Join us as Dr. J. Vernon McGee wraps up our study in the New Testament book of Hebrews with a focus on the unparalleled superiority of Jesus Christ. Hear moving testimonies from listeners like Elizabeth and John, whose lives are transformed by the Word of God and the World Prayer Team. Their stories of faith and dedication are sure to inspire your own spiritual journey.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thanks for joining us on Through the Bible as our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, concludes our amazing study in the New Testament book of Hebrews. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host. And as we finish up in Hebrews and prepare to head to the Old Testament book of Hosea, let’s celebrate the end of this part of our journey and then share a few letters from our fellow Bible bus passengers. First, we hear from Elizabeth in Ohio.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Elizabeth. I just had to share this. how I felt about your ministry this day. I’ve been a member on the Bible bus for more years than I can even count, and I get your newsletter and all that. But having said that, I just want to say that I have learned more and feel more prayer-driven being a member of the World Prayer Team than anything else. I love the whole ministry, but reading this every morning, especially this last two days, those two days, letters just inspired me so much. I just, every time I listen to them or read them, I pray for their protection, that God will supply their needs and materially and bless them. And their testimonies are just so wonderful. They have caused me to want to do more And I never miss a morning of studying on the Bible World Prayer Team. Just wanted to share all that with you. I don’t mean to ramble, but I’m just so appreciative of these people that are going through persecution and they’re so strong. And they rely so much on through the Bible and Dr. McGee and all your literature that helps them out. So just wanted to say thank you again. for presenting this ministry, and I will continue to be on it as long as I am able, and I will be praying each and every morning. Thank you, and God bless you all.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, it’s so great to hear from you, Elizabeth. And as you know, the World Prayer Team has a special place in my heart as well. So thank you for joining us, and keep praying, and together we’re going to continue to see God work. Now, if you’d like to receive the daily emails that Elizabeth is talking about and then pray with us for God’s whole word to reach the whole world, then you need to click on the World Prayer Team in our app or just visit ttb.org forward slash pray to sign up. Now, here’s a great voicemail from a fellow listener named John. I hope you love his energy and enthusiasm as much as I do.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m calling from Exton, Pennsylvania, and listen to WVCW or online as I get it. But I read the Bible. I’ve got my Bibles in 20 volumes. It’s in Braille. But it’s amazing how I thought I knew everything about the Bible, but listening to Dr. J. Vernon McGee, I’m learning more and more. I feel as though I’ve only got my little toe wet in the water, and there’s a lot more I can wade in to get. And it’s just so wonderful. I also have one of these handheld Bible things that I’m going through Leviticus. And holy mackerel, I’m learning a tremendous lot along with Thessalonians. I’m doing two studies with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. But it’s just so wonderful. I’ve always liked Dr. McGee for years and years, and I’m lazy and never told you folks. But, you know, he had Braille outlines for through the Bible. No one’s ever done that. That’s why I give money to through the Bible every week because there could be some blind people out there. Maybe they’re listening to another radio and they’re not really saved. And, you know, we’ve got to get them saved. And that, to me, is very important. You guys have a good day, and I thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thanks for your support, John. It’s great to have you aboard with us each day. And I’ll keep saving you a seat. Don’t worry. And you know, John’s right. We do offer Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines in Braille to those who need them. So just be in touch and we’ll get them out to you. Now, if these great messages inspired you to share your story, we’d love to hear from you. Call 1-800-65-BIBLE and tell us how time together in God’s Word is encouraging you. Are you like John and you just can’t get enough? So you’re studying two books at a time? Or maybe you’re like Elizabeth, whom God is calling to pray more frequently and specifically for our brothers and sisters around the world. We want to hear from you. Again, our number, 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now, in the options, you’re going to hear one for leaving your Bible bus story, and that’s what you want. So from there, it’s just as simple as listening to the prompt and then recording your voicemail. Or you can always send us a note in your app if you’ve got that on your phone, or you can email us at BibleBus at ttb.org or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. Let’s pray and get to our study. Father, thank you for this journey through Hebrews and all that you do in our lives as we study your word. Use this time to mold us into the people that you’ve called us to be. In the precious name of Jesus, amen. Turn to Hebrews 13 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, I reluctantly am going to leave the epistle to the Hebrews, though I do not feel that I have dealt with it adequately or completely, or maybe as it should have been dealt with. But I’ve attempted to do the thing that this epistle does, and that is exalt the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This epistle says he’s superior to everything. And the writer here is writing to the Hebrews. Everything that was in a God-given religion, Jesus Christ is superior to all of that. And now he sums it all up. And that was back in verse 8 of this last chapter of 13. