In this enlightening episode, host Steve Schwetz invites you on another captivating journey through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. As they delve into the complexities of justice in the future millennium, Dr. McGee challenges listeners to rethink their understanding of justice, contrasting human systems with divine justice. Through this episode, you will gain insight into how current systems fall short and why true justice, which is eternally righteous, can only come from God.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you a good person? Welcome to Through the Bible, where we’ll hear our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, answer that question for himself and for you and me. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host, and I’m so glad that you’ve hopped aboard the Bible bus for another intriguing study, this time in the Old Testament book of Zechariah. So while you open God’s Word to Zechariah 7, verse 7, let’s listen to a few introductory remarks Dr. McGee shared on justice in the future millennium.
SPEAKER 01 :
I want to again today talk about some of the spiritual values and characteristics and benefits of the millennium, because there’s been such an emphasis upon that which is physical, and it’s not understand the millennium when we put the wrong emphasis upon it. And we have mentioned the fact that it’s going to be a time of peace. And right now with 57 wars going on throughout the world, you couldn’t say that this world today is a time of peace. The fact of the matter is, when they shall say, peace, peace, then sudden destruction will come upon them. And that is the present condition. But the millennium will be a great time of peace. And we also began talking about the fact that it’s going to be a time of justice. And we were looking at these spiritual benefits. We began it some time ago and I read at that time an editorial that I had written and we looked at that article and I wrote it some time ago and I was reading it and it was on the subject of justice. Well, that merely introduced the subject. The justice of God and the justice of man is not the same. Man’s justice is motivated by selfish reasons. Justice is what we want at the expense of others. Very briefly, it’s associated with bribery. And present-day justice is also filled with prejudice and ignorance. No human judge can truly dispense justice. Slavery was not considered injustice at one time. Today, big capital, big labor, big government are accepted as just members of our society. Human justice is sometimes the worst form of justice. Communistic states claim their systems practice justice. So far, This poor world suffers at the hands of cruel men who claim they dispense justice. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Chairman Mao and a host of lesser dictators rule the world in this civilized 20th century. They never brought justice to this world. Millions are in slavery today, more cruel than any of the past. All of this has been done in the name of justice. Now, the justice of God is far removed from the justice of man. Several scriptures will make this evident. And I want to turn today and then the next two or three times, turn to some scriptures that tell us something about the justice of God and how this poor world someday is going to experience real justice. And these scriptures will tell us something about the justice of God. Scripture testifies to the justice of God, by the way. And I turn first to Psalm 89, 14. And we’ll just be able to look at this for just a moment. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Now, friends, justice and mercy never get together, and not here on this earth. And you remember Portia in the trial of Shylock that Shakespeare wrote about. She began by saying, The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is blessed, it’s twice blessed, by him that giveth and him that receiveth. But Sherlock demanded this pound of flesh, and friends, legally, it was his. May I say that even a law system doesn’t always dispense justice, but God is in the position of extending mercy. And as we said before, we do not associate judgment and mercy and God’s salvation, but God is just when he saves sinners. And here in this Psalm 89, 14, we have that brought together in such a remarkable and wonderful way. And it’s the way that God has done it, you see.
