Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Want to start the meeting with a verse of scripture?
The word.
Which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching.
Peace by Jesus Christ.
He.
Is Lord of all.
Let's pray.
Father, we're so thankful for another opportunity.
To speak about the Lord Jesus, our glorious Savior, help us this evening.
We're thankful for the presence and power of Thy Holy Spirit and pray.
That if there is anybody here that hasn't got it settled that they would be.
Convicted tonight and brought to the Lord Jesus. We pray for blessing.
Wherever the message goes out in that most wonderful name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's sing #23.
Behold.
Behold the Lamb of God.
On the cross.
For us, he shed his precious blood on the cross.
Oh, here the overwhelming cry. Eli.
Lama Sabachthani, draw near and see the Savior die.
On the cross.
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This evening I'd like to speak about the two comings of the Lord Jesus Christ, His first coming, which is.
History and his second coming, which is future.
It's interesting because his first coming close to 2000 years ago is history, and his death, his resurrection are some of the best established facts of human history.
The point is that every single one of us has to do with God.
You don't have to do with me this evening, you have to do with God. And I find sometimes when I speak to people that they think if they get on my better side, it'll be all right. It's not a matter of being good with me, it's a matter of your position with God.
It says in the word of God.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter.
If you send a lot, but even if you have a few lies to your name.
No lie is ever going to enter that holy city above.
You're going to have to deal with God about those lies of yours, and so we have to face the facts that He came to save us.
The wages of sin is death.
Did you hear me?
The wages of sin is death.
You sin, you die. Oh yes, there were people who lived a long time.
Adam got up to 930 years old. I don't think there's anybody here that old tonight.
But we all die. Or have you heard of somebody that has escaped death? Please raise your hand if you've heard of somebody that has escaped death.
In our world, everybody dies.
It's a rule. The wages of sin is death. We want to talk tonight about the Lord's first coming. It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Oh, what a tremendously wonderful statement that is.
And I want to talk first of all, about who this person is. We're talking about a person who has the Son of God never had a beginning. He always was. That's something that just blows my mind, but it's clear that Scripture speaks that way. He was the eternal Son in the bosom of his Father.
But when it came to.
Coming into this world, by what means did he come?
You know he came and he was born of a woman.
But the difference was that the Lord Jesus did not have a human father.
He was born of a virgin and that's important because everyone of us that have a human father.
Our parents were sinners, and so we inherit from them a sin nature, and the wages of sin is death. But since the Lord Jesus did not have a human father, he did not have a sin nature. And when the Angel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was going to be the mother of him who was the Son of God.
The Angel said that.
Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Wonderful to think about it. And so the Lord Jesus came into this world.
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Born of the Virgin Mary, Lord Jesus never had.
Any sin in his nature, or any act of sin.
He was holy. He was intrinsically holy. There was number way he could sin.
And so since he didn't sin, he didn't have to die.
But the good news is that he came into the world to save sinners.
And to save sinners, to pay that sin debt that we had.
He chose to die. He looked at us and he says these boys and girls and young people.
I don't want them going to a lost eternity and there's only one way that they can be saved, and that is that somebody pay this in debt. So the Lord Jesus was God's eternal son, wanted to say something more about him. He was also the creator of the whole universe. You know when we get out here in a nice spot like this and see the intricacy.
Of creation, the trees, the lake, the animals. Wonderful area. He is the one who made it all amazing. Not only this world, but the universe in which we live. And I love to study the universe. The Galaxy in which we live has approximately 300.
Billion stars. And that's just one Galaxy of hundreds of billions more.
How did he make that? He made it with the word of his power, he commanded.
And it became.
He commanded and it and it took took shape the whole universe.
But here he was in this world and most people didn't recognize him.
He had come to die. We all come into this world to live our lives.
He came to die and to me it is the most amazingly wonderful story. So the Lord Jesus came into this world and he was here for his 33 1/2 years. The last three years of his being here were spent in ministry, public ministry. He preached the gospel to the poor.
He fed the hungry. He raised the dead.
He healed the sick. You would think they would want a person like that in this world.
But at the end of those 3 1/2 years of public ministry, the religious rulers cried out. Crucify Him. Crucify him. They didn't want him because his very presence made manifest their sin.
