Thru the Bible

Guest (Male): It's a great day to be in God's Word. Welcome to Thru the Bible with our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee. We begin by wrapping up a special introduction by Dr. McGee that he started on yesterday's program, actually. And it's a special encouragement for all of us passing through these shadowlands on the way to heaven.

J. Vernon McGee: There is a valley of deep shadow between the place where I live in California and that to which I shall journey in a very short time. I cannot reach my home in that city of God without passing through that dark valley of shadows.

But I'm not afraid because the best friend that I ever had went through the same valley long, long ago and drove away its gloom. He has stuck by me through thick and thin since we first became acquainted 55 years ago. And I hold His promise in printed form never to forsake nor to leave me alone.

He will be with me as I walk through the valley of the shadows, and I shall not lose my way when He is with me. I hope to hear your sermon on heaven next Sunday from my home in California. But I have no assurance that I shall be able to do so.

My ticket to heaven has no date marked for the journey, no return coupon, and no permit for baggage. Yes, I'm all ready to go and I may not be here while you are talking next Sunday evening. But I shall meet you there someday.

I wanted to read that especially today because the whole objective of the Word of God, beginning in the Garden of Eden and going straight through the Word of God, is to get men and women that are born in this world where sin has entered and where mankind has fallen to get mankind to this place called heaven.

And that's what the Word of God is all about: the way, the truth, and the life. We'll find out that's a person.

Guest (Male): We can look forward to understanding more about the person of Jesus Christ as we finish our look at the seven guidelines for understanding scripture on Thru the Bible. Let's ask the Lord to bless our time in His Word.

Father, thank You for Your Spirit that leads us into all truth. We're listening, Lord. Teach us now so that we may be quick to obey Your Word. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

J. Vernon McGee: Now, last time we left off in giving to you guidelines for the study of the scriptures and for the understanding of the scriptures. We have given four; in fact, we were giving the fifth one when we had to leave off last time.

Now, these guidelines are, we feel, basic and they are very simple. First was: begin with prayer. And second: read the Bible. Third: study the Bible. Fourth: meditate on the Bible. And then fifth: read what others have written on the scriptures or on the Bible.

Now, may I say again that we said there is a danger in reading certain literature. There are some that teach us false doctrine. There are some that are quite liberal, and you'll not find these very profitable, I can assure you, that is, if you want to know what the Bible has to say.

We feel that there are some very fine commentaries that have been written, very fine books on different books of the Bible. We've already recommended Dr. G. Campbell Morgan's *Living Messages of the Books of the Bible*.

Now, every minister of the gospel, of course, has a set of books that he studies. He needs them. Of course, someone says, "Should he give them verbatim? Should he present what somebody else has written verbatim?" My point is that he ought never to do that.

But he has a perfect right to use what others have written. He ought to give credit if he's going to quote a great deal from it. I've been told that sometimes some of my feeble messages are given by someone else, and sometimes credit is given and sometimes no credit is given at all.

As far as I'm personally concerned, it makes no difference, but it does reveal the individual—his character—that will use someone else's material verbatim and not give credit for it.

I had a professor in seminary that I felt solved this problem, and he said this when someone asked him, "Should you quote other writers?" He said, "You ought to graze on everybody's pasture but give your own milk."

And that means that you are to read what others have said, but you put it in your own thought patterns and express it your way. And I think that we have a perfect right to do that, and I encourage anyone to do that.

But understand the Bible for your own private reading. It's well to read something that is good, something that is well worthwhile, and we encourage that, of course, that you read what others have written on the Bible and scripture.

Now, today we come to the sixth guideline for the understanding and the study of the scripture: obey the Bible. Obedience is rather essential, by the way, and I personally think that it's all-important.

You will recall the incident in the life of Abraham, that God called him to go to the land He would show him. And God brought him into that land. And then a famine came, and this man Abraham—God had appeared to him in Ur of the Chaldees, then appeared to him when he got in the land—but Abraham ran off down to Egypt when the famine came.

God never told him to do that. He's certainly being disobedient. Somebody said, "Well, after all, he wants to be very sensible. There's a famine, and everybody else was going to Egypt." Well, the point is, I think God would have kept Abraham there had he remained.

But Abraham didn't, and as a result, while he was down in the land of Egypt, God did not appear to him. And it was not until after he returned back into that land and why? Well, because of a lack of obedience.

And that's very important to see: that obedience is essential to an understanding of the Bible. In other words, until that man Abraham obeyed what God had already revealed to him, God was not prepared to give to him any new truth.

But the minute that we obey, then God opens up new truth for us. And after all, even the gospel, which is given to save our souls, the gospel is also given for the very definite purpose of obedience.

