Dr. J. Vernon McGee (continued teaching) (7:24)
I was talking to you about the Bible. We are giving now guidelines on how to study the Bible. And I have been talking last time and done today about the Bible itself. We are very anxious to call it to your attention probably in a new way. And so as we begin this great venture, going through the Bible, it's a safari through scripture. I'm inviting you to ride the Bible bus and you can get on at any corner that is, any day you tune in, you can begin. Because when we finish, we'll start right over again. But we're on the way and we'll stop at your corner. And if you want on today, why, we'll be glad to have you join. Somebody says, well, then, what is it that you're asking us to do to make this a meaningful and enjoyable experience to us? Well, first of all, let me say, listen to the broadcast. Now, I recognize that many are not able to hear it every day. I know a doctor down in San Diego. He makes a point of going from one hospital to another at noon in order to hear it down there. But he says sometimes he has an emergency and that he misses it. So he gets the notes and outlines. And of course, down in that area, he has an opportunity to hear it on another station, which he does, he tells me. And then there's a salesman back in Indianapolis, Indiana, and he's a salesman that covers a lot of territory. Says he just drives off the side of the road generally, but sometimes he's with a customer giving him a big order. Well, you don't expect him to run out and tune on his car radio to listen to the broadcast? Well, I don't expect him to. I be very frank with you. I want him to get that good order because he's a real friend of this radio ministry. And so the second thing that we ask you to do, to write in for the notes and outlines which we are supplying that will enable you to fill in the days that you have to miss. Now, I have letters from people that tell me they never missed a broadcast. I was amazed at that because I thought that no one could hear it every day. You want to know the truth? I missed it some days. I'll tell you how I missed it. I made the tapes, but I wasn't around to listen to them any place. Well, I'm sure there are many people like that. So the second thing, write in and ask for the notes and outlines. Then the third thing, and this is that which is all important, this is the most important thing for you to do. Read the portion of scripture we shall be studying beforehand, if possible. And my suggestion is that you read it again after we have finished it. You will recall that last time I read Quotations From Great Men. Daniel Webster, for instance, he read the Bible every day. May I say to you, it's a good habit to get into. This is the word of God, and this is a discipline for you. May I be very candid with you? This is the best discipline I've ever had. A young preacher came into me some time ago and he said, Dr. McGee, I want to start this through the Bible program. It seems to have helped you. And he could see I needed help. And he said, what way do you think that I ought to do this and what will it take? Do for me and my church? I said, the first thing it'll do for you is it'll give you a discipline. Because I said, I've been a minister for many years and I've discovered that I can become sloven and careless also and not study the word of God. But if I have a radio program that every day this radio says to me, boy, you are on and you have to study. And believe me, it's been the most marvelous discipline for this poor preacher that you can imagine. And it's a good discipline for you, my Christian friend, in your Christian life is to read the word of God. And if you'll just read it, and it's not much to read each day we're going to average one chapter when we get underway in our study. Now, the fourth thing, and this of course is not essential, but to us it is essential. Tell others about the program and encourage them to tune in. We get literally hundreds of letters that tell us the man I work with or my neighbor or my school chum told me about your program and we'll appreciate you telling your friends about the program. Now, I would suggest those of you who want to make a serious study that you will not only want the notes and outlines that we supply, but you'll need three books that are essential. I formerly taught in a Bible institute and in the classes I had a question that I asked, and the question was, if you were wrecked on a South Pacific island, what three books would you want? And I got some very interesting answers. One wag in the class, and I'll have to admit I had to pass him. He put down the three books that he would want would be the Bible and two copies of my book on Ruth, one to read and one to sell to the natives. Believe me, I had to pass that fellow for that answer, you can see. But that was not the answer I wanted. Actually, I asked the question like that because I'd said there are three books that are almost imperative and certainly essential for the study of the word of God. One of them is a concordance. A concordance is invaluable. And then the second, a Bible dictionary. Now, I want to be practical here at the beginning, somebody says, what concordance should you have? Well, there are three that are very good. Young's Concordance and Strong's Concordance and Cruden's Concordance. All three are good. And as a teacher of mine said, Young's Concordance is for the Young and Strong's Concordance is for the strong. Crudence Concordance is for the crude. Well, you take your pick, friends, but you do need a concordance and you'll find it helpful. A Bible dictionary. What Bible dictionary do you recommend? Somebody says, well, the Davis Bible Dictionary is a good Bible dictionary, provided you don't get one that came out a few years ago. The old Davis Bible Dictionary is a good one. Then they came out, a group of liberal editors got a hold of it and believe me, it just didn't work out. Many reasons it wasn't as scholarly as it should be. I get a little weary today about the liberal telling me how intellectual he is and that we are an intellectual obscurantis, whatever that is. I don't think I'm that. But nevertheless, the Davis Bible Dictionary at one edition, don't get it. The last edition, I'm told, is good. I do not have the last one. I use the old one. And then Unger's Bible Dictionary is one that you can recommend without any reservation at all. So these are your Bible dictionaries and these are your concordances. And I would recommend that you have Somebody says, well, what is the third book? Well, I don't mean to mention the third book. Now, this was number one, I hope you understood, it was the Bible. And somebody said, well, what Bible do you recommend? Well, now I'm going to be talking about that probably next time. And the Bible that we do recommend, that is the version that we recommend. But now today I would like to talk to you about the Bible and the type of book that it is. The Bible is in many ways a most unusual book. And it's a most unusual book in that it has a