Address—Bob Thonney
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Let's start our meeting with #278.
Like to read the last two verses because this is somewhat the burden my heart this afternoon.
Thy life is now beyond the grave. Our souls thou hast set free.
Life, strength and grace in thee we have, for we are one with thee.
Or teach us so the power to know of risen life with Thee. Not we may live while here below, but Christ our life may be. This is a prayer, and I trust it's the conscious prayer of each one. As we sing it, we sing the whole hymn.
Save your love.
We are not now.
Sincere.
Love.
And my soul stand by, sailor.
No one else has all my.
I like your style, beginnings, everything. Why it's raining?
Without.
Or may not come.
To you.
Let's pray, Father, we trust that this is the true expressions of our heart.
Lord Jesus, to realize in fuller measure the tremendous place we've been brought into and to live it. Lord help us, we pray.
This afternoon our purpose is to open Thy precious word.
And we confess how insufficient the vessels, the human vessels.
But Thy Spirit is here, and we're thankful for His presence and for His power to open up the Scriptures. And so, since, Lord, Thou art the only one that knows the needs of each one here this afternoon, pray that he might have liberty in the speaking and also in the hearing of Thy precious word, that there might be blessing. Father, we pray for each of Thy dear redeemed people where they are.
Commend ourselves for these moments together in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's turn to.
Second Timothy, I should say first Timothy.
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And I'd like to read an expression we have.
Two times in the 6th chapter.
First time is found in verse 12.
Fight the good fight of faith. Here's the expression.
Lay hold on eternal life.
Verse 19.
Here he is speaking to the rich in this world.
Which, given the prosperity of our North American culture, I think really applies to each one of us.
You know, we like to always look at somebody else and say they're the rich people.
But somebody asked that question a reading time reading meeting one time, and I thought the answer was very good.
In the context of this chapter, it says earlier in the chapter having food and covering. Let us therewith be content.
He says anything more than food and covering qualifies us as the rich in this world.
So let's not pass the buck on to anybody else. Let's accept this for ourselves. But notice verse 19. He says to the rich, I'll read verse 18. They that that they do good. Let me read from verse 17. Excuse me, charge them that are rich in this world to be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good and that they be rich in good works ready to distribute.
Willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life.
New Translation reads it that they may lay hold on that which is really life.
Like that?
Now I'd like to go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
So I want to talk about.
Eternal life.
This afternoon, what is it?
And Scripture speaks a lot about it.
It's that generally speaking, when we ask what eternal life is, is that which lasts forever.
And that's true.
But it is far more than that.
Says in.
Ah, John 17, the Lord Jesus and his high priestly prayer says this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou ascend. So eternal life is the full revelation of who God is, that we have now in Christianity. We have been brought into that knowledge.
And it's not so much the duration of the life, it's the quality of the life.
It is the life in the knowledge of the glorious God that we have been brought to know.
In the Lord Jesus. But now let's read about this life in chapter.
Five of Two Corinthians, and we'll start with verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
The apostle is speaking about the love of Christ and how it constrains us. It's not an outward constraint. I don't think anybody was obligated.
Outwardly to be at these meetings, but I trust that you came here because you wanted to come. And it's an inward constraining the love of Christ. It's a far more powerful agent.
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Than anything else, the love of Christ constrains us. And then he says, because we thus judge. In other words, he's passing a judgment. He's thinking this thing through, that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And since the Lord Jesus died for all, that means that naturally speaking, we were all dead.
OK then verse 15 and that he died for all that we which live, OK, we live, we have eternal life. Now how do we live? Should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again?
This is what comes home as such a tremendous challenge to my own soul.
I say, dear young people, but you know, I have a trouble of trouble determining who are the young people here.
This year I can say I am exactly 900 years younger than Methuselah when he died.
So I think that qualifies me as a young person, wouldn't you say?
Does anybody else here think that they're not quite that young? They are qualified to be an old person.
Still remember talking to dear brother Lino Bueno in Bolivia. He passed into the Lord's presence at 99 years of age.
He had a certain custom that I find very strange. He when he got a cold, he lived on the high Altaplano where it could be very cold.
And.
Generally you heat up water to take a bath.
But when he got a cold, you know what he did? He filled a tank with water and he bathed in cold water. He said that always cured him of a cold.
Well, the last time it didn't cure him of the cold, and he went into the Lord's presence.
But it was 99 years old and I don't know how many of us are going to last that long.
But I asked him. I said, does your life seem like a long, long life? He says, you know what?
Seems like yesterday I was a young person and it's true life is extremely brief.
