Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Let's sing number six on our hymn sheets.
God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin, and on Jesus Christ was crucified to us for sinners. Jesus died.
God and mercy.
1.
Again.
I'm not going to rain all of the gravy.
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Reverse this before we pray.
For the word of God is quick, is living.
And powerful, operative, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. And as a discerner.
Of the thoughts and intents of the heart, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
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Like to go back to the book of Hebrews chapter one.
The only book in the Bible that starts with God.
At least the first word of the book is God.
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets.
As in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world's, who being the brightness of His glory, and the expressed image of His person.
And upholding all things by the word of His power.
When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down.
On the right hand of the Majesty on High. What a tremendous statement of the Christian faith. In verses two and three, you'll notice there are 7 little phrases speaking majorly about the glory of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of those statements talks about his redemptive work, which is extremely important.
As well, And I'd like to speak briefly about these things because that's where the Christian faith is based, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this person that we're talking about?
And so his son.
Is in verse two we have two of those phrases. In verse three we have five more phrases that speak about, you know God is in Trinity in the very first verse of the Bible it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the word God is in the plural in the in the Hebrew language.
It is Eloise. You can have singular in the Hebrew, you can have dual, you can have plural, that is three or more and it's plural. God created God in the fullness of His being. Father, Son and Holy Spirit were involved, and here we find that He has spoken unto us this same God.
Has spoken unto us in His Son, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one we're going to talk about tonight. Oh so important to get to know Him. Can we ever know enough about Him? I have to say for myself, never. It is the longing desire of my heart to know Him better. The more you learn of Him, the more you want to know more about Him.
So we have 7 phrases here. The first one is in verse two. He has appointed him heir of all things. Interesting isn't it? Before he even speaks of the creation of the world, he talks about this person as being the heir of all things. How can that be? Because in God's eternal purposes when there is no universe in existence yet?
Only God in the fullness of his being was there, because God is eternal.
I mean, it just blows my mind to try to even comprehend that.
Here is a God who always existed. Never did he have a beginning. He was always there. And it's his Son, that eternal Son, which was in the bosom of the Father. That's the one we're talking about here, the Son of God. And so he was appointed in those eternal councils as the one who was going to be the heir of all things.
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Incredible to think about it.
The second phrase is by whom? Also he made the world's. It tells us in the book of Psalms how he did that. How did he create the universe? Because the world, the word the world's really means the universe as we know it. Universe is fascinating to study and it's really completely leaves us behind as to the size of it.
I love the study of the universe and.
The starry heavens. My children have gotten several books for me on the universe, and each time I get a different book, I find that the numbers keep going up as to how many stars there are. They now say that there are more stars in the heavens than there are grains of sand on the seashore, and I really believe that's true. We live in a Galaxy called the Milky Way. I love to go to the Highlands of Bolivia.
Because there you don't have in those far off way places, the lights of the city to block out the light of the stars.
And on a night when there is no moon, it is fantastic. The display of the stars. You can actually see with your naked eye other galaxies besides the Milky Way Galaxy. And I found when I was up there, sometimes I went out into the country at night. There is enough light from the stars to be able to walk down a path. I didn't realize that that could be the case, but it was.
Enough. But the universe, the Milky Way Galaxy that we are situated in is a Galaxy that has approximately 200 billion stars. There's only 6 or 7 billion human beings that live on this planet that the Milky Way unit Galaxy has 200.
Billion.
Stars in it. Many of these stars are larger than our sun.
And they say now that there are probably something like 250.
Uh billion, uh Stu, umm star, uh galaxies more in the universe.
As far as they can see, and they they see further than they keep discovering more and more. And I don't know, even though I believe that the universe has an end somewhere because it's part of creation and everything that is created is measurable, but I don't think mankind will ever come to the end of it. How was that created? Here's a person who created it.
In Psalm 33 it tells us.
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.
He spoke and it was done. Just imagine.
The power that was released as he spoke the whole universe into existence. This is the person we're talking about tonight. No ordinary person we're talking about. He made it all by the word of his power, He commanded, and it stood fast.
