Thru the Bible - Sunday Sermon

Steve Schwetz: It'll be one of the most magnificent moments in the history of man. Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz. I'm talking about the moment when, in the twinkling of an eye, we hear God's voice like a trumpet, and we meet Jesus Christ in the clouds to be with Him forever. Are you looking forward to that moment? I know I am.

As we'll find out, Dr. McGee lived in the reality of Jesus' soon return, and we'll hear it in his voice on this Sunday sermon, "Why I Believe the Coming of the Lord is Near." Dr. McGee first gave this sermon in the early 1970s, but you'll be amazed at how timely his examples still are today. Let's pray as we prepare our hearts for spending time in God's Word together.

Father, we do long for that moment of Jesus' return. So help us to live in expectation of that day. Keep us close to You when we so often are prone to stray. Use Your Word, Lord, to build anticipation in our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Why I believe the coming of Christ is near. Now I recognize that the subject that we have borders on the sensational, and it would be if we used the calendar and if we set a date. And we therefore need to define the terms that we are using. What do we mean by the coming of Christ, and what do we mean when we say that it's near? And I trust that you will understand at the very beginning that "near" hasn't anything in the world to do with a date.

Now we are going to attempt to define these terms, first of all, for the coming of Christ. Now the coming of Christ, the second time as it is called, the second coming of Christ, it's presented to us in Scripture in two phases. Now that's not an isolated and a strange procedure because the first coming of Christ was like that. You will note that in His first coming, He was born of a virgin, and we have the prophecies that concern His birth and His coming into the world the first time. That was the first phase. And then actually the voice of prophecy went off the air, and for thirty years, you have what's known as the silent years.

And then you come to the second segment of His first coming. And at thirty years of age, He begins His ministry. Then you follow Him in the Gospels for three years as He ministered the Word. And then you have His death recorded, a redemptive death, and then His bodily resurrection recorded and His ascension back into heaven and His present session there at the right hand of God.

Now therefore, the second coming of Christ is in two phases. And it's not divided by thirty years, but we believe it's divided by about seven years. The first phase, we call it the rapture because the Bible calls it that. That is a biblical term that's found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, "We that are alive shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air." That word "caught up" is *harpazo*. *Harpazo* has several different meanings. One of them is to be caught up, snatched up, rapture. And that's as good a meaning as any. The Bible does teach the rapture of the church.

And as Paul says there, the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive, caught up together. That is the rapture. That is what the Lord Jesus meant when He introduced something brand new to these Jewish apostles when He said to them in the upper room, "I go to prepare a place for you." Nowhere in the Old Testament had God ever said He was going to prepare a place off of this earth for anyone. But now for the first time, that's introduced. And He says, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself." Now that is the rapture.

Now the second phase is the revelation. At the first phase, He does not come to the earth. Sometimes the critic says the first part is not really a coming to the earth. Right. He comes to the air, takes His church out of the world. And the second phase, He comes to this earth to establish His kingdom here upon this earth. And that's what He meant in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, verse 29. Now I'd like to read two or three verses there tonight.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Now I do not think that when He takes the church out of the world, it's going to be as big a shock as some people think that it's going to be. But my friend, when He comes to the earth to establish His kingdom, that, my friends, is going to be a shock. You can put that down. And the Word of God makes that clear. He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. They shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now that is altogether different from His coming to take His church out of the earth.

And His coming now to the earth, and He sends His angels to gather His elect. And that, of course, is the nation Israel, those that are of the remnant and the believing Gentiles in that day that are to enter the kingdom. Now angel ministry is never connected with the church. And at the rapture, there's no angel minister. When it says the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven—and I love that, He's coming Himself for His church. He's not going to send an angel after you. He's coming Himself.

And we're told He'll come with a shout. And someone says, "Yes, but the voice of the archangel." That's not an archangel. It's His voice that's like the voice of an archangel. And the trump of God. And the trump of God doesn't mean Gabriel has a trumpet. He doesn't have a trumpet. I don't think Gabriel blows a trumpet. And I don't think he owns one. And we don't need him to blow a trumpet at all.