I wonder if you've ever noticed that the greatest document that's ever been written on the gospel is the Epistle to the Romans. And Paul put a parenthesis around it, or I almost think he put it in quotation marks, and he put around the gospel this matter of obedience.

Will you listen? In the very first chapter, verse five, Paul says, "By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name." Obedience to the faith.

And that was where Adam and Eve went off. You see, she not only listened to this enemy of God, the serpent, but she also disobeyed God. Obedience is very important to God. She disobeyed.

Now, you will find at the end of Romans that again Paul comes back to this. And next to the last verse of the epistle, he says, "But now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."

That's the last thing Paul says in this epistle: the obedience of faith. And what is between? Why, he sets before us the greatest document on what the gospel is: that great doctrinal section, that great practical section.

And you find that the last part is duty—what we're to do. And the important thing today is to recognize that God will not continue to reveal truth to you if you become disobedient.

You see, sin will separate us from God and from the Bible. It is something that if we permit it in our lives, either the Bible will keep us from sin or sin is going to keep us from the Bible.

You see, disobedience is something that is a very terrible thing, and we're to obey the Bible if we are to profit from its reading. It's given to us, Paul says, this is given for the obedience of faith, and how important that is.

It is said that Hamilcar, the famous Carthaginian general of the Punic Wars, he once said to his own son, Hannibal. He said this: "My son, Hannibal, will be a great general because of all my soldiers, he best knows how to obey."

Well, may I say to you, Hamilcar's statement certainly proved true because this man Hannibal is a great figure in the history of the world. His army was composed of paid mercenaries of many nations—Africans, Spaniards, Gauls, and Italians—yet he retained their confidence during 16 years of hardship and privation in a foreign land, never having a single mutiny in the camp.

What was his ability? Well, he was an extraordinary organizer. He trained these mixed bands into a most efficient whole. And what was it that he did? He taught them to be obedient—obedient to the orders, obedient to the commands.

And you remember that Lord Jesus says, "You'll know the doctrine if you keep it. You'll know of the doctrine." And the Old Testament says, "Taste of the Lord and see if He's good." Try this thing out. And that's the real test, by the way.

Many years ago, there were four clergymen. They were discussing the merits of the various translations of the Bible. And one of the clergymen, he said he liked the King James Version best because of its simple, beautiful English.

And another expressed himself as liking the American Revised Version because it is more literal and comes nearer to the Hebrew and Greek text. And still another, the third one, he said he liked the Moffatt translation because it had an up-to-date vocabulary.

And the fourth minister was silent. And finally, they asked him; they wanted to know his opinion. "Well," he said, "to tell the truth, I like my mother's translation best. She translated it into her life, and it was the most convincing translation I've ever seen."

And may I say to you, that is exactly the thing that needs to be done today. Best argument for the Bible—in fact, it was Cowper who said the best way to defend the gospel is to live a life worthy of the gospel. That's the way that you prove that it is the Word of God. How important that is.

And the little jingle that goes: "You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by things that you do and words that you say. Men read what you write, whether faithful or true. And by the way, what is the gospel according to you?" That is true, by the way; that little jingle is very important.

And someone else has written a little poem entitled "Reading the Bible."

"It's one thing to read the Bible through,

another thing to read to learn and do.

Some read it as their duty once a week,

but no instruction from the Bible seek.

Some read to bring themselves into repute

by showing others how they can dispute.

While others read because their neighbors do,

to see how long 'twill take to read it through.

Some read it for the wonders that are there,

how David killed a lion and a bear.

While others read it with uncommon care,

hoping to find some contradiction there.

But read it prayerfully and you will see,

although men contradict, God's words agree.

For what the early Bible prophets wrote,

we find that Christ and His apostles quote.

So trust no creed that trembles to recall

what has been penned by one and verified by all."

And you verify it, of course, in your life.

And you will recall Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and this is in his second epistle to the Corinthians, the third chapter. He says this in verse two: "Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Oh, how important it is to see, friends, that the important thing is to obey the Word of God. Obedience to the Word of God. To obey the Bible.

I believe that today Christianity's being hurt more by those that are church members than by any other group. That is one of the reasons today that you have all this rebellion on the outside—rebellion against the establishment, rebellion against the church, for it's the establishment.

And so many preachers are trying to get on the bandwagon, and they're not doing very well by doing it because they are not calling men and women to God at all, but are trying to become popular again because actually, we find that this group have turned their backs on the Bible and on the church and the Word of God.

Up at Berkeley, California, during a great deal of the protest marches up there—and I want to say that I'm not in sympathy with them—but there was one placard that was carried that interested me a great deal. The placard had four words on it: "Church No, Jesus Yes."