Verse three, the next phrase.
Who being the brightness of His glory.
That word brightness is the outshining of the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is the full out shining of the glory of God. Amazing to think about it. You wanna know God? Get to know Jesus because he is the brightness of that eternal glory.
How can we ever understand that properly? When he came into this world, He never ceased to being God in every sense of the word.
But he did veil his glory with a human form, and when they looked at him, they said, there is the Carpenter, we know him, we know his father and his mother.
But he had his veil, his glory veiled.
And then it says the express image of his person. You know God prohibits making images of anything to be worshipped.
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Because God is jealous of the worship of his creature man, and well He might be, given who he really is.
Tremendous to think of it, the Lord Jesus is called the image of the.
Invisible God in Colossians. Here it is the express image of his person.
When I look at the Lord Jesus, when he was here in this world and one time he was in the temple and they brought a poor woman that had been committing a very serious sin, adultery, and the law of Moses had said that that such a PEO person should be stoned to death. And so they brought here into his presence.
And they said Moses in the law said that she should be stoned. What do you say?
The Lord Jesus could see their hypocrisy. He knew very well that if it was adultery, there was a man in the picture and they didn't bring the man. He also knew that the Pharisees, their marriage laws, were so loose that they too really were many of them in adultery.
And so if he was going to condemn that woman.
Properly, he had to condemn the mall. He had not come to condemn, he had come to save. And so instead of answering them, he just stooped down and wrote in the dust on the ground. They continued to ask. And he finally stands up and says, Let him that is without sin among you. Cast the first stone at her.
Then he Stoops down and writes on the ground again. And they convicted by their own conscience. You know you have a conscience. I don't know what you've done in life, but you know, and don't try to cover it up. I'm amazed at how people live with a bad conscience years and years. It's a torture.
Remember Joseph's brothers?
They sold him into slavery.
And evidently Joseph, when he was being sold into slavery, pleaded with his brothers not to do that.
And they didn't listen to him. They sold him as a slave into Egypt. Years later, I think it was probably 22 years later, they come into Egypt and they do not recognize Joseph, their brother was the ruler of Egypt. And he accuses them of being spies. You're spies.
No, we're all true men. We're not spies.
And he puts them into prison.
But they say as they drug away to prison, it's for our brother that we sold into Egypt. Just think of that, 22 years of being tortured by their own conscience. You got a conscience. You, your own conscience tells you the truth of what God is telling us in His Word. And so the Lord Jesus stood up again, and all the men who had accused her had gone.
Accused by their own conscience, they had escaped. They were in the presence of the light of the world. And the light shows what there is there. You can hide it from your parents, from your brethren, you can hide it. You cannot hide it from the presence of this person we're talking about, the one who is the express image of his person.
And he sees that poor woman.
Still trembling there, she didn't know what was going to be. There was one person there without sin. It was Jesus, but he was the image of the invisible God. What is God like? Does he want to condemn you? Does he get any pleasure out of judging you for your sins? Not at all.
And so he says to the woman, Woman, where are your accusers? As no one condemned you, she said, no one, Lord, he said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. What a wonderful display of what kind of a God we're talking about. A God that is abundant in mercy and wants to pardon the poor, guilty Sinner.
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And then it says the next phrase of verse 3, upholding.
All things by the word of His power. Not only hath He created all things, but He upholds it by the word of His power. I just marvel when I think about it. The Lord Jesus, when it came time for Him to be born into this world, His human mother, the Virgin Mary, gave birth to him in a stable, and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him.
In a Manger, there he was, the Christ of God, the eternal God. Not only had he created all things by the word of his power, but he was upholding all things.
Looked like a little helpless baby. He was no helpless baby. He was the eternal God, upholding all things by the word of His power.
Later on when they were nailing him to the cross.
Terrible nails into his hands, into his feet, The same time they were nailing him, here he was holding, upholding the whole universe by the word of his power.
Beyond me too comprehend the tremendous implications of these statements. But now the next.
