In today’s episode, we explore the rich tapestry of covenants that form the backbone of biblical theology. As Dr. McGee uncovers the temporary nature of the Mosaic law and the enduring significance of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, you’re invited to gain fresh insights into God’s eternal promises. Plus, don’t miss a special update on how Through the Bible is making an impact in Nicaragua where unexpected doors have opened for the Gospel.
Foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is made for your faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Through the Bible, where today our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is going to tell us about the prophet Zephaniah’s desperate and final call to prayer and repentance for the people of Judah. I’m your host, Steve Schwetz, and I’m glad that you’ve made time to be in God’s Word. But first, we’ve got a bit more of Dr. McGee’s discussion on the Old Testament covenants. Let’s listen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, we come today to look at the conclusion of this covenant that God made. And that covenant, God made it very clear it was a covenant. He says in Exodus 19, verse 5, Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure. Now, the children of Israel accepted that condition. They agreed to keep it. And, of course, they failed miserably to keep the covenant that they had made with God that they would keep it. Now, what is the Mosaic covenant? Well, it’s what we call the Mosaic law. It opens in chapter 20 of Exodus with the Ten Commandments that are given there. And then there follows a great many commandments that have to do with living, home, business. In fact, every department of everyday life. And in that, there is given also instructions for making a tabernacle and a brazen altar where offerings can be made for sin. Because you see, they were not going to keep the law. They were going to break it. And they were not able to keep it, and therefore they need a sacrifice for sin, because all of these laws, all of the commandments, the breaking of them, the sentence was death, and death was given to those that broke the law. Therefore, these people were not able to keep it, and God would have to condemn them, but they brought the sacrifice, and that sacrifice and every detail of that tabernacle pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came, he fulfilled all of that. Now, the law was something they did not keep, and I would like to turn to the New Testament Where we are told that they did not keep the law, Peter, at that great council of the church in the 15th book of Acts, at verse 10, we read, he says, “…now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. So that the law was something that after about 1500 years, admittedly, they had failed to keep it, therefore. And fortunately, the law was given temporarily. All the other covenants of God are not only unconditional, they’re eternal. But this covenant was to last for just a certain length of time. And we read, “…wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” In other words, it was temporary, given until Christ should come and be the one that would die for the sins of the world. Therefore, the Mosaic law was a covenant they made with God. They’d keep it. They broke that covenant. They failed miserably to keep the law. Therefore, this is the covenant that many of our amillennial brethren use when they begin to talk about that there’s no millennium. That is something that does not exist at all in spite of the clear teaching of the Word of God in that connection. And they go back not to the Abrahamic covenant, but they go back to this covenant that was to be done away with, a conditional covenant that depended upon their obedience and that was to be done away with at the coming of Christ. You see, God’s promises to the nation Israel rest upon the Abrahamic covenant, not upon the Mosaic covenant at all, because it was to be done away with. They’re under grace today just the same as we are. The entire world, as far as God is concerned, is under grace. And that is the condition today. Therefore, the important thing to note is that the Abrahamic covenant is probably the most important one of all until we come to the next one. And the next one is the Davidic covenant, the covenant that God made with David. And I want to turn to 2 Samuel, the 7th chapter, where that is recorded, and deal with that. But we’ll not have time today to go into any detail here, other than to say that this Davidic covenant is another one of the most important covenants. It’s absolutely unconditional. God has promised that a king is coming in the line of David, to reign upon a kingdom here upon this earth. And the center of that is to be in Jerusalem. He’s to sit upon David’s throne. May I say to you that this is a very, very important covenant also. And all of these prophets we’re looking at have that in mind. That is the thing. The kingdom is coming. The promise to Abraham.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s more to come in this series on the Covenant, so keep boarding the Bible bus each day and hear them all. But for now, Greg Harris is here with us to tell us a little bit more about the ministry that’s happening with Through the Bible in Nicaragua.
