Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in His excellent word. Jesus is the only one in the saving business today. That's the kind of straight talk that we get from Dr. J. Vernon McGee, as we continue our study in Zechariah chapter 10.

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz. And on this Thanksgiving Day here in the US, I'm especially thankful that you've joined us. You know, there's nothing better than spending time in God's word, especially when we get to do it together. As you find your place in Zechariah, let's begin with a special introduction from Dr. McGee on the character of our God.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, if you are willing yourself to make the just payment of the law breaker, or if you are willing to fulfill it in some way, fine. But God's the only savior. He's the only one in the saving business today. And therefore, you and I are to recognize that God is a just God. This is revealed in something else. The laws that God gave are just laws.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Take the Ten Commandments, for instance. Take any one of them. Actually, if you today are a person who is an unsaved person, I may say to you, notice the Ten Commandments. Whether you believe in them or not, aren't they just, and aren't they right? The Ten Commandments says, "Thou shalt not steal." Is anything wrong with that? "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Oh, there are those that think today you can do that, that it's perfectly all right. Well, you break up a home when you do that. You may be spoil a life when you do that. And every law God has given, has been a just law. And the very interesting thing is, two nations based their legal system largely on the Bible at the very beginning. The English jurisprudence, men like Gladstone and even Disraeli, a Jew, he based it on the Old Testament. And those men stood for that which was just according to the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And our nation was founded by men who, if they didn't believe the Bible, at least knew it. And they considered the laws in the Bible to be just laws. And they were put in place in our nation at the beginning, but we've got no way from that, of course. So that God is just and in the Millennium, there'll be justice. How wonderful that's going to be. And what a wonderful thing it is, that there will be truth and there will be justice, and also there'll be mercy. Only God today can extend mercy to lost people.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, God is going to judge the world, we're told. And I think probably I ought to turn to that. It's in Acts 17:31. Will you listen to this? "Because He hath appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, and that He raised Him from the dead." That is the importance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: The importance of it is that not only does that assure our salvation, but it means that God is going to judge this world in which we live today. There's no way of escaping that. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the assurance that God will judge this world. And He's going to judge it in righteousness. Now, not according to your standard or my standard, but according to His standard, that which is right. And that which is right according to God, by the way.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And the fact of justice and the mercy of God, and now the fact He's going to judge the entire world. You cannot escape the judgment of God.

Steve Schwetz: God's laws are just, His mercy is real, and His judgment is certain. And as Dr. McGee said, there's no escaping it, but there's also no limit to His grace for those who trust in Jesus. That's the kind of truth that's changing lives all around the world, like it has with Niha in India, who wrote this.

Steve Schwetz: I participated in many different Bible study groups earlier, but the radio home group is in my language of Malvi. And it's such a different fellowship where the teaching is through simple words that I easily understand. The Book of Acts in particular was alive with new revelations. I see Jesus' life through a new lens, and the miracles in Acts strengthen my faith, thus inspiring me in my ministry and prayer life. This is one of the best resources that I have ever known.

Steve Schwetz: Isn't it great to hear how God's word is coming alive in people's hearts? And then here's another story. This is from a listener in Pakistan who asked to remain anonymous. I come from a Muslim background, but my journey took a turning point when a social media friend shared the gospel story and the powerful stories of persecution faced by believers. As I learned more, the love and message of Christ touched my heart, so I decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. This decision has transformed my life, and I'm grateful for this new path of faith and understanding. Keep me and my family in your prayers as we are in a hostile environment all the time.

