Thru the Bible

Guest (Male): Do you ever wonder if you have to be extraordinary before God can use you? Maybe more talented, more polished, more put together? Well, this time on the Bible bus, we're going to see that Jesus chose just ordinary people. And then did extraordinary things through them. And that means there's real hope for all of us.

I'm Steve Schwetz, welcoming you to Through the Bible. Find your seat and settle in because before we open our study, Greg and I have a few great letters that we want to share with you.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, one of the things just before we jump to the letters, you know, Steve, you and I try to do this intentionally is let everybody know, we're we're pretty flawed people ourselves, you and me.

Guest (Male): Amen, brother.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And we could each give because we're good friends, so we could testify to.

Guest (Male): Yeah, I could give testimony for that. Yes, I'm sure, but we don't have that much time.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But seriously, folks, that's an important point. You know, just let God use you, warts and all, flaws and all. Do your best. But we love that we, us flawed people, those of us leading Through the Bible are watching God do amazing things. And we have some letters from the US. You want to start with this one?

Guest (Male): Amen. Yeah, this is from Tanya in Arkansas. She's got a great story. Listen to what she says. Seven years ago, I was face flat on the cold tiles. I had backslidden into a serious sin that I was delivered from many years ago. I was screaming inside to God. How shall I go up against this temptation? It's unbearable. Our radio was always playing Bot Radio Network. I heard Dr. J. Vernon McGee right then through the radio saying, for this is how you shall go up against temptation. Jesus used your program to utterly change my walk with Jesus. Today, we still listen through the podcast and Bot radio in the car. Thank you for your ministry.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, once again, I and I think Dr. McGee often says that he he knew he was flawed. He knew he had his imperfections. I know there's that one passage, I believe in the the book of Colossians where he says I wasn't the man I wanted to be, the pastor, the husband. But God can use all of us because his word breaks through people's lives. Now, here's 84-year-old Emma shares this. I first found Dr. J. Vernon McGee on the radio back in the 80s. Through the years, I had sort of lost listening to the program. But then a few years ago, I got back on the Bible bus and I praise God for it. Since my eyes have gotten worse, I'm not able to read the word like I used to. Now every morning I can sit and listen to Through the Bible on the app. Praise God. Thank you guys for keeping this program going all over the world. May God bless you and keep you.

Guest (Male): Oh, Emma, thank you so much for that encouragement and your faithfulness in listening to the Bible bus.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And Steve, just this morning, I sent an email to the staff and reminded them of something we've talked about before that our English program that that app has been heard in 197 countries. So it's not just here in North America or Western Europe, it's all over the world.

Guest (Male): Yeah, and growing. Okay, this next one is a listener, it's a note from James and he prays with us on the World Prayer Team. And I love anytime somebody is on the World Prayer Team praying. It's.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: You're Steve's special friend now.

Guest (Male): There you go. It's been a busy month at work, so I fell behind on my World Prayer Team responsibilities. So, I grabbed an Uber figuratively to catch up to the Bible Bus team. I read over each of the emails and the countries involved, did an in-depth prayer for each one for the special needs and concerns of every country and for peace, strength, wisdom and fellowship for our brothers and sisters as they spread the gospel the best way possible in their region. Blessings to the entire team. Thanks be to God in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Amen. And we we do encourage you, if if you are not a member, just go to TTB.org. There's a tile that says subscribed. Subscribe, you put in your email address, you click a box and you're done. And every Monday through Friday, you'll get a a very encouraging prayer email from a different country around the world.

Guest (Male): Yep. How about this last note from Allison, Steve?

Guest (Male): Yeah, it says, hello, I'm a stay-at-home mom and I love listening to Through the Bible through Bot Radio and also through the app. It gives me hope and strength for each day, having faith in God's excellent word, which TTB shares so faithfully. Thank you.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And a couple of these letters mentioned the Bot Radio Network and we just want to thank all our radio network partners. We we don't have time to name them all, but Through the Bible by the grace of God is on over 1,600 radio stations across North America and we hope that God is going to continue to use it in these powerful ways.