After all, let's don't be ridiculous about that, and I'm not trying to be irreverent, but can you imagine the Lord Jesus at the grave of Lazarus saying, "Come on, Gabriel, help me get this man out of here"? He didn't need any help. All He needed was His voice. His voice will be like that of an archangel. And it's the trump of, like the trump of God. Someone says, "Do you know that?" I do know that. In Revelation 1:10, John says he's on the Isle of Patmos. He said, "I heard a voice like the sound of a trumpet." And I turned to see, and who was it? The glorified Christ.

He'll come. The Lord Himself will take His church out of this world. What a glorious, wonderful thing that's going to be. But when He comes to the earth to establish His kingdom, that'll be later on. Now in that interval, we believe the Great Tribulation takes place. Then He comes to the earth, establishes His kingdom, and the Millennial Kingdom begins. And that actually is what the Old Testament speaks of as the Day of the Lord. And I don't think the New Testament changes the meaning of that at all.

And therefore there are two episodes of prophecy that must take place before the Day of the Lord can begin. The Day of the Lord will begin with the Great Tribulation. You see, the day in Scripture, the Hebrew day, did not begin as my day begins with sunrise. It began with sunset. It begins in darkness. Joel says the Day of the Lord is not light, it's darkness. It begins in darkness, but then it moves to light through the Great Tribulation, His coming, and then into the light of the kingdom that He shall establish here upon the earth.

Now there are two episodes that must take place. Paul mentions that in 2 Thessalonians, the second chapter. Will you listen to this? I'll begin reading at verse one. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the Day of the Lord is present. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, the Day of the Lord cannot come, the Great Tribulation, except there come a falling away first. Now that word "falling away" can be translated and it actually means departure.

And we speak of it as apostasy because it means a departure from the faith. But it also means a departure of people from the earth. And I believe that it does have that twofold meaning here. There must come first a departure, a departure of the true church to meet the Lord in the air, the rapture, and the departure then of the old organized shell that is left down here into total apostasy, so that the Lord said Himself, when He comes, will He find "the" faith on the earth? And the answer is in the Greek, no, He won't find the faith on the earth. It'll be total apostasy. It'll be that old harlot in the 17th chapter of Revelation, not the bride of Christ at all. Therefore the rapture is the departure of believers.

And then the second thing, that man of sin be revealed. And that means Antichrist will have to appear. And I believe he'll find a ready-made world when he gets here, a world that's waiting for him. I don't think he'll take over anything. I think they're going to give him everything. Because to begin with, the first thing he'll do will bring peace to this earth. And right tonight, the world wants peace above everything else. We've spent billions of dollars to get it. Antichrist is going to sell it to them at a bargain price, but it won't last long under him because he's not the Prince of Peace.

Now when we say tonight that I believe that the coming of Christ is near, I believe that His coming to the earth to establish His kingdom is near. And if that is true, then the rapture is nearer than that. It's seven years this side of it because the Great Tribulation on the earth separate these two. Therefore let's look at that word "near" for a moment. It's a relative term. The Lord Jesus, for instance, said, "Behold, I come quickly." We've interpreted that to mean, "Behold, I come soon." He never said that. And very frankly, I use the term, but I don't think I'm accurate. The soon coming of Christ.

What do you mean by the soon coming of Christ? And somebody could well ask me tonight, what do you mean that the coming of Christ is near? There are certain situations and conditions that would prevail in the last days before the revelation of Christ. Before He comes to the earth, there are certain things, certain crises in the cosmos would characterize that final age here upon this earth. And it's those things that I would like to mention, not all of them, but a few of them tonight.

Now what we see today, it seems to be the setting of the stage. We're not seeing fulfillment of prophecy. I do not think that. I believe that we're seeing the setting of the stage that would seem to indicate that God is getting ready to bring this age to an end. That means He'll remove His church first, then the world will enter the Great Tribulation under Antichrist. Now all these different factors that are mentioned in prophecy are coming into position today, not a fulfillment, but you see in every different arena today, it's not one isolated item because there have been isolated items in the past.

But today, for the first time, there is a series of episodes and situations that are coming. Now I'm going to call your attention tonight, first, to several features that have not appeared until recent years and they have not been emphasized as far as I know. The first one that I'd like to mention, which seems to indicate that we're coming near to the end of this age, is the fact that there is today an energy shortage in the earth.