Phrase is when he had by.
Himself purged our sins.
Here is the only of the say is 7 phrases that speak of his.
Person. This is the only one that speaks of his work. He made purgation of sins by the sacrifice of himself.
By himself, no one else could take up that question and settle it.
You know, sin is an extremely serious thing in the sight of God. People make fun of it. People make jokes about it.
But one sin before God is more serious than 10,000 sins are to us.
We get shocked by what happened over in Paris not too many days ago, but we don't realize what God is allowing. There is a reason why He is allowing it. Somebody showed me the other day.
The in the theater where the.
Terrorists started shooting people. It was AI think it was a American band that was to play in the lyrics of the song they were going to play.
Were direct praise to Satan.
No wonder God allowed that awful, awful thing to happen. Does God want that to happen?
No, but when people directly go away from him in another direction.
God is right in all that He permits, and when I see the way this country is turning away from God and leaving His word out of the picture, I say serious things are ahead for the United States of America. Seriously, I look at you young people and I wonder how much longer we're gonna be around. It's not going to be a pretty picture.
What's ahead for this country? In fact, sometimes I think about after the Lord raptures his people out of this world, United States of America is going to be one of the most awful places to have to live on the whole planet. I've lived in South America, I've been in the jungle areas, and it'd be far better to live there. I'm not planning to be around, to tell you the truth, but it would be awful, awful to have to live.
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In the United States of America, because of the way there's been a turning away from God, so God has addressed the question of sin. He himself has taken it in hand to address it. God had been dishonored by the question of sin, and He had to be vindicated if there was going to be any way of blessing for mankind.
And so the Lord Jesus went to the cross with that specific purpose.
You know the story of what happened there at the cross. He was nailed at 9:00 in the morning. The way we calculate time, he died at 3:00 in the afternoon. For six hours he hung on that cross, the first three hours the object of the ridicule and mockery of men. And then at 12 noon, everything got dark.
And God, in those three hours of darkness, laid on him the iniquity of us all. Those sins had to be addressed to God's own righteous character. He could not pass over it. Sometimes people think that God just kind of sweeps our sins under the rug and He can forgive Him that way. Not one way. He cannot do that. Absolutely impossible it would be to deny His character.
God has to show His righteous character in connection with the sins that you and I have committed.
And so in those three hours, God laid on him the iniquity of us all, and for three hours the waves and billows of divine judgment swept over him. For three hours there was no cry from that center cross outside of Jerusalem.
He suffered it all in silence and at the very end it says.
He cried. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
All his life long he had spoken to God as Father because that was the relationship he enjoyed with Him from all eternity. But why does he say my God? Because it was not as Father that he was dealing with Jesus. It was as God in all the holiness of his character. It had to be settled. It had to be God's righteous character, had to be satisfied if he was going to extend forgiveness of sins to you and me.
And then he said.
It is finished.
He finished the work and he bows his head and dies. Oh, what a story. Who is that that died on that cross? It's the one that's supposed the universe into existence, the one that wants to save you and me from our sins. Because God is going to have the last word with every single one of his creatures.
You cannot escape. You will not escape.
And so the Lord Jesus died, and after he was hanging dead on that cross.
A soldier came and took a spear and plunged it into his side and outflowed blood and water.
The price of redemption was paid in blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Oh, what a story. How can we ever do justices to such a tremendous story? He paid the price in full. How do we know that God was satisfied with it? Because God raised him.
The third day from the daden and God did not quit raising Jesus until he.
As a man was far above all principality and power and might and dominion.
By faith, we can look up into the glory of God tonight and see a man.
One of the human race is sitting at the highest position of glory in the whole universe.
The Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's interesting how it puts that last phrase here.
He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. I understand it could be red. He sat himself down because of the sufficiency of the work he had completed, because of who he was, he had the right to walk right into the very presence of God, the throne room of God, and Sith himself down.
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The right hand of the throne of God.
Anybody here pretend?
They can have authority to walk into the Oval Office and sit down at the right hand of the President of the United States.