Steve Schwetz: Well, let's do that now. Let's pray not only for this brother, but also for others who live in places of deep spiritual darkness. Lord, would You shine the light of Your word in our hearts? And we especially lift up our brothers and sisters who live in places where believing in Jesus brings danger. Would You protect them, strengthen them, and then shine through them to bring hope to their world? We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve Schwetz: Turn to Zechariah chapter 10, as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, I want to pick up here in the 10th chapter of Zechariah, where we left off last time. We just got started in this 10th chapter. And we have given it the title, Judah and Israel are to be scattered again, but they will be finally re-gathered. And the Lord is making it clear to Zechariah that their return from Babylonian captivity was not a permanent return at all.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And again, they would go out into captivity, be scattered throughout the world. We saw that it spoke of the future deliverance of Ephraim and Judah. Now, Ephraim is the 10 northern tribes, Israel. You see, he's writing to both of them, which means they were around there somewhere. And evidently, Zechariah and the Lord knew where the so-called 10 lost tribes were, which means they never really got lost at all. And they haven't merged here in Great Britain and the United States. They are actually scattered all over the world today.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, we saw that what had happened to these people was that God sent them into captivity and would send them into captivity again, that they would reject God's messengers and God's message. They would fail to be obedient unto Him and hear Him. And as a result, they would turn to all sorts of that which is satanic, that which is demonic. And I dwelt on that somewhat last time and do not intend to get into it again. When we get to the book of Revelation, we're going to deal with that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, we are living in a day, of course, when we are seeing a manifestation again of demonic power. And today, a great many people are judging these organizations, or these individuals, by the apparent success that they have. It never occurs to them that we're to try the spirits. You see whether they be of God, because there is the spirit of antichrist into the world today. And that is, of course, satanic.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: It's quite interesting that just this morning, now, this is the morning I'm making this tape, that there has come in the mail to me personally, six different communications from cults and isms, not only here in Southern California, but throughout the country, weird interpretations of the word of God. That which is strange and far from the interpretation of the word of God. And every one of them uses the Bible. Every one of them.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I have one right here before me before I throw it into the wastebasket. And actually, I have several volumes of books that have come. And I do want to say to the folk who send me these cult books, you're really wasting your time. I'm a very narrow-minded, bigoted individual, very dogmatic. And I don't even read them. I don't even consider them. I sure am missing something. I had today part of the communication was a letter 20 pages closely, not typewritten, but handwritten.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, I wouldn't read that for anything in the world. As someone that has a strange interpretation. Now, the one I have before me is that if I should go and hear this man, he's going to talk on signals from outer space, a UFO invasion imminent. In other words, they use this scare thing today that we're going to be invaded shortly. These little men from outer space are going to come and take over.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, may I say to you, a great many people fall for this sort of thing. So many people went to see the Exorcist. I've not seen it. I've seen excerpts from it. And it's nothing in the world but a horror picture. And it was made by those who actually do not believe, certainly in God, a personal God, and a personal savior. But apparently, they believe there is a spirit of evil in the world, and a spirit of good that's in the world. And that, of course, is true. But that is a very flimsy sort of ephemeral and ethereal viewpoint. You can't get your teeth into that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And there is this turning today, just as Israel turned to the occult, turned to that which is exotic and has to do with demons actually. And there's a great deal of that today. And God's people need to test everything that comes along. And that is the thing that he is saying that will take them again into captivity. And it took them the first time into captivity. And the church today, unfortunately, seems to be going in for that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: A man said to me, he said, "In my church, we're casting out demons." Well, I think that it'd be better instead of casting out demons, you just get Christ into the hearts of people and get them in Christ. That is the important thing. And that's exactly now what we're going to have here, beginning actually with verse 4. But let me read now verse 3. "Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds." Now, these shepherds were the false prophets in Israel that had turned to the occult, had turned to the supernatural, which was satanic.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And God says, "Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats." Now, the goats were the leaders. You know, when I was a young fellow, I worked in an abattoir, they called it then. It was a place where they killed cattle, sheep, and pigs for the butcher shops. And it's a very bloody sort of a business. The first two days I worked there, I had to go outside and sit down and recover from it.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But the thing that was more cruel than anything else, I thought there, was an old goat, had a bell around his neck. And he would lead sheep to the slaughter. They'd follow him, you know. You didn't have to drive the sheep. You just start this old goat up there, and all the sheep would follow along. And they were going to the slaughter. You can be sure of that. Now, these are old goats that the Lord is talking about. They're leaders. And they ought to be leading the people into the word of God, to the place where they could have peace with God, peace in their own hearts.