This world that you and I are living in today, if we might put it in good old commonplace and homespun, we are running out of gas. The earth is today, and there is a lack of energy, lack of chemicals, lack of that which is essential to carry on our contemporary society in a modern machine age and in a scientific age. Raw materials such as lumber and clean water, ore deposits and chemicals are disappearing. The oil depletion is already a serious problem. And unless oil is discovered somewhere else and we have access to it, it's not going to be our pollution that's going to cause gas rationing, but it'll be an oil shortage.

Now we thought everything was in abundance a few years ago. Now we seem to be running out of everything. And the interesting thing is that Isaiah mentions this. Having pronounced judgment on all the great nations of the world and of the end times, in the 24th chapter of Isaiah, then he looks at this world that we live in. Now I'm not going to spend much time with this to labor this point, but I'd like for you to note what he says. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty."

Now in this chapter, the word for "earth" is used 18 times—*erets*, the Hebrew word. And there is a great emphasis on the fact that there is a final judgment coming of this earth and that this earth will be very much in the same condition it was when God began back yonder in the first chapter of Genesis and moved in, and the earth was without form and void. Only this time, it's running out of gas, if you please. And gas rationing is going to be essential, friend, because the supply is really being reduced.

Now will you listen to this, and I'll only lift out several verses. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty." That is, the gas tank is empty. This earth is like a filling station. A man began to pump, and he took out chemicals, he took out ore, he took from it the soil, all the productivity out of the soil. And he began to pump the gas. Now the gas tank is empty. Now we're running out of chemicals. And it looks to me as if God created this earth and put it here and put man here to run this age in which we live.

And He says, "Well now they'll need so many gallons of gas." He put it here. He said, "They'll need so much of this." He put it here. "They'll need so many of the barium salts, the magnesium salts, and the sulfur salts." They'll need all of this material. And I'll just put enough because there's no use having a big surplus. And now we're running out. It looks as if God's trying to tell us something. He's saying, "Man, wake up! I'm getting ready to move in on you. You're running out of materials." Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste and turneth it upside down and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

Verse three, "The land," that's the earth, "shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the Lord hath spoken this word." You and I have been living on a gas tank that we sure been pumping. But there's not much more to pump. And that to me is an indication God's getting ready to move in again upon this earth in which you and I live today.

Number two is the emphasis that's put in our day on space. Godless man for years had his eye on a test tube and looking through a microscope. And now he's turned and he's been looking through a telescope. In fact, he's been looking out into space. And this generation that you and I live in has been introduced to something new. I can remember as a little fellow that my mother used to read about the man on the moon. Well, that was a fairy story then. It's no fairy story tonight.

And whether you and I like it or not, they're getting ready to make a trip a little farther out than that. They've only been out to the front gate. They're going down in the next block. They hope to go to Mars next time. Emphasis on space. Somebody says, "Well, what do you think about that?" Well, I just think this. God says when you get near that time, look up for your redemption draweth nigh. And God says whether you like it or not, you're going to look up. And so God has got the world looking up today.

And you remember those two men said to the apostles, "Why stand ye gazing into the heavens?" My, we spend so much time getting to the moon, and all we've got now is a bunch of rocks. And as far as I'm concerned, they can return them because we got enough rocks down here. But may I say to you that today we don't need to stand gazing into heaven. But we walk today by faith knowing that one of these days the call will come, and those that are His are to leave this earth. And that's tissue thin between we are and that event tonight for no prophecy has to be fulfilled. But those things that are to take place afterward, the stage is already being set. And that certainly ought to alert God's people.

Then there is today, the third thing we'd like to mention, the breakdown of what has been called the Judeo-Christian ethic. When Paul the apostle went into the Roman Empire, he introduced something that even unbelieving Gibbon said brought Rome to its knees and had a great deal to do with the wreck of a pagan empire. That was the introduction of Christianity and a new ethic. And there arose in Europe what was known as a Christian civilization. I wouldn't call it that, but it has been called that. And the world came in under what is known as the Judeo-Christian ethic, ruled by those great principles that are stated in the Word of God.

