Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Did you ever wish you could have sat at Jesus' feet and just listened? Well today, in a manner of speaking, you'll get that chance. Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, your host. Our teacher, of course, is Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and he's about to guide us through Matthew 18, where we'll hear straight from Jesus himself.

It's a great study, one that answers some questions about the kingdom of heaven and talks about the importance of forgiveness. So go ahead, grab your favorite seat on the Bible Bus and as you get comfortable, let's hear from a fellow passenger named Fred, who hopped back aboard after a long break.

Fred: This is Fred. I live in Grand Prairie, Texas. I was saved in 1971, having been a former professional drummer. I should be dead like a lot of my friends were at that time, but I got saved. Then I joined a questionable group and was in that for about three years. When I got out, I started listening to J. Vernon McGee and Thru the Bible on the radio here and there in the Southern California area in the mid-seventies.

I eventually went to Dallas Theological Seminary and got a master's degree in Christian education and was in ministry full-time for a long time in counter-cult missionary work. Then recently, after having had some health problems and being out of ministry retired, I started listening to Thru the Bible again, back in Hosea this last session. I decided to continue in Genesis and just ordered a set of notes and outlines. I appreciate all that you guys are doing and how Dr. McGee has helped me. I hope to help more people and hope to be teaching the Bible somewhere again in his time. God bless. Bye-bye.

Steve Schwetz: Well Fred, I'm so glad you're here, and I'll continue to save your seat as we travel along. Keep us posted as you fling the seed and share the word with others. We'd love to hear from you as well. If you've been on the Bible Bus for a while, what's standing out to you in a fresh new way? What advice would you share with someone who is just climbing aboard?

If you're new, what brought you here? What's surprised or excited you so far? Send us a note through our feedback section in the app, email us at biblebus@ttb.org, or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, write to Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Or like Fred, leave us a voicemail at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, increase our desire for your word and let each word that we hear delight our soul. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now turn to Matthew 18 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now in the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we have a very wonderful chapter here. We find first the Lord places a little child in the midst as an object lesson for the kingdom of heaven today. Then he pronounces the parable of the lost sheep, he provides a new pattern for conduct in the church, and he proclaims a new proviso for forgiveness.

You see, these chapters here, though they do not seem to further advance the movement that's in the Gospel, they do fill out many of the dark corners which have arisen because of the sudden digression in the kingdom of heaven due to the rejection of the King. Matthew 13 gave us an overall outline of the kingdom of heaven in this age in the mystery parable discourse, but there are still questions to be answered. These chapters I find very helpful in answering many of the questions that arise.

We find that the new birth is made essential in entering the kingdom. Let's begin there with verse one: "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" I wonder if you detect anything there of personal ambition, or is that just because I have a very critical mind that I see it there? I feel that these men probably have been talking it over, and I suppose that maybe two or three of them would express themselves and probably get the impression that they might be the ones that could reasonably be considered as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Our Lord did a rather sensational thing here. Jesus called a little child unto him. Something that you may miss here is this: he set him in the midst of them. What does that tell you? It tells us that the little child without hesitation came to him. I think this is a very remarkable thing. The little ones came to him. Suffer the little ones to come unto me and forbid them not. The problem was not in getting the little ones to come to him; the problem was to stop the older ones, the adults, from hindering the little ones to come to him.

I think this is a very lovely thing that we have here. Our Lord put him in the midst and said, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Now, that verse has certainly been abused and misunderstood. There are those that think that he's talking about reversion and not conversion. They think that it means you are to revert back to your childhood in some unusual fashion, or you are to become like a juvenile in your actions.

I am afraid that we've got a lot of the saints that act like spoiled children, and we've already seen our Lord talked about spoiled brats also. A lot of the saints think that's what it means. He's not talking about going back to a former childhood, but rather of going on to a new life. Here our Lord gives logic to the thinking of the disciples as he diverts their attention from the matter of holding an exalted place in the kingdom to that of primary importance, namely of first being able to secure entrance into that kingdom.

This is just as radical as what our Lord said to Nicodemus that night. He said to him, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Unless you are born again, you're not even going to be able to see the kingdom of God. So the important thing here is the new birth, and that is what he's talking about here. You've got to become a little child in the sense that you've got to be born again, and when you're born again, you start out as a child spiritually.

