shoes of the people who lived back then.

[18:30] And I realize that's virtually impossible to do but use your imagination. You're living in the first century. the Jew God's chosen people. Messiah sent rejected crucified How does that make God feel?

[18:52] He sends a deliverer. He sends a Messiah to his chosen people and they kill him. What's going on here?

[19:03] 70 A.D. Fast forward 40 years after Jesus died what happened? Rome.

[19:14] Rome sent extra troops in to Israel and they put Jerusalem under siege in an effort to put down those rebellious Jews because every now and then they get frisky and they start trying to talking independence and we're going to drive the Romans out and all the rest of it.

[19:40] So Rome comes in with a heavy hand and they put the whole city under siege and people are starving and they're doing the same kind of thing that their sisters did up north in Samaria when the Assyrians came down and invaded them, the northern kingdom.

[19:58] They were reduced to cannibalism because they couldn't get any food outside. Nobody could get in, nobody could get out. The city was under siege and in six months it fell and Rome destroyed everything.

[20:12] They tore down the temple, they tore down the altars, they pried the bricks and the huge stones up and the gold that was there melted and ran down in the cracks and they pried those huge boulders up.

[20:24] That was 70 AD. Now, what do you think all of the onlookers are thinking who are not Jews and they look at what has happened to the Jewish temple and the Jewish people and tens of thousands of Jews were killed, were executed and thousands more were led off captive into foreign lands and taken all the way back to Rome and forced to march down the street in chains to show off to the Roman people the booty that the Roman army had collected from a foreign country.

[21:07] And what are all other people to think looking on? Wow! They are God's chosen people? I wouldn't want him to choose me.

[21:19] that was the beginning of the thinking of replacement theology and it was very logical.

[21:31] So after a while they regrouped and they built things up again and this time a guy arose on the scene by the name of Mark Kokhba the son of Kokhba and you know what he claimed to be?

[21:46] he claimed to be the Messiah and a bunch of Jews got all excited and they started enlisting and joining this man and his forces and they started carrying on clandestine raids whereby they would capture Roman soldiers when they could get them alone and kill them and this was going on all over the land and Rome really got angry about it when the word got back to Rome and they sent in another huge huge detachment of Roman soldiers stationed there in Israel and they were coming from all over and that was their new duty station was Jerusalem and there were thousands of them and they did the job again on Jerusalem and they tore everything down they brought to rack and ruin they executed thousands thousands of Jews many by crucifixion and they lined the roads with them so that there ran out of crosses thousands of them that was about 135 about another 70 years after the temple was destroyed the first time now what are people thinking wow is that the way

[23:02] God protects his so-called chosen people maybe maybe they aren't God's chosen people anymore ah that's it of course God has found a new people he's had it with the Jew he's written them off permanently and now God has a thing for a new people and you know what's called it's called the Christian church and one of those brilliant thinkers who gave the most impetus to that was a man by the name of Augustine brilliant man and you know something and I want to admit this and I think you need to know this up front if I had been living back then in that same time that would have been a very logical conclusion to draw absolutely it had all the characteristics outwardly that God has written these people off

[24:12] I mean twice he allowed his so-called holy city to be completely leveled and people in it Jews descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob murdered carried off into prison into captivity into slavery thousands of them surely God has permanently abandoned the Jews good riddance to them and then there were even some who professed to be Christians who thought do you know what the Jews were responsible for the execution of Jesus and this is God's payback and you know what we ought to help him we ought to help him we ought to make the Jew pay too well now wait a minute these are entirely different

[25:15] Jews now this is years and years later these are grandchildren and great grandchildren of those Jews who did that makes no difference they're still Jews and they need to pay the penalty and there are the early seeds of anti-Semitism were sown and they are still sprouting to this day and do you know who loves it and who instigates it the adversary because the adversary hates the Jew because God loves the Jew and we say are you kidding me God loves the Jew and he allowed them to be destroyed like that but listen don't you ever lose sight of the fact that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance and God called Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he made a promise to them that through you and your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed and I haven't got time to go into how that has been fulfilled the Jew is the most extraordinary person in the world today let me just put it this way apart from the plan and program of God there is absolutely no way in the world that the

[26:38] Jew should even still be in existence but because they are they remain they always will be because God locks himself in to the Jew with the promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and it's an unconditional promise it's not dependent upon what the Jew does it's dependent upon what God does well this is a very involved thing and I must hasten on because time is getting away from me I want you to go to Matthew chapter 13 and we will see exactly what is it that has happened to this kingdom why isn't it here why didn't it come why were the kingdom is already an item of commitment what pray tell me are we going to do about all of those things that are listed in the sheet that you just saw provided by

[27:39] Dr. Pentecost all of those taken from the Old Testament isn't God going to make good on all of those things and if not why did he even promise them and the answer lies in the fact he's going to make good on them but he's going to do it in his own time and you remember right before Jesus was ascended in Acts chapter 1 the disciples had gotten together and Jesus was there and they asked that penetrating question Lord is it at this time are you going to do it now restore the kingdom to Israel Israel had been without a king for hundreds of years because they'd been dominated by foreigners who exercised their political will upon them and they were chafing and longing for the kingdom to be reestablished what kingdom would it be it's David's kingdom David's throne