dual authorship. In other words, God is the author of the Bible. And in another sense, men are the authorities of the Bible. The Bible was written actually by about 40 authors over a period of approximately 1500 years. Some of these men never even heard of the others. And there was no collusion of the 42 or three of them could have gotten together, but the others could never have. And yet they have presented a book that has the most marvelous continuity of any book that has ever been written. And there is a collusion here, and that's the collusion of the Holy Spirit. And when you say dual Authorship. Somebody says, you mean to tell me that the Holy Spirit is the author and that these men are the authors also? I mean exactly that. I mean that the Bible is a God human book, a God man book. And in many senses, the Bible is very much like the Lord Jesus Christ himself. You see, he came to this earth and became incarnate. He was both God and man. And John put it in this simple way, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And you know, you can almost say that about the Bible. The Bible became flesh and dwelt among us, and it on the divine side is a book that we're going to talk about that. And I hope I can get my foot in the door. There are four things on the divine side. On God's side, it's a God book, and that is revelation, inspiration, illumination and interpretation. I want to talk about those four. And by the way, somebody saying this is getting to be rather complicated. May I say the notes that we have on guidelines for studying the Bible are available and they are the first ones that are being sent out if you'd like to have the full copy now. But these messages I'm giving are in print and will be sent out to those today that are listening, if you'd like to have them. Now on the divine side, we want to talk about revelation, inspiration, illumination and interpretation. Now on the other side, the human side, and it's a very human book, may I say, it was written by man from all walks of life. There was the prince and the pauper, that was the very highly intellectual and then very simple man. Actually, Dr. Luke writes almost classical Greek in a period when the Koine Greek was popular. And did you know that his Greek is marvelous? But I have news for you. Simon Peter wrote some Greek also. It's not so good, if you want to know the truth. But did you know that God used both of them, got the Holy Spirit use both of these men, and that has to do with inspiration. Now that means that God was able to use these men without destroying their personality. And he let them express exactly their thoughts, their feelings. You'll find they all did. And yet through that method, the Spirit of God was able to overrule in such a way that God said exactly what he wanted to say. And that's the wonder of this book, the Bible. That's the reason that it's a human book. It's like my Lord that walked down here and grew weary and sat down at a well, and he talked with people down here and communicated with him. This is a book that communicates. I want us to talk a little about that too. By the way, next time I hear today that you've got to come down to the level of the hippie or the level of the group today that are immoral and that you have to enter into that. I don't agree with that at all. This is a book that talks to men in all walks of life. And the thing that has thrilled us about this through the Bible program is this, that there is a professor in the University of Ohio that never misses one of these programs. There is another professor in a university in the south that encourages all of the faculty to listen to the program. And did you know that there are men that are working right here in Los Angeles, right down here on the wharf, they don't speak very good English. In fact, some of them barely speak it. They understand it and they listened to the program. One man has written in, he said, I don't write very well. I just don't quite not able to express myself. All you'd have to do would be to read his letter to agree with him. And may I say to you, the college professor and the man that is not even have an eighth grade education, they all get the message when this book speaks. And then they talk about the generation gap. I'm amazed today that the young people that are listening right south of us down at San Diego, at a college, there's a group down there that meet every day to listen to the program. And some argue about it, some disagree, but they listen. The word of God communicates, friends, it'll get through to you. We have children that listen to it. We hear from them. And then we have retired people. May I say to you, friends, the Bible knows nothing about a generation gap. It speaks to mankind today, the Bible as it is, men as they are, how important that is. It's a God book. I hold in my hand right now a book. It's supernatural. And in this book God says 2500 times. God said, the Lord has said, thus saith the Lord, he's made it very clear that he's speaking through this book. And if you have a blood tipped ear, you'll hear him. My friend, may I say to you this is a God book, but it's a man book, a human book. The book I have before me here, it's pretty well worn to begin with. It's a very human book. If you want to know. I got it marked up here and it's a translation. It's not really the original at all if it was the original, I couldn't read it. It's put in a language that I can understand. And we're going to talk about some of these versions. I suppose we'll get around to that next time. But the point I'm trying to make today, friends, is that this is a book that on one side is a God book. This is a book that can communicate a life to you. And that today that you can even become a child of God, begotten not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible, the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. And then on the other side, it's a very human book. It talks to you about your aches and pains and your groanings. And Paul says, we that are in this body, we do groan. And I'm at the age right now where I find out I do groan, friends, and I'm for being scriptural, I do a lot of groaning. My wife tells me sometimes you ought not to groan. I said I'm being scriptural. The Bible says that we groan in these bodies. I want to groan. This is a human book, friends, but it's a God book, yet there's no book to compare to it. Why in the world do you read these little old paperbacks, these silly things? I watched the other day, a person over in the Hawaiian Islands sitting on a hotel reading one of these dirty little filthy paperback books. And out before it was the gorgeous tropical scenery. Why read these books when you got the Bible, friends, and it's a thriller. It's a thrilling story. By the way, if you're not on the Bible bus, get on right now, write in and ask for the notes and outlines. Let us hear from you. We'd like to take you along because right now, in a few days, we'll be beginning in the book of Genesis. Until next time, may God bless.
