Embark on a journey through the Scriptures with Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s insight as we navigate the pivotal chapters of 1 Peter. We contrast physical exercise with spiritual disciplines, drawing on biblical wisdom to emphasize the eternal benefits of spiritual exercises. Listen to heartfelt stories from across the globe, including testimonials from listeners who have experienced life-changing encounters with the Word of God. This episode crafts a narrative that unites believers in the shared pursuit of holiness—a separation from sin and a drawing near to God. With the metaphor of living stones, we uncover the layers of what it
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellence.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, one of the most common things to find at a garage sale is exercise equipment. And most of it’s really in pretty good shape, like it’s been barely used at all. And how about those gym memberships? How many of us duck our heads and groan when we think of how often we’ve said that we go, and yet we haven’t? Well, no worries. In this study, our focus is going to be spent on spiritual exercise. Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote to young Timothy, that bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable for all things. So if you ever feel guilty about not using that membership, well, this might be a good verse to quote. Welcome to Through the Bible. We’re going to learn that the Apostle Peter also has some counsel for us on this subject. I’m Steve Schwetz, and our teacher, of course, is Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and he’s going to direct our attention today to 1 Peter 2, right after we visit with a couple fellow listeners around the world. First, we have a Serbian listener who shares this. Thank you for the messages. I regularly listen, and it really means a lot to me. I only have words of gratitude. My mother used to listen to Christian radio programs when she was alive. She educated us to fear God and listen to God’s word and do as well. When I got married, worries took me to the wrong path. I forgot all my mother’s words and advice. I married a woman who was not a Christian, and we had a bad marriage. We were constantly arguing. There was no peace and understanding.” That’s how we spent 35 years. I did not feel good, but I did not know what to do. I remembered my childhood and mother. She was always happy and kind to everyone. She had a lot of patience. And when it was hard for her, she had some kind of peace. Those memories were very dear to me. She always told me that Jesus will be my only help. I was looking at the internet for Christian teaching and started listening to you. It was a great discovery for me. I slowly realized that I had wandered away from Christ, but that he was putting me back on the right path. He softened my heart. I often cried as I listened, and my wife noticed a change in me, but she was still unsettled and she wanted to fight. I left everything to God, and I tried to be a good example and to allow God to change me. Things are better now, but not perfect. However, I know that God is always with me. I am happy because I found comfort and joy. God used you to reach me. I wish you a lot of blessings and ask that you please continue to teach us. People have many problems and need consolation. If God saved me and renewed me, I know he can do it for many more. I pray for that and for you. Wow. Here’s another letter. This is from a listener in Mexico. It’s a great joy to have met you just five years ago when you were concluding the previous Bible bus tour and moving through the last chapters of Revelation. I could see that you were teaching the word of God accurately and faithfully. Since then, I have not missed a program. I am an Uber driver and I listen while I’m working. It has allowed me to share my testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ with many passengers. I can say that several times when the program ends, I continue the conversation with those who have questions or doubts about the gospel. To the glory of God, many have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior of their lives, all because of spreading the good news of salvation. Your program has been the perfect excuse for these conversations. I embrace them from afar and bless you in the mighty name of Christ. I pray to God that there will always be continuity in programs like yours, where the Bible is shared through various media without any restrictions. A thousand blessings to you, my beloved brothers in Christ. Wow, what a wonderful testimony to the grace and the power of God. Let’s thank him now for what he’s doing in these lives and our own. Thank you, Father. Thank you for your spirit who convicts us of our sins, who teaches us and who leads us to Jesus. Thank you for the Bible that shows us the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. We ask that you bless your word as it goes out now. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now let’s dig into 1 Peter 2 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, beginning with chapter 2 here of 1 Peter through chapter 4, I’ve labeled this section Suffering and the Suffering of Christ. I probably should say the Suffering of the Saints and the Suffering of Christ. That is the suffering of God’s children. Now, we see here in chapter 2 one of the accomplishments of the Suffering of the Saints. First, he mentions here in chapter 2, it produces separation. And we are going to see here now what real Bible separation is. Now, there’s always a danger when we talk about separation or living for the Lord. There are two extreme viewpoints, and both of them I consider very much out of line with Scripture. One of them, it says that human nature is such that all it needs is just new direction. All it needs is just to be given a purpose. All it needs is just a little reformation. And in the estimation of these folk that take that position, there is nothing radically wrong with human nature. Therefore, you don’t have to do much to it. Just make a little alteration here in human character and conduct. And when you’ve done that, why, you’ve gone a long ways. And then if you can just awaken the individual to the marvelous energies and his intellectual and moral nature, then he’ll be able to go places. Now, that’s one viewpoint. That’s what it means to live the Christian life. Now, on the other hand, There are some today who think that the change when you’re born again, that you have that which is supernatural, and I agree with that. But now to live the Christian life just seems to mean that you just sit down and do nothing and that you’re not involved in this at all. and that God’s going to do all of this for