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we attempted last time to say something about that, that he is the same in his attributes, same in his attitude, same in his love, and same today in his person, and he’ll never change. But he’s not a babe in Bethlehem, and he’s not going around through that land doing good. But he’s right now at God’s right hand, and he is Jesus Christ. He is human, but he’s God. You see, he was very human when he was here. He got tired, sat down at a well, because he’s tired. That’s very human. But he said to the woman that came down to the well, I can give to you the water of life, and you’ll never thirst again. No human being can say that. Only God can do that, friends. He was out on the little Sea of Galilee and a storm came up and he was asleep in the boat. Why? Again, he was weary. He was tired. He’s human. But they waked him up. He looked out over that sea and he rebuked it. And the waves just flattened out. Why? Because he’s God. He stood at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend, a man that he loved, and he wept. And that’s human to shed tears. But he said, Lazarus, come forth. And friends, that’s not human. Only God can do that. But he’s wonderful in his humanity, as we said. We attempted to emphasize that. And I do that as we come here to this last part, that he today knows you, understands you. And he’s our great high priest. And he’s able to save us to the uttermost. Let me read a little something here. I have used this before. And I’m just going to give an excerpt from the little book of Dr. Schofield on the loveliness of Christ. And will you listen to this? First of all, as it seems to me, this loveliness of Christ consists in his perfect humanity. Am I understood? I do not now mean that he was a perfect human, but that he was perfectly human. In everything but our sins and our evil natures, he’s one with us. He grew in stature and in grace. He labored and wept and prayed and loved. He was tempted in all points as we are sin apart. With Thomas, we confess him Lord and God. We adore and revere him. But beloved, there’s no other who establishes with us such intimacy, who comes so close to to these human hearts of ours. No one in the universe of whom we are so little afraid. He enters as simply and naturally into our 20th century lives as if he had been reared in the same street. How wonderful he is. He’s the same yesterday. But he’s the same today, and he’s going to be that way on down through eternity. You see, it wasn’t the person of Christ that turned man away. It was his teaching that the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. They didn’t like that kind of teaching, that he was going to die on the cross. And you remember, even though Simon Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. He also rebuked him even at that time and said when he mentioned going and dying, he said, far be that from thee, Lord. May I say to you, this one here, he was one that when men came in contact with him, they found grace and truth. They found sweetness and strength. They found meekness and majesty. They found light and love. He appealed to man. But when he died on the cross, that cross became an offense. And it still is. But Jesus is still attractive. And I think even the radicals today, and I know when they’re having the riots up at Berkeley several years ago, one placard had on it this, Jesus, yes. Church, no. May I say to you, that was certainly a condemnation of all of us Christians. We certainly are not representing him as he is. He’s attractive, friends, and you ought to know him. Paul, who came to know him, even at the end of his life, found out that he wanted to know him better. He says that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. Now that I’ve retired, I’d like to say to you my one ambition. is to know him and to get out his word. I can’t think of anything better than that to do today. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, let me then drop down where we left off last time. He says here, And maybe I ought to hit a few of these high points as I go along here, because there are several things that are very important as we move along in this particular section here. Let me read verse 10 again. We have an altar. whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Now, that altar is not, as we indicated before, the Lord’s Supper, as some people, I think, have mistakenly applied. It is that altar that’s in heaven today. We have a throne of grace that we can come to today. We don’t have any altar down here at all. There’s none for us down here, friends. And then we’re told here in verse 11, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin burned without the camp. Now, again, let me say that was the sin offering and the sin offering is depicted here. And that is what Christ died for. The fact you and I are sinners. Not only do we commit sin, we are sinners by nature. And he took. He took our sin that he might give us a new nature. Now we are told here, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. Now he died outside the city. Why? Because he’s a sin offering outside of the walls of the city. We are told here, let us go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Now, we are to go unto him. We are on the way now. We’ve been told to a heavenly Jerusalem. This is real separation. You know, separation today, the emphasis has been on from. We’re separated from something. I don’t do this. I don’t do that. Separation is not from, it’s unto. Paul said he was separated unto the gospel, separated unto Christ, separated unto the word of God. In fact, the word Hebrew, and he’s writing to the Hebrews here, Hebrew is a word that means the one who crossed over. And Abraham was called a Hebrew. He came from the other side of the Euphrates River. And that means the old life is gone. And the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. And that meant they’re delivered from slavery. They are now redeemed and there’s a new life possible. Then they had to cross the Jordan and then they lived in the promised land. They lived in Canaan and the kind of a life that we should live down here. Now we’re told we’re to go to Jesus. And the Hebrews are told here that we are to go without the camp bearing his reproach. These people hated to leave the temple and religion. And there are a lot of Christians today. that are so wrapped up in churchianity. And think, because they’re members of a church, they’re saved. And a great many folk today need to get away from ritual, need to get away from religion, and come to Christ, friends. Come to him. And that’s real separation. And by the way, it’s real salvation. Now he talks here about where to go forth unto him. And he’s talking now, as we move into verse 15, to the spiritual life of believers. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God. We are priests today, and we can offer to God our own selves, as we’ve seen. That’s in the 12th of Romans. And we can offer to God our gifts, and that’s in 2 Corinthians, the 8th chapter. And we can offer to God our praise, that’s here, and then our performance of doing good, and that’s verse 16, but to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. And when you took that basket of fruit over to that Dear lonely sick person, that old lady, that wonderful child of God, but everybody’s forgotten her. You took that basket of fruit over. You are a priest offering a sacrifice to God, and it was well-pleasing to him. He took delight in you doing that. And I can’t help but say this. When I was down flat on my back, great many people said, did you read all those letters? I read every one of them. You know why? Because every one of those was a sacrifice. There are many people that are lots worse off physically than I was. And they wrote me lovely letters. And may I say to you, many of them helped me in a tangible way. And I want to say, friends, I think that type of thing is a sacrifice well pleasing to God. That’s what he’s talking about here. Christianity, if it can’t walk in shoe leather, it’s no good at all. What we’re trying to say here and to see here is this. The Lord Jesus Christ is up yonder right now at God’s right hand. That’s where the head of the church is, but his feet are down here, right where the rubber meets the road. And he wants Christianity today in shoe leather. He wants to get in shoe leather down here, and he’d like to walk in your shoes. Now, will you notice what he says? “‘Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that’s unprofitable for you.'” Here we have this statement again. We had it in verse 7. The thought back of this is that if you have a pastor that is teaching the word of God and not bawling you out, not criticizing you, but giving you what the word of God says, then you’re to obey not him, but you’re to obey the word of God as he gives it to you. Be best you didn’t hear the word of God if you’re not going to obey it. Now, he says something else, and I love this. He says here, pray for us, verse 18. Pray for us. Evidently, the readers of this epistle knew the writer, and I think it was Paul. Pray for us. For we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. And it’s wonderful to pillow your head at night, And to have a good conscience, not a conscience that’s enlightened by the word of God. Now, a great many people that are not walking in the light. But if we walk in the light as he’s in the light, we’ll have fellowship with him. But if you and I say that we have fellowship and we walk in darkness, we’re lying. John said that. I didn’t say it. He said it. Now, will you notice verse 19? He says, but I beseech you the rather to do this that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now, that again makes me believe Paul wrote this. This epistle bears so many marks of the apostle Paul. Apparently, he’s in prison and he’s saying to these Hebrew Christians, I want to come back and be among you again. After all, he was a Hebrew and he wanted to be among these people. And very frankly, as we’ve just seen, the word Hebrew, by