Guest (Male): Amen. Greg, let me pray for us as we begin. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the continued reach and impact that you are allowing to still happen with Through the Bible as it goes out around the world. We pray that that would happen even in this program that someone might come to Christ or they might repent from being wayward and turn back to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

We're off to Matthew 4 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, as we come today to this fourth chapter of Matthew, we concluded last time the temptation of Jesus, or the testing of Jesus. And I think it might be well for us to make a very brief recapitulation today, and look at some things that are very clearly taught in this particular incident in the life of our Lord.

First of all, we have seen He's born as a king. He was introduced as a king, and He was baptized as a king. And now He's tested as a king. And all the way through Matthew, He's a king. And this testing reveals several things. First of all, the devil is a person. In this contact with Jesus, he's treated as a person. And that ought to answer the question for any Bible believer today, because sometimes the question arises is the devil an influence or just who and or what is he?

And then we've noticed the very subtle insinuation of the devil. First of all, he says, "If thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread." In other words, prove it in a way which is not God's way. And there was no attempt, of course, to tempt Jesus to commit a crime. May I say for Him, I don't think that would be a real temptation. But to do good, actually, bread is the staff of life, and therefore, to make bread would be a very good thing.

Satan didn't ask Jesus here to turn water into wine. Later on, He fed the multitudes with bread. But the inherent evil was to get Him to go outside of the will of God for His life. Now, the Lord Jesus, all the way through here, as we call your attention to it, answered Him from the Word of God every time. In other words, He used the sword of the Spirit to meet the enemy of God, and the enemy of man, for that matter.

His answer was, "It is written." Oh, if we were only a little bit more adept at using a sword, that is the sword of the Spirit. That's our weapon today, and it's a good weapon, friends, still a very excellent weapon. Now, He quotes from Deuteronomy. That's interesting. Do you know that when higher criticism in Germany began to level its attack against the Bible, the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis leveled both barrels at the book of Deuteronomy. And apparently, the devil hates this book because the Lord Jesus used it against him, and that's where he made his attack.

Now, the second thing He did, He wanted to get Jesus to become a religious leader by a stupendous miracle, rather than by offering His credentials in the manner that God had prescribed. The devil's way would miss the Cross of Christ. And may I say that what's called Christianity today is devil entity or Satan entity, because it leaves the Cross of Christ out altogether. And what he's saying, "become a great religious leader by a miracle."

And friends, it's very dangerous to be led astray by miracle workers. But don't misunderstand. I believe in miracle healing. That is, I believe that you go directly to the great physician. May I say, when you got something serious, you don't go to an intern or a quack doctor. What you want to do is get to the specialist in that particular field. And that's the one you go to. Well, I've taken my case to the great physician. He's a good doctor, by the way. I can recommend Him. And I believe in going directly to Him and not through some of these so-called miracle workers. No man can perform miracles.

Now, even the Lord Jesus would not become a religious leader the way the devil wanted Him to become. And that's very interesting. Now, you'll notice that the devil came back, and he quoted Scripture also. He came back and said, "He'll give His angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." My, he's pretty good at that, is he not? The only thing is, he wasn't quite accurate.

You remember Shakespeare said that the devil could quote Scriptures for his purpose? Well, he was wrong. He can misquote Scripture for his purpose. And he left out a very important phrase in this passage that he quoted from Psalm 91, verse 11 and 12. He left out, "to keep thee in all thy ways." That's the important part of the verse. You see, it was an attempt to get Him to ignore God's way. It's not always God's will, friends, to work a thing in your life or my life that's miraculous. This idea today that you can force God to do something, and that God is sort of a Western Union boy, or that he is more or less working for you, and that you can command him or get him to do anything you want him to. You can't do that.

God is sovereign. We happen to be the creature, and we must yield to the will of God. And that may not be pleasant at times, but the will of God is that which is all important, not your will or my will. And now the other thing about this temptation that really raises a question, and that is the devil offered the Lord Jesus the kingdoms of this world. Now, I have a question to ask you today. Does the devil have the kingdoms of the world to offer? And you think that over before you come up with the answer. Well, let me give you my answer, and I have thought about it a great deal.

