Thru the Bible - Minute with McGee on Oneplace.com

You and I can’t conceive the intense and enthusiastic devotion to the person of Christ that the early church had. We are so involved in methods. I get rather amused at all of these band-aid courses that are making band-aid believers. And they’re the problem today, and a great many people think if they get a few rules, and they think that solves the Christian life. May I put it in a nutshell? Do you love Jesus Christ? And I don’t care what your system is, they all come to naught if you don’t love Him. And if you love Him—well, some systems are better than others, but most any system will work if you love Him. That’s the important thing.

We come to the second chapter of the book of Revelation. Now he says, “And has borne, and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and has not grown weary.” What does He mean? He said before that they had grown weary, and now He says they haven’t grown weary. Well, this is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith, and I think I can illustrate it by what Dwight L. Moody once said. When he came home after a campaign, he was worn out. His family begged him not to go to the next one, and he told them; he says: “I grow weary in the work, but not of the work.” And there’s a lot of difference. You can get weary in the work of Christ, but it’s tragic if you get weary of the work of Christ.

Now friends we come back to this wonderful third chapter of Malachi, verse 6: “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” But He’s a gracious God. God is a God of judgment, but He’s also gracious. The reason that they hadn’t been absolutely obliterated as the Edomites were was because of His grace, because God is gracious. And He’s gracious because He never changes. And thank God for that. God today is still a God of judgment. That’s a terror to the wicked. But He’s also a God that never changes in reference to His grace. And that is a comfort to any that’ll accept the grace of God.

The believers in the early church were in love with Christ. They loved Him. And to the church on its high plane, into which a coolness was creeping, Christ says, “Nevertheless I have against thee that thou art leaving”—not have left, but you’re leaving—"your best love.” And the question that the Lord asks all of us is, “Do you love Me?” He’s not asking, “Are you going to be faithful? Are you going to give? Are you going to do something?” He’s asking do you love Him? Then He’ll tell you that you’re to obey Him and there’ll be something for you to do. He’s not asking, “How much are you going to give?” It’s very clear. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” And we love Him because He first loved us.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the unabridged edition of God. He talked of grass and wind and rain and fig trees and fair weather and made it His delight to bring heaven and the earth together. He spoke of lilies, vines, and corn, the sparrow and the raven, “and words so natural and so wise were on men’s hearts engraven.” When I listen to Him, I hear God. When I see Him do something, I know what God does. When He weeps at a tomb, I know how God feels. When He laughs, I know how God feels. When He shows concern, I know how God feels. And that’s the only way I’ll know.

A great many folk think today that if they could climb high enough, they’d get to God. My friend, you can’t climb high enough to get to Him. He came down low enough for you to know Him. The Talmud said, “The idol seemed so near; yet it is so far. Jehovah seems so far, and yet so near.” That’s only true in the person of His Son. That’s only true when He became a man—that men could come and know God. He’s the alphabet of God. And as the alphabet of God, He spoke for God. "I have not come to speak for Myself. I’ve come to say the things that He’s told me to say.” God was in perfect harmony.

Those silent years. I hear the sound of a carpenter’s hammer. He’s my Savior. He’s my God. What about you? What about you? Since I’ve begun this series, every Lord’s day I always wish I had done better. I wish this morning I could have made Him real to you, those of you here and listening in, that you might see Him as He is. That you might know something about the One who understands you this morning and knows you. He’s been through—you haven’t been through anything that He hasn’t been through. He can sympathize with you and, not only understand you, but He’s—He’s your Savior. And He loves you today.

Will you hear me now very carefully? Jesus was a carpenter for 30 years. He knew what hard work was. We speak of those hands that were nailed to the cross. Those hands nailed to the cross, there’re corns on them; they were the hands of a working man. I rejoice in His manhood. He’s my Lord and my God, but He was a man, a laboring man. My friend, I think Jesus knows how I feel. He knows how I feel—He worked, too. He had corns in his hands. He was a working man.

I do not believe that you can be saved until you’ve been convicted. That’s the reason I keep saying and keep preaching on sin. Why? Because it’s neglected by so many that I feel like somebody needs to emphasize it. Until you and I come under a conviction of sin, there will be no conversion. Until you can go to Christ and say to Him, “I’m guilty, and You bore my guilt”—until that takes place, my friend, you can’t pass from death to life. You just have to do that. “I’m guilty and Christ bore my guilt.” Can you say that? Do you believe that?

You and I are living in a world in which the Spirit of God has been almost crowded out. And we need to recognize that we need to have the Spirit of God on the scene, bringing the reality of Christ into our lives. Hungry hearts today, and you’ll never be satisfied with material things. The most unhappy people are the people that have got everything that this world offers. But you and I need—and what we need as believers tonight—is a fresh infilling of the Spirit of God in our lives. How we need God on the scene. And only the Spirit of God can make the Lord Jesus real to you.