[28:40] David established a dynasty and all of his descendants are listed in Matthew chapter 1 and in Luke chapter 3 and they are direct descendants of David the king both Joseph and Mary fantastic stuff wonderful count so what's happening to this kingdom how is it and why is it that it is in abeyance well in Matthew chapter 13 if you will look at that passage please we began a little bit last week on that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea and I want you to notice the audience now great multitudes gathered about well of course he was by far and away the most popular guy in all of Israel just because of his miracles so he got into a boat and sat down and they just pushed the boat out a little bit from shore and people are all lined up along the shore and however deep they are and they're all listening to what he has to say and he spoke many things to them in parables well he never did that before yeah he spoke in many things to them and he performed all kinds of a parable is a story that is made up to explain a spiritual principle or point that the giver is trying to make and he tells a story that will lay out the plot and the principles and the outcome and everything else and everybody loves a story he spoke many things to them in parables and here's what he said behold the sower went out the so well everybody could identify with that because they did it the old fashioned way they had a bag around their shoulder and they reach in and get a handful of grain and they would develop a cadence and walk along and they would get in the grain a handful and throw it out and they take another step and get in the grain and throw it out so they're all familiar with the sower they've and the birds came and devoured them well that's the end of them they're not going to amount to anything they're gobbled up and others fell upon the rocky places where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil and when the sun had risen they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away many of you can others fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked them out and others fell in the good soil and yielded a crop some a hundred full some sixty and some thirty and

[31:51] Jesus said he who has ears let him hear and I want you to notice the disciples came and said to him why do you speak to them in parables who were the them the them the great multitudes in verse two and it is as much as they're saying you never did that before what's what's with the parables and he answered and said to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to you to you meaning to the apostles but to the masses it's not given in other words he's saying hey guys you've got an inside track you know what's going on here the crowd doesn't have a clue actually at the point has been made and

[32:53] I think it's valid a better name for this is not the parable of the sower better name is the parable of the soils because the key is in the condition of the soil or the lack thereof nothing wrong with the seed same seed good seed but it all depends on the kind of soil you put it in and he says it is granted to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been granted for whoever has to him shall more be given and he shall have an abundance but whoever does not have even what he has however little it is shall be taken away from him therefore this is why I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see and while hearing they do not hear nor do they understand these this is the picture of population in general and the population in general are not thinkers they're not concentrators what they are the population in general for more than anything else is not looking for information they're looking for entertainment has anything changed nope nothing has changed you know even the word amusement and

[34:35] I'm not opposed to amusement I like to be amused too and I like to sometimes go to amusement parks especially as a kid you know there's nothing wrong with amusement but the word muse m u s e is related to the word museum what do you do when you go to a museum all you do is look and read and think and understand and gain an appreciation and your mind is engaged about history and about people and about thinking and about stuff and about what's happened and all the rest and you're making connection and connecting dots and everything you are mentally you are musing in a museum and when you there's our friend the alpha prefix again when you put the A in front of the muse what do you get you get a muse a muse most of us would rather have a fun time than we would think welcome to the club that that's that's that's that's we're all that way you know we're all that way and one reason is because you don't have to worry about spraining your brain you just you just enjoy a little you know and this is where most people are this is what

[35:56] Jesus is talking about this is a kind of soil most people they just won't lock on to anything long enough to give it any real understanding or appreciation they just flip from this to this to this to this they're into whatever the latest thing is whatever makes them feel good and they just bounce around from one thing to another and we call these people scatterbrain because that's what they are scatterbrains a little bit of this little bit of that and I don't know who it was that said I guess it was Vance Habner who said you know I would rather I would rather be able to say this one thing I do rather than these are all the things I dabble in you what we're talking about is focus concentration thinking developing thoughts as opposed to just yeah well that's nice and what's for lunch and what's on

[37:01] TV and you flip here and you flip there and you get out your phone blah blah blah blah blah blah there's a picture I put on on Pastor Marv's comment corner where this guy is falling off a cliff he's in thin air and he's falling and the cliff is up there and he's halfway down the cliff and beside him is this little object and he cries out oh no my phone that's where we are that's where we are oh no my phone it is all displaced misplaced values concentrating on things that don't amount to a hill of beans that's where we spend our time we call it diversion listen the devil doesn't want you thinking he wants you preoccupied dabbling in this and that and just like a bee fluttering from one flower to the next never settling on concentrating on anything you just get a little bit of this and a little bit of that and

[38:13] I'm bored with this and a little bit this is a perfect picture of modern society represented in the kind of soils that are mentioned here I want to share with you in closing what Dr.

