Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: If you ever scroll through the news headlines and think, "What in the world's going on?" well, take heart, you're not alone. Welcome to Thru the Bible. As we open God's Word this time, Dr. J. Vernon McGee reminds us of something deeply comforting. Even John the Baptist, after seeing Jesus face to face, had moments of confusion about how God's plan was unfolding. And that's good news for us, isn't it? God isn't rattled by our questions. He isn't frustrated by our doubts. Instead, He meets us right where we are and leads us forward.

I'm your host, Steve Schwetz, and I'm so glad you're here. Why don't you climb aboard the Bible Bus and find your seat and open your Bible to Matthew chapter 10. And while you do that, let's listen to what God's doing in the lives of our fellow passengers around the world. Pamela writes:

"Thank you for offering everyone a seat on the Bible Bus. A member from my local church in Estacada, Oregon, would always promote the Bible Bus in her encounters with everyone. She was a very loving deaconess who took her duty of spreading the seeds seriously. I started listening on the app two Julys ago. It greatly strengthened my faith and my daily activities, showing my devotion to God. On Thursday, July 24th, 2025, I accepted Jesus as my Savior and invited Him into my heart to guide me through life in my temporary home on earth. Thank you for this teaching that shines His light and plan for salvation."

Well, Pamela, welcome to the family of God. We're all rejoicing with you. And then next, we hear from Ruth, who shares this: "Been listening to Dr. McGee's teaching for 40 plus years. These messages have held me up through many storms and they are timeless lessons for application in ministry and life. God bless everyone who keeps this ministry going." Wow, Ruth, 40 years. That's quite an accomplishment. Thank you for that beautiful testimony of God's faithfulness through every season.

And then listen to this email from a listener who hops aboard the Bible Bus in Romania. It's a sentiment that I think many of us can relate to. "Listening to Dr. J. Vernon McGee explain how to leave our anxieties in God's hands, I realized this is a step that I must take as well. I'm praying that God helps me understand how to apply this practically within the context of my daily life and challenges." Isn't that honest? That's where the Word meets real life, isn't it?

And let me ask, what about you? What's it about God's Word that keeps bringing you back? What's He been teaching you lately? Well, we'd really love to hear your story. You can send us a note right from our app or email us at biblebus@ttb.org or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. And you can even leave us a voicemail at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Your story may be just the encouragement someone else needs to hear, so do that today.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for saving, for strengthening, and for sustaining Your people all around the world. Would You teach us how to trust You with our anxieties and then show us how to live out what we learn? Shape us, Lord, through Your truth and draw us closer to Your Son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Our study today brings us here to this ninth verse of the 10th chapter of Matthew. You follow along with us. Now this chapter, I should say again, is our Lord having enunciated the ethic, having demonstrated that He has the dynamic by the miracles He performed, now He commissions His apostles. They were disciples before; they're now His 12 apostles, and He sends them to the nation Israel and they are to preach the gospel of the kingdom.

Now they have the same credentials that He has. That is, they are told to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely ye have received, freely give. I have not heard any that used verse eight. I never hear them use the next verse, and it all goes together; it's in one package. Listen to this: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses."

Now I suggested some time ago to a faith healer that he go to the hospital. That's where they really needed him. But it's very interesting to me; it has to be in a place where they take an offering. And yet our Lord at this time, He told His own, "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses."

Somebody says, "Well, McGee, you mentioned the fact that your radio program has to have support." Yes, and I don't use the other either, by the way. But also, I think we need to put this in its correct context. There came a day—this was temporary during His three-year ministry—there came a day when He said at the end of His ministry, and Luke records it over in the 22nd chapter, verse 35. Listen to this: "He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." And the apostle says the servant is worthy of his hire. I believe that.

So that my only suggestion is that if you are going to take one of these verses, be sure and take the other verse to go with it. And I do not mean to be rough or rugged because one of the finest Pentecostal theologians is here in Southern California and he and I are very good friends. And some of you may be surprised; we have lunch together and discuss these things. We're lots closer together than a great many people think we are. I just mark this down as something for us to pay attention to and interpret it in the right context. This was temporary; it was for that day.

Now He says in verse 11: "And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence." And that certainly is not for today. The best place to go is to a motel and not worry people today in the day when people are busy. Some folks still have a prophet's chamber, and I know where many of them are in this country and they're delightful places. But in this day when people are so busy, when you go through the country, I found out the best thing to do instead of going into a town and say, "Now who's worthy in this town? Who's your outstanding Christian?" then go over and knock on his door and say, "Well, look, I'm here." I don't think our Lord would say that this is the way to do it today. He is talking to these men under those local circumstances for a three-year period, and I trust that we can interpret this in that type of a context.

Now He says: "When ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you." Now He's not talking about the physical house; the people that are there. Verse 14: "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet."

