Thru the Bible - Questions & Answers

Guest (Male): In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells the story of the sower and the seed that lands on different soils. So, which of these soils represents someone who has received God's word and is saved? Well, stay with us and find out.

You are listening to the question and answer program with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. Of course, this program is a ministry of the Thru the Bible Radio Network. Now, our first question today comes from a listener in Santa Ana, California who writes: "In your study of Genesis chapter 22, you indicated that Isaac was a grown man when Abraham took him to be sacrificed. Why then does the Bible call him a lad? When does a lad become a man and at what age?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say to you, the Bible doesn't make a man an adult until he's 30 years old. No man could become a priest until he was 30 years of age. That's the reason the Lord Jesus, He didn't begin His ministry until He was 30 years of age. Now, up to that time, any person would be considered a minor. I remember I took a course in commercial law when I worked in the bank and at that time, you didn't attain your majority until you were 21. Well, I was 18. I was the only one that young in the class, and they called me a minor, and I didn't like it because I didn't like being called a minor. I thought I was smart as they were. But the thing is that you actually were not considered before the law until 21. Now they've reduced it back to 18, and I'm sure that they’re going to move it even farther back than that.

But the point is, I think the Word of God indicates that. Now, you have the story of the offering of Isaac in the 22nd chapter of Genesis. Now, when you open chapter 23, a great many years have gone by, and you read: "And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old, these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died." Now, she was 127 years old when she died. And we're told that Abraham offered Isaac in the 22nd chapter, and we go back to when she was 90 years old, he was born. So we've come a long ways from the time that he was born until the 23rd chapter.

So in between you have chapter 22, and I think common sense would dictate that he's not just a little boy at this particular time. If he were 37 years old—and that's what he was when his mother died—and he was offered by Abraham just right before that. So my point is that I think he was the same age the Lord Jesus was when He was crucified. May I say to you, I have no scripture for that, but I think that you are to use a certain amount of common sense and a judgment when you read the Word of God.

Guest (Male): Our next question comes from a listener in Tucson, Arizona who has a question concerning creation in Genesis chapter one. He says: "How could God create light and divide the day from the night without having made the sun, moon, and stars first?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say to you that that is one of the wonders of the creation story. The record that has been given to us, it says in verse three, "And God said, let there be light, and there was light." Now, this light was not derived from the source of a sun or a moon or any stars because they had not yet put in their appearance. We have on the fourth day, it says "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven." It doesn't say "let there be light." It says "let there be lights." That is, sources of lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be signs and for seasons and for days and years.

And the interesting thing is it says, "Let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also." Now, that does not state specifically at that time that God created them. I personally think that they were created before and that their light had not broken in upon the earth at all. Now today there's been a great deal said about cosmic light. And cosmic light, as far as we know, has no source such as the sun or the moon has. The moon, of course, is reflected light, and the sun, of course, is just a ball of energy. And we find that the cosmic light is coming from where they have not exactly discovered, but there is this thing known as cosmic light.

Now, I'm not trying to say that what happened when God said let there be light that there was cosmic light. I don't know. The only point that I want to make is this: that God spoke, and light appeared. And that's all that he would have to do, of course, because actually His very word had creating power to bring into existence that which did not exist. And that is something that you and I cannot understand. Now, the other side of this question that ought not to cause any problem, and I'm sure that when you recognize that God said let there be light, that He brought light into His creation, and apparently it had no source as far as I know. And the other side of the picture is that when the sun, moon, and stars appeared, they were out there all the time, but their light had not broken in upon the earth at all.

Right now, there are all kinds of theories that are being juggled about by astronomers relative to the creation of this universe. You see, the main purpose of sending out all of these little gadgets that go by and are peeping Toms on Venus and Mars and the other planets, man's trying to find out how it all got started. And the reason that he's trying to find out how it all got started is because he knows that evolution is a poor broken reed to lean on. You can talk about evolving all you want to and you can move it back billions of years, but there does come a place and a time when you've got to put down your pegs and say how it began. You can push it back to the smallest amoeba starting off, and you've got to tell where that little old amoeba came from. And they're trying today to see if they can't find the source of life and everything.