you, and you can just sit on the sidelines and become a very pious individual. And some of them folk in that class sit on the sidelines today as pious as a puffed-up frog, and they never seem to really grow or develop or really become loving, full-orbed, normal Christians. Now, I think this passage that we’re coming to here is going to make it very clear that you and I, through the new birth, and that’s what he talked about the last time, born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Now, you have a new nature. And you’re to live in that new nature by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you have been brought into a loving relationship, which he had mentioned to us before. You remember he said, whom having not seen, ye love. Simon Peter saw him and loved him. And you and I haven’t seen him, but the Holy Spirit can make him real to us, and we can love him that way. You remember… I’m sure many of you remember when you were born again and how sweet and wonderful it was at that particular time. It was wonderful then, wasn’t it? Paul said to the Corinthians, and they had become very carnal Christians, he said, I espouse you as a chaste virgin to Christ. That first love, that honeymoon love, and now it seemed to be gone. And that’s what God had said to his people before the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah in the second chapter said, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee. the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. When they first came out of Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea, oh, you read that song there, the song of Moses that they sang there, praises to Jehovah, but wasn’t long till they became complainers. God says, I remember that. Now, today, real separation rests upon the fact that you’ve been born again. You have a new nature. And now you’re in love with Christ and you want to please him. And the great object, I think, before the heart of God at the present time is to have a people saved, not only from judgment and the lake of fire, but saved from the world. saved not only for heaven by and by, but for the heart of Christ right now. The work of Christ on the cross, I think, has settled every question that sin has raised between God and our souls, and the future’s bright with glory, the glory of God. And we’ve been brought into the value of that work of redemption. And we have now been born again. And no one can affect that. Satan can’t touch that at all. But my friend, how are we doing down here today, this season of the year? What does Christ mean to you? Is all in the world Christmas going to mean to you just that there was a little baby born in Bethlehem? Or have you been born? and become a child of God. Now, he’s going to open this section by talking about separation, what actually I think really that it is. And we’re going to talk about another little baby, and that little baby is going to be you, and it’s going to be me. Now, will you notice, wherefore, I’m reading now, chapter 2, verse 1, wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that ye may grow by it. Now, this is a very important thing, you see. Now, here’s something for you and me to do. There’s certain things that we are to lay aside. And in fact, Paul, in Ephesians, talked about taking off an old garment and putting on a new garment. And in 1 Corinthians, the 5th chapter, verses 7 and 8, he says this, “…purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now, you know, the Israelite, he observed the Passover, and then there was the feast of unleavened bread. And he didn’t come in and eat leavened bread. He didn’t go on just living the same kind of life he lived before. He’s feeding in a different place, a different kind of a bread now. And he’s growing by that. Now, we’re told when we come to Christ that we’re to get rid of the old leaven that’s in our life. That is, we’ll never become perfect. You’ve always got that old nature. And you’re to lay aside all malice. Now, what is malice? The best definition that I’ve ever found for it is it’s congealed anger. It means to have an unforgiving spirit. Are you carrying today a ship on your shoulder relative to some person? And you carrying bitterness in your heart for them? Well, my friend, you can talk about how much you love Jesus. You can talk about how much you’ve been born again. But nobody around you is going to be able to distinguish that. If you’re carrying malice, that is congealed anger in your heart. And then he speaks here about all guile. Now, guile means that that is a spirit of using cleverness to get even. are really to make an impression with somebody. You remember Ananias and Sapphira was very good at doing that sort of thing. That old nature you see that you and I have. is a nature that if we leave it in control and do not let the Spirit of God guide us, then that nature, as Dr. Lightfoot put it, he says, the vicious nature which is bent on doing harm to others. and Ananias and Sapphira. They’re an example of that. They were clever, and they tried to put one over on the church, but they didn’t put one over on the Spirit of God, you see. Now you’re to desire, our translation says, sincere milk, and I turn that to pure milk, and it means spiritual milk. Just as a hungry baby reaches for the bottle, a believer is to desire the Word of God. I remember when our little grandson was born. His father was over in Turkey at the time, and so his mother was at our home. And so we had him those first few months. And every now and then it was my task to give him his bottle. And I want to tell you that that little fella, he went in high gear when he saw that bottle, the pure milk, the sincere milk, when he saw that. He started moving his hands. He started moving his mouth. He started moving his feet. He just moved all over. He was reaching out for it with every part of his body, trying to get that. And I thought, my, at that time I was still preaching. And I thought, I said, my, I wish I had a congregation that reached out after the Word of God like that. That’s the real test. And friends, you’re never going to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. And you’re never going to develop as a Christian. Always be a little baby. And it’s wonderful to be a baby at one time. And we must remember that a little baby and a full-grown man are both human beings. But they’re at different stages of growth. and different stages of development. And for that reason, we need to understand that the little one needs the milk. He wants to grow to become a man. How are you going to grow up as a Christian? Never apart from the Word of God. And that’s the reason that I get letters from many pastors that tell me that they’re wet nurses for a lot of little babes. And as one