SPEAKER 02 :
Nicaragua, yeah. Now, some of you who listen very consistently may remember we talked about this, I think, a few weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. But one thing about these trips is there’s no end to the stories that we can tell. And one of the things we also love to do is let our different team members write articles about their experience, because each one of us brings a different sort of narrative to what God is doing. And this in this month’s newsletter, we really encourage you to get the newsletter because it has information. It has stories. information, teaching from Dr. McGee. It has global impact information. And this article that we’re going to talk about today came from our good buddy, Ray Allery.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. And I love Ray for many reasons. But one of the reasons that I really appreciate Ray is he’s been a career missionary. He spent his whole life. And then is now back working with us. But his ability to connect other like-minded ministries in partnership, and that’s really been the X factor, if you will, for us in Nicaragua, where we have had a limited amount of ministry. And now we’re being brought into areas that we never would have gotten into on our own.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I like to call Ray the ministry magnet. It’s just he moves around, and other ministries say, hey, we’d like to work with you, and we’d love to work with you through the Bible. And so here’s what’s happening in Nicaragua, if you missed our first conversation a few weeks ago. The government of Nicaragua is shutting down thousands of churches, charities, missionaries, and it’s inexplicable that Shareware Global has been invited by the government of Nicaragua scriptures, eventually a million Bibles, but they start with a magazine that has the Gospel of John in it. It’s a really attractive magazine. It has all kinds of interesting things about the scriptures, but it has the actual Gospel of John in it. They are distributing a million of these magazines in the schools.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, how is Through the Bible a part of that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Great question, Steve. I’m so glad you asked that. It’s almost like you knew what I wanted to say. What the situation is, is they’ve come to us and said, we’re great at evangelism, but we realize we’re not that good at discipleship, and through the Bible is one of the best discipleship tools out there.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and so I know on the adult magazine, I’m not sure about the kids’ magazine, is there still the QR code on the back?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, they’re going to put a QR code linking to our Spanish app that has the Bible in Spanish and the entire five-year study on the back of every one of these one million magazines.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, this wasn’t just a – Drop a million magazines at the local post office and they distribute it. You guys had incredible access to the individual classrooms.
SPEAKER 02 :
Talk a little bit about that. Yeah, we went to two different schools and they were very, you know, the facilities were quite rudimentary, as you’ve seen as you’ve traveled around the world in impoverished areas. And Steve, we were standing up there giving our Christian testimony, sharing the gospel freely and openly. And we probably spoke to about 20 or 25 different classrooms. There were about eight of us that were doing this. And I kept pinching myself thinking we could never do this in the U.S.
SPEAKER 03 :
I was going to say, can you imagine going into a public school system anywhere in this country and being able to explain the gospel to people over and over again?
SPEAKER 02 :
Without being thrown in jail? No, I can’t. And everyone running out of the room saying separation of church and state and all that stuff.
SPEAKER 03 :
So exciting times.
SPEAKER 02 :
It is exciting. And this is, as we love to share with all of you, our listening family, only God, or as you like to say, but God, only God could open these doors. And that’s Dr. McGee chose Revelation 3.8 as the theme verse of this ministry. I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it. And that’s what it feels like in Nicaragua.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. If you’re excited about this and you would like to see and read more on a regular basis about how the ministry is moving along, and we would love you to sign up for our newsletter. It comes every month. I take it. I still get the physical version. Me too. Yes, you can get digital if you want it. Just sign up.
SPEAKER 02 :
Where do you go? Just go to ttb.org and you’ll find a way to sign up right on there.
