Thru the Bible

Steve Shwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. Today Dr. J. Vernon McGee walks us through one of the greatest verses in the Bible. It's beautiful in its simplicity and in what it means to each of us. So open your Bible to Genesis 15:6 and I'll read it now. Abraham believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness.

In a word, that's grace. In the same way that we're saved by grace through faith. Dr. McGee added this. God never saves by any other means except grace. And if you ever get saved, it'll be because you believe that God has provided salvation for you. What terrific news and something that we never get tired of talking about and that's the message that we'll keep sharing. Right Greg?

Greg Lowenthal: We will Steve. And as God enables us through mainly through opportunities through people through new relationships and through the financial and prayer support that our listening family is just so faithful. It allows us to open new doors into new languages. And that's what we want to talk about today.

Steve Shwetz: Yeah and that really is unique for a ministry in that Thru the Bible has been blessed because of the faithful listeners consistently supporting the ministry. So what we're talking about now would not happen without your faithful prayer and financial support.

Greg Lowenthal: That's right. And we want this to be a two-way conversation. And what I mean by that is what we try to convey Steve and I and when we write to you in the newsletters, we're working really hard. We understand that we're stewards. We're stewards of Dr. McGee's content. We're stewards of the prayers and the gifts of God's people. Amen.

So this new ministry is in a language called Turkana. Just before we jump in though, this is a newsletter article in our newsletter, which is where newsletter articles belong. Right?

Steve Shwetz: Yes. And so if you're not receiving our newsletter, you can sign up for that. You're not going to get a bunch of different solicitations and stuff. It's just part of the monthly packet that you get as being signed up for our newsletter and it's worth taking the time to read as I've mentioned before.

I always take it and put it in the front cover of my Bible and use it as part of my devotion. And you're going to want to get this one from Bernice Katere. And the testimony that she's got is outstanding.

Greg Lowenthal: It is. And I just want to give a little background. When we started with the opportunity that Bernice connected us with these folks and said we might be able to get TTB in Turkana. Again out of stewardship we said, "Well let's start by translating six books of the Bible like we do for the radio home group curriculum."

And if it goes well then we'll open up the whole 66. And again that's part of our stewardship is we don't always just jump right in the deep end. We like to test the people, the radio station, but this has gotten so much response so quickly, we're now all in. We're in the deep end. We're going for 66 books.

Steve Shwetz: Yeah. And I appreciate and I think it was such a good move for us to put her in as a director of language initiatives in Africa because we are seeing the Holy Spirit move in such significant ways in Africa. And more to come on that and our commitment to Africa.

Greg Lowenthal: We are serious about it. Yeah. So talk a little bit about the Turkana producer or the voice, how we got him, anything you want to pull out of that?

Steve Shwetz: Well it's again this is such a great article and as I was reading it I literally and knew we'd be talking about it I thought I just want to say to everybody you really want to get this. There's no agenda other than you being blessed to read this and Turkana is a region in Northern Kenya.

And it's actually near this giant refugee camp called the Kakuma Refugee Camp that has more than 300,000 refugees from over 20 nations. And we're on a radio station right near the edge of that refugee camp. That alone is just an extraordinary ministry opportunity.

Yeah I also appreciate part of the teaching of Thru the Bible that makes it unique is Bernice draws it out in this letter where she says unlike occasional evangelists who preach in English or Kishwahili through interpreters, the Bible teacher comes with clarity in their own language and is consistently there day in and day out.

So not to say evangelists play a role but opening the Bible and teaching it to people is such a key and the response is so consistent that people grow in their faith and come to Christ as a result of being exposed to the Bible in that way.

Greg Lowenthal: Yeah. And so the Lord led us through Bernice to this Reverend Dr. Joshua Lemuya. He is a very respected pastor. Bernice met him when she was doing some other ministry engagement and in January 2024 he began the involvement in the project.

And now the thing I love is in the beginning it was "Okay let's do this for maybe two years and do six books of the Bible." Now he's saying "I want to continue until all 66 books of the Bible have been taught."