man said, I spend my time burping spiritual babes. The problem is, these little babes should grow up. Now, they need to desire… The pure milk of the word that you may grow by. Now, that pure milk of the Word means the total Word of God. It doesn’t mean lifting out a little verse here and a little verse there and a little verse for comfort. They all have their place, of course. But we need the total Word of God to grow. Because you see, you need to get all your vitamins. You just can’t just stay on one diet all your life. It’s nice to start off with milk. But the day comes when you like to have a nice porterhouse steak, maybe, and a good baked potato. And you might want some black-eyed peas on the side. And you get all of that in the Word of God, all the spiritual vitamins that you need. Now, verse 3, he says here, “…if so be…” And that looks as if there’s a doubt. Actually, the word should be translated… since ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. You see, at the moment of salvation, a child is born with an appetite for the Word of God. Just as a little baby born into this world immediately starts to eat. And you never have to teach them to eat. I remember this little fella, all you had to do was stick that bottle in his mouth and he knew what to do. I don’t remember ever giving him a lecture on how to drink the milk. He seemed to know all about that. And I don’t know why today we have to have all of these different programs to try to get a bunch of spiritual babes to get into the Word of God. We need to get into the Word of God. Not some program, but just get into the Word of God and to begin to study the Word of God. Now, what then is real separation? Real separation now, and we need to be very careful about this, is separation from the works of the flesh. You see, we think it’s separation from the world. Well, we’re in the world. You can’t help it. I drove an evangelist around in Nashville, Tennessee, half of one night trying to find a restaurant that didn’t serve beer. He couldn’t eat. And finally, we did find one, and he got tomane poison in eating in that place. I wouldn’t have eaten any. And I told him, I said, I think if I were you after that, I told him, I says, I’d go in a restaurant that serves good food and bad beer and not take the beer. You don’t have to have it. You’re in the world. But after all, separation doesn’t mean that you don’t go in a restaurant that doesn’t serve liquor. That doesn’t mean you’re separated. How about malice? Malice. Now, how about hypocrisies? How about envy? That’s the thing we’re to be separated from, and only the Spirit of God working in us. And friends, until you and I are willing to give that up, you and I will never grow as babes. Now, he says, to whom coming as unto a living stone. Now, we don’t come to a little babe in Bethlehem. we come as little babes to a living stone, disallowed indeed of man, but chosen of God and precious. Now, this is a very wonderful passage of Scripture that we’ve come to now. The living stone is Christ. And we need to recognize that back under in Matthew, when the Lord Jesus Christ said to Simon Peter, after his confession, on this rock I will build my church, Simon Peter makes it very clear here that the living stone is not Simon Peter, but the living stone is Christ. And that is the one and the thing that is, by the way, all important. Now, there are two scriptures I’d like to call your attention to in this connection. The first one is found in Matthew 21, verses 42 down to 44. I’m going to read that now. And these are the words of the Lord Jesus. Jesus saith unto them, and he’s speaking now to his apostles. Did ye never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? This is the Lord’s doing, and it’s marvelous in our eyes. Now, he’s quoting, of course, from the psalm when he said that. Now, drop down to verse 44. And speaking now of himself… He says, “…that and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder.” Now, today he is that stone, that foundation stone. Paul said, “…no other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Now, you get on that foundation stone. And when you get on that foundation, that’s salvation, my beloved. And if you fall on that stone, you come as a sinner, broken if you please. Now, if you reject him, you’re not through with the stone because Daniel says there was a stone cut out without hand that’s coming to this earth to smite this earth. And that is the stone of judgment. Christ is also the stone of judgment. What a picture that we have here given of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he says something else that’s wonderful. Verse 5, “…ye also as living stones.” How are we living stones? Been born again. “…not a corruptible seed, incorruptible the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever. Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house.” Now, the Lord Jesus said to Simon Peter, you’re going to be a little stone, but on this foundation stone, which is Christ, I’ll build my church. And Simon Peter was one of the little stones, and you’re one of the little stones. I’m one of the little stones that are built into this. And he says, a holy priesthood. Now, we’re going to talk about a royal priesthood next time. That is, you’re a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. Now, will you notice here, ye are an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You offer up praise to God. Your offering is a spiritual sacrifice, friend. I don’t know why people think money can be spiritual. It’s owing to how you use it. And then you can offer yourself to him. These are spiritual sacrifices we offer to God. Now, we’re going to pick up next time there at verse 6. We’re in a very wonderful section of the Word of God. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the Bible Buzz continues on this stretch of the road through 1 Peter, so I hope that you’ll hop aboard and join us when you can. Until then, if you’re looking for a resource to deepen your study of God’s Word, including our Bible companion for 1 Peter, well, download the free digital version or purchase it in paperback over at ttb.org. And if you’re having trouble, you can always call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE. We’d love to help you out. And, of course, you can always write to us, Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109 is the address in the U.S. Canadian listeners, write to Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Well, I’m Steve Schwartz, and I’m so grateful for your presence on the Bible Bus and your partnership in taking God’s whole Word to His whole world.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left the prince unsaved, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
