Thru the Bible

Steve: In a world full of noise and half-truths, is there any place that we can still find honesty? Whether it's in politics, education, social media, or even the courts, it's harder than ever to know who to trust. So where should we turn when truth feels out of reach?

Steve: Welcome to Thru the Bible, where our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, points us to the only source of truth that we can fully rely on, God's Word. I'm Steve Swetz, your host, and we're continuing our journey in Zechariah, beginning at chapter 8, verse 15. But before we dive in, here's more from Dr. McGee's focused series of introductions on the justice of God.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And we're talking now about the justice of God will permeate the entire structure of society in that day. And God's judgment is so different than ours. We saw that he is not partial. It's impartiality, not partial to any person or group. And that you cannot pay your way or even promise him. This idea that you'll promise him that you'll do better, and you feel like that saves you.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: You can't buy God, friends. If you've sinned, you're going to be judged for that sin, unless you can find somebody who will pay the penalty for you. And there's one who paid that penalty for you, and that's the Lord Jesus. And God is just. May I say to you, God judged Israel more severely than he judged any nations roundabout Israel. They didn't have the light. Israel did. We have the light today, and therefore, I think that God's more apt to judge us and judge us more severely because of our failure today.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Just because we've sent out a few missionaries and we support the Thru the Bible radio program, that doesn't mean by any means that we'll escape the judgment of God. That we're sinning as a nation, and God does not overlook that. Now we come to another element of the judgment of God that we need to look at. And that's found in Job the fourth chapter, verse 17.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Eliphaz there, he was a big windjammer, a great dreamer of dreams, but nevertheless, some of the things he said were quite true and accurate. And he says in Job 4:17, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?" Eliphaz thought Job had some secret sin and that God was judging him for that. Now God does not judge quite like that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: God judges according to truth. It's difficult today to find honest witnesses. And we find out that what Orwell said in his book, 1984, and that really has the attention of a lot of people, and the idea that Big Brother is watching you. Well, friends, Big Brother's not watching you right now. Almost we've come to that, but not quite. But God is watching you.

Steve: Well, thank God his justice isn't based on popularity, privilege or promises. It's based on truth. And while the world may not always be watching, he is. And he's also made a way through Jesus for sinners like us to be forgiven.

Steve: Now we got just a few minutes to share some encouragement from fellow Bible bus passengers. Here's a note from a listener in the US. "So thankful to be able to help in praying and giving. I love to hear the letters from around the world. I am also learning so much from the Bible studies verse by verse, day by day, thanking God for his grace and love. Could I receive bus passes to pass on? I talk to people and it might be I can share a bus pass with them. Thank you so very much, and God bless you all."

Steve: Well, thanks for helping us fling the seed through your giving and even more importantly, your prayers. And you know, you're right, our Bible bus passes are really a great tool to have on hand when meeting people. I use them myself. Each pass features a QR code that links directly to our app and Dr. McGee's teaching, making them super simple and meaningful to invite others to discover God's Word themselves. Get yours by calling 1-800-65-BIBLE.

Steve: And now here's a note. This is from David in Vista, California. "My day starts out by listening to the daily message. I find that it refreshes my soul and puts me in the right frame of mind to think of God and our Savior Jesus as I start the new day. I strive to have the Holy Spirit guide and help me become the follower of Jesus that we as Christians are called to do. I support your ministry through a monthly tithe with the hope that the gospel will reach the whole world and hasten the coming of Jesus."

Steve: Well, thanks for your encouragement, David, and your partnership in getting God's Word out in more than 250 languages around the world. And what about you? You know we'd love to hear your story, or like David, would you like to support the Bible bus by maybe supplying a tank of gas? Why don't you drop us a note or make a gift to the ministry in our app, or you can call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1.