So many today like to be very active, be doing things. There are a lot of folk that like to give testimonies. You'd be surprised over the years the number of requests that I've had from so-called new converts that wanted to come and give their testimony. May I say to you, that is the same thing he's talking about here, that these men said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? We'd like to get a good slice of the kingdom. We'd like to be pretty prominent in it."

This is a day that has overemphasized activity and methods and getting everybody involved. This is the savors of that. Now our Lord said that if you have been converted, then think of your spiritual age. You're to become a little child. Now should a little child get up and blabber out a testimony immediately? Should a little child be an officer in a church? Paul says not, and I think our Lord is saying something like that here. This is a very important section as you can see.

Now he goes on to say this in verse four: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Now, this is the thing that's important: to go back to the entrance into the kingdom and not the position that is in the kingdom. When you go back and emphasize the entrance, the new birth, then you'll find out that that one is the greatest in the kingdom. "And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me."

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Friends, that's rather strong language, by the way. What he's doing here in this entire section, it seems to me, is he makes the evangelization of children a divine imperative. He gives top priority to this type of ministry, and I commend anyone that's working with children today. There's nothing as important as that.

Remember the story told of Dwight L. Moody? He came home one night and his family asked him, "How many converts did you have tonight?" He said, "Well, I had two converts and a half of a convert." They said, "Oh, you had two adults and one child?" He said, "Oh no, no. I had two children and one adult. The adult was an old man; he didn't have but a half of a life to give anyway. He's just half of a convert. The little one is the important one."

We today just don't emphasize that. I guess they never did. A pastor of a Scottish church years ago turned in his resignation. The elders asked him, "Well, why are you resigning?" Well, he said, "All year, I've just had one convert, and that was Wee Bobby Moffatt." Well, Wee Bobby Moffatt was the man who actually opened Africa to missionary work. That was the biggest year that preacher ever had, I don't care whether he had a thousand other converts.

You see, the little ones, our Lord is putting a great emphasis upon them here, and it grows out of this question that they asked him. Verse seven: "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire."

I can't think of anything more harsh, friends, than this right here. "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." There are two things I want you to see here that are all-important today, and especially if you're a person who's lost a little one by death.

When it says here "their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven," this is one of the verses that the belief in a guardian angel has come from. In fact, this is the primary verse. Many people believe that all of us have a guardian angel. Now we may have, don't misunderstand me. I don't know whether we do or not. If I have one, he hasn't caught up with me yet, so I don't know too much about him.

But I personally am sure that this passage hasn't anything to do with guardian angels. The word for angels here is "spirits." Now what he's saying is this: that in heaven their spirits do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. What he's saying is this: don't you offend one of these little ones. Now when one of these little ones dies, his spirit goes immediately to be with God. All little ones, they go to heaven, friends.

They go to heaven not because they're innocent or they happen to be your child, but they go to heaven because Jesus died for them. That's what he's talking about here. Don't you offend them, don't you get in their way, let them come to me. He says even if they die, their spirit's going to be right there in the presence of my Father. So many people wonder about their little ones. Well, David knew about his when the little one died.

He said there's no use mourning anymore; he's not coming to me, but one of these days I'm going to him. That is a very precious truth. So many people that have lost little ones, I've lost a little one also. I have one buried up here in Altadena in Southern California. Every now and then, to this good day, and that was years ago, I go by there and put a few flowers there. She's not there; she's with him. I just go there because that's all I've got left now.

But someday, someday, some golden someday, I'm going to be there and when I am, I'm going to see my little one, she's saved. I have two children, and I always hesitate to say that because only have one living, and people begin to look around, they think maybe something's happened to me that I don't know how to count or something. I have one in heaven and one that's out in Pasadena. She's married.

I must confess I worried more about her than I ever have the little one in heaven. I know where she is and someday I'll go to her. This is a glorious passage, friends, and he says don't block their way. Have you ever stopped to think how important this is in this day when there are so many crimes against these little ones? Recently in Southern California, parents, that is the mother and a stepfather, left a precious little girl along the freeway up here in the San Joaquin Valley.

I was up there at the time. How shocking it was to read about it. There were cold nights there. They just wanted to get rid of the little one. May I say to you, I'll be honest with you, friends, you may not believe in a hell, but I want to say this: if there isn't a hell, there ought to be one for folks like that, and there is one. I believe there's one. He said it would be better that anything happened to you than cause these little ones to offend.