SPEAKER 03 :
What a powerful reminder that true justice, real, righteous, and lasting can only come from God. Human systems may fail, but His justice is never compromised and His mercy never runs dry. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank You that You are just and merciful. In a world that often confuses the two, we ask for eyes to see Your truth clearly and hearts that trust in Your perfect ways. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Now here’s our study of Zechariah 7 with Dr. J. Vernon McGee on Through the Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now friends, we’re still in this very important section that concerns a ritual. And it is still a very mooted question for people today. Should I go through this ceremony or should I do this and do that? Now I believe that certain ceremonies, certain rituals are important. I think that there are two sacraments in the church. And I believe that they’re all important. One is baptism and the other is the Lord’s Supper. And I think they’re all important. But the important thing is baptism is believer’s baptism. And I think the emphasis should be taken off of the mold and put on the heart of the one being baptized. Are you born again? Now, I personally believe in immersion, although I was raised in another church, but I have been both sprinkled and immersed. I can’t miss, as you can see. My wife was Southern Baptist, and she’s been immersed, and she still thinks that that’s pretty important. And I said, it sure would be embarrassing for you if you and I get up there and we find out it wasn’t immersion. It was the other. And I’ve had the other and you haven’t. Well, I say that facetiously. I say it for this reason, as important as the sacraments are. And I believe in them. But I want to say this, they’re no good unless the heart’s right. Baptism is no good unless, my friend, you’ve turned to Jesus Christ and you have a real personal relationship with him and your sins have been forgiven. And I think that the Lord’s Supper is absolutely meaningless for a great many people. It’d be better if they didn’t go through with it. But if your heart’s right, it’s absolutely important. It was Lange who made this statement. He says, God’s eye of grace and our eye of faith meet in the sacraments, the rituals of the church. I go along with that. That’s wonderful. And therefore, that makes this section all important. And in the first, we saw that the ritual is right when the heart is right. You see, before the captivity… God judged Jerusalem when the heart of the people was far from him, though they went through the rituals. You see, ritual is right when the heart’s right. But when the heart’s far from God, it’s meaningless. And that’s the reason that God… said to them, should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the form of prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and its cities round about it, when man inhabited the Negev, that’s the south, and the Shephila, that’s the plain country that’s south also, and all of that was inhabited. Now, God says to them, very frankly, you went through the rituals back before the captivity, and I sent you into captivity. Why? The ritual had nothing to do with it. Their heart was wrong, and that was the thing that’s important. Now, we come here in verse 8, where we actually begin the day of chapter 7, now of Zechariah. A ritual is wrong if the heart’s wrong. Now, that’s not another way of saying the same thing. Now, in this section here, God puts down upon these people that which is very specific. That is, he spells out the thing they were doing that alienated them from God. And what he actually does in this section, he takes away That part of the Ten Commandments that have to do with a man’s relationship to man. In the first part, it had to do with man’s relationship to God. When the heart was not rightly related to God, the ritual is wrong. Now here, the ritual is wrong if the heart is wrong. And so he reveals here specifically the things they were doing, and he puts these commandments right down upon their lives. We today are not actually dealing with sin as we should. Here in this section, either last time or today, I’m not talking about sin in the life. I’m not talking about that. If you knew me like I know myself, you’d tune the radio out. But wait a minute, don’t touch the button because if I knew you like you know yourself, I don’t think I’d talk to you. May I say to you, we’re sinners. When I was pastor in downtown Los Angeles, I had a dear little lady. She’d been a former Bible teacher. And I used to talk about the fact that we’re saved sinners. And she always would want to correct me on that. She’d say, Dr. McGee, after we’re saved, we’re not sinners. Well, I said, I don’t know about you, but I’m still a sinner. She said, why, no. If your sins have been forgiven, why, you’re not a sinner. I said, no, I’m a saved sinner. I’m a forgiven sinner, but I’m still a sinner. And I will be a sinner until that day. Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We’ll see him as he is. Now, in that day, when you see Vernon McGee, I won’t be a sinner. But until that day, I’m a sinner. You want to know something? You are too. We’re sinners before God. And I’m delighted to know that’s coming back in style today. It was Dr. Carl Manninger up in Topeka, Kansas. And he has a book out. He’s changed his position. He used to go along with Freudian psychology. You know, that the reason that you’re such a lousy person is because your mama didn’t give you the proper affection that you should have had. Or maybe you weren’t a breastfed baby. And that’s the reason that today you’ve gone in for sex. Oh, my friend, what nonsense that really was. He says this, and I’m quoting now. He says the realities of personal guilt and sin have been glossed over as only symptoms of emotional illness or environmental conditioning for which the individual isn’t considered