Steve: Let's pray. Father in Heaven, as your word goes out around the world, we pray that many will be led to salvation in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Steve: Here's our study of Zechariah chapter 8 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: My friends, as we come back to this eighth chapter of Zechariah, we are considering here God's answer to whether a ritual is right or wrong. And it doesn't depend upon the ritual, it depends upon the individual. If the individual's wrong, the ritual is wrong. If the individual is right, the ritual is right.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But in chapter 8, God's purpose concerning Jerusalem and the nation Israel is unchanged by any ritual. It doesn't make any difference what ritual that you're going by, it is unchanged. And so, we have seen here that God says very frankly that he's going forward to the time when he's going to make Jerusalem the capital of this Earth, and nothing could detour him, nothing could detract him.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: God says that he intends to do this by his marvelous, infinite grace. You remember that Paul, writing to the Romans, he says in Romans 9:15, "For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.' So then it's not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now Moses, you'll remember, went to God and prayed about whether God would destroy the children of Israel. And God says, "I'm going to hear you, Moses, but I'm not going to hear you because you're Moses, because I will show grace to those that I will show grace, and I'll show mercy to those that I will show mercy." And therefore, it's not to him that runs, it's not to him that trots through a ritual. It's not to him that goes through a lot of church work.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: It's to him that is above. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that shows mercy. And my friend, today we can say again with Paul, "I am what I am by the grace of God." Now, he's saying that to these people here in in verse 15, he'd said, "So again, have I thought in these days to do good unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear you not."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: God says, "It's not because you've been through a ritual, or whether you have admitted a ritual, whether you do or whether you don't, I'm showing mercy to you." But this is not the end in itself. This will be a very small thing, but God looks down through the centuries and says the day is coming when I intend to deal with you and will in that day do a glorious thing upon the earth. And he looks down to the millennium.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now you will find here in verse 16, "Now, since they are going to represent God." That doesn't mean they can do as they please, if it's by the grace and mercy of God. That doesn't mean therefore that you can live any kind of a life, like some people think. Listen to what God says now in verse 16. "These are the things that you shall do." Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? You've been saved by his grace and mercy.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But wait a minute. He says, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Now if you love him, you're going to keep his commandments. Not to get saved, because you have been saved by his grace and mercy. And your obedience, or your life, will never add anything to your salvation. Now he says to these people, "These are the things that you shall do. Speak every man the truth to his neighbor."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: This is the day when lying is acceptable in every walk of life. Business can't be depended upon today to tell the truth. Advertising today is very inaccurate. And the news media, you cannot be depended upon to tell the truth. And Washington cannot be depended upon to tell the truth. And it doesn't make any difference what party you're talking about, neither one of them or no one else can be trusted, it looks like today.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: You can't trust men in any walk of life, not the military, nor education today and science. In all of these areas we are finding that truth has suddenly gone out of style. And it's about time that boys and girls are taught in school that there are certain moral standards, and one of them is that if you don't tell the truth, you're a liar. And there's no other way around that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Then he says, "Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates." Now in the gates was where the law court was in that day. And how many today have even confessed that they lied to a grand jury or lied when they were under oath? "Execute the judgment of truth." Now what he's talking about here, it's not the act of judging.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: He's not saying you're not to judge. You and I are going to judge whether we judge honestly or dishonestly, whether we judge truthfully or untruthfully. We're going to judge, and what he has in mind here is actually the motive. It means the thing that motivates judging, and that is truth. And this is the thing that he's saying to do. You see, actually this is again putting the Ten Commandments down.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And we find then him saying now in verse 17, "Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor." That is you're not to covet anything that your neighbor has. "And love no false oath for all these things are the things that I hate," says the Lord. Now if you want to know what God hates today, and we have all the bumper stickers today saying God is love. Well, that's great, God is love. But God also hates.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: You couldn't love without hating some things. If you love the truth, you're going to hate the lie. If you love your child, you will hate a mad dog that comes into the yard to bite the child. You'd kill that mad dog if you love your child. God hates certain things, and I'd like to see that put up on billboards today. God hates lying. God hates covetousness. God hates, there are different things that God hates.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: He hates a whole lot of things, friends, that the world is doing today. Now verse 18, "And the word of the Lord of Hosts came unto me, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore, love the truth and peace.'"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: God says to them, "I never gave you any fast days. And these days that you've set up to fast and go through a nice little religious ritual, I'm going to turn those days into feast days, days of rejoicing, days of love and truth and peace." These are the things that are absent in our contemporary culture and society.