May I say to you that I personally believe that the church has many, many faults; I recognize that. And I know that a great many enemies can hide back of that today in criticizing the church.

But very candidly, there's no question about it: that the lives of a great many in the church are turning people away from the church today. There was a barrister in England years ago was asked about why he didn't become a Christian.

And he made this statement: he said, "I, too, might have become a Christian if I had not met so many who said they were Christians." How unfortunate that is, and we need to examine our own lives in that connection.

How well do you and I represent the cause of Christ today? The world, we're told, is not reading the Bible. I'm trying to get them to, by the way, and get them to the scripture and get them to bypass some of us because we're not a very attractive advertisement.

But regardless of that, we cannot escape. There are people who measure Christianity by you and by me, and they look at us today. May I say, it's important in this program to obey the Bible. Obey it. How tremendous that is.

And the scripture has a great deal to say about that. That great Bible reading that we referred to led by Ezra, recorded by Nehemiah, and you will find out there that the people wept when they heard the Word, and they went out and attempted to obey the Word of God. How important it is to do that.

Now, the last thing that I would like to pass on to you is the statement that's very important. It's the last guideline and the seventh: pass it on to others.

And I'd like to pass this on to you, by the way. Not only read the Bible, not only study the Bible, not only meditate on the Bible, and not only read what others have written about it, and not only obey it, but pass it on to others.

And frankly, if we obey it, that's what we'll be doing. That's what we all should do. Now, you're going to reach a saturation point in the study of the Bible unless you pass it on to others. And that's something that you need to recognize.

You know, God, for some reason, won't let you withdraw yourself from mankind in a monastery and become some sort of a walking Bible encyclopedia, knowing everything, and the rest of us remain ignorant.

I think that's the reason that He made the statement that we are not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Don't forget to assemble yourself with others.

And that's one of the reasons I think that God has blessed this program as He has, is because of the fact that we're attempting to pass it on to others. A preacher wrote me, and he said, "Dr. McGee, I'm using your program. Do you mind if I use your outlines and your notes?"

Of course, I don't mind. You can have anything of this poor preacher's written. And if it would prove helpful to you, why, we'd certainly want you to have it.

But that's exactly what we want to do is to pass it on to others because I find that when we pass it on to others, that it becomes a blessing. Now, I learned this lesson early in seminary.

I pastored a little church, and there were about five other fellows in my class that did the same thing: they had a little church. And for two years, I had that little church before I graduated.

And we five fellows, or six of us as the total was, we used to get together and talk things over. Because as young pastors, just seminary students not even dry back of the ears, and we were very green concerning many things, why, we'd get together and talk over our mutual problems, our mutual situations, and what we could do.

And in the course of the two years, we made a discovery: that we were taking what we were learning in class—that which was given to us—and we were passing it on to others, that which we learned.

And may I say this to you: that we found out that when we graduated, we actually were a year ahead of the other members of the class. Why? Because we were smarter than the others? No, may I say we were not.

I happened to be in a class in which there were several very bright young men, and we were not brighter than they were. We had just had the experience of passing it on to others, and when we did, God was able to funnel into us a great deal more than He might otherwise. This is important.

And we have also rejoiced in the fact—I've shared letters with you from time to time—and as we've said, these letters are always typical. And these letters tell of folks who began listening to the program, got interested, opened up their home, and they are now conducting a Bible class.

There are others that open their home and they just use our tapes, and they use the tapes of others. And many of them have pastors that come in; many pastors have started classes. And all of them testify to the fact that it's increased their knowledge of the Word of God.

That's what God wants us to do—pass it on. Don't forget: begin with prayer, read the Bible, study the Bible, meditate upon the Bible, read what others have written on the Bible, and pass the Bible on to others. And now until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Guest (Male): To review this great information, Guidelines for Understanding Scripture is included in *Briefing the Bible*. That's our free digital book that contains all of Dr. McGee's notes and outlines. Download your digital copy in our app or at TTB.org, or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE, and we'll send you an abbreviated print copy by mail.

Or, to get just the guidelines on their own, you can download our digital booklet called *How to Understand the Bible*. Again, you'll find it in our app or at TTB.org. And when you're in touch, let us know how you listen to Thru the Bible. This information may not seem very important, but it really does help us. So thanks for sharing.

I'm Steve Shwetz, and as always, I'll meet you back here next time as the Bible bus pulls up to Genesis and we begin to dig into God's Word book by book together. I hope that you'll join us and invite a friend alongside for the adventure. It's a journey you'll be glad you're on.