responsible. But he adds, There is sin which cannot be subsumed under verbal artifacts such as disease, delinquency, deviancy. There is immorality. There is unethical behavior. There is wrongdoing. In other words, my friend, you and I are sinners. That’s what we are. I’ve been saying it for years. And I did study psychology in college, but I never did even buy up behaviorism because I frankly believe that the Bible knows more about humanity, knows about our heart. God alone knows our heart. The heart’s desperately wicked. Who can know it? Only God knows it, and he alone knows it. You know, if we could see ourselves like God sees us, we couldn’t stand ourselves. And only God could put up with us. And only God puts up with us. If we would only come to the Word of God and rest in the Word of God. That’s what he’s going to do here, is put these commandments right down on them. And we need to be specific. Let me illustrate what I mean. And this is going to hurt every now and then. Someone writes in and said, you stepped on my toes, but I thank you for it. Well, I don’t mean to step on your toes. I’m trying to tell you what the Word of God says. But listen to this. If all the church officers of this country would simply read the pastoral epistles, 1st, 2nd Timothy, and Titus, and see what God’s requirements are for being an officer in the church, And just follow these simple requirements that are given there. Over one half of the officers of this country would resign before next Sunday. The church would be better off. And I think a revival would break out in many places. You read those. When I went through 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, I received less mail from listeners during that period than any period we’ve been in since we’ve been going through the Bible. You know why? They don’t like that. Why don’t we follow what the Word of God has to say? Now, even some of us preachers, I think, would have to walk out of the pulpit and never enter it again if we followed Really, what the Word of God says. And again, I’m not talking about sin, using that word again. I’m talking about the fact that we do not meet the requirements of God’s Word. Little wonder that the church is in the problem that it’s in today. No wonder it’s filled with a bunch of babies sucking their thumbs. crying loud and long unless they’re given some attention and a rattle to play with and a yo-yo. And a yo-yo is appropriate for them because they’re up and down on a string all the time. And they just take some little course of instruction and they think that makes them a full-grown child of God in a few weeks. And may I say that these little courses are not even an all-day sucker for the babes. I remember that during the war, they needed officers, and they put in a course. Ninety days, they made second lieutenants, and these were called the Wonder Boys. We sure got a lot of wonder Christians today that know nothing about the Word of God. Let me illustrate again what I’m talking about. We have been almost five years going through the Bible. And I feel, very frankly, and I’ll confess this today, I feel like I’m a babe as far as the Word of God is concerned. And I’ve missed so much, friends, as we’ve gone through it, even at this slow pace. And I’m very frank to say to you right now, I hesitate to begin the study of Revelation, although I consider it the most mechanical, the most simple book in the Word of God. And somebody says, but you’ve had over four and a half years now of preparation. Aren’t you ready for it? No, I don’t feel that I’m really ready for it. I approach it with fear and trembling. There are pastors and teachers today who haven’t been in a church or with a group for just a few years, two or three years, and they already have started teaching Revelation. Well, my friend, there are 65 books that come before Revelation. Why are they turning today? Well, prophecy is popular, and they make it sensational. And the book of Revelation, I don’t think it’s a sensational book. This time, when I go through, I’m going to try to take out all of this weird and wild teaching that’s going the rounds today that’s sensational. Sir Robert Anderson called this the wild utterances of prophecy mongers. May I say there are many of us that we’re willing to settle for the better things of life when God wants us to have the best things of life. All that we had put our lives under the spotlight of the Word of God. Now listen to him here, verse 8. And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah saying, and again, I want to emphasize this, that Zechariah is not just giving his opinion. He’s saying to them here, this is what God has to say. And this is God’s answer to you. And that the ritual is wrong if the heart is wrong. And he’s going to put down the spotlight on them. I’m reading verse 9. Now, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts. saying, execute true judgment and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother. It might be well for us to pull up the last commandments and look at them today. The first three commandments have to do with the man’s relationship with God. Then there is a bridge, and that’s the man’s relationship to his parents. There is a period in his life, that little fella in the home looks up to mama and papa, and they’re God to him. And that’s the way God intended it to be. And that’s the reason they’re to obey their parents when they’re growing up, because then later on, they’ll be able to obey the Lord Jesus. Now, will you notice? But when you come to the last commandments, the last five, will you listen to this? Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, his mainservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that your neighbors, not his Cadillac or the lovely home that he lives in. You’re not to covet these things at all. So let’s put these commandments right down here upon us. And will you notice? Thus speaketh the Lord, execute true judgment. Don’t bear false witness and show mercy and compassion. You see, you’re not to steal, not to lie, not to covet. You are what? You are to show mercy and compassion every man to his brother and oppress not the widow. Oh, boy, this is getting right down to it now. Nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor. And let none of you imagine evil in his heart. against his brother. Don’t imagine evil. Now, the Lord Jesus brought, I think, all the commandments up. He only took two. But he said, if you’re angry with your brother, you’re guilty of murder. And what he’s saying here is, in Israel, they went through the rituals. But, oh boy, you ought to have met them on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But Friday night, oh, they started through the rituals again. They would weep and mourn and fast and bring sacrifices. And when we get to Malachi, God says that you said those sacrifices made you sick. God says you ought to have been in my position. They nauseated me. Now, will you notice what he’s saying here? Verse 11, but they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder, stopped their ears that they should not hear. They didn’t want to hear what God wanted to hear. And there are people right now, if they haven’t already turned me off, they want to turn me off. Why? Because they don’t want to hear this sort of thing today. They pull away the shoulder. Oh, how vivid that is. When I was a little fella in Southern Oklahoma in school, I think I was in fifth grade, Little country school put on a program and my class sitting down front and I was causing a disturbance. I don’t know why I was such a good boy, but I was causing some kind of a disturbance. My father, who’s sitting in the back, he walked down. He touched me on the shoulder and I turned around when he touched me on the shoulder. I pull that shoulder away. You know, oh, what a brat that is. It’ll do a thing like that. My dad took me by the hand. He led me out the side door. And he says, son, I’m going to give you a whipping. And I wasn’t new, but I knew that was coming anyway. He didn’t give me any news. But he said, I’m not going to give it to you because you were making a disturbance. I’m going to give it to you because when I put my hand on your shoulder, you pulled away from me. You’re disobedient. That’s the reason. And then he impressed upon me for the next few minutes that you don’t do that sort of thing. That was Israel. They pulled away their shoulder. God touched them on the shoulder. And how many people today, even in our churches, God’s touching them on the shoulder and said, wait a minute. Don’t do that. Don’t live that kind of a life. And they pull the shoulder away, and they stop the ears, and they don’t want to hear what God has to say. My little grandson, I was babysitting out in the yard. He did something he shouldn’t have done. He got over my flower bed, and he was ruining one of my camellias. I made him get out. He got out all right, but he looked at me and says, I am not going to get out. And he takes after his grandmother quite a bit, as you can see. And so I said to him, listen. You get out and he started back and I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. That same little thing, he pulled away and he reminded me of a boy about 60 years ago. And I knew what my dad did. And since I’m his grandfather, I brought him over and sat down, turned him across my knee. And I want to tell you that I gave him quite a little lesson there. And my daughter applauded me for it. She says, I thought you had him so spoiled that you’d never correct him. I said, I remember what I got as a boy. Pulled away the shoulders, stopped the ears that they should not hear. Yet they are refusing to listen to these commands of God. Now, friends, God spells out this word sin today. God says you’re a sinner and he’ll spell it out for you. What is it that’s in your life that’s displeasing to God? God says, I’ll deal with you relative to that. Well, I must stop here today. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
The Apostle Paul said it straight in Galatians. Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. That’s a sobering truth. But here’s the good news. God also offers grace, mercy, and forgiveness to anyone who turns to him. If you’re wondering how to begin a relationship with God, we got a good place for you to start. You can just tap in our app, How Can I Know God, or go to ttb.org. There you’ll find free resources from Dr. McGee, some to read and some to listen to, that clearly explain the gift of salvation that God offers to you. It’s a gift he longs for you to receive. If you need help finding it, or maybe you want to receive a few resources by mail, well, just call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number. And if you already know the Lord, but maybe you want to go deeper in your relationship with him, then don’t miss Dr. McGee’s digital booklet, How to Have Fellowship with God. In one of Jesus’ final conversations with his disciples before the cross, he told them something revolutionary. Though he’d be in heaven and they’d be on earth, he still wanted to have fellowship with them. And then he showed them how. Want that same closeness with Jesus? Well, download your free copy at ttb.org or in the app. And when you’re in touch, will you do us a quick favor? Let us know how you listen to Through the Bible. Is it by radio station or app or maybe some other way? As we’ve said many times before this information, Seems probably pretty simple to you, but it really does help us as we plan and prepare to get the word out all around the world. Next time, Dr. McGee tackles an important question. Does God hear every prayer? I’m Steve Schwartz, and I’ll be saving a seat on the Bible bus, so I’ll see you then.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin hath left the prince of Satan’s day. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
