Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: No doubt you've heard it before or even thought it yourself: studying the Bible is boring. Or maybe, I can never understand what it's talking about. Well, welcome to Thru the Bible. You've hopped aboard the Bible bus at just the right time, since we're at the beginning of a new five-year journey through the whole word of God.

So how do you answer that question? Is it really possible to understand the Bible? Well, we find a clue in the Psalmist's prayer for God to open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. In this lesson, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, our teacher, gives us more insight into how to understand scripture, giving us another of his seven principles to help us study the Bible.

But first, Greg Harris is here, and we've got some time to talk about Thru the Bible's ministry this time in Central Asia.

Greg Harris: Yeah, a really tough part of the world to do ministry, and we have a newsletter article written by one of our team members, James, who was traveling there. And I actually checked my calendar, about two and a half years ago, I was also in Kazakhstan meeting with a lot of these team members.

And we say this a lot, but perhaps we always have new listeners, and so I think it's important that we bring everybody up to speed. When you say you're going to take the whole word to the whole world, it doesn't mean you just go to the easy places.

Steve Schwetz: No, and Central Asia is definitely a place I have not been, you have, but it is definitely a hard place to do ministry.

Greg Harris: It is. It's dangerous, there's opposition, and we got this really amazing report from FEBC that I think will say it better than I can. You want to start reading it?

Steve Schwetz: No doubt. It starts off rather slow: "How dare you spread this kind of misinformation?" said Omar, and by the way, we changed his name, commenting under one of TTB's videos. "You call yourself Kazakh? Stop trying to deceive people with your corrupted scriptures. Do you know what kind of damage you are doing?"

Omar is one of our most regular commentators. He responds to TTB videos aggressively and shares the Islamic propaganda that has become so common in Kazakhstan. And then Omar does go on to make anti-Semitic comments about Jews, and we're not going to quote those on this program.

The report continues: "Islamic fundamentalism and extremism have been spreading in Kazakhstan, and along with them, anti-Jewish and anti-Christian rhetoric. Because of this, many grow angry when they hear the word of God preached, and they see it as part of the Jewish threat."

Greg Harris: But God. One of the blessings of this anger—you don't think of an angry man like this as being a blessing—however, is that it leads some to follow TTB's videos very closely, like Omar. They're exposed to even more of the word of God, and we are able to interact with them and the comments, correcting and teaching them with love.

So would you pray for Omar as he writes comments under most of our videos? And we're working with him and believe that the Lord is working in his heart. And I just want to break in and say I've seen this pattern before, some of the staunchest resistance in people in comments and phone calls and things like that—I saw it in Russia—that end up becoming less hostile, neutral, supportive, and come to Christ.

Steve Schwetz: God did it with the apostle Paul, I think he can do it with anybody.

Greg Harris: Bingo. There you go. Exactly. Yeah, so we can certainly be praying for Omar and many like him, no doubt, especially in the Islamic countries, those people that are against the teaching of Christianity, that maybe they would be fueled by their anger to listen and watch more and the Holy Spirit would be able to use that in their lives to convict them and to bring them to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. How glorious would that be?

Steve Schwetz: It would be. And as Steve said, we hear it all over, particularly in the Muslim world, whether it's the Persian world, the Arab-speaking world, Arabic-speaking world. This is part of ministry is just lovingly responding to these issues. And so that's why we call the attention of our listening family to these issues, because prayer and the word of God are the only two things that can overpower this type of anger.

Greg Harris: Yeah, and you can certainly help us by being more a part of it by signing up for our world prayer team. Go to ttb.org and sign up today. You'll get a daily email and you'll be able to pray, figuratively speaking, on our knees around the world as we travel, praying for all the different parts of the world. And Greg, why don't you do that for us now?

Greg Harris: Father, we're amazed that you give us the opportunity to speak to millions around the world, many who are very hostile, and yet your spirit and the gospel just melts their hearts and the love of God. And we pray that would happen to your glory all over the world.