[38:36] Lehman Strauss has offered regarding this passage and I want you I'm going to I want you to take this with you in your heart of hearts okay here what's this secret of the kingdom what is it it's all about delay postponement this is why Jesus said to the disciples in Acts 1 it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power but you shall receive power in anyone what Jesus was talking about when they remember the question question was Lord is it at this time that you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel Jesus didn't say fellas you've got it all wrong there isn't going to be any kingdom or there's going to be a spiritual kingdom no no no no no he said the father has his own timetable what's he saying he's saying oh there's going to be a kingdom but it's going to be in God's time and is going to be in connection and he didn't say this but

[39:41] I'm saying it because I know it's true it's going to be in connection with the nation of Israel fulfilling the second rung that needs to be cared for before that kingdom can come and the first is Jesus has to die to pay the price for the kingdom he did that that's over and done with now he's ready to ascend back to heaven and the second rung is Israel will embrace the Messiah whom their forefathers rejected well they've never done that they still haven't done that but they're going to do that the secret the mystery of the kingdom is its postponement we are living in the postponement we're not living in the kingdom not in any way shape or form we are living in an entity that nobody ever imagined and it's called the church which is the body of

[40:55] Christ completely new completely unexpected unprophesied unmentioned unpromised and here it is that's where we're living this is not the kingdom not even spiritually the kingdom has been put on hold and when they were arriving in Jerusalem Jesus before he got to the city he stopped and he looked over the city and he wept and he said oh Jerusalem Jerusalem if only you had known the things that belong to your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes and an enemy is coming and will destroy Jerusalem and will tear down your buildings not one stone will be left upon another that's exactly what

[41:56] Rome would do just 40 years later and the disciples came up to him and Jesus told a parable to the disciples because they were nearing Jerusalem and the disciples were saying to each other boy I tell you what when we get to Jerusalem Jesus is going to go into that temple and he's going to sit on the throne of David and he's going to route the Romans and drive them into the sea and it's going to be wonderful and I can't wait for it to have it and that's what they thought he was going to do he's going to ride in on the back of this donkey take charge of everything and then the text tells us there in Luke 19 that Jesus told this parable not the one in Matthew 13 but he told a parable about an absent landlord and it would suffice to explain why the kingdom wouldn't be coming what would be coming was the cross because

[43:04] Jesus had to pay the down payment that first rung on that ladder of dying for the sins of the world and I want to conclude with this from the pen of Dr.

[43:20] Laman Strauss the secret which the Old Testament prophets did not see was that at Messiah's first coming he would be rejected die on the cross rise from death and the grave go back to heaven and then come to earth a second time in glory to establish his kingdom the prophets saw the coming golden age but they did not see the time period between Christ's two appearings now more than 1900 years they saw both his sufferings and the glory that should follow first Peter one but the time between those two events was the mystery about which they searched diligently the kingdom of heaven was no secret to Israel the mystery was the fact that there would be a long period of time we're in it this is it so far it's gone on for about 2000 years it is the church age in which

[44:22] God would not deal with Israel as a nation but send the gospel into all the world God in his compassion for the entire race of mankind purpose from eternity to redeem people from every tribe and nation this is the great mystery that God would set aside his chosen people Israel so that he might redeem sinners from among the Gentiles as well as Jews the parables in Matthew 13 are a description of the kingdom of heaven during this present age of postponement the kingdom of heaven in this age is not the church and if we equate the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13 with the church we create confusion Matthew 13 includes a longer period of time than is involved in the church age the kingdom and mystery commenced with the rejection of the king in Matthew 12 and will conclude with the return tribulation the kingdom and manifestation will follow the tribulation and continue for 1000 years and while we must not equate the mystery form of the kingdom with the church age it does include the church era in in these parables we have the form that the kingdom of heaven will take on earth during the king's absence the church is never called the kingdom of heaven that is so very important and in

[45:54] Matthew chapter 13 Jesus says in verse 13 I speak to them in parables because while seeing and here's what we've got when the gospel predicated upon the death burial and resurrection of Christ is proclaimed today those who hear it constitute one of those four types of soil what kind of soil are you everyone has some kind of soil and this deserves an explanation more than I can give at the present time so I want you to think about that because everything hinges upon the kind of soil you are because that will determine how you respond to the truth of the seed being sown and the simple truth of the seed to sow right now is this is a substitutionary death of

[47:02] Jesus Christ that was accomplished by himself willingly and he did it for you just as if you were the only person there was and he loved you and he gave himself for you and he took your sins upon him now however that is registering with you right now is the kind of soil you are if you say well I never ask anybody to die for my sins and besides I don't think I am blah blah blah you are your soil is the rocky kind or your soil is the kind that is no depth of earth at all you hear a little but you know part of that I can't buy that so I just you know look as you read over ask yourself what kind of soil are you everybody everybody is some kind of soil you can't help it you fall into one category or another and maybe you've already identified yourself

[48:10] I don't know but let's pray father we know we live in trying times today we know there's great difficulty great confusion all around us we see all kinds of criminal activities lawlessness disrespect for authority rejection of standard historic principles it's a dangerous time to be alive and this is man's doing aided by the adversary this is the kind of chaos that's always produced and yet we know that in so very many human hearts there is a longing for inner peace for a sense of forgiveness for a sense of stability for a sense of assurance and confidence peace peace peace peace peace peace peace peace peace peace peace peace