The Lord Jesus never challenged whether he had the kingdoms or not to offer. He didn't say, "Don't offer me the kingdoms, you don't have them to give." I assume that he had them to give. That gives a little different viewpoint of the trouble we're having in the world today. The devil is running everything. We're so afraid, and I'm afraid Christians get hipped on communism, and that's bad enough, by the way. But back of communism is Satan. And back of the confusion in the world is Satan. Let's remember who our enemy really is. And it's a spiritual enemy, and he wants to become God. He wants to become God. He said, "If you'll just fall down and worship me."

Now, we're told here in this last verse, "Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him." And I think it's Dr. Luke that says, "He left him for a season." This doesn't mean that the devil just left him permanently. He did not. Now, I think that gives us a resume of the temptation as we look back of it. Now let's move on from that today. And in verse 12, you'll note this, "Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee." You see, He withdrew from Jerusalem area because John now had been taken by Herod and put in prison.

And verse 13 reads, "And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim." We have here the Lord Jesus shifting His headquarters from the south to the north, and from Nazareth, His hometown, over to Capernaum. Now, Matthew does not give us the details here, and I think that you ought to notice that the Gospels are not attempting to parallel each other. One is not a carbon copy of the other. This attempt today to harmonize them is a big mistake. I have in print, "Why Four Gospels?" And each one was written for a definite purpose, and not one of them was to be a biography of the Lord Jesus. No one could give that. But each presents His case to reach a certain segment of the human family. And this is to reach the religious element. It was written primarily to the nation Israel. It actually was written in Hebrew. Papias and Eusebius, church fathers, both say that as well as others.

Now, we find here that the Lord Jesus moved His headquarters to Capernaum, and Matthew doesn't give us the reason. We're told that actually, He was rejected in His hometown. Now He went down to Capernaum, and as far as I can tell, Capernaum became His headquarters and continued to be His headquarters until the time He went to Jerusalem for the last time to be crucified. And as far as I can tell, He never came to Capernaum after His resurrection. I don't think that He ever came there again. He had already pronounced a judgment on it because this is the place that saw so many of His miracles, and we'll see later on in this Gospel, "Woe unto thee, Capernaum."

Now, we have then that statement, He's moved His headquarters there. Why did He do that? Well, the other Gospels will not give you the reason, but Matthew gives you the reason, because everything He's recording is to show you that the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, and that everything He did, He's moving according to prophecy. And that actually, we have here, therefore, the fact that He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum was all for a definite purpose. And here it is, verse 14, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying," and here is the statement if you want to find it in Isaiah, it's in the ninth chapter, the first two verses, and also in the 42nd chapter, verses 6 and 7.

I'm reading verse 15 here. "The land of Zabulun, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." So that He went into this area, and I do not have time to develop this, but if you'd want to do some investigating, you'd find it very profitable to see the condition of that area at the time the Lord Jesus was there when He was raised as a boy. It's called the Gentile country. And out of the Roman Empire, many had come into that area. It was a very wicked area. It was a very worldly section. It's a marvelous resort area around the Sea of Galilee.

Now, these people in that area were very far from God. They were close to Jerusalem, but very far from God. And He goes into that area to Capernaum and not to Jerusalem to make His headquarters. To those people, here a great light breaks upon them. His very presence, of course, created a responsibility for those people, and our Lord judged them later.

Now, will you note verse 17? "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Now, He picked up right where John the Baptist left off. That was here the message, "Repent, turn around, come to me. The kingdom of heaven is at hand in the person of the King, of course. You couldn't have the kingdom without Him. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and simply stated again, it's the reign of the heavens over the earth. These theologians today, my, some of them have made this a very complicated expression. For a poor preacher like I am, it's just a very simple expression. It's just the reign of the heavens over the earth. And that's what He's going to bring to this earth someday.