And now as we study your word, we pray you would also melt our hearts and change our lives in Jesus' name, Amen.

Steve Schwetz: Let's join Dr. J. Vernon McGee as we make our way through the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, we come back again today to our series that we are opening our five-year program with, and today we move from looking at the book, that is the Bible, now we're turning to guidelines for the understanding of the scriptures, for the understanding of this book.

And I put down all these other preliminary statements that might be helpful to us in the study of the word of God. And as we're getting underway in this five-year program, I must confess that there is an element of fear and trembling as we enter into this program.

And this is a tremendous responsibility. Added in that is also our foreign broadcasts. There are not as many of them, but they go out on powerful stations. This is a tremendous responsibility, friends, and our faith is that we believe that if God wants us to continue, he'll provide support.

And we do look to our friends who believe that the important business of the church today and of a believer today is to get out the word of God to the world. I frankly don't think we have time to put up all of these magnificent buildings that the church is putting up today and having names included in it.

Let's get the word of God out and get the name of Jesus into places where it's not known. What a tremendous opportunity we have. Now, we want to look at actually some guidelines, seven to be exact. And I'd like to open today with this scripture which we opened with before.

The scripture I want to begin with is Psalm 119:18: "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." And when the psalmist wrote these lines, of course, he had in mind the Mosaic system primarily, but we widen that out to include the 66 books of the Bible and can say today, "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of the Bible."

And so with that thought mind, we look at these guidelines. Now, there are certain guidelines that each of us should follow relative to the word of God. You may want to add to these, but I believe that the ones we're mentioning are basic and primary. And I'd like to put it like this: I guarantee that if you follow these guidelines, blessing will come to your heart and your life.

Certainly there should be these directions in the study of scripture. Today, for instance, a bottle of patent medicine, no matter how simple it might be—it might be just a tonic or it might be something for a cold—it has directions for the use of it. I even notice that a bottle of aspirin has on it directions.

And any little gadget that you buy in a five and ten cent store—and I must pause to say that probably there is no misnomer today like the five and ten cent store, you can't find anything in there that sells anymore for five and ten cents, it's generally up in the dollar bracket today—but any gadget that you buy there always has with it directions for its operation.

I know that I bought my daughter when she was a little girl a toy, and it had with it directions. You had to assemble it, and I took it out to give to her and I thought well I'd put it together. And I want to tell you, friends, I never got into a thing as complicated as that was, and the directions were right there with it. Not only directions but pictures, and even with all of that help, I had my problems.

Well, if things in this world today are like that, then certainly the word of God needs directions in order to read and to study it. A word of God should have a few directions and a few instructions on the study of it.

Now I'm going to mention seven very simple yet basic preliminary statements that will be a guide for the study of the scriptures, and we're going to attempt to follow them. Well, let me mention the seven to you. Begin with prayer—that's number one, and we're going to talk about each one of these. Second, read the Bible. Third, study the Bible. And fourth, meditate on the Bible.

And fifth, read what others have written on the scriptures. And now the sixth one is obey the Bible—obedience, that is all-important. Now number seven is pass it on to others. Someone has put it in this very brief, cogent manner: "The Bible: know it in your head, stow it in your heart, show it in your life, sow it in the world." Well, that's another way of saying some of the things that we're going to talk about here.

Now the first one, and we come back to it, is begin with prayer. Bible is different from all other books. That is the thing we've attempted to emphasize when we've been talking, in the past few studies we've had together when we've talked about the book. This book is different, and you cannot come to it and bring to it just mental acumen. You have to bring to it humility that will permit the Spirit of God to be your teacher.

And so it's necessary to begin with prayer. I always felt in college—and a college student gets the impression that he knows everything—that I could learn anything that any man had ever written. I didn't care what it was and what field it was. If he wrote it, then I could understand it. And I'm of the opinion that several of us in college at that time had that viewpoint, and that's the way we approached every book and everything.