You try to do such a thing, you would be made aware of the fact that it won't work. It just won't work. But here is a man who walked right into the presence of God in the in heaven and sat himself down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Oh, what a glorious person.
That we're talking about.
And so that's the person that we're talking about. I think it's so important to see it is the person and the work of Christ that is the foundation of our faith. Like to go over to the 9th chapter now because here it deals more in connection with the.
Work of the Lord Jesus.
Hebrews, Chapter 9, verse 11.
But Christ being calm and high priest of good things to come by a greater.
And more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.
He's contrasting it with the building in the Old Testament, the Tabernacle and then the temple.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us as an italics.
He obtained eternal redemption.
The contrast is in the Old Testament. What happened was that a person would sin, and then they would bring an animal to pay for their sin.
There they go, they paid for it now, but on the way back home, he sins again.
Oh, oh, I have to bring another animal.
And.
The stream of blood never ended in the Old Testament times.
How many animals that died, we don't know, but there was one sacrifice of peace offerings that Solomon offered at the consecration of the temple.
120,000 sheep.
22,000 Bullocks.
Can you imagine the rivers of blood that flowed from that one sacrifice? And it never ended, because it was never sufficient. But here's one who by his own blood entered in once into the presence of God, into the holy place, having obtained. Oh, that speaks peace to my soul. I stand not before God on what I am.
Or what I have done, I stand before God, on the grounds of what Jesus did on that cross. He obtained eternal redemption for us. Now notice verses 13 and 14. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh.
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
There we have the question of the conscience again, and it says.
The blood of Christ was sprinkled.
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Means applied, I should say the heifer. The blood of the heifers was sprinkled on the guilty party. It was applied. It's not sufficient that the blood of Christ was shed. It needs to be applied.
Let's stop here to speak to some of you younger people, some who are older perhaps too. You have been brought up in circles where you've been taught these things.
But you know, it scares me when I see young people that don't seem to lay hold of it in their hearts. They know it in their heads, but they haven't accepted it in their hearts.
I think it's.
Not too long ago, somebody was pointing out the fact that there are five young people in the United States who used to break bread and fellowship that now professed to be atheists.
That shocks me.
As I look out over this group.
I say, what about you? I can't see your heart. I cannot judge you, but there is someone who is looking right at you, who knows your thoughts and your heart.
You, you cannot hide anything from him. My desires to plead with you your going to meet this person we're talking about one day he has obtained.
Eternal redemption that you have and applied that to yourself yet.
You're sitting there, you know the reality, but you've never accepted it for yourself.
I want to speak directly to you if I can. Please listen to me because it's so tremendously important. Scripture speaks of a word that is called repentance.
It comes from the Latin root pent to think.
Repent means to rethink. It means a change in your way of thinking. When I see people that like to sin.
Oh, they say that's not that awful bad. I'm really not damaging anybody. Look, if you're sinning, you are damaging yourself. First of all. You may be damaging others as well. And if you are doing that, you need to repent. There is no salvation outside of repentance.
The Lord Jesus said in his day, accept you repent, you will all likewise perish. Oh, but I've accepted Jesus as my Savior. You say if you haven't repented, the faith you profess is not true faith.
Scripture speaks of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
I know I've spoken of this story before, but it shook me to the core. When we lived in Bolivia. The young man who helped us to build our house in Montero, Bolivia.
His name was Jaime Martinez.
And when we got there, he was there in the area and he was subcontracted to help on the construction of our house. Couple times he went with me on weekend visits to visit other little meetings in the jungle areas.
When the house was finished, he got other work somewhere else and I lost track of him.
But in Montero, if you were ever to visit there, you'll notice that they have motorcycle taxis. Instead of using a car taxi, you get on the back of a motorcycle and they take you where you want to go.
And at the time that, uh, Jaime had disappeared, these men started turning up dead in one place and another.
And.
I think it turned out to be 10/11/12 until one day a man was found on the side of the road with a bullet in his head and he was still alive. The bullet had gone off to the side of his brain I guess and he was brought into the hospital and he denounced who had done it, it was Jaime Martinez.