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And instead of that, they were false prophets giving the people false comfort and leading them actually away from God. And God says He's angry. "For the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as His majestic horse in the battle." Now, God says He intends to strengthen the southern kingdom against the enemy. And if you want to read that intertestament period, you can read the book of the Maccabees. And it will give you a wealth of information. Flavius Josephus has something to say about that period. In one sense, these people suffered more in that period than any other time. But they were able to stand against their enemies.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And God said, "He would strengthen them." Then he looks on to the future when there will come the Messiah. And He's identified for us here, I think, very clearly. It says, "Out of Him," that is, out of who? Well, out of the one that is coming. The tense is future. And it means, "From Him shall come forth the corner." Now, this is the cornerstone. A cornerstone is put in a building where two walls meet at a 90-degree angle, and the square stone is put in there.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I think this is a marvelous picture that's given here of Christ as the cornerstone because you see there is the wall of Judah and the wall of the Ten Tribes. And the message is that He's going to be the cornerstone to unite them and bring them back together again. But that cornerstone has a wider meaning than that. It's actually a very wonderful picture that's given to us. Now, Isaiah, if you'll recall, had something to say about this. In Isaiah 28:16, I read, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, what a beautiful, wonderful picture that you have there. Now, this is the verse that Peter in the First Epistle, the second chapter, verse 6. He says, "Wherefore also it's contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded." Isaiah said haste. You're not getting in a hurry. Not get confused. That is the thought there. And in these days, you see, what is the answer to the occult and the exorcist?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Someone has said to me, where you talked about the Exorcist, apparently you don't think Christians ought to go to it. I don't think they ought to go see it. No. Now, that's my judgment. And of course, I'm a square. That's understood. And I feel very comfortable being a square these days. And I don't think that Christians ought to tamper or monkey with this occult in any shape, form or fashion today whatsoever.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: What should we do? Well, if you stay close to the word of God, you're going to stay close to the person of Christ, because now you see immediately after he talked about this weirdo stuff, that's that's way out not only in left field, but it's outside of the ballpark, it deals with the supernatural, but it's demonic. And I don't question today that there's not power in all of this false stuff. And I shouldn't say all of it. I think they estimate today that 80 to 90% of it is phony and probably is.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But how do you account for the other 10%? And that's where the problem is. And it's obviously demonic. Now, the Greeks in their day were a very intelligent people. And yet they made trips constantly to Delphi. And just the blowing of the leaves in that cave, and the interpretation by the priest would put an army in the field. It would take a man off of the throne. It would change the course of history.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And somebody says, "Well, the Greeks were an intelligent people." Why would they follow that superstition? Who told you that there was nothing to it? And it's just a superstition. Well, I think the devil was having a heyday there and a holiday. He was directing the Greek empire that way. And I personally don't like to hear that in Washington that there are so many of these fortune tellers and people that are dealing in the occult. I'm afraid that we're getting our leadership in the wrong direction today.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, what should we do? Turn to the person of Christ. He's the cornerstone. He's a foundation that you can rest on. Now, verse 7, "Unto you therefore, which believe, He's precious. But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, it's been my firm conviction that the people who go into cults are people who have heard the gospel, heard the word of God, and they've turned their back on it. You see, when they rejected the truth, Paul says in 2 Thessalonians, God gave them up to believe a lie. And that is a principle that operates, I think, today. Now, the Lord Jesus Himself made a very startling statement in the 21st of Matthew, verse 44. And He called Himself a stone.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: He says, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall will grind him to powder." Now, Christ is a stone. Now, He can be a stepping stone or He can be a stumbling stone to you. You can either accept Him and receive Him. You can come as a sinner, fall upon Him, trust Him, rest upon Him. You're broken. You'll no longer trust yourself. You'll trust Him. Or, He's going to become a stone that's going to fall on you and grind you to powder. In other words, He's going to be the judge.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And Daniel mentioned that, that at the end of the Gentile world rule, there was a stone, he says, "Cut out without hands." That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's going to smite this Earth, every government, every one in rebellion against God. Now, He's that kind of a stone. And today, what is it that we need in this day when people are turning to the cults and the occult? What are we to do? We are to get closer to Christ. He's a foundation stone. He's a cornerstone. Let's rest on it. He's the one that can bring us together and the only one that can bring us together.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, will you notice He's not only a cornerstone, and this is verse 4 now, chapter 10, "Out of Him the nail." Now, that's an interesting one. The nail, of course, is a stake or a tent peg, or as a boy, we used to call them stobs. You put a stob in the ground. Well, He's a tent peg. You know, the wind blows across that desert. And Israel, to keep the tabernacle from taking off and going into outer space, they had to nail it down. They had tent pins. And those tent pins were driven deep into the desert sand in order to hold.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, Christ is called a tent pin. And again, we find that that's used several times in the word of God. We're told in Isaiah 22:22, "And I will place on His shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open and none shall shut, and shut and none shall open." He is the one today that's holding things down. We need to hold on to Him today, or let Him hold on to us. What a picture that we're given here. And then that peg was used in another way, that nail. It was a tent pin that was put down inside the tent. Another one was put down there. And it was one that they could hang everything on. Women could hang their jewelry. Men could