SPEAKER 03 :
website but i would encourage you get the physical version when you get it open it up stick it in the front leaf of your bible and i use it as just part of my devotional i’ll read through uh stuff from dr mcgee as well as get ministry updates it’s a great way to be reminded to pray every day in addition to signing up for the world prayer team yes and there are so many stories to be told we’d love for you to to read those that come in the newsletter greg why don’t you pray for us as we begin
SPEAKER 02 :
Father, we just bow before you in humility, recognizing that so much of what happens is only because you open the doors. And we thank you for it. We pray you make us obedient and humble as we move in the directions you have guided. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s dive into Zephaniah 1 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, we come back here to this first chapter of Zephaniah. And as we said, this is probably the strongest language that we have in the Old Testament. It’s rather harsh, and it seems that way. God says, and if I may back up to verse 12, he says, and it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps. In other words, like you take a flashlight today and go looking for an individual that was hiding in the dark. God says that I intend to search out Jerusalem just like that. And I’ll bring to light all the evil and the sin and punish the men that are settled on their leaves. And that, of course, is an idiomatic phrase. statement that corresponds, I think, to our idiom today where you hear someone say, take it easy. These people were taking it easy. They were in an affluent society then and things were coming easy and they were taking it easy. And that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. And we dealt with that last time. A great many people say today, well, they ignore God. He doesn’t do good. He doesn’t do evil. They are absolutely neutral about God altogether. And that, of course, is what led to this abominable theology of God is dead. Now, verse 13, therefore, their goods shall become a booty, their houses a desolation. In other words, the goods that they took by absolutely plundering and pillaging and robbing are going to be taken away from them just the way that they got them. And their houses will become a desolation. In other words, there’ll be ghost towns. in Israel. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine of them. You see, God had a law given to these people that when a man planted a vineyard, he was not to go to war until he had eaten the fruit off of that vineyard. And that if a man married and he was to have time off and not to go to war. But here, what he’s saying is this, that they are going to plant vineyards, but they’re not going to drink the wine of them. because they’ve sinned and they won’t be able to take time off from warfare. And they won’t be able to take time off when they get married because the enemy is going to come in like a flood. Now, in verse 14, he says, the great day of the Lord. Now, this great day of the Lord. is the time of the Great Tribulation in the future. And these days that they were having at this time, and frankly, after Josiah ruled, there never arose in the southern kingdom a good king. Every one of them was bad. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Every one of them was a corrupt king. And now judgment is going to come upon the nation and come upon the people for their departure away from God. The great day of the Lord, that is near, but they are going to experience a very small portion of what is in the future. It’s near and it hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. In other words, the wailing wall would come into existence. And it’s going to be there, friends, until after the great tribulation period. Because Israel will never know peace until the Prince of Peace comes and they acknowledge their Messiah. Now, it’s called the great day of the Lord. And he says in verse 15, that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Actually, there’s a play upon words here that Dr. Feinberg, in his excellent little book on the minor prophets, brings out that we miss it in English, of course. But you do have here an alliteration that reveals something of it. It’s a day of trouble, and then he gives distress, desolation, darkness, and thick darkness. so that there is a play even upon the words in the English. I have Dr. Feinberg’s books in my bookshelf. He had given me a whole set of them when I was pastor in downtown Los Angeles, and I want to say that I highly recommend them. He is an excellent scholar and calls our attention to many things that you and I would normally pass over. Now, let me say here that this man is speaking of the harshness and the intensity of the judgment that is coming. And the question naturally arises, how can a God of love do a thing like this? Well, we’re going to see before we finish this book that it’s like that father that took his little child to be operated on. He did it because he loved the child. And yet it can be presented in a way that it looked as if he was being cruel and harsh to the little girl by turning her over to a doctor that would plunge her knife into her. But the father did everything that he did. He did it in love of the little girl. Now, even the great day of wrath is a judgment from God, but it has in it the love of God. You see, regardless of what takes place, God is love. It’s like that weather vane that we told you about. Spurgeon saw the farmer had on his barn and he had written on that weather vane, God is love. And Mr. Spurgeon said, you mean God’s love is as variable as the weather? And he said, no, I don’t mean that. I mean that regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love. And that, my friend, is true. Even in judgment, God is still a God of love. And he judges. because it is essential for him to judge that which is evil. He does that because