Steve Shwetz: Yeah. And the fruit that we're seeing even though he's not done with the production is amazing. Like I read part of this article where it says that a church has been planted entirely by listeners of Thru the Bible in the Turkana language. And there's going to be more to come. It's just such an encouragement.

Greg Lowenthal: Well and I think this is worth reading. In the village of Mathuwan one family began listening to the radio program together. They shared what they learned with neighbors who soon joined them. I mean stop Steve. How many times have we seen that? We've seen it literally all over the world. People share Thru the Bible with neighbors and then something good happens.

And the report goes on to say this. Before long the gathering grew into a spiritual community and eventually a church. A church that meets regularly under a tree and that's not our first tree church. We've had others, especially in Africa. There's a lot of under the tree churches.

And they learn from God's word shared on the TTB program. And basically we don't have time to read all of this but we hope that you will go online or call us and sign up for the newsletter because you can read this great article. But the bottom line is this church is reaching out to its community and they're using the TTB radio program as the teacher of their church. Pretty cool.

Steve Shwetz: Yeah. And if you're interested in praying for this ministry and others all around the world sign up for our world prayer team going to ttb.org/pray and sign up today. Greg why don't you pray for us as we begin?

Greg Lowenthal: Father every time we see you at work we are humbled because we know that we are your servants and you are the director of this ministry. You lead these new initiatives. You open doors. You provide people and resources and we just want to acknowledge that and praise you for it.

And thank you that we get a chance to bring your word to these hungry souls in the Turkana language. We pray you'd continue to allow us to do that more and more across the world in Jesus' name, Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now we come today to verse six and I'd like to read it here in the 15th chapter. And he, that is Abraham, believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now here is one of the great chapters of the Bible and this is one of the great verses of the Bible.

You'll recall that God appeared to Abraham after his victory over the kings of the East and God had protected him. I'm your shield and your exceeding great reward. And this man Abram is a little disturbed. He asks about the fact that he doesn't have a child one born in his house is the one that will inherit and be in the line.

And God took him by the hand it was night and led him out and said, "Look yonder toward the stars, if you can number them, well you could number your offspring." He couldn't number the stars. He could see approximately about 4,000 but there probably were over 50,000 in that area where he was looking.

He couldn't number them. He couldn't number his offspring. You couldn't today. Now Abraham believed God. Actually what it means is Abraham said "Amen" to God. God says, "I'll do this for you" and Abraham said to God, "I believe you, Amen. I believe it." And that was counted to him for righteousness.

Now this is so important that we need to make a check on this. Paul used it. For instance, you have him in the fourth chapter of Romans. Paul quotes this verse and let me read that beginning with verse one of the fourth chapter of Romans.

What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? Or let me change that reading. Abraham has found as pertaining to the flesh. I think that that brings out the meaning better. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God.

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it, that is his faith, was counted to him for righteousness for that's what it was not but that's what God counted it. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt.

Now if you can work for your salvation and God owes it to you, but my friend God never saves by any other means except grace. He's never had any other method of saving. And if you ever get saved, it'll be because you believe God. You accept Christ as your savior. You believe that God has provided this salvation for you.

And he makes it very clear here in verse five, but to him that worketh not, no works at all, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. What kind of folk? Ungodly folk. His faith is counted for righteousness. It's counted for what it's not and that's for righteousness.

Now Abraham just believed God. He just accepted what God said and he believed God. That's the way you get saved is to believe that God has done something for you. That Christ died for you. That he rose again and that God will declare you righteous by simply accepting Christ.

Now in the third chapter of Galatians, you have that same great truth by the way and we're told here in verse eight of Galatians 3, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed."

And then we're told back in verse six, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Faith that Abraham had made him faithful to God, but he's not saved by being faithful. He's saved by believing God. That's all important to see.

Now Abraham was a very practical man. He was not filled with a phony piety as we see a lot of that today. He's very practical. He now wants to know something and he'd like to have something in writing.

Will you listen to verse seven? He said unto him, "I'm the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it." Here God again says, "I'm giving you this land to inherit it." And Abraham doesn't even have a deed.

He has nothing in writing. And as I said last time, God told him to go down to the courthouse and I'll meet you down there and we'll sign a contract. And you say to me, "Well I've read that in my Bible and it's certainly not there." Oh it is in your Bible, you just have to read it right though.