Now that is not quite our commission today. And I don't think this is quite the attitude of modern missionaries, and certainly when we go out to other places to hold meetings. I've never gone outside of a town and shaken the dust off my feet. Now I won't say that I haven't felt like it in some places, but I've never done that. And I've felt this was given to these men for that particular time.

He says now in verse 15: "Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city." And next chapter we're going to find out what really happened to some of those cities.

Now we come to verse 16 and He says: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Now having spoken into the local situation, He gives them certain great principles by which they are to go as His witnesses. These principles are good for time and for eternity, and they certainly are good for today. And the child of God today should be wise as a serpent, but harmless as a dove.

And it's dangerous to be one and not the other. I've met some that are wise as a serpent; they're clever, but they're not harmless as doves. They take you, if I may use a common expression. Then there are others that are quite gullible. They're harmless as doves, but they're not wise as serpents. A serpent is dangerous and a dove is in danger. So that you need to combine both.

He says: "But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues." Now I've never been scourged in a synagogue, but I have in some of our good churches. Verse 18: "And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles." Now that was to be in that day and those three years, and it certainly happened to those that were His. And it has happened at times to those in the church.

Now He says: "But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Now I believe that in that day when those men had no opportunity to prepare at all when they were arrested and brought up, that was the thing that they attempted to do. They just made no preparation.

Now should that apply today? In the fact of the matter is there are a great many people that don't think you ought to prepare a message. I was in seminary with a fellow, he was a little odd in more ways than one. And one of the things, he got up to preach without any preparation. A friend of mine in the seminary, he and I decided one night to go and hear him preach. And friends, I want to tell you, you could sure tell he hadn't prepared. On the way back, this friend of mine who had even more nerve than I got, he said to him, said, "Did you prepare that message tonight?" He said, "Of course I didn't." "Well," he said, "how did you do?" "Well," he said, "the Spirit of God gave it to me." My friend said to him says, "I don't think you ought to blame that message on the Spirit of God."

I think today we should prepare. Another friend of mine was in Temple, Texas, years ago when the trains were running. And he had to change trains there on a Sunday morning and catch another one. He noticed a man there that had a long frock-tailed coat and he had one too. And he was walking up and down with his notes because he was to preach that Sunday morning. And this man came over to him and said to him, "Are you a preacher?" He said, "Yes." And then my friend said to him, "Are you a preacher?" Said, "Yes." And said to him, "What are you doing there?" "Well," he said, "I'm going over my notes for my sermon this morning." And this man said, "Do you mean to tell me that you prepare your sermon?" He said, "Yes." Said, "Don't you?" Said, "No, says I just get up and let the Spirit of God speak through me." "Well," he says, "suppose when you get up immediately that the Spirit of God doesn't give you the message? What do you do then?" "Oh," he says, "I just mess around until He does."

And friends, that's good. There are a whole lot of them that just mess around today. Now this is no excuse for a man not studying today, and it has been misinterpreted by a great many folk. But if we put this back in the local situation, we'll have no problem with it at all.

Now He says here in verse 21: "And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." The coming of Christ into the world, friends, let's face it, it didn't bring unity; it divided man. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, it's the power of God. It's divided mankind. It divides a family. When one accepts Christ and the other doesn't, you have a division there.

Verse 22: "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Now I'll deal with this verse for it's given again in Matthew 24:13. And in both cases here it was for a three-year period and Matthew 24 it's for the great tribulation period. It couldn't be over seven years. And what He means here, He'll be able to keep them during that period. I'll deal with it when we get to Matthew 24.

"Now, but when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel"—not the cities of the world, but the cities of Israel—"till the Son of man be come." Now what does He mean by that? Until He is manifested before the nation. It's difficult for us today to conceive of the fact that our Lord covered that nation, and there was a real division in it concerning Him. He could ask the question, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" And believe me, everybody had his opinion about Him. And today I still think He's the most controversial person that's ever been in the world.

Now He comes back to the disciple here in verse 24 and gives him general instructions, and again here are great principles which you and I can certainly apply, but the direct interpretation were to those men. Now notice this: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." We need to keep in mind we are merely representing the Lord Jesus Christ and He must come first, or else we're in trouble. Verse 25—and I mean by the way in trouble with Him: "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" You don't worry about what they say about you if you're being faithful to Him, because they didn't say nice things about Him.

Verse 26: "Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known." Friend, your life is going to be turned wrong side out someday and mine too, every individual, lost and saved for that matter. And we better have the inside of it looking as well as the outside.

Now verse 27: "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." And you know, I always think of radio as being the best way to preach from the housetops. You remember they used to put aerials up there? Many of you folk have an aerial out, especially if you have difficulty getting a certain station. You put the aerial up there on the housetop. Well, this is the way we preach from the housetop today. I think it's a good way.