Now, I've been reading recently, it's rather popular stuff. It's been in magazines and although one of the magazines was technical, actually it was nothing in the world but theories bandied about. But it's quite interesting that out yonder in the vast regions of space, there are these gases like hydrogen that is loaded with power and other gases also. And that this universe, they feel like the universe as we know it was brought together by these gases coming together. And then on the other hand, there have been others that had come together and exploded, and that made the gases to begin with. Well, now I tell you, you're on a treadmill when you start talking like that because if the thing originated by an explosion, then that goes back to Sir James Jeans' theory relative to the fact that this is an expanding universe and the universe is bigger right now than it was when we started talking. It just keeps moving out and they feel that's now due to these explosions.

And then the gases come together again. Well, that's a nice game, you see, from a gas to a ball, from a ball to gas and, to tell the truth, seems to me like there's a whole lot of gas that's floating around. And I would say that sometime you've got to stop and say which came first, not the hen or the egg, but which came first, the gas or this ball, this visible solid universe. And then you've got to explain how it got here or got where it is, some of it's pretty far out. So that, you see, when you begin to talk like that, you're pushed back to a creator. Now, I don't care how you try to wiggle around with evolution and all of these theories of explosions—you'd think that the Lord had put on a fourth of July demonstration. The only thing is they wouldn't need the Lord. It all just happened. But you're forced to the fact that there must be out there a creator. There must be somebody out there. And that, I'm sure, troubles them a great deal.

Guest (Male): We come now to a question from a listener in Whitesboro, Texas. He writes: "In the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13, which of the four types of soil represents a saved person?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Let me begin reading now in chapter 13, verse 3. "He spoke many things unto them in parables, saying: 'Behold, a sower went forth to sow. When he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell among stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, the thorns sprung up and choked them. But others fell into good ground and brought forth fruit: some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.'"

Now dropping down to the Lord's interpretation of the parable, and we'll go down to that, verse 18. "Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receives seed by the wayside. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he's offended. And now the next, verse 22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, understandeth it, which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth: some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."

All right, we have here now these four different places where the seed fall. Now, the Lord Jesus in the parable of the tares makes it very clear that the field is the world, that He is the sower, and the seed is the Word of God. So there's no way in the world for us to guess at that because there wouldn't be any reason to, since He explains that. And the interesting thing of the places where the seed fall. Now, the only place where the seed fell upon good ground was the only place that it brought forth fruit and the different degrees of fruit-bearing. Now, in my judgment, the only ones that represent the saved is where the seed fell upon good ground. Now, this party here goes on like this. It says, "Which of the four types of seed represent saved persons?" Now, I believe only those where the seed fell upon good ground.

Now, he gives this interpretation: In verses four and 19, the seeds were devoured by the birds, and regeneration did not occur, appears to be unsaved. May I say to you that the subject of regeneration is not the subject under discussion here. It's giving out the Word of God and the effect it has upon people. And apparently the only place where it produced fruit was just on one-fourth of the soil, one-fourth of the seed. The rest of it just came to naught because it didn't produce fruit. And His whole point is that if you want to bring regeneration in, which I don't think you should, but that if a person is regenerated, they will produce fruit, not leaves, not a profession. Leaves are a profession, but the thing that is genuine is fruit. And the Lord Jesus said by their fruits, ye shall know them.

Now, he says here, "The seeds were devoured by the birds." Now, that's clear there. But he says regeneration took place, the seed was changed into a plant. This plant sprang up but provided no fruit and ended up a withered, dead plant. Now, as we said, regeneration is not the subject here. The whole subject is fruit. And you are trying to make every detail of the parable fit into a little set interpretation. Many years ago, there was given to me by Dr. Melvin Grove Kyle, who was an archaeologist, an outstanding scholar, the man who edited the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, was for a time, I think, editor of the National Geographic and also was the one American that was present and participated in the excavation of King Tut's tomb.

And he, by the way, made the statement: "I've been amused at all of the furore that has been raised over King Tut's tomb." Now, this is the man that worked in that tomb. He said that Tutankhamun was actually a third-rate king. And the reason that the tomb had not been exploited in the past was because of the fact that there wasn't much there really. Ramesses' tomb would have really revealed something, but King Tut was just a third-rate king. Yet in our day, all of this furore's been made of it as if it was something great in the days of Egypt. He was third-rate.