Scripture tells us time is short. It is. It's very short. And So what I say applies to you young people. But when I say young people, I'm including everybody in this room. It applies to us all. We are all young people. And what we are going to say is that I find it such a challenge, dear brethren, to live in the.
Culture that we have been called in by the Lord to represent Him because the culture we live in is a culture of self pleasing to live to yourself. I see people say sometimes on Facebook. I finally found myself.
That's interesting.
That's not life like we're talking about.
The life we are talking about is life that lives unto him who died for us and rose again.
And you know what? I find that such a liberating thing. I remember as a young person struggling with what I was.
You know what? I got so fed up of what I was, I couldn't stand it.
Until the Lord showed me that it was not me any longer.
It was Him that is my life and it was such a deliverance to be able to leave what I am completely behind. And so I want to take up the life that we have in Christ. I trust with scriptural teaching as to where it starts.
And what God has done for us in that life, you know, we.
Are all born with a natural life, her brother was saying this morning.
That likes to sin. We have a nature that sins because it's a sinful nature.
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We sin. It doesn't take very long before our little baby.
If it doesn't get us milk on time, you can tell by the way it's crying, it's crying in anger, and that's the sin starting to develop in that little life.
But that life that we inherited from our parents is a life that ends.
In depth.
Now God has given us a new life in Christ, but the life we have in Christ is a life that's on the other side of death. Death is behind us.
And we have a life that can never, ever die.
Yes, this body that I have is connected to the first creation, and sometimes you might hear that I've died, but really I haven't died. It's just this body that's died. For a Christian to die is far better. It's gain. It's to pass into the presence of the Lord of glory. Oh, it's wonderful, brethren, to get a hold of this, but these things are practical in our lives.
And what I find is the culture we're passing through is such a powerful stream on every side, things that you like, what you want, what color of car you'd like to buy, what kind of car, if it's new or if it's used, whatever it is.
I like to go to Burger King, you know, they're saying there, have it your way.
Well, I like those burgers.
But that's the culture we're passing through, and I don't think you and I can say we are unaffected by it. I have to confess, young people, that I am affected by that culture I'm passing through.
That please myself to do things my way. Here is the reference point in my world.
Oh boy, if that isn't the bane of the Christian testimony in our culture.
In our country, it's because here's the reference point.
And we bring that kind of thinking right into the Lord's presence in the assembly. And when there is more problems, it's what I think. It's my family. What are you saying about that person that is part of my family?
Brethren.
Life for the Christian is in a completely different sphere.
That we which live should no longer live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. That's where our life is.
Let's go back to the book of Romans because there's a lot about life there, and I'd like to start with the 6th chapter.
Because you and I, who are believers in the Lord Jesus, have still that natural life with which we were born, that sin nature is still present there.
Paul says in Chapter 7 of Romans, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So sin dwells in us. We are not in the flesh. Scripture is very clear about that.
We are in the Spirit, but sin is in US and sometimes we don't distinguish these things and I think it's important to have a good understanding of where God has set us in Christ. Let's read a few verses here, the beginning of the 6th chapter.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
He had just said in the previous chapter where sin abounded, grace didn't much more abound. OK, if grace much more abounds because of my sin, okay, Shall we continue in sin?
But then he responds to that. He says God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
You ever seen a dead man sinning?
No, you won't.
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Supposing there's a man that is given to drink heavy. He's been a drunkard most of his life.
All of a sudden he dies. There he is strung out on the floor.
Let's offer him some alcohol. Going to be any response on his part to grab that glass and drink it. Absolutely nothing. What happened? What delivered him from alcohol? You know what it was that delivered him? Death.
And that's the way God looks at you and I, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus.
Dad to sin.
He died for all.
All that means then we're dead. And that's the way God looks at us now, especially those of us who have believed in the Lord Jesus. But what do you do with a dead person? You just kind of leave them, lay out for several years before you bury him. No, you don't do that.
Latin America, they don't embalm, so if you die one day, the next day you are buried. It takes place fast.
Says verse three, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life.
So not only have we died to sin, young people, dear brethren, we are buried with him. Somebody that's buried is left there. You don't go and open up the casket once in a while to see how he's getting along.
You leave it there and don't do that in your Christian life, dear young people.
Go back and see how I'm getting along.
You're going to find it gets worse as time goes on.
It's buried, leave it there. That's the position we have been put in, in Christ. But it doesn't leave it there. It says that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life. So the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, and not only are we dead with Christ and buried with him, but now we are risen with him too. We have a new life.
A life in resurrection. We can actually say death has no longer any part in my existence.