Verse eight. And he said, here is Abraham now, "Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? You've told me that, how shall I know it? I'd like to have it in writing."

Now here's what God said do. And he said unto him, "Take me an heifer of three years old and a she goat of three years old and a ram of three years old and a turtledove and a young pigeon."

And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another but the birds divided he not. Now the thing that God said for him to do is that you get a sacrifice. You get a heifer, she goat, a ram, and you divide them down the middle.

That is split them right down the middle. Put one half on one side, one half on the other. Turtledoves you don't divide. You put one turtledove over here, one over there. Now when men made a contract in that day, that's the way they made it.

They would fix a sacrifice like this and the two men who were making a contract, if one man agreed to buy sheep from the other one, the party of the first part joins hands with the party of the second part and then they state their contract.

One says "This I agree to do," the other says "Then I'll pay you so much." They join hands and walk through that. Now that in that day corresponded to going down to the courthouse and signing before a notary.

That's exactly what took place. Now you'll notice that Abraham got everything ready according to what God wanted him to do. Notice verse 11. When the fowls came down upon the carcasses Abraham drove them away.

This is sure a very human scene. If you'd been there you would have probably have seen all this display of the sacrifices and you'd have known the custom of the day. I probably ought to turn and read from Jeremiah 34:18 for here you have a reference to this custom that was prevalent in that land not just among these people but all other peoples in that day and here's a reference to it.

I'm reading Jeremiah 34:18. "And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof."

You see this was the method in that day of taking a sacrifice and dividing it and the men then make the contract. Now Abraham gets everything ready and while he's waiting for the Lord, the fowls of the air come down, the buzzards, the crows, and all other carrion.

And Abraham's there shooing them away. They were ready to swoop down and you would say, "Well Brother Abraham, apparently the one you're making a contract with hasn't shown up." And he said, "No he hasn't." Says "I guess he's late."

"No," Abraham says, "I don't think he's late. He just told me to get things ready and that he'd be here and make the contract." Now notice what happened. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and lo a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

Now this is the thing that took place. Abraham is paralyzed in sleep and put aside. Now that seems very strange that God would paralyze him in sleep when he's supposed to be making a contract.

This is an unusual contract. God is going to go through because God's promising something and Abraham's not going to go through cause Abraham's not promising to do a thing. He just believed God. That's all.

My friend that's exactly what took place 1900 years ago. God the Father so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and the son agreed to come to the earth and die for the sins of the world your sin and mine that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life.

And I wasn't even there. 1900 years I wasn't even there to make a contract but God the Father and God the Son did and he went to the cross and he died for my sins. And I was paralyzed by sin. I couldn't promise anything. You couldn't either.

Abraham's not going to promise anything. Suppose that God had said to Abraham, "Abraham if you'll just promise to say your prayers every night, I'm going to do this for you." And suppose Abraham forgets to do this and doesn't pray one night.

Well the contract is shot. It's broken. And therefore God doesn't need to make his part good. God said that he'd do it and he's asking man to do just one thing, say "Amen" to God. You believe it. Believe what God has done.

Friends that's salvation and it's to believe God. Years ago a dear little Scotch mother, her son had gone away to Glasgow to college and he came back rather an unbeliever and she was talking with the boy and telling about how wonderful God was and that she was sure of her salvation.

Well he had become skeptical and he was a little provoked and finally he said, "How do you know you're saved? Why" said "your little soul doesn't amount to anything" and he began to compare her to the vastness of the universe and said "God could forget all about you and you can't be sure."

And she never said anything. She just kept serving the boy's breakfast and finally when she'd finished she sat down with him and she said, "You know son I've been a thinking about it. Maybe you're right. Maybe my little soul doesn't amount to much and maybe the vastness of God's universe would mean he wouldn't miss me at all.

But" says "you know" says "if he doesn't save me he's going to lose more than I'm going to lose." And he says "What do you mean?" "Well just as you said, my soul doesn't amount to anything. I wouldn't lose much. But he's going to lose his reputation.

He promised to do it. He agreed to do it. That whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life." Friends God's the one went through. God made the contract. And he said unto Abram, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that's not theirs shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years."

