Thru the Bible

Steve: Did you know that God keeps a book of remembrance? What is it? Welcome to Thru the Bible. We'll learn more as our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee steers the Bible bus through the Old Testament book of Malachi beginning in chapter 3. Now as you open your Bible and you find your seat, Greg and I have a few great things to share about God's faithfulness this past year.

Greg: It's true, Steve, and every year we come to the end and we look back and we think, "He did it again." He provided for literally hundreds of ministries that have already been going on. He also helped us expand the ministry in different broadcasts, different languages, different home groups. It's really overwhelming, and I say that as a guy that has a front-row seat to this amazing thing God is doing.

Steve: Doors of opportunity that were not open in January of this year are now huge opportunities going into 2026.

Greg: I'd love to start with something new in a ministry that we love to talk about, and that's our team in Uganda. What an origin story with that, and you have to go back and hear that. But just to see, our goal was to get a five-year program in Uganda in the Luganda language, and that happened. Before those five years were even done, they were saying, "Hey, there's some other languages."

Steve: We expanded into the western language of Runyankole or Runyakitara, and that has been incredibly impactful. In fact, then we went to Juba Arabic for South Sudan, which was something that Ray Alary and I for a decade had been trying to get TTB into Juba Arabic.

Then it went into East African English. The man, David Mumbambi, who did the Luganda is now doing the East African English. Then this year we expanded into Luo, which is spoken up in the north. It was my privilege to go there for the dedication, so to speak. It was already on the air for one month. We also went to the west and celebrated the completion of the five years of the Runyakitara. So it was a kind of a bookend trip.

Greg: It was so exciting and such a difficult place in some ways to do ministry, just with the logistics and the infrastructure. Yet the people and the team that God has given us there have just been outstanding. They've worked together and they've gotten things done.

I probably shouldn't talk a lot about this, but they don't use "African time" in that part of the country with our partners. They get their stuff done on time and they continue to push, and it's admirable. You'll remember because you and I traveled there. I tease them when we go there because we rarely get lunch because they drive us all over the country.

Steve: They drive us all over, literally all over the country, and we always are going to a radio interview somewhere where the listeners are going to call in and tell us how much they love the program.

Greg: Particularly with this new language of Luo, I experienced something I don't think I've ever seen or been a part of or even heard of in over 30 years of doing this type of work. One month into the program, we had about 70 or so pastors gathered in the city of Gulu, which is up in the north where they speak Luo, and they were all just praising God for this new broadcast.

Steve: In one month, 30 days. That is nothing in terms of building an audience like you've talked about before, where it typically takes six months or more.

Greg: At least 6 to 12 months before you start hearing from anyone. It's a credit to our team in Uganda and the way they've networked with the local pastors and the support that the church locally has for Thru the Bible.

Steve: I think about the passage that says the fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few. It makes me think about what other fields are white unto harvest? Where are there a bunch of pastors waiting for solid Bible teaching? They didn't have an opportunity to go to seminary, and they're struggling to get through scripture. Suddenly, a program like Thru the Bible takes them systematically, Genesis to Revelation. And that's just the pastors. What about the people? The people that aren't the pastors. It's an exciting ministry that serves so many people so well.

Greg: It is. What we just shared with you is highlighted in our year-end newsletter article that I wrote. I'm not promoting it because I wrote it, but it would be nice if you read it. I took the trouble to write it. Seriously, we love it when you get our newsletter because there are about seven or eight other things I highlighted that we don't have time to talk about. The newsletter is so rich with teaching from Dr. McGee, listener responses, and what's going on around the world. You can go to ttb.org and sign up. It's very easy. You can call 1-800-65-BIBLE or just send us an email at biblebus@ttb.org, and we'll put you on our newsletter mailing list.

Steve: Great. Greg, let me pray for us as we begin. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your faithfulness to us as we have looked back at the end of yet another year and how you have not only maintained the ministry of Thru the Bible, but you have grown it in ways that we did not anticipate. Lord, we want to be faithful. We want to continue to serve you in whatever way you have for us, and we pray that you would continue to open doors for this ministry in 2026 and beyond. Bless the teaching as it goes out now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Malachi chapter 3 on Thru the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, we got last time down to verse 17. Now we find here that we didn't quite conclude this particular section, especially in this eighth sarcastic question that they put to the Lord. They always were offended and had hurt feelings when God would dare to question them. God said, remember here, "Your words, they have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?"

And God puts it on the line: "Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?" Well, we've had this before us back in Zechariah. This is something that continued on even as we see it in the time of the Lord Jesus when he came to this earth. They were going through a ritual and a form. There were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the scribes, all going through a form of religion. A form of godliness but denying actually the power thereof.

