In this episode, we explore the incredible impact of small Christian gatherings and the spread of God’s Word in over 150 languages. The testimonies shared reflect extraordinary journeys from different faiths towards Christianity, highlighting the importance of community and persistence in faith. Additionally, Dr. McGee’s teachings from Micah remind us of the timeless need for internal transformation over mere external religiosity, a message that resonates across generations and cultures.
of foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Through the Bible. This time on the Bible Bus, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is going to take us through one of the most well-known passages in the Old Testament. Do you know what it is? It’s Micah 6.8. It’s a great study. So grab your Bible and get comfortable. And while you do, Greg and I have some time to talk about our mission to take God’s whole word to his whole world. And this time, specifically, through our home groups.
SPEAKER 03 :
Something that is very close to your heart and my heart. We’ve seen it together. We’ve seen it on our separate travels. Believers gathering together in homes, listening to the teaching of the Word through Dr. McGee’s teaching in their mother tongue. And we’ve gotten into more than 150 new languages doing this style of ministry. And boy, Steve, the home groups are still growing. I’m having trouble keeping track of the growth in India, the growth in Ethiopia, the growth in the other South Asian countries. So The languages are expanding. The number of groups are expanding. But the most important thing is what happens in these groups.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I love the growth that you see happen. So many times we’ve had several testimonies, ultimately from Radio Home Group leaders. But the story starts as, I was a non-Christian. I was of another faith. And then I started attending this group. And then I started growing in my faith. And today, I am now a Radio Home Group leader.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s amazing.
SPEAKER 04 :
Seeing the discipleship and the growth happen in people is so exciting.
SPEAKER 03 :
So let’s hear from some of those lovely people. So Moses in Jharkhand, India, tells us this. Even if no one comes along, I continue to conduct the study with the family that hosts. My patience is slowly paying off as at least one from each family started turning up. Please pray that all the family members will join. We’ve never had any Bible study before, and coming together with the media player given to us has brought a deeper and clearer understanding of God’s Word.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. I’m just so encouraged by the faithfulness of Moses, who’s leading the small group. You know, sometimes as a small group leader, you show up and nobody else shows up. And this guy’s like, I don’t care if the host is there. I’m going to go ahead and teach it. And he’s going through the home group Bible study and people are coming.
SPEAKER 03 :
And it shows that people are all the same around the world. Yeah, everyone that’s ever led a home group has sat there with your notes and you’re ready and you wonder if anybody’s going to come. So that’s encouraging. How about this next one?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, this next one is Kalibai from Rajasthan shares this. I used to be very religious, offering sacrifices and performing various rituals. I believed in many vows and lived with deep devotion. But despite all of that, my life was filled with trouble. Because of these ongoing problems, I sought many treatments but nothing helped. I spent a lot of money yet saw no benefit. One day… I noticed a radio home group was being held in our neighborhood. The message was being preached in our Mawari language. As I listened, the verse touched me. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. That verse changed my life. It brought healing and peace into my heart. I visited the family hosting the group, asked them more about Jesus, and requested prayer. They prayed for me, and I experienced a deep sense of peace. Since that day, I’ve been regularly attending the group. Through it, I continue to listen to God’s word and grow spiritually. Today, my life is filled with peace, and I joyfully share this message with others.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think there’s anything greater in life than the fact that all of us have been part of bringing that word of God and watching God change this person’s life. I mean, Steve, that’s as great as it gets in this earth.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and I love reading all these letters, but hearing a salvation testimony like that just makes your day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, it’s amazing that we get to do this.
SPEAKER 04 :
Greg, can you pray for us as we begin?
SPEAKER 03 :
Father, our hearts are filled and we’re humbled to just see your mighty hand at work. The way that you reach into people’s lives and show the depth of your love for every one of the billions of people on this planet. We thank you. We honor you and praise you. And we pray you just continue to use us in our humble efforts to introduce people to your word and to the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’re off to Micah 6 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, as we return back to the sixth chapter of the little book of Micah, I left off last time with that very choice, verse 8. It is the joy and delight of the liberal because he thinks this presents a works religion. and that by works that he can be saved. Because actually what he’s doing here is answering the question of many sincere people that were among the northern kingdom at that day. They were in darkness. They had not been taught the Word of God. And they wanted to know how to come before God. And they want to know whether they should bring burnt offerings. And should they bring a great many of them? Should they even offer their own children as human sacrifices? Now, he’s answered all of those. None of these things does God require. What he’s saying is simply this, that external religion without an internal experience, without reality on the inside, that a ritual is absolutely valueless. There must be a rebirth. a new nature given to the individual. And therefore, externalities are not the important thing. And God never begins that. Now, we come here to verse 8. He hath shown thee, O man, what is good. Now, if you want to know what God takes delight in and that which he requires of man, here it is. And the liberal, well, he just jumps up and down for joy at this. But he misses the point. And what does the Lord require of thee? but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Now, these are the three things that God requires. Now, if you’ll look at these three things, they are addressed, first of all, to man, old man. What is good? This means not only the man in Israel, but the man in the United States. Not only the person of the 7th century