What is dedication?
August 22, 2023
Well, what is dedication? Well, to put it in a definition that’s very brief, dedication is Christ preeminent in our lives. Now you can’t just say, “I’m a dedicated Christian,” and then live as you please, as a great many are doing today. It means that if He is preeminent in your life, that you’re going to live out that life down here because He has already said to us, as you know, in this epistle, “in Him” (that is, in Christ) “dwelleth all the fullness” (the “plerōma”) “of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete (you’re made full) in him….” And, very candidly, the Christian life is to live Christ out today.
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Get ready to fight the good fight against legalism in Galatians. When this letter was written, it defended the gospel of Christ from people who wanted to reduce it to rules. Not surprising, Galatians has provided the backbone for several great spiritual revivals around the world. Freedom, we learn, is a serious fight. Allow grace to revolutionize your own life through these seven lessons from Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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I know people that have been to Bible conferences where the Christian life is taught, and they’ve got a drawer at home filled with notebooks telling you how to live the Christian life. But they’re not doing so well with it. Why? Because of this one important thing that we need to recognize here. Paul says here that you are joined today to the living Christ. Now if you are joined to Him, my friend, you’re going to live like that. How close are you to Him today? Do you walk with Him? Do you turn to Him in all the emergencies of this life? Is He the one that’s the very center of your life?
August 21, 2023
Now if you follow down the story of philosophy, beginning with Plato and coming on down, and even following many of the church fathers. None of them have a high view of the inspiration of the Word of God. Now a true philosopher is a seeker after the truth. But, you see, Christ is the answer. And that expression, “Christ is the answer,” I always wish they’d ask the question if they’re going to say Christ is the answer. He’s the answer to philosophy. He’s been made to us wisdom. Now false philosophy today, though, it’s like a blind man looking in a dark room for a black cat that isn’t there. That is the hunt of philosophy today. He asks us to beware of that.
August 18, 2023
Then He goes on to say: “Rooted and built up in him….” That’s a very interesting expression. “Rooted,” that means like a tree—that’s a living thing. And “built up” as a house, and that’s not a living thing, but has a tremendous foundation. And that foundation, Paul tells us elsewhere, is Jesus Christ. Now, as you’ve received the Lord Jesus, walk in Him. Doing what? “Rooted.” That means drawing your life from Him as a tree. And then “built on Him,” your faith that rests upon Him. Built up and in the faith is by your faith, I think, would be the proper thing it means—by which you and I lay hold of Christ today.
August 17, 2023
Now that you’ve received Him, now walk in Him. And that, my friend, is a very wonderful thing—that’s what it means to walk in the Spirit, you see, today. Learn to walk through this life. And walking is not a balloon ascension. A great many people think the Christian life is some great, overwhelming experience and you take off like a rocket going out into space. Well, that’s not where you live the Christian life. It’s in your home, in the office, in the schoolroom, and on the street. And the way you get around is walk. And you’re to walk in Christ today. Oh, that you and I might be joined to Him like that.
August 16, 2023
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Now that’s a very wonderful statement. To begin, if you’ll notice, what does it mean to be a Christian? And I don’t like the word “commitment” today at all. Well, what does it really mean to be saved? It means to receive a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. Listen to Paul: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Now that you’ve received Him, now walk in Him. And that, my friend, is a very wonderful thing—that’s what it means to walk in the Spirit, you see, today. Learn to walk through this life.
August 15, 2023
We have a wonderful Savior today. And today the throne of God is not a throne of judgment; it’s a throne of grace. God doesn’t want to hurt you. He’s got His arms outstretched to a lost world. God is saying, “Come. But you’ll have to come My way. You’ll have to believe Me.” “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…” and “…there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” This is the decree that’s come out today from a wonderful God, and it’s come out actually to a lost world. And what a wonderful decree it is.
August 14, 2023
And I have a Savior today; He’s despised in this world. They’re saying a lot of dirty, blasphemous things about Him today. But my friends, He is King of Kings; He’s Lord of Lords. He is the lily of the valley. He’s the one altogether lovely. And someday, He’s coming. And we ought to get in practice of bending our knees to Him and adoring Him and praising Him. It’s very important. He ought to become sweeter every day. Do you, today, rejoice more as a Christian than you did last year or ten years ago? Oh, I thank God that I’m a happier Christian than I was ten years ago. How wonderful it is.
August 11, 2023
Now he says, “Whom we preach, warning every man….” Now the gospel is not “what” we preach, it’s “whom” we preach. No man has ever preached the gospel that hasn’t preached Christ. You see, Christ is the gospel. He’s eternal life, John said. John says, “We’re going to make known to you this eternal life. We’ve seen eternal life.” Well, who’d he see? Christ! And my friend, today you either have Him or you don’t have Him. The gospel is Christ. It’s what He has done for us in His death, His resurrection, and what He’s going to do in the future.
August 10, 2023
He says, “Enter ye in at the strait gate. Wide is the gate, broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” And the wide, broad way is like a funnel but you come in at the big end, but it gets narrower and narrower and finally leads to death. But the narrow way, you come in by Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and it just keeps leading out. You come in the other end of the funnel, and it just gets broader and broader. He came that we might have life, might have it more abundantly. What a picture of the happy man.
August 9, 2023
When I was a student pastor in a little, unpainted, suppose-to-be white church, and I remember one morning after I’d finished preaching, there was a country boy there, waiting. And after everybody had left, he came up to me, tears came down his eyes. And he shook hands and he says, “I didn’t know Jesus was so wonderful!” Then he wanted to say something else, and he couldn’t say it; he choked up. He turned and walked and started across the cotton patch right by the church. And I stood there and watched him. I said, “Oh, God, I want to preach so people will think that Jesus is wonderful.”
August 8, 2023
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Galatians Bible Companion
Get ready to fight the good fight against legalism in Galatians. When this letter was written, it defended the gospel of Christ from people who wanted to reduce it to rules. Not surprising, Galatians has provided the backbone for several great spiritual revivals around the world. Freedom, we learn, is a serious fight. Allow grace to revolutionize your own life through these seven lessons from Dr. J. Vernon McGee.