Somebody has raised the question with me, "Well, could you give a definition of what is real worship?" Well, we have a good one given in the scripture, Isaiah in the Old Testament. It's in the 58th chapter, beginning at verse 3. I'm going to take the time today to read this. He says, "Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors."

Now you see the same problem was way back in Isaiah's day. They fasted and they afflicted their souls, and God didn't do anything about it. Now will you listen, verse 4: "Behold, ye fast for strife and debate"—just want to have a religious argument—"and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high." God says, "I don't care about your fasting and going through all of that and wanting to debate religion and have so much zeal."

I'd just like to pause right here to say we get, well I suppose there comes to my desk about five times a week a letter, a very fat letter. I can always tell by looking at it, even the way it's addressed, that it's someone that wants to enter into controversy with me or straighten me out. I generally open the letter until I get acquainted with the name. I start in and it's somebody wanting to argue, and there's generally 15 or 20 pages there, sometimes closely typewritten, and I couldn't even read it even if I wanted to.

So may I say to those folk listening in: I never read your letters. I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, I don't know, but whatever I'm missing, I'm glad I'm missing it. I just put them in a wastebasket. Every now and then my secretary will read one and tell me what it says and we just put it in a wastebasket. Now, we're not getting anywhere arguing. You can differ with my interpretation, but may I say if you believe that the Bible is the word of God, you just pray for me if you think my interpretation is wrong. It could be, by the way. You ought to test it. Don't try to straighten me out because there've been experts that have tried that and they just haven't gotten anywhere. I'm rather stubborn, I guess.

Now will you notice, he says here in verse 5: "Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness?"

Now here's real worship: "to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward."

Now what he's saying is this: When you come in to worship God, make sure that you've got a life to back it up because that is pretty important. In fact, God wants a life that will back up what you have to say. So here's an Old Testament definition of what is real worship: You have to have a life to back it up. The ritual itself has no value unless the heart is right before God. This is something we need to keep before us.

Now I'm going to pick up at verse 16 today. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." Now, a book of the Lord was written. This matter of the book that was written is something that we'll be taking up in the book of Revelation, but I said last time that we would want to have a word to say about this today, and it ties into the book of Revelation in this sense.

In the book of Revelation, you have there where God says, "I will remove, I'll erase your name." I want to say to you that that's just about as strong language as you can possibly get. Very frankly, that's one of the difficult passages in the book of Revelation to understand when he goes on to say that he is apt to erase their name. He says, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

I'm going to make a suggestion today because of what we have here. If you feel like God has a set of books up there that he's keeping, I don't think so. But very frankly, the only way you and I can understand this is because of that figure of speech. I can understand that he puts down in the book of life those that are saved, and I can understand that he can put down in a book those that receive a reward or some recognition. It makes it clear to me. But I don't believe that God has a literal book up there; he may have. We're told in the last part of the book of Revelation when the lost are brought, that the books were opened and there were several of them there. There was the book of those that were saved.

I want to put it like this, that it's more or less like a report card that I used to get in school. You get a report card if you're a student; that's all the requirement, all you had to do is enroll. Now you get in the Lamb's book of life by accepting Christ as your Savior, and that will never be removed. Now in that report card that he has of you, you're now in the Lamb's book of life, you're enrolled. Now you're going to start making grades. He's going to put down how you're doing about your Bible study. What is he giving you on that? Are you making an A these days, or are you failing the course? Then how is your life? How is your service for him? I think all of these things he takes note of and they are recorded.

I believe that when he says to the church in Sardis that their names are removed from the book of life, that their names are blotted out, it has to do with service because that's what he's talking about there. It's the service that they render. I think that many of us will get a report card, and we're going to get one, but some are going to be a failure in the Christian life. Paul put it like this, that our works are to be tested. He says it's to be tested by fire. Now if a man's works are wood, hay, and stubble and all consumed by fire, will he be saved? Paul says, "Sure, he'll be saved so as by fire." There'll be a lot of people in heaven going to smell like they were bought at a fire sale, and they were, brand plucked from the burning, if you please. They did nothing. Nothing was put on the report card.

So that what we have here, that book of remembrance, God just doesn't need to remember things because he is the one who really has a computer mind. It's all there. That is what I think he's talking about here. A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name. In other words, the record now is of their works, their service, their love for him. Those are the things. Salvation is free, it's by faith, never by works. After you've been saved, your works really begin to count. That's when they really begin to count and they become all-important.

That's the reason that I have dwelt on that, because this book of remembrance is a very beautiful and wonderful thing. You find that it's mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. You go back to Psalm 56 and it's verse 8, and I'll read it. This is a lovely verse: "Thou tellest my wanderings." The Lord knows exactly where you've been all the time. Maybe your neighbors don't know, your church members don't know, and the pastor doesn't know. God knows. The darkness is light to him. He knows where you've been, he knows what you've done. "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle." I think that's one of the loveliest things.