And even the man who founded this country, Thomas Jefferson, was a deist. I don't think he was a believer. He had great respect for the Word of God and he believed actually that this was the principle that the nation ought to be guided by. We've come a long way. There is today a breakdown of that ethic. And tonight, you and I are living in a civilization that's as pagan as it was when Paul went out to preach the gospel.

Now that's not made by just a wild preacher that's wild-eyed and a fanatic. Here's a statement made by a man high up today in government and was in a university. "No nation on the face of the earth at any time in history has ever degenerated at the speed with which America has done so in the past ten years." We've come a long way. And Jack Shepherd in *Look* magazine back in 1971 in January, before it went out of business, he wrote this: "The frontiers died. America, speeding on the whip of her people, stopped inside. Like an unwatched bull whose horns grow into his skull and drive him insane, America turned on herself. We gorged and fattened. We rioted and assassinated. We shopped and cursed and burned and polluted and stomped. And we lost the American vision. America today smells of despair."

And today, the program still is, because many of these liberals are beginning now to recognize something radically is wrong and they think probably another program, a little more government money or another government project will solve the problem. But it's interesting that both Sorokin in Harvard and Toynbee in London have made this statement, and I would like to pass this on to you, that today, that modern man cannot be improved by social regeneration. That cannot take place in society, for society is merely the intersection of the fields of influence for individual personality.

Society is whatever its component citizens are inwardly. Society remains static because its component members are spiritually inert until it is set in motion by creative minorities. What they're trying to say is this: the only thing today that can save America now is a spiritual revival. And I think that unless that comes, we're doomed. And the interesting thing is that no nation has ever hit the comeback trail unless there was a revival.

I think England is the classic example of that when Wesley led in a movement that swept over that land that absolutely transformed and reformed England, delivered them from the revolution that came and destroyed France at that time and almost came to this country and had a tremendous effect the revival did in this land in which we live. We today are reverting back to paganism. And I'd like to quote from two men, and I think both are worth listening to as they've been outstanding men.

Mr. Melvin Laird, who right now's Defense Secretary, but before that, when he was in San Francisco at the convention there, he made this statement, and I do not know what circumstances he made it in under, but it was a strange statement coming from him. He says, "In this world, it is becoming more and more unpopular to be a Christian. Soon, it may become dangerous." He knows something I don't know. And I'd like to quote from Mr. Robert McNamara.

He says that the implications of global economic changes in the next decade are not healthy ones for nations preoccupied with affluence, goods, and gadgetry. He says the 1970s may bring closer a world revolution of the "have-nots" unless the idealism of the younger generation can change the course of the decade. And again, looking to that which could never solve the problem of the hour. Again, may I say that if you boil down the statement of these men, and I have here many others that we'll not bore you with tonight, but they all are saying one thing: there has to be something happen today or else it's utter chaos where we are headed.

May I say to you, only a revival—and I personally am not a pessimist to the extent that I believe a revival cannot come. I think there is an opportunity for revival. Now let me mention several other things, be very brief about them. One is the fact that the world today is earthquake conscious as it never has been before, and the reason is the increasing number of them and the frequency in which they occur. And now they've discovered that this earth on which we live is very unstable and today it apparently is experiencing birth pains, travail.

We're told these things would take place, even tremendous things in the heavens before the Lord Jesus returned to the earth. In fact, the Great Tribulation begins with these events, it closes with these events. And then famine is a hideous specter that haunts mankind. And when I walk down through the aisles of the supermarkets today with shelves groaning with abundance, I recognize they could be emptied overnight. But it's hard for me to believe that half of the population of this world went to bed tonight with their stomachs empty.

And that this matter of famine is already abroad in the land. When will it come our way? When Sir John Boyd Orr was Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, he made this statement before he resigned. He says, "I shall finish my office giving a last warning to the world. There is only a fifty-fifty chance of getting over the food problem. If it is not solved, there will be world chaos in the next fifty years." Now that came from a man who was in a position to know.

Now the question is, it looks as if the four horsemen of the Apocalypse might be getting ready to ride. At least they've had a two or three practice runs already. And so they may be getting ready to ride and they begin the Great Tribulation period. And one of them is the one carrying the balances and crying out the fact that there is a shortage of grain and a shortage of that which is the very staff of mankind today.