We're beyond it. We are in resurrection ground, and the life that we have been given in Christ is a life that can never die. Isn't that wonderful? I think that's so tremendously wonderful.
But let's put that now down practically and we come down to verse.
11 of this chapter and it says.
Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed, and to sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.
And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. So verse 11 Says, Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God?
I guess we don't use that word reckon too much anymore, but just simply thinking.
We need to think this way. God says we're dead unto sin and buried and risen again with Christ.
When temptation comes around, I just don't feel very dead.
Young people and dear brother, it's not a question of feelings here.
Feelings are very real, but to get right feelings we have to have right doctrine.
So don't base your Christian experience on your feelings.
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God says here to reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, and alive unto God.
I remember as a young man.
Struggling with this issue pretty strongly and there was a particular.
Thing that I came to realize was not pleasing to the Lord.
It wasn't that serious, you might say. It was just joking around.
Nothing wrong with laughing. It's something that's funny, but I don't know.
If joking around is right, anyhow, I felt that it grieved the Lord.
And I would confess it to the Lord and say, Lord, help me not to give way to that temptation every time.
It comes around.
And I get up from my knees more to 10, more determined not to do it again. And the more determined I was, the more I got right back into it again. I was into it before I realized it.
And I realized it was not my determination.
That was going to win the battle in this it was thinking right thoughts and I came to this chapter and it says.
To reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed, and to sin. And I remember when that came home to my soul, the next time the temptation was to do the same thing again, I said to myself, I'm dead to sin.
I'm alive to God.
You know what, It wasn't a struggle. It just faded on. It's just accepting God's thoughts. Oh, how important it is to think God's thoughts. We've been put into that position. Now we are to think that way, even though you might not feel that way.
And so he says here in these verses that follow.
Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Yield yourselves unto God. That's the first part.
And I think it's nice in the morning when we get up.
To be able to kneel down in the Lord's presence and say Lord.
I belong to you.
Through that precious blood that you shed on that cross, I want you to use me today. I want to be at your service. Then when the temptations or the opportunities come, as they do in everybody's life, if it's temptation, say, I can't yield myself in that direction, Sorry, I'm going a different direction. And it's important to think these things through, dear young people.
But to yield our members that we take as.
Your hands, your feet, your eyes, your ears. What do you listen to with your ears?
What do you let your eyes see on the Internet? Is it because you've yielded your eyes to God that you're doing what you're doing? How important it is to challenge ourselves in those things?
There's so much that could be said on this subject, but I want to go on over to the 8th chapter now.
And speak a little bit about.
Our position there, we were enjoying some of these verses with the Spanish speaking brethren last night, but verse one of chapter 8 is there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's the position of a believer in the Lord Jesus, in Christ Jesus and in that position impossible that there could be any condemnation. You know why?
Because if condemnation could come to a person in Christ, that would mean that Christ himself, condemnation was on him.
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Impossible. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
But as we go down these verses, it speaks in verse 2.
Of another thing that belongs to us, because of our place in Christ and its liberty, we have been liberated. Notice verse 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Sin and death is the law that dominates a person.
In this world from the time he is born.
But there is another law. Sometimes people call this law here in verse 2A, principle of life. You know what we mean when we say there's a law of gravity? This pen I'm holding in my hand, if I let it loose, will always come down.
Or maybe sometime it will go up and hit the ceiling. That never happens. It's a law. It's something that always is true. And so you sin, you die. That's the law of sin and death. Nobody escapes that.
That is always true.
But let's put an illustration. Supposing I tie a helium balloon to my pen, and now I let it loose and it goes up. What happened to the law of gravity? Is that not in existence any longer? Oh yes, the law of gravity is there, but I've introduced a different law that takes that pen up now. And that's what we have in this verse. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, in other words.
That law of sin and death that we thought we were obligated to sin because the temptation comes and there's a response in my breast.
In that sin nature that's there, I don't have to obey that law any longer. No, God has given me a new life. That's by the power of the Spirit of God and thus love, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Verse three it says for what the law could not do. That's the law of Moses. Take by the context there.
In that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And for sin condemned sin in the flesh. In other words, the work of Christ, not only.
Is so that God would have a righteous basis to forgive our sins. That is true. But the work of Christ and the cross did something else. It condemned sin in the flesh. In other words, that sin nature that's there, God is not trying to improve it.
It's ruined.
God doesn't do anything but consign it to the tomb.
It's dead and buried as far as he's concerned.
It's condemned.
Don't try to resurrect what you are as a man in the flesh and try to improve it.
It doesn't work.
Doesn't work.