After all, this earth is to be heaven for an earthly people. They'll go into eternity right here on this earth. Now, the church has a heavenly hope. And actually, the earthly hope is a marvelous hope. It's the hope of the Old Testament.

Now, will you notice verse 18? "And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And He saith unto them, Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men." We have in the Gospels at least three calls that the Lord made to these men. They were called, first, you find Him meeting them in Jerusalem. John gives us that. Then this apparently here is the second call that was given to them. They had seen Him before. The first time, He never called them. But now, his second meeting with them at the Sea of Galilee, He calls them. And then you'll find they went back to fishing. Mark gives us that in detail, and also Luke. And you'll find that He called them again. And that was to apostleship. That's the wonder of it all, that He'd call men like this.

And I've always felt if He'd call men like these men, He may be able to use me. And He may be able to use you. How wonderful it is to know He doesn't call perfect men. Now, He saith unto them, "Follow me, I'll make you fishers of men." Now, He may not make you a fishers of men because you're not a fisher. You're not in the fishing business. Maybe you're in some other business. But He'll use you. And whatever your talent might be, if you'd turn it over to Him, He could use it. I used to tell a lady that was a member of my church years ago, she could bake the most wonderful cakes in the world, but she is tongue-tied when it came to talking to anybody. And she used to deplore the fact. And I said, "Ever, maybe the Lord wants you in the church to cook cakes." Somebody says, "Well, that's ridiculous." No, it's not, friends. Whatever your talent is, God can use it if you'll let Him use it. That's the important thing. And I don't care whether you got a talent or not, He can use you. And He won't have us all doing the same thing because we all don't have the same gift. The body of Christ has many members in it, and they're not all the same members.

Now, will you notice? "And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him. And going on from thence, He saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them." Now, I'm not going to deal with these men, but in the other Gospels, we're going to get a little better acquainted with them, by the way. Very interesting men. "And they immediately left the ship and their father, and they followed Him. And Jesus went about all Galilee," now this is in the north section now, "teaching in their synagogues." He's teaching and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. What is it? It's at hand in the person of the King. They are to accept and receive Him, "and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." Literally, friends, there were thousands of people in that day that Jesus healed.

Now, we're going to see Matthew specializes in letting you know that. And if we'll pay attention to it, we'll find out there weren't just a few isolated cases. Thousands of people. That's the reason they never questioned His miracles. There's too many of them walking around. By the way, I live in Southern California. I don't see many of these so-called miracles walking around. They don't seem to come my way.

Verse 24. "And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with demons, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them." Notice the multitudes. "And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, from Decapolis." Now, Decapolis were ten cities on the east side of the Jordan River. "And from Jerusalem." Now, they came up from Jerusalem. "And from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." That means a long ways off. He is ministering there in the north.

Now, we find in the next three chapters, Matthew 5, 6 and 7, we've come to the first major discourse that Matthew records. He records three major discourses. The Sermon on the Mount, and then in Matthew 13, the mystery parable discourse, and then in Matthew 24 and 25, the Olivet discourse. The Sermon on the Mount is the manifesto of the King. And the mystery parable discourse gives the direction the kingdom of heaven will take after His rejection. And then the Olivet discourse is prophetic. It looks to the future. Now, there's another discourse in John's Gospel, and that all new truth and new relationships with Him, and we are vitally connected with that discourse, by the way.

Now, we're going to look at this discourse next time in detail. I hope you'll be tuned in because this is very, very important discourse, by the way. So, until next time, my beloved, may God richly bless you.

Guest (Male): Yes, join us and invite your friends too. Check out all of our listening options, and we got a bunch of them, in our app or at TTB.org. That's also where you'll find "Why Four Gospels." That's the booklet that Dr. McGee mentioned, available for free download. Again, look for it in the app or online over at TTB.org. I'm Steve Schwetz, praying that God blesses you as you walk with Him in His word.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Jesus paid it all

All to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

Guest (Male): Today's study with Dr. J. Vernon McGee is brought to you by Through the Bible, and it's made possible by the generous prayer and financial investments from listeners like you on the Bible bus all around the world.