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This man that had helped construct our house.
He had been breaking bread.
And he was taken into custody.
And I understand in his declarations, he said not only have I done this, but when I get loose, I'm going to do a lot worse. Yet no evidence of any repentance.
That time it was a military government in power.
And they have a way of taking care of prisoners like that under the pretense of doing an investigation out into the jungle areas with him. Some of his crimes, they took him out into the jungle and they kind of let him loose and he takes off running for the jungle and they shot after him. Stop. He didn't stop.
And so they shot him. Jaime Martinez.
Went into a lost eternity as far as I can determine.
It shook me to the core to think I had broken bread with a man who is now in the torments of hell.
Is there somebody that really hasn't come to grips with the issue of your sins? Your conscience is telling you the truth about it. You need to come to grips with God. Please. If there's something confusing about the issue, we're here to help you. After the meeting, you can come up and talk to us. It is way too important. This world is on the very verge of going into the most awful judgment this world has ever seen.
And you are pull, putting at risk eternal destiny of your soul. How can you do such a thing? I plead with you to take it seriously, to consider where you are in your soul with God.
God is going to have the last word.
And let's go over the remaining moments to the Book of Revelation to see what's going to happen to Jaime Martinis.
And perhaps others who have sat in meetings like this listening to the gospel that never accepting it as their own.
Repentance toward God is.
Tremendously important, but I want to say this repentance will not save you.
What saves is faith in Christ.
But you must repent.
And then believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has done the work. It's all done. All it takes from you is a simple acceptance of the fact that the work is done and you can have all God's blessing.
In Revelation chapter 20, we have a picture of the.
Great White Throne Judgment. Let's read it.
Revelation chapter 20 and verse 11.
I saw a great white throne.
Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them, and I saw the dead.
Small and great stand before God.
And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast.
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Into the Lake of Fire. Here we have.
Setting in space because the earth and the heavens are fled away, they're gone.
It's the, some people call it the atomic explosion that will end the created universe as we know it. The end. There's a throne, a great white throne, and him that sat upon it. Who is that? Him. That same one we've been talking about, the one who brought everything into existence in the 1St place. The same one that hung on that cross.
That's the same one is the one that's going to sit on that throne.
And the dead, small and great, are going to stand there, spirit, soul, and body. They're still called the dead because they have never accepted the living God. And outside of him, you're dead for as much as you might have natural life.
And the books were open. God keeps records of people's lives. Perhaps a book for every person is written.
And all the details of that life are written.
I wouldn't want any of you to know all the details of my life.
I would be ashamed. I would have sent myself quickly if it were put on the wall behind me.
But God.
Has it all written out and the dead were judged by those things that were written in the book. There's no way of escaping your responsibility, your accountability to God. God is going to show that He is completely just.
He wants to save you, His love wants to save you tonight, but if you refuse him, this is where you're headed.
And there was another book, the Book of Life. In that book the names of all those who have faith in God are written. It says the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death.
And Hades depth is where the body goes.
Death takes power over the body, and hell takes power over the spirit and the soul. They delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to his works.
This is the end of death. Death is going to be destroyed.
And here it is Death in Hades are cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And then it says whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Awful, awful end. You know, it uses that word cast. It didn't say they went into the lake of fire. They were cast because the picture that it seems to give is.
Person that realizes this is the end, this is my eternal existence forever and forever shrinks and is taken and is cast because he would not have.
This God that we're talking about?
Please, I ask you think seriously about this. Don't wait any longer. This is inevitable if you do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Let's sing a hymn to.
End our meeting.
#25.
1St and the 4th verses.
9900 and 29,900 and 1900 and Thai baht.
White and Jake, that's considered.
My everything along your way, you're going to make life alone every day.
Nsnoise.
Anybody has any questions?
About your relationship with God.
We're here. We would like to talk to you.
Please don't think we're gonna try to condemn you. Our desire is that you would know God's salvation and truth.