Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible, I'm your host Steve Schwetz. When Dr. J. Vernon McGee first began teaching on the radio, his goal was pretty simple: just to reach people in Southern California with the Word of God. That was it. But God, He had a much greater plan, didn't He?

Before long, the Bible Bus was crossing state lines, then oceans, and then language barriers. Dr. McGee once said, "I'd love to blanket the earth so everyone could hear the Word of God, so I'll just fling it out." And that seed is still being flung today. What started as a local Bible study is now heard in more than 250 languages, reaching into some of the hardest-to-reach places on earth—geographically remote and culturally isolated regions where access to biblical teaching is really rare.

One of these places is Nepal, high in the hills, far from cities and headlines, yet not too far from the reach of God's Word. Here is a letter that we received from eastern Nepal: "I live with my wife in a small town. We are old now, and life is not easy. We survive by making and selling bamboo baskets. It's simple work and the income is small, but it is enough for our daily needs."

"When we came to faith in Christ, our sons forced us out of our home because we believed in Jesus. Now we live alone and provide for ourselves. It was painful to be rejected by our own family. But God is so good to us. Even though people have hated us and spoken harshly to us, we carry no bitterness. The Word of God reminds us that the world hated Christ first."

"The truth comforts us, His Word gives us courage and strength to keep going. We are faithful listeners and feel very close to you. You teach us to live by faith, not by sight. We have grown in our walk with God. We are not afraid anymore. Instead, we are encouraged to continue in faith as we look forward to heaven. Our days here may not be many, but we treasure this close fellowship with the Lord. God has not left us alone, and for that, we are deeply thankful."

What a testimony. To those who pray and give to keep the Bible Bus moving, thank you. You have an impact on people like this all over the world. You are helping send the seed of God's Word into places that many of us will never see. God is indeed still being faithful and bringing the harvest.

Turn now to Matthew 13 as Jesus tells us the story about a man who sowed good seed in his field, and then something unexpected happened. Let's pray. Father, as Your Word is scattered, let it fall on good soil and bring hope to the lonely, strength to the isolated, faith to those who long to hear truth. Draw hearts to Your Son. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, here in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we have that second major discourse as we indicated last time. Here you have the mystery parables of the kingdom. We have here about seven or eight parables, and they are all drawn from the commonplace. Our Lord took these things that were at the fingertips of those people in that day—something they could see and know—in order to give them great spiritual truth.

Someone has put it in a very lovely poem like this: "He talked of grass and wind and rain, and fig trees and fair weather, and made it His delight to bring heaven and earth together. He spoke of lilies, vines, and corn, the sparrow and the raven, and words so natural, yet so wise, were on men's hearts engraven."

Last time we saw the parable of the sower. We saw that it would be called a kingdom of heaven condition. This is not the church we are talking about here; it is the kingdom of heaven. I believe that today this is the picture of the present hour. It is bigger than the church because it encompasses the earth. It is the reign of the heavens over the earth. Now God's program today is through the church, and the church is a called-out body, which means He is calling out a people to His name. You have, therefore, a kingdom of heaven condition today. God is carrying on His program. Notice now in this next parable, which He interprets, He makes it very clear.

Verse 24: "Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field." You see, He picks up actually where He left off before, because He told then about a sower going forth to sow and what happened to the seed. We found out that only one-fourth of it ever got into good ground. The other three-fourths are folk that hear the word but they do not respond to it. They are not saved. Your percentage here is about a fourth.

Unfortunately, my percentage is less than that of the people that I preach to. For the unsaved, I would say less than a fourth. Frankly, we feel that if one out of ten of those who respond to our invitation is genuine, then our batting average is good. I find that other Christian workers and evangelists today feel the same. I know a very prominent evangelist, and a member of his team said that only three percent of their converts—that is, only three out of a hundred—could be considered genuine. Well, that reveals that our batting average today is not too good. But we thank God that it is that good. That is the picture today. We are in a kingdom of heaven situation, giving out the Word of God, and this is what happens to it.

Here is another facet, another phase of the kingdom of heaven. It is a picture of a man who sowed good seed. But wait a minute. Verse 25: "But while men slept," not the sower—the sower is the Lord Jesus, He neither slumbers nor sleeps—but I do, and maybe you do. "While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." Now we have an enemy. We know who the enemy is—it is Satan. He sows tares, which is false doctrine. There is a great deal of that type of sowing today.

Verse 26: "But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also." At first, you could not tell the difference. Very frankly, a lot of the cults and isms sound very good at first. It is about that twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth lesson that you are going to have to watch, not the first one.

Somebody said to me some time ago, "Dr. McGee, you ought not to criticize so-and-so because I listened to him and he preaches the gospel." He did that day, and every now and then he does. But may I say, it is the other things that he says later on. The tares have been sown among the wheat.