he has to be true to himself, and he couldn’t be good to his creatures unless he did that. If God’s going to permit sin throughout eternity, and if God does not intend to judge it, and you and I have got to wrestle with disease, and with heartbreak and with disappointment and with sorrow throughout eternity. May I say to you, I can’t conceive that he’s a God of love. But if you tell me that God is going to judge sin and that he’s coming in with a mighty judgment, and he’s going to remove it from his universe, I’m going to say hallelujah. And I believe that he’s God of love, even when he does that. Now, again, let me begin reading at verse 16. It’s a day of the trumpet, an alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. It is here, he says, a day of the trumpet. Now, when God gave to the nation Israel the trumpets, that they were to blow on the wilderness march. They were to be used in other ways. For instance, when you blow an alarm, he says. In other words, that an alarm was sounded when the And in verse 9 of chapter 10 of Numbers, having mentioned the different ways the two silver trumpets were to be used, he says, And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets. and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.” Now here, it’s the day of the trumpet. They’re going to blow the alarm. But God doesn’t intend to deliver them. Why? He intends to judge them. He intends to deliver them over to the enemy, not deliver them from the enemy. And so it’s a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. Now God says in verse 17, And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like the dung. Now, that’s extreme. I grant you it’s extreme. But, you know, surgery today is that way. When my doctor operated on me the first time for cancer, he told me afterward, I was asking him about the operation. And he said, well, you know, he says, I kept cutting away as much as I could. And he says, I wasn’t sure that after I’d cut so much away, which pile was you? And I had to stop. Well, may I say to you, that’s a pretty harsh thing to cut on a fellow like that. But he didn’t do it because he was angry with me. He didn’t do it even for judgment. He did it actually to save my life. And I think that he did by using that method. And God used it too, by the way. And I think God approved of that method. May I say to you, God will judge, but he does it in an extreme way. He uses extreme surgery, but he does it for the sake of the body politics. Now, he says, verse 18, neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath. It’s been quite interesting for this nation in which we live. We have spent billions of dollars throughout the world trying to buy friends. trying to make friends and influence people. And I want to tell you, we are hated throughout the world today. And we are not loved. You can’t buy love with silver and gold. You can’t win people over with that. still believe that in this country, that money solves all the ills of this life, that money is the answer to all the problems. God says when He begins to judge, silver and gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath. But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land.” Now, God removed them from the land. Why did He do that? He did that because He actually loved them, friends. You see, if He hadn’t done that, succeeding generations would have had to be exterminated totally. All of them would have had to been slain. For the sake of future generations, God had to move in and cut away the cancer that was destroying the nation. That’s the picture that we have. Now we come here to chapter 2. And chapter 2, we have the judgment of the earth and of all nations. And you have that presented to you actually throughout this entire chapter and all the way down to the eighth verse of the third chapter. Now, will you note, as we begin here, God is a God who not only judged his own people, but God judges nations. And this chapter will bring that out in a great deal of detail. But before he does that, God is gracious, long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. So he sends out a final call. You’d think that he’d reach the end of his patience. But now again, he says, gather yourselves together. Yea, gather together, O nation not desired. And why that not desired? It’s not because he didn’t love them. It was because of their sin. They were repugnant. They were repulsive. You and I do not know how repulsive our sin is to God today. You and I spend very little time weeping over our sins today. Now, he tells them to come together as a people, as a body. They’re to gather together. He says, before the decree bring forth, before the day pass like the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you. God says, come together for prayer. Come together for repentance. Come together and turn to me. And one of the things that is needed today in this land is for someone whose voice is heard to call our nation to prayer and to repentance. We’ve almost reached the end of the rope ourselves today. And therefore, it’s a great need. And that kind of prayer, God will hear and answer it. Now, we have to leave off there today, but we’ll pick up at verse 3 in chapter 2 next time. And until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
You can listen to Through the Bible anytime with our app at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE to find a local Christian radio station that carries it. And hop aboard the Bible bus again as we roll along in our journey through Zephaniah. I’m Steve Swets, and as always, I’m going to save a seat just for you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sin had left the prince unsaved. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today’s study with Dr. J. Vernon McGee is brought to you by Through the Bible and it’s made possible by the generous prayer and financial investments from listeners like you on the Bible bus all around the world.