And I say all this to let you know this man had, to my judgment, a safe and sane interpretation of the Word of God. And he says a parable teaches one truth. You can't make it fit in everything. He says it's just like a circle touches a straight line only at one point. And the important thing is to get that point. Now, as we said, obviously, regeneration is not the subject here. The fruit is the important thing. The way that you tell the fact it's good ground is by the fruit that's produced. And though the plant sprung up, it only had leaves.

And I have been a pastor for over 40 years and now been retired for quite a while and able to observe. I think I've learned as much observing as I did as pastor, in the same length of time, of course. And I would say this: that there are a lot of folk in the church that have nothing but leaves. They're not genuine. They're not born again. They're not regenerated. They've just been going through the system. And you say, "How do you know that?" Well, I know that from experience. And in radio, we can have people write us letters that they are free to express themselves in a way that no member of the church would come and express themselves to me as the pastor of the church.

And we have any number of letters. Recently I read one on our Thru the Bible program. A man says, "I was a member of the church for 50 years. I've been a Sunday school teacher. I was an officer of the church. I was never born again." And then trouble came, and he dropped out, began to listen to the radio, and found out that he never was a Christian at all. He just had a lot of leaves. There are a lot of leaves around today, friends, and I think it'd be good if we could sweep them up and get something genuine going.

Now, he goes on to speak here of the seed that had no control to where it landed. Is it impossible to have rewards when you prove no fruit? Well, of course not. That's not the point of the parable at all. The seed fell on all kinds of ground. And the kind of ground is what determines the result, you see. It's the way it was received. Now, there are those that fell among thorns. This party goes on to say they were regenerated. No, they were not regenerated at all. These are the ones that it takes a little pressure to prove that they're not genuine. One of the reasons today that there's so much churchgoing at present, it's entertainment, one thing, and it provides an outlet for a great many folk to express themselves in many different ways: music being one, teaching another, and then just being able to meet with folk and talk.

A great many people today in our churches that feel like they're Christian, they're actually not Christian at all. They have never been really buttonholed and pinned down and faced with the issue of whether they have come as a sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him. And the reason we have so many of them is because the pressure's not on. It's the thing to be an evangelical today. And it's rather popular sort of thing. So we are talking about how to be happy and things like that. And if things don't go right, why we're going to take up our marbles and go home. We're not going to play, you know.

And a leading doctor here in Southern California, he's a cancer doctor, I go to him. And I had quite a discussion with him the other day, and he's a very level-headed Christian. We spent more time talking about theology and the Christian life than we did talking about cancer. And after I left, I felt like I should send him a bill and not for him to send me one. But I'm sure he's going to send me one. Anyway, he was talking to me about his son. Son just got married and problems have come up and his lower lip was stuck out so you could put a checkerboard on it, and that was during the holidays.

So he just took the boy aside and he said, "Son, the Lord Jesus never said that things were going to be easy. He never said that everything was just going to be laughter and fun all the time. He said that He would see you through your problems and that you were going to have problems and you were going to have difficulties." The minute a great many people really get into trouble, instead of turning to the Lord, they turn from Him. Well, God sends us trouble, and trouble is either going to draw you closer to God or drive you away. And so when the pressures came, these who professed to be Christians, why the troubles of this world just choked it out, you see. Not only does the devil take away the seed, but the troubles of the world, the problems of life.

And the Lord, I think, lets that happen purposely. And I've wondered today why He's let us get off so easy. I think He needs to test the church to see who is genuine. And believe me, I think they'd fall away like dead leaves. But they're not regenerated. And I think you've gone off on a wrong tangent here altogether. And he goes on with a philosophical discussion of how the plant could produce fruit and that sort of thing. Well, he's not speaking of the chemistry of the soil at all. He's speaking about results. And that is the thing that you see on the outside, "by their fruits, ye shall know them."

Guest (Male): Today's questions have been very thought-provoking. We hope that you've been stirred to dig deeper into the Word of God, searching for answers to your own questions. For those of you who'd like to have more information on any of these issues, we suggest that you contact us and request a resource catalog. And to help you further your studies in God's Word, why don't you join us this week on the Thru the Bible radio program as we continue Dr. McGee's five-year journey through the whole Word of God, book by book and chapter by chapter.

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