And sin had to be dealt with, every single sin that has ever been committed on planet Earth.
Will receive from the hand of God. It's just punishment, there are no exceptions.
Oh, how solemn it is, how serious the question of sin is. People like to try to make light of it.
And so the Lord Jesus, at the end of his 3 1/2 years of public ministry, he went to the cross, He was condemned unjustly. And I'd like to read some of the story in John's Gospel chapter 19 of what took place that awful day when the Lord Jesus.
Was crucified.
Chapter 19 of John's Gospel verse one, then Pilate.
Therefore took Jesus.
And scourged him.
Romans scourging was so awful that those who were scourged often died.
From the scourging itself.
And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head.
And they put on him a purple robe. I don't know if you have thorns like this.
In Ohio, but in Bolivia when we lived there, they have thorns.
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That are about 3 inches long and they are so tough, those thorns.
That if you run over them with your tire and go straight in just like a nail does. I know because one time I was going in to visit a particular place and evidently some of the people there knew that I was an evangelical Christian. And so before I came out, they had sewed a bunch of these thorns on the road where I drove my Jeep out the next morning.
MY4 tires were flat on the ground.
They had all gone in, they had wrecked the ruined my 4 tires, all those thorns, but they put those thorns on Jesus head. You imagine what it must have felt like. Not only did they do that, but they took a stick and whacked him over the head. You can imagine how.
He must have raked his scalp.
And said, Hail king of the Jews, and they smote him with their hands.
Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth.
To you that you may know that I find no fault in him, Pilate.
What are you doing? You've scourged him already and now you say there's no fault in him? What kind of justice is this?
Oh, there's no justice.
When it comes to the person of the Lord Jesus. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate set unto them, Behold the man. When the chief priests saw therefore an officer saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find.
No fault in him.
The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Was that true? Did he make himself the Son of God? That was not true.
He was the Son of God. He did not make himself the Son of God.
So says, when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus.
Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee?
And have power to release thee, Jesus answered. Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except that were given thee.
From above, therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
Yes, earthly authorities do have God-given power.
And sometimes they use that God-given power in unjust ways.
And that was the case here so later on.
Pilate says.
In.
The 14th verse Behold your king. But they cried out away with him.
Away with him, crucify him, Pilate saith unto them. Shall I crucify your King?
The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar Then delivered he, them, him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away, And he bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.
Where they crucified him and two other with him on either side one.
And Jesus in the midst they wanted to make it appear that 3 criminals.
Were dying that day on Mount Calvary. Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus.
Of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This titled and read many of the Jews. For the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew, the language of religion, and Greek, the language of learning, and Latin, the language of politics, were all represented there in their rejection of the Lord Jesus.
Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate right, not the king of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews.
Pilate answered what I have written, I have written now go down to verse 28 after this Jesus knowing.
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That all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Seth, I thirst now There was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they put a sponge. They filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it to his upon Jessup, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Jesus died.
On that cross, we don't have the record of it here in John's Gospel.
We do have it in the other gospels that there were three hours of darkness. Jesus was crucified approximately at.
9:00 AM as we calculate time, and he died at 3:00 PM. For six hours he was hanging with life on that cross. The first three hours, people passed in front of him, mocking him.
He suffered terribly physically and he suffered in his soul too, they said.
If he's the Son of God, that God deliver him. And did God deliver him?
No.
He says in the Psalms prophetically, Reproach has broken my heart and I'm full of heaviness.
And I looked for some to take pity, and there were none.
There was the Lord Jesus suffering in his not only in his body, but in his soul.
But I want to come to this part where at 12 noon the other Gospels tell us that the everything got dark when the sun was highest in the sky. Everything got dark and nobody could see what was happening on that cross in those three hours from 12 noon to three in the afternoon. But we have the record of what happened in the prophet, I say in chapter 53.
And verse five, it says he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed. God cannot pass our sin by. He cannot sweep it under the rug. Every sin demands a just penalty, and if you're going to be forgiven, God's righteous character has to be satisfied. And so in those three hours, God took our sins and laid them on the head of His own beloved Son.
And for three hours.
He let the fury of his righteous judgment fall on his own beloved son.
The waves and billows of God's judgment rolled over him.