Now I want to leave these signs that are rather unusual. And I want to come back now in conclusion and mention the signs that we're accustomed to consider. And these are the ones that are largely geographical and national. Most of us are acquainted with them and I'll try to be brief with them. The one I would mention here, the very first one, of course, would be the nation Israel. In 1948, they became a nation. And this has had a tremendous impact upon a great many men. In fact, it's made believers out of some that were doubters before.

Even a man like Dr. William F. Albright, who is a Gentile, he was Professor of Semitic Languages at Johns Hopkins University, he spoke at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. And listen to this: He said it's without parallel in the annals of human history that a nation carried into captivity for 70 years should return to resume its national life. That after nearly 600 years, this same nation should again be scattered worldwide for nearly 2,000 years and retain its identity. And that this people should then return to rebuild its ancient homeland and achieve statehood among the family of nations.

And then Dr. Albright added this: "Many non-prophetic souls, of whom I was one, declared that such a thing was impossible. And yet we've seen it. Since the words of the Old Testament prophets have been literally fulfilled, we should expect the remainder of their predictions concerning the nation Israel likewise to be fulfilled." And this is what made a believer out of this man. I want to say that the return of these people back to that land is remarkable, has no parallel as he said in the history of the world.

But we are not seeing today the fulfillment of any prophecy in this return. They are going back in unbelief today. We are going to listen to a Jewish missionary, in fact there'll be several Jewish missionaries, their missionaries to their own people. And they're going to tell you, one of them, I don't think she minds me mentioning her name because some of you know her, Rose Warmer is in Haifa. She told us that she was a girl when Hitler came to power. Her parents were put in the ovens. She spent time in one of those camps of Hitler and was doomed to die, but she managed to escape and a friend, a Christian friend, led her to the Lord.

And she's become a missionary to her own people. Now you'd think that her nation would give her a medal, would reward her, would recognize her. She says she's persecuted because she's presenting Christ. I say to you tonight, they've gone back in unbelief. And I have a picture of the 20th anniversary celebration and they had a big sign in that auditorium there in Jerusalem and it said on it, "Science will bring peace to this land." They've got a new messiah. They've rejected Jesus, and science is the messiah that will bring peace.

They haven't gone back according to Scripture. Now they're back in the land, and that's important because they're back there at the beginning of the Great Tribulation period and they're going to have a temple also. And there is a movement undercover in Israel to rebuild that temple. And let's understand one thing, by the way, they don't need any marble from Indiana. That word got around that they were shipping marble from Indiana over there. If you've ever been to Jerusalem, friends, they don't need any more rocks over there.

There are more rocks around Jerusalem than anyplace I've ever been. They don't need any stone. They have it there, plenty of it. But they are there in unbelief. Now when God returns them to that land—you see they were out of that land three times. God put them down into Egypt, let them become a nation, He brought them into the land. God sent them into Babylon because they were disobedient, He brought them back into that land. And then He says there's a third time He'd put them out of that land and a third time He'd bring them back.

He's put them out the third time, but He hasn't brought them back yet. And they're going back today is not the fulfillment of it. And there are many prophecies along this line. He says this: "Therefore behold the days come," saith the Lord. Now I'm reading from Jeremiah 23, and I just lift out verse seven. "Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land."

Now God says when I bring them back to that land again, I'm going to bring them from the ends of the earth. And when I bring them to that land, it'll be by such a great miracle that they are going to forget their deliverance out of Egypt and the Passover, which is the oldest religious holiday that's being celebrated in the world today. They'll forget it because so great will my deliverance of them be in the future. My friend, I don't think anybody's prepared to say their present return to that land is a fulfillment of Jeremiah. That is not the return that the Word of God mentions.

Now that can be multiplied many times in the Word of God. So the nation Israel is back in the land. That's merely the setting of a stage. And not only that, but we have in the north, God said there would be a great world power in the north. And tonight there is a power there, we call it Russia. The Word of God calls it Gog and Magog, and the land of Gog. And in Ezekiel 38, 39, that nation is clearly described that's in the north. It's to be there in the last days.

Then the Word of God says that out of the east, in fact, out of China, will come a great host in the last days. Isaiah 49:12 says, "Behold, these shall come from far. And lo, these from the north and from the west and these from the land of Sinim." And Sinim is China. May I say to you, China's becoming a nation. Napoleon says China is a sleeping giant and God pity the generation that wakes it up. We've waked it up.