Well, that's very fine, I suppose, for a college student, but when you get as old as I am now, you ought to have more sense and to know that there are many things you don't understand. Now I do believe that whatever any man has written, another man can understand it. But that's not true of the Bible.

The Bible is different. The Bible is a closed book, as we've said, since the Holy Spirit is the author, only the Spirit of God can teach us and make it real to us. And that's the reason when we begin in the book of Genesis, we always begin with prayer. We don't have it at the end of the program, we have it at the beginning of the program because we recognize that we need the Spirit of God to be our teacher.

And the Bible, therefore, is different from all other books. When Sir Walter Scott was dying, he said to his servant and his secretary, "Bring me the book." And the secretary looked just a little puzzled, and he looked at the shelf of books that Walter Scott had written, and he wondered which one he intended for him to bring. And he asked, "Which book?" And Walter Scott is said to have replied, "The Bible. There's only one book for a man when he's dying."

And I believe that is true. But it's the book, therefore, that differs from all other books. It's the book for any man who's dying, but it's also the book for any man who's living. I'm afraid a great many folk do not get interested in the Bible until they get to the end of their lives or until they get in a great deal of difficulty.

And it's wonderful to have a book you can pull down at a time like that and find comfort in it. But it's a book for you to live in the full vigor of life. It's a book to face life with today, and it's the book which furnishes the only sure route through this world and on into the next world. It's the only book that can enable us to meet the emergencies and to cushion the shocks that come to us in life. The Bible is different, and it's different from any other book.

Now you will notice that it is called Holy Bible. Actually, the word "Bible" simply means book. There's a little town in ruins north of Beirut in Lebanon which is called Byblos. We spent several hours there, and the reason that I did, I wanted to get pictures of that place. It's a famous place called Byblos, that is the book. That's where books were first made, and we're told that it is the place where the Bible got its name.

You see, they called it in that day the book. All other books were just books, but the Bible was the book. And then someone on down the line put on it the Holy Bible or "Holy Bible". And I personally believe that it is inspired from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation. And you know, I sometimes feel that that name on the outside "Holy Bible" is inspired also. May I say that's what it is.

Now this is a book, therefore, that differs from all other books. It's different in this sense: the Holy Spirit alone can open our minds to understand it. Now you can take up a book on philosophy, and if a man wrote it, and he did, then a man can understand it. You can read a book on higher mathematics, and since a man wrote it, a man can understand it.

There's not a book that ever has been written by any man that another man cannot understand. But again, I keep repeating it: the Bible's different. The Bible cannot be understood unless the Holy Spirit is the instructor and he wants to teach us. The fact of the matter is our Lord told us, "He'll guide you into all truth." And we write over the guidelines for the scripture: "Open thou mine eyes." That's a prayer. "That I may behold wondrous things out of thy word."

Now when the apostle Paul was praying for the Ephesians, as we've already seen, he did not pray for their health, although I'm of the opinion he may have done that at another time. And certainly he did pray for that. And he did not pray that they might get wealthy. I don't know whether he ever did that or not.

I know that in my ministry, I've made the mistake of praying for certain men that they would be successful in business and make money. And I've seen some of them do it, and frankly, I'm very sorry to have to report in nine cases out of ten, wealth turned them from being zealous for God.

I had a man in Cleburne, Texas, and he had a ranch, and they began to drill oil. And he came and he said to me, "Preacher, you pray that we find oil. If we do, I'm going to give one-half of the revenue that comes in from oil to the work of the Lord." Oh my gracious, you can imagine how this poor preacher—and it was during the Depression—how I really got down to business to pray.

And then one day it occurred to me that it might be well to see if this man was giving a half of what he had at the time to the Lord. And I'm very sorry to have to report, friends, he didn't even give the Lord a tenth, and I don't think we are under the tithe at all, but it certainly could be made a norm for giving. And that man could have given a great deal more, and he didn't give it, and didn't give even a fraction.