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I wonder if it's ever occurred to anyone that if we got back and taught the great biblical and moral values that are stated there. I wonder if maybe that might have a tremendous effect upon our society today. Well, some of us believe it would. Now in verse 20, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts, it shall yet come to pass that there shall come peoples and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another saying, 'Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts. I will go also.'"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: This looks on now to the fact when Jerusalem will become the capital, not only the political capital, but the religious capital of the Earth, and it also looks forward to the time that we will find in the New Testament is called the millennium. It shall come to pass, God says. This is something that is for the future.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And he says in verse 22, "Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts where? In Jerusalem." Now I take it that does not mean Los Angeles. It means Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Now, very frankly, Jerusalem is not an ideal place to go and pray. It just isn't geared for that today, because actually, you see more religion there manifested and less Christianity than any place that I know of.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But it will become the center of God's government during the millennium. And we last time referred you to Isaiah the second chapter. And may I say to you, there are many scriptures along this line. You see why it's so important today to study the book of Zechariah. Now a great many in our day have zeroed in on the book of Daniel.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And you go to the average seminary library or any good library, and you will notice that there's volume after volume written on Daniel. Then you go down a little farther and see how many books you're going to find written on Zechariah. And there's a dearth of them written on Zechariah. I have a friend that he doesn't believe there's going to be a millennium on this earth, and he doesn't believe God will ever again turn to Israel, and that he will never again turn to Jerusalem, that he's through with all of that.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And he wrote a book on Daniel. He told me, he says, "I've proven my point in Daniel." And I said, "Has it ever occurred to you that no prophecy is of any private interpretation? You don't study the book of Daniel by itself." Now I said, "Why didn't you bring in a little of Zechariah?" He looked at me rather funny. He says, "Well, I didn't need to." Well, not if you hold that theory that God's through with Israel, you can't handle Zechariah.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But my friend, Zechariah makes it clear, God's not through with Jerusalem. He's not through with the nation Israel. Now, will you listen to what he's saying here? "Thus says the Lord of Hosts." Now this is verse 23, "In those days." What day? Well, it's that expression that we've had again and again, "in that day, that day, those days." It's the millennium that's coming.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: The great tribulation is the beginning of it, but it ushers in the coming of Christ and the reign of Christ, that's called the millennium. And that again ushers in his eternal kingdom on this earth. "Thus says the Lord of Hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God's with you.'"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, is God through with the Jew? Well, the day is coming in the millennium. Now the church will be removed from the earth. You see, the church could not be here in a period like this. And I think the number 10 here rather suggests a great number. I am of the opinion that it represents the fact that the Gentile nations in that day will find Jerusalem very attractive. And they will go there. Why? The Lord Jesus will be there.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And there will be the millennial temple, and that will be the place to worship God. Now that makes this very important, you see. Now that brings us to the end of this historic interlude, and we come now to the third major division and the last major division of this book. And I've labeled it prophetic burdens from chapter 9 through chapter 14.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And in turn, I've divided the prophetic burdens into two divisions. The first burden are the prophetic aspects that are connected with the first coming of Christ, and that's chapters 9 through 11. And then you have the second burden, the prophetic aspects that are connected with the second coming of Christ, and that's chapters 12 through 14.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, actually, we have come here to something that I think that's very interesting. As we entered here this new division, we are going to find that it goes over the same ground, approaching it from a different viewpoint, but the same ground that we had in the 10 visions. It begins with Israel where they were in the days of Zechariah.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: He was back with a small remnant, very discouraged. They were attempting to rebuild the temple, and he and Haggai were raised up of God as prophets to encourage the people to rebuild the temple. And we find that he begins in that local situation. That which to him was the contemporary scene. And then he moved on down into the immediate future where God was going to bless them.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: But it would not be a permanent blessing, and this is going to show that in chapter 9. But on down through the centuries, God had a plan and purpose, and there would come the Messiah. And we have the two comings here, coming first as the Savior and coming the second time as the sovereign, coming the first time with the cross in view, the second time with the crown in view.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, in chapter 9, and we get here to this particular chapter, we have actually in the first eight verses, the judgment upon the nations that was accomplished by Alexander the Great. And we'll find as we get into this chapter here, some very interesting things. You see, in Zechariah's day, some could become a little too optimistic. They could say, "Well, this is going to be the millennium."

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We've returned back and the temple's rebuilt. No, out in the future, there's coming another world ruler. And there's going to be a contrast made between that world ruler and the one that God will send to the Earth the first time. And we have here, actually, Alexander the Great. And I think you'll see that as you get into this chapter here. Alexander the Great, a young man who died a drunkard at the age of 33, very arrogant, very insolent, highly conceited, but probably the most...