Quotes from Matthew, Vol. II - by J. Vernon McGee

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me [Matthew 16:24].

Many people interpret this verse, "Let him deny himself ice-cream" of "Let him deny himself some luxury down here." What this verse says is "Let him deny himself!" You already know that the hardest person in the world to deny is yourself. To deny yourself desert is hard enough, but to deny myself is difficult indeed. To deny myself is to put self out of the picture and to put Christ in the place of self. – J. Vernon McGee

Divorce was not in God’s original plan. Why? Because sin was not in God’s original plan, and divorce is always a result of sin. Regardless of what you may say, there is sin in the relationship somewhere which causes divorce. – J. Vernon McGee

Because of the hardness of the human heart, God permitted divorce. God is merciful to us—oh how merciful! But His ideal is never divorce. I recognize that we are living in a culture which is very lax in this area. There are multitudes of divorced folk who will be reading this book. Let me repeat that the background for divorce is always sin. But, after all, all of us are sinners. Since God can forgive murderers, He can also forgive divorced folk. But we need to recognize that the root cause of divorce is sin. – J. Vernon McGee

Adultery breaks the marriage relationship and provides the one ground for divorce. Somebody says to me, “Yes, but here is this poor Christian woman, married to a drunkard!” Or a fine Christian man is married to a godless woman. What about that? Well, believers may separate on other grounds, which seems to be the whole point of I Corinthians 7, but divorce is permitted on only one basis, adultery. – J. Vernon McGee

My friend, if you have a Bible-teaching church in your community and a preacher who believes the Book and is trying to teach it, for God’s sake stand with him in these days. He needs you, and you need him. Oh, how we need men who believe the Word of God—and live it! – J. Vernon McGee

Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? [Mt. 19:27].

It is easy for us to think that Simon Peter is betraying a very selfish streak here. Did our Lord rebuke him?

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [Mt. 19:27].

Our Lord did not rebuke him. Instead, He told him what a great reward would be his. Likewise, I believe that today, we as Christians ought to be working for a reward.  – J. Vernon McGee

Now let me answer our critics who say that we who  hold the dispensational view of Scripture teach that there are two or more ways of being saved. No, God has never had more than one basis on which He saves men, and that basis is the cross of Christ. Every offering before Christ came looked forward to the cross of Christ, and every commemoration since He has come looks back to the cross of Christ. – J. Vernon McGee

Go back to Geneses4 and look at the offering which Abel brought to God. He brought a little lamb. If you had been there, you could have asked Abel, “Why are you bringing this little lamb? Do you think that a little lamb will take away your sins?” He would have said, “Of course not! I’m bringing the little lamb because God told me to do so. I am bringing it by faith.” Then you could have asked him, “Well, if it won’t take away your sins, why would He ask you to bring it?” Abel’s answer would have been something like this: “This little lamb is pointing to One who is coming later, the seed of the woman, my mother. That One will take away our sins. I bring this little lamb by faith, recognizing that I am a sinner and need a substitute.” You see, Abel was looking forward to the One who was coming. – J. Vernon McGee

I thank God that when the rapture takes place, every believer is going out. And we won’t be going on the basis of merit. All of us will be leaving because of the grace of God. He saves us by grace; He keeps us by grace; and He will take us out of this world by grace; and when we have been there  for ten million years, it will be by the grace of God. – J. Vernon McGee