Frankly, we feel very much alone today, and we feel very weak. I’ve talked with a Christian, and her problem was that she feels very much alone, feels very weak. I’m confident that every Christian would say that. I’m sure you would. But you’re not alone! That’s the great truth of this age is that God is in the world. God, the Holy Spirit, is in the world today. And He will work and He does work and He is working in the lives and hearts of those that are God’s. And He’ll work in the heart and life of any individual that will open his heart and life to Him. Now that’s important. He’s God in the world today.

We need to get rid of sin, my beloved. And God alone will deliver men from the penalty sin if they’ll trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God there’s coming a day when God will deliver men from the presence of sin. Someday in His presence we’ll be rid of this awful thing. Oh, it’s spoiling so many lives. But the holy God is prepared to justify you, not by doing something, but believing in Him. He justifies the ungodly who don’t do any more nor less than simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You and I can’t stand under the banner of the Ten Commandments; they condemn us. But there is redeemed ground that we can stand on, and that redeemed ground is ground that’s been made by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. And even a holy God who says to you and me, “Your ways are not my ways; your thoughts are not my thoughts. I am high and holy.” But that high and holy God tonight says to you, “Come. I invite you,” He says, “to come.” There is a new and a living way to God which He has made. He’s consecrated it through His own flesh by giving Himself upon the cross.

If you love Jesus, you’re going to live a life of obedience to Him and you will be courteous to other people. Well, may I say to you that today there’s a great deal of “churchianity” that’s bland and bloodless, tasteless and colorless. It’s devoid of the warmth and feeling. There’s no personal relationship with Christ that is meaningful and productive. That’s the thing you have to have, my friend, is a personal relationship with Christ. And your ritual and your liturgy is not worth a snap of your fingers unless it’s got a life that is related to Jesus Christ. Let’s stop playing church today and start loving Christ and living for Him.

Now I get letters of people saying, “Well, I can’t do very much for God.” My friend, if you are working for God and in God’s plan and purpose, and I don’t care how small that might be—might be a mother today that has one little boy or one little girl, and you bring that one up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and they go out as a missionary or they become a real worker for God. May I say to you, who is going to determine whether it’s great or not? God is the one that’s to determine that! And if you’re in the plan and purpose of God and you’re doing what God wants you to do, well, I’d say to you that your work is as important as anyone’s work at the present hour.

God today has put us under grace. And He has given to us the Holy Spirit whereby that we now can have the fruit of the Spirit in our life, which is love, joy, peace, and longsuffering, and those things were never in the Law. What then is the relationship of Law today to the Christian? Well, let’s clearly understand we’re not talking about how you become a Christian. The only way in the world you can become a child of God today is through faith in Jesus Christ, and He’s called you to a higher plane than the Ten Commandments. He wants you to have joy in your life. He wants you to have peace in your life. He wants you to have love in your life. These are the things that only the Spirit of God can produce in hearts and lives.

There are many symbols of the nation that are used in Scripture. One, of course, is the burning bush that Moses saw. One is the vine; Isaiah develops that. And today the Lord Jesus is that vine for the church. You are saved today not by belonging to a nation or belonging to a certain class, group, or going through a ritual, or belonging to some religion or performing some religious ceremony. He is the genuine Vine, and it means whether you’re joined to Christ or not. Therefore, what does it mean to be saved today? It means to be “in” Christ, and you get in Christ by trusting Him as your personal Savior.

“Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” In that day the whole earth will keep silent. Won’t that be wonderful? We talk about freedom of speech, and there’s going to be a marvelous freedom of silence in that day. Why? Because God is in His holy temple. That looks forward, friends, to the millennium that’s coming on this earth someday. It ought to be an encouragement to us today that God has a plan and purpose for each one of us, and He’s working in your life and my life. Don’t fear God. He’s working in your heart, both to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Oh, to be in step with Him today and to be going the same direction He’s going.

“Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” Now that looks down the future! So, these people can recognize that they’re working in the plan and program of God that’s going to extend down through the future. And what an application for Christians today. Are you and I working in something that has eternal value? Are we actually working in the light of eternity? And we should keep that in mind.

It’s so easy for us to get the wrong perspective of the Christian life. We get our nose pressed right up to the window of the present, and we don’t see anything else. As someone has put it, “You can put a dime over your eye and blot out the sun.” Well, that dime is like the present, it blots out God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Don’t be discouraged because present circumstances and present things are not working out for you. Recognize that for the child of God that “all things work together for good.” That is, a good that’s off yonder in the distance.