My friend, when I think of that godly mother that's weeping because of a wayward child, God put those tears in a bottle. Can you imagine it? How wonderful that he's taken note of that. And this man that has served God and then has been disappointed by his brethren, the way they've treated him, and he's wept tears of it. God says, "I put those tears in a bottle." Then he says here, "Are they not in thy book?" You see, there's a book that records our life, friends.

I've always felt that it probably is going to be a sort of a movie. I think that he'll run the movie through for us. You'll see your life from birth to the death. It'll all be there. It won't be what the preacher said at the funeral about how wonderful you were and what a great church member you were. He's just going to run it just like it was. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see mine. I guess we'll have to take a look at it someday.

Now let me read: "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." Isn't that a lovely way? God's going to make up his jewels. The church is going to be there; the church is the pearl of great price. Israel never valued pearls very much, but Gentiles always have. So the pearl of great price is the church. God's going to make up his jewels someday. There'll be a lot of them. "And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." This remnant during this time. "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." We're living in a day as they lived and it will be at the end of the age. You won't be able really to tell the righteous from the unrighteous, and it's difficult today to tell who really are the saved.

Now we come to the fourth chapter here. I want to get into this and it's very brief. Actually, the fourth chapter is not in the Hebrew Bible as the fourth chapter; it's just the end of the third chapter. In the translations, this was made a chapter. Only six verses, and I personally never really found out just why. Now you have in this fourth chapter the prediction of the day of the Lord and of the Sun of Righteousness who ushered it in.

This first verse is a vivid description of the Great Tribulation period. "For, behold, the day cometh"—what is that? The day of the Lord. We've certainly been talking about that—"that shall burn like an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble"—in other words, consumed. We're going to see that in the book of Revelation, that at one fell swoop, one-fourth of the population of the world will be wiped out. "And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

Now, this hasn't anything in the world to do with this doctrine today that at death, death ends it all for the unsaved, that it's annihilation. The Bible doesn't teach that. The body goes into the grave, lost and saved. You go into eternity someplace, friend, your soul and spirit. This doesn't teach that. It just teaches the fact that they are to be judged in the Great Tribulation and removed from the earth scene.

Now he says in verse 2: "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." I'm going to pass over that today because I'll deal with that in our last study tomorrow when we speak on the Sun of Righteousness. The Sun of Righteousness in the Old Testament is the same person who is the Bright and Morning Star in the New Testament. Christ is never called the Sun of Righteousness in the New Testament, and he's never called the Bright and Morning Star back in the Old Testament. There's a reason for that; we'll see that next time.

Verse 3: "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts," that is, when he comes to this earth to establish his kingdom. Then the wicked will be put down. He will break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. That is the language of scripture, and it's just too bad if you don't like it.

Verse 4: "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Now Israel's going to move into a period in which heaven goes off the air. God will not be broadcasting. There will appear another Zechariah 400 years later serving in the temple. Luke tells us about it, when the angel Gabriel appears to him and announces the birth of John the Baptist. The silence of 400 years is broken. In the meantime, they're to remember the law of Moses. That will be their light. That will be God's word for them. They were under the Mosaic system.

Now verse 5: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Now, there are two witnesses that appear in the last days. We'll see that in Revelation. I'm almost sure that one of the witnesses is Elijah. At the Passover feast in the Orthodox Jew's home, a chair is put at the table and no one sits in it. That's for Elijah, who shall come.

When John the Baptist appeared, they thought he was Elijah, but John the Baptist was not Elijah in any sense of the word. It does say he could have been, but he wasn't. That's the important thing; that's an if-y question. If Christ had established his kingdom, then John the Baptist would have been Elijah. You say, "How could that be?" I don't know, because it didn't happen that way. That's an if-y question. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." John the Baptist was not that because he was announcing the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." That's a little different than announcing the great and dreadful day of the Lord that was coming. I do not know who the second witness is, but I'll make some suggestions when we get to it in Revelation.

Verse 6: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." The Old Testament closes with a curse. It reveals the fact that the curse that came yonder in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, the curse has not been removed. Therefore, we'll see next time something about this: the curse is not removed until the Lord Jesus comes to this earth the second time. Now, after our study tomorrow when we'll talk about the Sun of Righteousness and the Bright and Morning Star, we will go then to the book of Revelation. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve: Find everything you need to stay up to date on the Bible Bus in our app or at ttb.org, or just call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a Bible study resource by Dr. McGee. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll meet you back here next time as the Bible Bus comes around your corner. Thru the Bible exists to take God's whole word to the whole world, and we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God's word go today?