Now verse 27: "So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them," you see, the sower knew, "An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together."

Notice this, friends, this is important: "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." Now this is the picture, and it is a very important picture to see and interpret. He says here, do not try to pull up the tares. Let them both grow together and they will finally head up. You will then be able to recognize tares—by their fruit you shall know them—and then by the wheat you will know it in time. Do not attempt to pull up tares.

Someone comes to me and says, "Pastor McGee, do you think the world is getting better?" And I say yes, I think it is getting better. Somebody else comes and says, "Dr. McGee, don't you think the world is getting worse?" And I say yes, I think the world is getting worse. Somebody that is standing there and heard me say both says, "What are you trying to do, ride the fence? Trying to please everybody? That is very much unlike you."

Both are true. The wheat is growing today, and the tares are growing today. The world is getting better because the wheat is growing and heading up. There has never been a time when there has been as much Bible teaching as there is right now. I thank God for that. Frankly, I'd love to blanket the earth so nobody would have an excuse. I guess I can't do that, but I am satisfied just wherever the Lord wants me to fling out this seed.

What happens? It grows. I'll be honest with you, I think there are some wonderful saints of God today who love the Word of God and who will die defending it. Thank God for them. The wheat is growing. But I want to tell you there are a lot of tares. I've been a pastor a long time, and my thought when I entered the ministry was that I was going to clean it up. I entered a denomination with the idea that I was going to straighten them out. A lot of young preachers feel that way about it.

Do you know, they just about cleaned me out and straightened me out. I found out I could not do that. I was thankful to find out from this passage and related passages that my business today is to preach the Word. My business today is to give out the Word of God, and I am not around pulling up tares anymore. When I started, I tried to pull them up, and I found out that there were some trying to pull up the wheat, so I had my problems. Therefore, my business is to sow it.

I believe that is the responsibility today. Now both are growing in the world. This is a kingdom of heaven situation; actually, it is not His church. You say, "Well, it is in the organized church." Yes, but the organized church is not His church. His church is that invisible number—and when I say invisible, I mean they are not confined to an organization. Actually, I don't like that term "invisible church" because I find out a lot of the saints understand by that that they are to be invisible Sunday night, or they are invisible at the midweek service. In fact, they are invisible a whole lot of times.

The true believers, irrespective of any denomination, are those who have trusted Christ, are resting in Him, and love His Word. I think that is the real test. Therefore, this is a kingdom of heaven condition and both are growing together today. Do not be disturbed. He is the one who is going to put in His sickle. He is the one who is going to separate tares and wheat. I am thankful that is not my job because I wouldn't know and I am afraid I would pull up some wheat.

Verse 31: "Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed." Now we have a different kind of seed here, friends, and this is mustard seed. Mustard is a condiment. It has no vitamins in it. It is not wheat germ. You put it on hamburgers; you could not live on mustard. Mustard is not a tree, either. It is just a little bitty plant. "Which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds."

I was rather amused the other day reading one of these young liberal preachers saying he thought this was profound. He had found out that the mustard seed is not the least of all seeds. Well, what did the Lord mean then? It was the least of all seeds that those people knew about in that day. And for this brother's benefit, it is a pretty small seed. We are not splitting hairs, but we seem to be splitting seeds. In desperation, they try to find errors in the book. Let's just leave it like it is. It is the smallest of seeds, and it is one of the seeds that a man took and sowed in his field.

The important thing is there may be other seeds smaller, but also it is not to become a tree, either. This one here became a tree. "But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, but here it becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." Now what you have here is the growth of Christendom, the outward growth of the organized church. It is a mustard seed. A condiment adds spice to it.

A lot of people today say the church must become relevant. They say we must identify ourselves with the common and contemporary culture of the day and get right down there with them. Where did you get that? You don't get that out of the Word of God. This is the picture of that little mustard seed. I like to term this as the parable about the little seed that got to the Vigoro. And my, how it grew. It became a tree.

The church boasts of its big organizations and big numbers today, but it has very little influence. It does have just a little mustard. We are not to be mustard; we are to be salt. We are not to even be pepper. If we are, we have sure lost our pep. But here you have the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches.

I heard an interpretation of that several years ago that made me smile. It was a liberal interpreting it in a church meeting. He told about how the mustard seed was growing—that was the church—and a lot of the birds were coming and roosting in it. He had a Baptist bird, and a Presbyterian bird, and a Nazarene bird. He had a lot of funny birds in the tree.

That is not what it means. Our Lord already interpreted the birds. He said the birds come and took away the seed. Who were the birds? He said the birds were the enemy, which is Satan. I don't like that interpretation at all. I am afraid this brother was way out in left field on that one. This is Christendom, and evil has gotten into the organized church. I think we need to recognize that. That is the reason that God's people ought to be very careful about the church that they belong to and identify themselves with. It should be true in doctrine, and it also should be true in its actions. It should be honest and truthful.