B.C., but the man of the 20th century A.D. This is for man. And this now is what God requires. These are the three things you’re to do justly. That is, you must have a righteousness to present to God. You must be a righteous person. Then the second is, and love mercy. We have love here and to love actually the mercy of God. The third is humility and to walk humbly with thy God. Now, as we indicated last time, all three of these are the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And none of us have any one of these things in our lives today. Now, Paul lists here the condition of man. He sets before us in the third chapter of Romans, beginning at verse 9, and going down through verse 18, he brings man before the judgment bar of God and shows he’s guilty. Then he takes him into the clinic of God and shows that he’s sick, sick nigh unto death. In fact, he’s dead in trespasses and in sins. Now, no man, therefore, whoever is, can present these things to God. This is what God requires. How can you meet it? Paul says there’s none righteous, no, not one. Somebody says, well, that’s in the New Testament. No, it’s not, friend. All that Paul does in that section of Romans is quote the Old Testament. We find that back in the 14th Psalm, verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They’ve done abominable works. There is none that doeth good, none righteous. None that does good. Now, that’s what God says about you. But God says he requires righteousness. How are you going to present it, my friend? Now he goes on to say in verse 11 of chapter 3 of Romans, there is none that understand it. There’s none that seeketh after God. In other words, he says there’s none that acts on even the knowledge that he has. And how many of you today, if you’re not a Christian, do you really live up to your ideal? Have you attained the goal that you set? Have you come to the plateau of life where you’re satisfied with your living? May I say to you that none of us even acts on the knowledge that we have, and there’s none that seeketh after God. Now, somebody says, where is that found? Back in Psalm 14, verse 2, let me read it. The Lord looketh down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any that did understand and seek God. There wasn’t any. Verse 3, they’re all gone aside. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. That’s Psalm 14, 3. Now, I don’t have time to do it, but from the Old Testament, I could multiply, friends, these statements again and again and again. Here’s what God requires. But the Old Testament also makes it very obvious that you can’t present this to God. You do not have this. Therefore, there must be a change in the life because there’s none righteous. God requires righteousness. And we are told that Jesus was delivered for our offenses, raised for our justification. That word’s righteousness. He’s raised for our righteousness, that we might have righteousness. And then by the Spirit of God, we might produce righteousness in our lives. And then love of mercy. And none of us have that in our human heart. We’re dead in trespasses and sins. Paul says that we’ve all gone out of the way. We’ve turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, this is the picture of man. This is the way that man is today. The point that is presented to us by Isaiah in Isaiah 53 is in verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And evidently, us all have iniquity. Or he wouldn’t have made a statement like that. So let’s not be hypocritical when we come to this verse 9. and see that we to walk humbly with our God, while we’re told here that none seeketh after God. We want to come our way. Now, may I say this to you, and I say it in all kindness, and I trust that it might startle some of you and waken you out of your condition. If you believe that your church membership or your character or your good works today are going to get you to God, Then may I say to you, you bypassed God’s way. The Lord Jesus said, I’m the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Now, if you can get to God by this route here, presenting a righteousness, by loving mercy, and by walking humbly with God, if you can do that, And you do that on your own, then may I say to you that when you get to heaven, you can tell God to move over, that you want to share his throne with him, that you got there by yourself. You didn’t need him. You’re your own God. May I say to you, God says that he doesn’t even share his glory with another. And I don’t think he’ll share his throne with you. My suggestion is, why don’t you come God’s way? and not man’s way. This is what God required. But who are you kidding that you think you can present this in your natural state? My, how verses like this held up to the human family, and then they’re commended for being polite folk and nice, especially on Sundays. And they seem so genteel and so lovely and yet have never come God’s way. May I say to you, how can you live in a hypocrisy like that and continue on and on in that? Why not be honest with God? Just come right out with him. Go to him. Tell him that you’re a sinner. He already knows it. But be nice if you told him it. It’s better than climbing on a psychiatrist’s couch and talking to him. Talk to God. Tell him the thing that’s wrong with you. Tell him about your hang-ups. Tell him about the sin in your life. And God will save you. God will redeem you. Now, I spent a long time here because this is a very important place in the Word of God. Now, I’m going to move on from here into something also that is very important. Now, having presented to these people what God requires, he’s going to show them now how far they’ve fallen short of it. And this will be the reason that God will judge them. Because of their willful and continual sinning, God’s going to judge them. Now, will you listen to this? Verse 9, the Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name. Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it? Now, we’ve seen that Micah has been directing his prophecies largely to the urban areas, to the cities. His writing reveals that he actually is a very sophisticated writer, that he was in the know. He belonged to the upper echelon. Now, he is in contrast to Amos. Amos said, “‘Why, I’m no prophet? Why, I’m just a gatherer of sycamore trees. I’m a farmhand. I’m a country boy. I’ve just come to town. I’m wearing yellow shoes.'” But he happened to be God’s man also. But Micah now is different. And you notice he is crying to the city. The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name, hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. Now, the rod is for judgment. We read back in the second Psalm, he shall break them with a rod of iron. dashed them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. The rod represents the judgment of God. Now that judgment is coming upon this nation. And the man of wisdom, that is, the man in that day who believed God, who would listen, would recognize that judgment was coming upon the nation. and he would act accordingly. That the voice of God is lifted, and he speaks forth in judgment, and the man is a wise man. who sees the dealings of God that will reveal his righteous character, as well as the fact that he is long-suffering and he’s patient and he pardons iniquity, but also that he punishes. And that rod is the authority and the badge of that authority that he is the judge who will judge. Now, let’s move on here, because we see now here at verse 9 of chapter 6, “…the Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, The man of wisdom shall see thy name. Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it? Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?” In other words, there was still sin in the nation. And now he’s going to reveal these sins specifically. He’s going to spell them out, what they were. Now, verse 11, “…shall I count them pure with the wicked balances?” Now, these people were coming, many of them into the temple, bringing a sacrifice, going through the outward ceremony, and saying that they were doing justly and that they loved mercy. But what were they doing during the week? Well, God says, shall I count them pure with the wicked balance? I tell you, the butchers in that day were weighing their thumbs. Some butchers had thumbs worth several drachmas, let me tell you. And that was true. These men doing business were dishonest in their business dealings. And he says here, “…and with the bag of deceitful weights.” They were absolutely crooked in their business dealings. They were avaricious. They were covetous. They were greedy. And yet they tried to pass off as religious folk. Now, verse 12, for the rich men are full of violence and the inhabitants have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Well, will you notice what is true here? They’re guilty of violence. The rich were and they’re liars. They’re deceitful. You can’t believe them. Now, may I say to you, is this not a picture of our own nation? Is this not a picture of this wonderful land in which we live? You can’t believe the news media. You can’t believe the politicians. Doesn’t make any difference what party. It’s a day when it’s difficult to believe businessmen. It’s difficult today to believe those in the military, in the leadership. And actually, we are living in a nation today where most of us little folk are confused. We don’t know who to believe. And this was the situation in that land. And God did not approve that. In fact, that is the thing that brought down the nation and brought down the judgment of God upon them. Now, I want to make this statement and I want to make it very clear because I love my country. I hate to see what’s happening to it today. But I have taught for years that the United States would have to go down at the end of this age for the very simple reason that we are not in prophecy. And we are a world power today, but will we be tomorrow? And it seems that we are going down very fast. Well, let me say that at the time that I’m making this tape, Things look very dark in this land of ours. We don’t know who to believe. An energy crisis has come upon us. And it didn’t come suddenly. It didn’t come in the past few months or the past few years. It’s been coming for many years upon us. And many of us, I say many, a few of us have been crying out that America is going to be judged. Well, we apparently at this stage where I’m speaking from right now, it looks like that we’re moving into that orbit today. And many were warning 20 years ago, in fact, after World War II, that oil should have been brought out of the Middle East at that time and that we should never have used our own reserves. But you see, because of the greed, and it was called good business, of course, because it was making money, and we went into an age of affluence and plenty, and we really left God out. And he’s pretty much left out at this time. There’s been no mention at the time that I’m making this tape that we need to turn to God in this emergency in which we find ourselves today. The thing I’m trying to say is this. that this nation, northern kingdom, was in the same condition that we are in today. And God said, I brought judgment upon this nation. And they were my chosen people as a nation. And I brought judgment upon them. You see, we have a philosophy of human government presented to us here. And now listen to him. Therefore, also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins. God says, I’m going to first start taking away the oil from you. And I’m not going to stop there. You’re going to find out you’re going to run short on many things before I’m through judging you. Verse 14, thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied. That’s verse 14. And thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee. And thou shalt take whole, but shalt not deliver. And that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. God says that you are not going to be able to enjoy all of these things that you’ve enjoyed, these little goodies that you have had, and you have given no recognition to God at all. God says, I’ll judge you. Now, he moves on. Verse 15, thou shall sow, but thou shall not reap. Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with oil and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. God says that I intend to begin to cut you down, and I’ll cut you down gradually. And that, of course, would give them an opportunity to turn to God, because we’re going to find out when we do get to this next chapter here, which we will get to next time, and we’ll probably finish in two more times, but we’re going to find out that God would have pardoned them any time they would have turned to him. But my friend, you have to turn to him. God will judge sin, and he intends to judge sin. Now, we have one more verse in this sixth chapter, and we’ll take that up next time and then move on into the seventh chapter. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 04 :
Micah foretold of the destruction of Israel because of her sins, and Dr. McGee certainly made it clear that our own nation is headed in the same direction. Next time, we’re going to hear about God’s philosophy of government, so I hope that you’ll make the Bible bus a part of your plans. Until then, remember that we offer a wide selection of resources in our app and at ttb.org. I highly recommend the Bible Companions, by the way, which are available for free download and some for purchase in paperback editions, too. So find out more at ttb.org or simply call 1-865-BIBLE. To be in touch by mail, you can write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. If you listen in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1 is the address to write. I’m Steve Schwartz, so grateful for your company on the Bible Bus and your partnership in taking the whole word to the whole world.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, ride the Bible bus for five years and you’ll be amazed at what God teaches you from his word about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It’s a blessing that keeps on going. That’s what we believe at Through the Bible.