Verse 28: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." In other words, fear God. Someone asked Cromwell why he was such a brave man. He said, "I have learned that when you fear God, you do not have any man to fear." That's what our Lord is saying here.

Verse 29: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." Isn't that marvelous? He takes care of those little sparrows. You ever watch one of those little sparrows? Back east, I was in a hotel in a downtown area and I bet there were a thousand little old sparrows out there around a fountain. And I thought, my, there's not a one of them He doesn't know about.

It's marvelous, isn't it? But not only that, verse 30: "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Now God loves you, the Lord Jesus loves you more than your mother ever loved you. She never counted your hair, did she? He has. He knows the number. "Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." Just think of that. If He thinks that of a sparrow, you would never get lost, friends, from Him. That is, you can be lost, but you never get to the place where He doesn't know where you are.

Verse 32: "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." I don't want to deny Him. I don't want to make a fool of myself because I think that we need to use wisdom, wise as a serpent. But I tell you, we don't want to ever deny Him. Verse 33: "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." I wish that little verse could get into the United Nations today and into some liberal preachers' thinking. He didn't come to bring peace this time; sin's still in the world. And as long as it's here, God says there's no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Now He says: "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." How true that's been even now for 1900 years. It was true then; it's true today.

Verse 37: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Unless you have really committed your life to Him, paid a price. I wouldn't talk much about my commitment to Christ. I hear a great deal about a commitment to Christ today. I soft-pedal that because I find that Simon Peter and myself never been too good at this type of thing. But thank God He's faithful. That's the wonder of it all.

And verse 38: "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." I wish I could have heard Him use that expression "not worthy of me." Many of us are not. But thank God He'll not throw us overboard. But it means He's not going to use us unless we're really committed to Him. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." That's one of the many paradoxes that to follow the Lord Jesus, it'll bring right into reality.

Verse 40: "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."

Now you don't do this for salvation; you do this for a reward, you see. That is the important thing. He's talking to those that are His own. Now the movement continues. When we come to chapter 11, what is going to be the reception of His message? Now you see, He enunciated the ethic, He performed the miracles, He sent His disciples out, and they covered all the cities of Israel. They went down the byways and highways of that day. What was the reception? Well, let me write over chapter 11 what it was: rejection. Rejection.

And this chapter marks a turning point in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. After He sent forth the disciples to present His claims, what's the reaction and reception? Rejection. That's it. And we find as we begin here that even John the Baptist was a little disturbed. Let's get our foot in the door of this chapter. "It came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities." Now having sent them out, He went out. That's important to see. We need to get the Word out today. We need to help others get the Word out.

Now verse two: "Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples." Now apparently John's been in prison a little while because way back in the fourth chapter we were told then that he was put in prison. And John now has heard about Jesus and his disciples been watching Him and reporting to John. And John is expecting any day for the prison door to open and Jesus to deliver him because he thinks He's coming immediately to the throne.

And he said unto Him—sent his disciples now, two of them—they came and said, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" John was puzzled. Frankly, I think this question's a logical one. Many have criticized him for it. I think he had every reason to believe that the King would have assumed power by this time. And he's now definitely puzzled because He's moving so slowly.

And I think the answer of Jesus is remarkable, and it can only be understood in the light of the credentials which the Old Testament said the Messiah would have. And you'll notice His answer: "Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Now if you go back to Isaiah 35 and to Isaiah 61, you will find out that when the Messiah came, here would be His credentials. And the credentials were the ones He'd presented.

Now He said, "You go back and tell John what you've seen, and John will recognize the credentials." And He says, "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John. Now John, who had been His forerunner, is puzzled. Our Lord now is going to defend him and He's going to pay a great tribute to this man. We'll wait until next time to see that. May the Lord richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: We all sometimes wonder why things unfold the way they do. We don't have all the answers, do we? But you know, studying the Word of God, we're reminded of this: God has a plan for this world and He's working it out in His perfect time.

If you want to look at what the Bible says about the future more closely, Dr. McGee has got several booklets on prophecy available as free downloads in our app or at ttb.org. And then don't forget that there's more great teaching ahead this weekend. So join me for Dr. McGee's Sunday sermon "Some Seed" from Matthew 13. You can also listen with our app at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE for help in finding a local radio station that carries Thru the Bible.

And that same number, 1-800-65-BIBLE, is also your direct line if we can help you find a resource by Dr. McGee to deepen your study of God's Word. And when you reach out, would you tell us how you hop aboard the Bible Bus? As we've said before, this information really does help us to be good stewards. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll see you when the Bible Bus comes your way again next time. Or you can always climb aboard anytime, anywhere on our digital platforms. We live in a great day to study God's Word.