Thru the Bible - Minute with McGee on Oneplace.com

“Jesus said, Make the men sit down. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.” And I would call your attention to that 5,000 men—plus women and children. And what you have there would be about 15,000. You have 15,000 people, and that’s a liability any time if you’ve got to feed them. And the only assets that you have are five loaves, two fishes. And what you need in this equation—and here is what I call this mathematics of a miracle—you need Jesus. And when you have Him here, if you have the five loaves plus two fishes plus Jesus, you’ve got something, friends. And without Him, why, you don’t have anything at all.

When a man begins to make an attack upon the Old Testament, watch out. It’s like the man at the insane asylum who was digging at the foundation, and a man came by and said to him, “What are you doing?” He said, “Well, I’m digging up the foundation.” “Why?” he said. “You live in that building.” He says, “I know, but I live upstairs.” And I’m afraid that a great many people say, “I live in the New Testament.” But, my friends, the Old Testament is the foundation. Our Lord says, “If you believe not His writings, how shall you believe my words?” They both go together.

“The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” Oh, how majestic and sublime this statement is. And this woman is brought face to face now with the Savior of the world and the Messiah. And, friends, today my question to you—whoever you are, wherever you are, and however you are—is: Have you come face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ as this woman did?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God never saved the world by love—because the love of God could never save a sinner. God does not save by love, friends. God saves by grace. “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” “But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever (and you can write your name in there; I can write mine) whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?” Now he stands there as just plain, little, old Nicky. He now is asking the question, “How can these things be?” Now our Lord’s going to talk to him very plainly. And, by the way, you and I can put up our masks before each other. And there’s so many people that today use them. They are with a certain crowd, they act a certain way. But the masks today, friends, hides just how we really are. Now when you come to the Lord Jesus, you have to take off all your masks. You can’t use them there, you have to be the real you. You have to come just as you are. Then the Lord will deal with you that way.

“But Jesus himself did not commit himself unto them ….” They believed in Him, but he didn’t believe in them. In other words, actually their faith is not genuine faith. It wasn’t saving faith at all. And that’s always the grave danger today of those that say they believe in Jesus. Now what do you mean when you say you believe in Jesus? Do you mean that you believe in the facts of the gospel? It’d be pretty hard to contradict them. But those are saving facts. He died for your sins. Do you trust Him as your Savior from sins? Was He raised for your justification? Is He the living Savior at God’s right hand today? He’s the only hope that you have.

Now, friends, we were looking at that instance where the Lord turned the water into wine. And we believe that the most important part of that wedding was not the dress the bride wore. But the most important thing there were these six water pots of stone, beaten and battered, not very attractive. And our Lord took them empty. That’s the way He takes you and me; He saves us as sinners. He fills us with the water of the Word—He wants to—and then ladle that out. And when it’s ladled out, it will become the wine of joy. That is the great message that’s in this first miracle which He performed.

”I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” It’s a grand message. “Get ready for the coming of the Lord. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was at hand in the person of the King, you see. And he says, “Make straight.” In other words, get the crooked things out of your life. And, friends, we’re not going to have fellowship with Him and not get very far with Him until we are willing to deal with the crooked things that are in our lives—the things that are wrong. And when we do that, then there is open for us fellowship.

“The only begotten Son, that’s in the bosom of the Father.” He’s in the bosom of the Father, and that tells us a great deal. He didn’t come from the head of God to reveal the wisdom of God, and He didn’t come from the foot of God to be a servant of man. He says, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” He’s God’s servant. He came to serve Him. He came to reveal the heart of God. My friend, the only way in the world you can know God is through this One, Jesus Christ. He came to reveal God because He is God.

“That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Light comes through the Word of God. Without the Word of God, there’s no light. And when men come to the Word of God, they’re in the light. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light ….” What light? The light of the Word of God. And this light lighteth every man that comes to the light. It’s just like the sun. It lights every man that comes into the sunlight. But those that are way down in the cave of the earth, it doesn’t light them. You have to come to the light.