And then may I mention the fact that the Roman Empire is not to be revived, that would infer it died. It never died. It'll not be resurrected, but it will be restored and brought back together again. You see the Roman Empire never was destroyed from the outside. That beast in the 7th chapter of Daniel, you see it was just wounded unto death. And then there came out this horn. And what happened, the Roman Empire fell apart. And what Europe needs tonight is somebody big enough to put it back together again.

President de Gaulle thought he could, he couldn't. Napoleon had tried it, he couldn't. Hitler had tried it, he couldn't. The popes of Rome have tried it, they couldn't. Charlemagne tried it, he couldn't because there's one yet to come, that's Antichrist. He'll put it back together and he cannot appear, God says he cannot appear, God will not let him appear until He's ready and until He's moved His church out of the way. That passage in 2 Thessalonians makes that very clear.

But today, Europe wants that man and the very interesting thing is that they're looking for him. May I say there sits Western Europe tonight waiting for that man to appear. When he'll appear, we don't know, but the stage today is being set. And then, of course, there is the apostasy that's in the church today. And I won't dwell with that tonight at all, but the very fact that we've come as far as we've come in apostasy, it just looks like the church can't go any farther in apostasy than it has gone.

So much so that the world outside is rebuking the church today. The church is tonight in a great apostasy and that would be the condition the Lord said when He takes His church out of the world. There'll be a departure from the faith down here when there is a departure of the true church into His presence. Now let me close with this. There is another sign that we see today and that is the fact of the means of communication.

The Word of God has something to say about that. Knowledge would increase and men would run to and fro. Great deal the prophets have had a great deal to say about that. And there has arisen in our day two tremendous means of communication. You and I now have seen the appearance of radio and television. We take it for granted. Communication is a tremendous thing that has happened. It disseminates evil and violence and immorality.

But did you know it also disseminates the Word of God? May I say to you, the potential of getting the Word out today. And I believe that's one of the signs. I think that the Lord Jesus is not going to have anybody say way out yonder in some forgotten island or way up in Alaska around the North Pole—and we get letters from up there around the North Pole today—He's not going to let anyone say, "Well, Lord, I didn't know about You, I'd love to have made a trip with You to the rapture, but I never knew about You."

I think He's going to let them hear it before He takes the church out of the way. And I see now for the first time that there is this method of getting the Word out to the ends of the earth. Now somebody says, "Is this scriptural?" Yes. The Lord said that the world is a field. He's the sower. We'd better keep that in mind too. He does the sowing. And the seed is the Word of God that we're in the business of either getting out the Word of God, which is the wheat, or we're sowing tares, that which the enemy is sowing, the evil that's in the world today. Oh, may the Lord put us in the business of getting out the Word of God today concerning a wonderful Savior. And the whole world ought to be able to know about Him that He's a Savior.

Steve Schwetz: Well, the call to get God's Word out to the world can't be any clearer. We've often said Dr. McGee would be amazed at the variety of methods by which the Word of God and Thru the Bible's teaching are available to the world. You know, it sounds like he had a vision for that years ago. And the truth is, we do have a method of getting the Word out to the ends of the earth, and simply put, it's any way that God leads us.

And God uses each method to bring His Word to the most geographically or politically isolated people groups in the world. And we do humbly thank the Lord that we get to be used by Him in the greatest distribution efforts in the history of man. And do you know what your greatest contribution to this can be? Be a prayer partner with us. God promises power when His people pray.

And you likely have heard me talk about the World Prayer Team, and in just minutes a day, we blanket every region of the world every year. You can share in the privilege and joy of seeing God at work by signing up in our app or at ttb.org to start receiving our daily email with our prayer destination and prompt of how to pray for the people there.

And then if God is putting it on your heart to provide maybe a tank of gas or a new set of tires to keep the Bible Bus going in your community and around the world in more than 250 languages, well, we'd love to have your partnership with us. Again, you can do so in our app or at ttb.org or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Schwetz, and for all of us here at Thru the Bible, we're praying for you to know the riches of Christ Jesus this week as you walk with Him.

And as we go, I leave you with this promise from Isaiah 55, "So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."