This is a great passage for this day in which we live. Now he moves from that into this wonderful parable here. He says, "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." Now, this is different from the parable in Luke 15 of the lost sheep. There the lost sheep was lost and needed to be found. Actually here it's a little different. The emphasis here is upon saving the lost, not finding the lost.

"How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray." Now we come here to a new pattern, and notice how he closes this: "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."

He'll take care of them until they get to the age of accountability, but parent, it's your responsibility until then. My, I'm afraid our school systems today are making guinea pigs out of the little ones. They're paying an awful price today in our schools. They've become nothing but guinea pigs in many cases through a great many crackpot leaders today that we have. May I say we have a tremendous responsibility before God here.

Now he says in this section, he provides a new pattern for conduct in the church. "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Now if he's trespassed against you, you go to him. "And if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." Now this is order in the church.

"And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." Now there are those that like to smother things and cover them up today. That's not the way that he said to do it. You're to try to work it out in an amicable and a very peaceful manner and a quiet manner, but if the individual or the group won't let you work it out, then my friend, you're to take it to the church.

Now he says here again: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." We've had this before us at another time and I pass over it. "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Now as touching anything, somebody says you mean if we agree down here touching anything that he'll hear us? Well, why don't you read all of it? "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." He'll hear them as touching anything that's in his name. This is the simplest form here, actually, of church government, by the way. On the day of Pentecost, it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and the breaking of bread and in fellowship and in prayers. They were gathered together in his name.

Now we have verse 21, this last section on forgiveness here. We have a real example in Simon Peter. "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" This man Simon Peter, he really thought that he was being magnanimous. Two or three times was the limit according to the rabbis, but Simon Peter was willing to go seven times.

But actually, Peter's generosity was parsimonious in comparison to the new estimation of Jesus. Listen to this: "Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." That's 490 times, I think, and by that time, may I say that things may be just pretty much worked out. If not, why, both of them have reached old age to the extent it won't amount to much anyway, will it?

I think this is really, shall I say, go the limit, and that's exactly what our Lord is saying here. "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made."

"The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." In other words, he said I'd like to pay it back on installment plan. "Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." And I want to tell you the amount was quite a sum, about 12 million dollars. That's a lot to forgive anyone, and I think our Lord's using a ridiculous illustration.

But the same servant went out and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence, and that's 17 dollars, over against 12 million. And he laid hands on him, took him by the throat, saying, "Pay me that thou owest." His fellowservant fell down at his feet and besought him, saying, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee." And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.

So when the fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he'd called him, said unto him, "O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant?" His lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors.

"So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Now may I say that is a new principle, but that today is something that is not quite the basis for forgiveness for believers. Listen to him: "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Now because he's forgiven us, we are to forgive, and we're to forgive the same way: tenderhearted, forgiving one another. This parable that he's concluded with of the king who forgave his servant, but the man in turn refused to forgive another, it illustrates the principle of forgiveness, you see. If God forgave our sins on the same way we forgive, none of us would ever get forgiven. This is a great principle after you become a child of God, because you have been forgiven and it's on that basis we're to forgive today. This is the principle of Christian conduct, of course. Now we will leave off there. We'll begin next time with chapter 19. Until then, my beloved, may God richly bless you.

Steve Schwetz: Well, I love the connection that Dr. McGee made between the parable of forgiveness and Ephesians 4:32, don't you? Now as we go about our day, let's look for ways to be tenderhearted towards one another and forgive each other. If you'd like to spend maybe a little more time in Matthew, get our app or visit ttb.org to access several really good resources, including our Bible Companions that I've mentioned before. You can download your free copy today and bring it with you on the Bible Bus next time.

Let it be your guide as you study on your own or maybe together with a group of friends. That's all available in that Bible Companion. Again, you'll find them in our app or at ttb.org, or just call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find it. And when you get in touch, why don't you tell us how you catch the Bible Bus, whether it's on the radio or with one of our many digital offerings. We'd love to know because it really does help us make wise ministry decisions.

I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll see you when the Bible Bus rolls your way again. And remember, you don't have to wait for it to pull up at a certain time or place. You can hop aboard anytime, anywhere through the app or online. God's word is never out of reach and there's always a seat saved just for you. Thru the Bible is a five-year study of God's entire word, and together we discover God's purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?