the way, means the fellow who crossed over. And I wish all of us were Hebrews like that today. That is, cross over to Jesus. Come to him for new life, for new living, and new hope. How wonderful that would be. Now we come to the benediction. I’ve used this benediction, I’m confident, thousands of times. Verse 20, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make your hearts and mind perfect in every good work to do his will. working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, there are several things here that we should say something about. The Lord Jesus is called here the Great Shepherd. He’s called, you remember back in Psalm 22, he’s the Good Shepherd there. And he calls himself the good shepherd in John 10, verse 11, that he’s the good shepherd of the sheep. And it’s the good shepherd who dies for the sheep. He’s the good shepherd, but he’s the great shepherd of the sheep also. And he’s the one who perfects the sheep. That is, he builds them up. And that is Psalm 23. He’s the one who leads them with still waters and Get you to the grass where it’s good and green and very tender. The word of God, you see. And then over in 1 Peter 5, 4, when the chief shepherd shall appear. And he’s coming someday as the chief shepherd. He died in the past as the good shepherd. He is the great shepherd. Today, he’s coming someday as the chief shepherd, and he’s going to come for his sheep. And if he started out as 100 sheep, you know how many sheep he’s going to have with him in heaven? Not 99. No, 100. All of them are going to be there with him. Now, we’re told here that he is the great shepherd of the sheep. And that through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now, may I say this is very important to note here. His blood is the basis of every covenant God has ever made. And he makes you perfect. Now, here is the purpose, I guess, of Hebrews. We’re told, let us go on unto perfection. Now, what does it mean? It means to maturation, that you be a full-grown child of God. It’s marvelous to see a little baby win a blue ribbon. But if you come back in 20 years and that little baby is still lying in the cradle saying, da, da, da, something’s wrong. But there are a lot of saints like that today, you see. God wants you to come to maturation, to grow up. Epistle to the Hebrews will help you do that. It’s the reason we stayed in this epistle so long, you see. And it’s through that blood of the everlasting covenant. He make you perfect in every good work to do his will. And what is the important thing for a child of God today? What is it? Well, it’s to do his will, that he might work his will in your life, working in you that which is well-pleasing in whose side? His side. Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. But now that’s the benediction. But notice how personal this is. This is Paul here. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I’ve written a letter unto you in few words. And I have to smile when Paul says he wrote this in few words. This, to my judgment, is a long letter. But Paul calls it few words. And notice what he says here. Know ye that our brother Timothy, and that sounds like Paul, is set at liberty. And apparently Timothy had been put in prison with whom if he comes shortly, I will see you. Now, the Bible I’m using today says at the bottom here, and it’s not part of the text, written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy. May I say that is just some man’s interpretation, like my little book is just an interpretation that Paul wrote. This man could be wrong. I could be wrong. Actually, both of us could be wrong. The important thing is, this is the epistle where the Holy Spirit wrote it, for he takes the things of Christ and he shows them unto us. That’s important. And again, let me repeat it. I want you to have the little book about the authorship of this epistle. And as we said before, I wrote that when I was a senior in seminary. It’s dogmatic and it’s written by a typical seminary student who thinks he knows everything. I don’t know what’s happened, but I seem to have forgotten all the wisdom I learned in the past. Now he says, salute all them that have the rule over you and all the saints. They of Italy salute you. So Paul’s in prison in Italy. Now he closes with this wonderful benediction. And I’m going to close with it. And I can’t improve on it. And I can’t interpret it because it interprets itself. Grace be with you all. Amen. May God richly bless you, my beloved. Or to get all of Dr. McGee’s five-year studies at your fingertips, visit ttb.org and check out our Bible Bus Flash Drive.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, we heard Dr. McGee say that he believes that Paul is the author of Hebrews, and he’s not alone in that belief. So if you’d like to know more about his thoughts on this topic, just visit ttb.org forward slash Hebrews to read his article, The Authorship of Hebrews, or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find it. You know, there are some great roads ahead as we continue to make our way through the Bible. So join us next time as the Bible bus returns to the Old Testament for our first lesson in Hosea. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’m going to be here saving a seat just for you.
SPEAKER 04 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire Word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know Him yet?