Now He gives another parable: "Another parable spake He unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." This is the parable that I would say is the key parable of the chapter.

Now let me back up and say something that ought to make this appear very important to you. First of all, the Gospel of Matthew is the key book of the Bible. Second, the 13th chapter is the key chapter of Matthew. And the 33rd verse here is the key verse of the 13th chapter. Actually, what we have here is the key verse to the Bible. That is exactly what I'm trying to say. Frankly, it's very important. This is the one that we need to look at, and I wish I had time to go into a great deal more detail.

Now notice some things here that are very important. The mustard seed is a different kind of seed, and we saw that the birds got into Christendom, the organized religion. Now here is one that really reveals the condition today. The kingdom of heaven today is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. There are those that talk about the leaven of the gospel. They ought to know better. Nowhere is the leaven used as a principle of good; it is always a principle of evil. It occurs 98 times in the Bible—about 78 times in the Old Testament and about 23 times in the New Testament—and it is always used in a bad sense.

Dr. Lightfoot, a great scholar, made this statement: "Rabbinical writers regularly use leaven as a symbol of evil." Now leaven is not the gospel. The meal is made out of the seed, the wheat, the grain. That is the picture of the Word of God. What happens to it? Well, this woman comes along. I hope you ladies listening in will forgive me for saying this, but when you find woman in a doctrinal sense in Scripture, you always find she is used as a principle of evil. In the Book of Revelation, you remember Jezebel—"thou sufferest that woman Jezebel to teach." When she gets in that position, then it is a principle of evil. Here is a woman taking the leaven and hiding it.

If this is the gospel, why in the world are you hiding it? It is to be shouted from the housetops. It is to be heralded to the very ends of the earth. You don't hide it at all. This is a principle of evil that is put into the meal, which is the Word of God. Today you find that. No cult or ism ignores the Bible.

I find today that these devil worshippers and demon worshippers use the Bible. There is a great deal of that right here in Southern California. You see, they put leaven in three measures of meal. What does leaven do? Leaven is a principle of corruption. You put leaven in bread and it causes it to rise. It makes it tasty to the mouth. That is the reason a great many people find a thrill in some of the cults because unleavened bread is just blah as far as the natural taste is concerned. A little leaven really helps it.

I happen to be from the South. My mother used to make biscuits, and she put leaven in and put them on the back of the stove, and they would begin to rise. You would come running into the kitchen and she would shush you because she didn't want the biscuits to fall. Then she would take those biscuits and put them in the oven when they got to a certain height. She did not stop it by putting them in the oven and baking them; it would be corruption. Have you ever seen what happens to it when you keep letting them rise? It makes a pan of something you don't want.

But when it gets to a certain place, it is very tasty. Leaven is a principle of evil. This, I think, is one of the key interpretations of the Word of God. Now our Lord stopped here for a moment and He said: "All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake He not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."

He is telling us something new here. This is brand new; it was never revealed like this in the Old Testament at all. Verse 36: "Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field." Now He will interpret that for us.

Verse 37: "He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man." The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. The tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. That is a picture of today. It is Christendom, not the church. That is exactly as it is today. My Lord never missed a time, and this is as accurate a picture of today as you possibly could have.

He goes on and He says in verse 41: "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, them which do iniquity." You see, in the kingdom, even the Millennium, there is going to be evil, but it is going to be taken out. "And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." The harshest words in Scripture came from the gentle lips of our wonderful Lord.

Now will you notice, verse 44, we come to the fifth parable: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." These next parables have a very particular interpretation. Of course, we cannot go into detail today, but we will next time. We are spending time here because this is important. But let me just say this in closing today: the treasure in the field is the nation Israel. May God richly bless you.

Steve Schwetz: We'll pick up right there as the Bible Bus rolls along. Before you climb aboard next time, why don't you read the rest of Matthew 13 yourself, and then ask God to prepare your heart for what He wants to plant there.

Download the digital Matthew Bible Companion as well over at ttb.org. It's free of charge, of course, and it's a great way to review each lesson and dig a little deeper with the discussion questions. Again, download it in the app or at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if you'd like to purchase a paperback copy.

And as you go, remember, we're all sowers. Pray for one another. Look for opportunities to scatter that seed of God's Word in your conversations, your kindness, and your courage. You never know where it's going to take root. I'm Steve Schwetz. Thanks for boarding the Bible Bus today. I'll see you next time.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Our study today was made possible through your prayer and financial support. We'll meet you back here next time. In fact, we're going to do this together, Lord willing, till Jesus comes again. In which case, we'll meet you in the air.