And yet this man was going to give the Lord a half. I came to the conclusion he wasn't going to do it. So I just quit praying that he'd find oil. And he didn't find oil, by the way. I don't know that my refusal to pray had anything to do with it or not, but I do know this: I'm really glad that he didn't find oil. I'm of the opinion, knowing the man, that he would have been turned from God.

May I say to you, Paul did not pray that the Ephesians would become wealthy. Well, you say, well what in the world did he pray for? He prayed this: he says, "Wherefore, I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers."

Now what in the world's Paul going to pray for? Listen: "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." That's Ephesians 1:17-18.

Did you notice he didn't pray for anything physical? He prayed that they might have wisdom in the revelation of the knowledge of him. That is, that the Spirit of God might be their teacher, opening the word of God to their hearts and lives. And may I say this to you, and I'm saying it very sincerely and very candidly, I trust you will pray for this radio ministry.

I trust you'll pray for the financial part, because I'll be very frank with you, we live in a very cold-blooded world today as far as business is concerned, and that even among Christians. You don't pay your bills today, you're in trouble, and we have to pay for radio, and we do depend on our listeners. Now that's putting it just brutally frank, but that's the way it is.

And I do encourage people to pray for the ministry. But let me tell you something most of all and especially as we begin this five-year program: will you pray that this poor preacher might have his eyes opened, and as we go through this book, that the Spirit of God might be the teacher? For I confess to you very frankly, we're not going to get anywhere at all if the Spirit of God is not our teacher.

This is a closed book, and it's the reason today that so many just don't get anything out of it is simply because they're not letting the Spirit of God teach them. Now Paul makes it very clear that he was praying for that. And this is his first prayer for these people, that they might have a wisdom and an understanding of the revelation of the knowledge of him.

And the revelation is in the book here. Now he wanted them to know the word of God. He wanted their eyes of their understanding to be enlightened. And you will recall that he also said to the Corinthians that eye hath not seen, therefore your eyes got to be opened if you're going to see it. And that your ear hath not heard, and it just can't come through the ear gate even on the radio.

And I have discovered this after quite a few years of being a minister. I find out that some people hear a message and they just turn their radio off. They say that poor fellow, he's not saying anything. Then somebody else, why, they find in it great blessing. Well, what's the difference? Well, the difference has to be not in the message, because it has to be either one or the other.

But the very interesting thing is it's both. To the man who said it was foolishness unto him, well, it was foolishness unto him. It actually was. And to the man, frankly, that it was a great blessing to his heart—well, isn't that what Paul said again to the Corinthians? "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, it is the power of God unto salvation."

Now, isn't that an amazing thing? That one person, he hears one thing, and another person hears something else. What is the difference? The difference is the fact that the Spirit of God is the one that does the teaching. And that's the reason we ought to always before you begin the study of the word of God, friends, you ought to begin with prayer.

Ask the Spirit of God to open your heart that you may hear the still small voice of the Son of God. May I say to you, it makes all the difference in the world today. And again, we're handling a supernatural book. Don't forget that. It's human book, it's got in it all kinds of things that deal with us human beings because it was written to us. And God wanted to communicate to us and he gave us this, and he speaks our language.

He speaks right to our hearts. He speaks to meet our needs today, and that's so important to see. Now Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says this—we've looked at this before, let me read this in closing: "Now ye have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned."

Now you see, that's the reason that the Spirit of God must be our teacher because we could never know the things of God unless the Spirit of God were our teacher. May the Lord bless you today, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: We'll continue next time with another of Dr. McGee's seven guidelines for understanding scripture. Until then, to find a resource that'll deepen your study of God's word, just visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Schwetz, so grateful for your company on the Bible bus and your partnership in taking God's whole word to his whole world.

Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

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?