In the scripture it's predicted these people would be put out of the land three times. This is the first one. It's also predicted they would return back to the land. They did from this one. Later on it was the Babylonian captivity.

They were carried into captivity they returned. At 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed and again they were scattered. They have never returned from that but it's predicted they will come back someday.

Now God says also "that nation whom they shall serve will I judge and afterward shall they come out with great substance." And they did. "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in a good old age."

Abraham would not live to see it of course. Verse 16. "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." God says "I can't put you in this land now cause I love Amorites too and I want to give them a chance to turn to me."

And God gave them 400 years. That's a long time is it not to see if they wouldn't turn to him? And the only one that turned to him in that land was that Canaanite you remember Rahab the harlot. She turned to God. She believed him.

That's all God asks you to do is to believe him. But he gave the Amorites all this opportunity. It came to pass when the sun went down it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

Both of those speak of Christ. The furnace speaks of course of judgment. The lamp speaks of him as the light of the world. "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, 'Unto thy seed have I given this land unto the river of Egypt unto the great river the river Euphrates.'"

And God now marks out the land. By the way, what did Abraham promise to do? Nothing. He believed God. God will save you. Saves you by grace by believing what he's done for you.

Now we come to chapter 16 and I must confess that you almost wish chapter 16 wasn't in the Bible. That God had left it out. Because after Abraham rose to the heights here why you would say well believe me he's certainly treading on high places now.

But he's not perfect. We see the lapse of this man's faith here relative to Sarah and Hagar the Egyptian maid. Now let me read chapter 16 verse one. "Now Sarah Abram's wife bare him no children she had a handmaid an Egyptian whose name was Hagar."

You see he got two things down in the land of Egypt that really caused him trouble. Wealth was one thing and this little Egyptian maid he got down there. "And Sarah said unto Abram, 'Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing I pray thee go in unto my maid it may be that I may obtain children by her' and Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarah."

Now the thing that this woman has suggested was the common practice of that day. When a wife couldn't bear a child there was the concubine and that was common practice of that day. But don't say God approved this. God did not approve of this at all.

This was Sarah's idea and frankly it was not contrary to the custom of the day. And Abram listened to her. Looks like he's surrendering his position as head of the home here and he followed her suggestion.

"And Sarah Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife." Now this little Egyptian maid becomes a concubine.

And this is not according to God's will. God's not going to accept the offspring at all. He didn't. He wouldn't. Why? Because it was wrong. Don't say God approved this. All that you can see is that this is in the record because this is a historical fact that took place.

Now we read, "He went in unto Hagar she conceived and when she saw that she had conceived her mistress was despised in her eyes." You can see she said "I've mothered a child of Abraham" and Sarah couldn't do it.

She looked down on Sarah you see. And now notice verse five. "And Sarah said unto Abram, 'My wrong is upon thee.'" Now look don't go by that. Don't say that God approved of this. He didn't.

God says this is wrong. Now Sarah sees that she's done wrong. "My wrong be upon thee." She's wrong my friend. "And I have given my maid into thy bosom and when she saw that she had conceived I was despised in her eyes.

The Lord judge between me and thee." God doesn't approve of it. God will not accept this and it's going to be a real heartbreak to old Abraham. But you see they're not really trusting God as they should.

After all Abraham at this time is 90 years old, Sarah's 80. I think they'd come to the conclusion that they were not going to have a child. I'm of the opinion that probably Sarah could rationalize and say, "Well I think maybe this is the way God wants us to do it for this is the custom of the day."

And it was the custom of that day but it's contrary to God's way of doing things. You know we get the wrong impression if we think just because it's in the Bible God approves of it. No the only thing that's inspired is that it's an accurate record.

But there are many things God does not approve of that are recorded in his word. This happens to be one of them but we'll have to wait until next time to pick up our story. May God richly bless you.

Steve Shwetz: Today's study is always available free to stream or download thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we'd love to know what's God teaching you.

For resources you can use to dig deeper into God's word, download our app from your app store or visit ttb.org. If we can help you find something specific just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Shwetz praying that God's spirit makes his word alive for you today.