And if you look closely at the Scriptures in those three hours, during those three hours, there was number complaint from that center cross. It was only at the end there was a complaint. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Lord Jesus, in addressing God, had always dressed God as his Father. But this is the place where he dresses God as God because.
God's righteous character had to be satisfied if you were going to be forgiven your sins.
And God was satisfied because we just read there.
At the end of those three hours of darkness, he said, it is finished.
The work of redemption was accomplished in full.
And Jesus bows his head and dies.
Verse 31 The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation of the bodies, should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath, For that Sabbath was in high day, besought Pilate, that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. And came the soldiers, and break the legs of the 1St, and of the other, which was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus and saw.
That he was dead already. They break, not his legs.
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side.
And forthwith came there out blood and water.
He that sighed their record and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true.
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That ye might believe. So that soldier with his spear, remember they had Spears and they used in warfare in those days. It was a long rod with a pointed end. And that soldier came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead. He didn't break his legs. He took that spear and rammed it into his side.
Into his heart and out flowed blood and water.
The price was paid in blood for your soul and mine.
How can you remain indifferent to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ?
He paid the price not with silver and gold, but with his own precious blood. Last night we heard how that when God saw the blood in the land of Egypt, He passed over those houses. There was only one question as God passed through the land of Egypt.
Is there blood on the door? There was blood on the door he passed over. That's why it's called Passover.
The next house number? Blood on the door.
Went in. Where is the first born whack?
Kill them immediately.
He didn't ask as he came to each house as this kind of nice people living here, or maybe these kind of bad people living here. He didn't ask that only one question. Was there blood on the door?
And now God looks at you. I can't see that. God looks at each one of you and he says.
Under the shelter of the blood or not?
What's the answer? You have to answer before God every.
Single one for himself. I can't answer for you. You can't answer for me.
You will have to answer for yourself. Have you trusted the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior? So the blood was shed, the price was paid in the precious blood of Jesus.
Well, at the end of this chapter, he's taken down. He's put into the tomb.
And in the next chapter, we find that when they went to the tomb early on the Lord's Day morning, they saw the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. You know, the Angel came down to push back that stone. There were two guards there, and they were so scared, afraid of that Angel that they fell down like dead men.
The Angel pushed it to one side. Why did he open up that tomb?
I want to tell you, he did not open it up to let Jesus out. He opened it up so that everybody could see that he was number longer dead. He was risen from the dead. Oh, the triumph of resurrection.
Death does not end at all. You know, sometimes people get so frustrated with life that they take their own life. They think that's going to be a solution. I tell you, at is no solution at all.
Death does not end at all. There is resurrection and everybody that dies and is buried will rise again. There are no exceptions to that. Oh, how important it is to get it settled with the Lord Jesus. So then the Lord Jesus sends out his disciples with the message of the gospel that whoever.
And believes the gospel can have the forgiveness of sins. That's what we've been talking about today. Wonderful truth.
Because Jesus paid the price in full, you and I can have.
Full and free salvation, forgiveness of all our sins. We can be justified because of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
So that was his first coming, but you know, before he went back again.
He told his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. That has not been fulfilled yet. Jesus is going to come again, and His coming is what we wait for at any moment. Let me read those wonderful verses that talk about His coming.
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For us who believe in First Thessalonians chapter 4.
How it's going to take place because this is going to happen at the least expected moment.
I Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 15.
This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive.
And remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent or go before them which fall are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ.
Shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. This is what we sometimes call the Rapture. For the rapture there is no outward sign it could take place.
In 10 minutes, it could take place in 5 minutes.
We have no clue. There is no sign to be looked for to indicate when it will take place. I ask you.
Children, young people, Are you ready?
I still remember as a young boy my parents telling me about the Lord's coming.
And I got scared at times, thinking that my parents had gone and I was left behind.
I tell you, thank God I wasn't left behind, and I know now that I won't be left behind because you can know, as we've had in these meetings, that you are a saved Sinner. You can know that for sure.
But I am concerned because there are those who have sat in meetings like this.
And today?
They do not profess the Christian faith. Some that were breaking bread.
At the Lord's Table are today professed atheists.
That scares me to the quick. Are you real with God?
Please be real with God. You can fool me. You can fool your parents, you can fool your local brethren. But don't try to fool God, because you're fooling yourself worse than anybody else. If you do that, don't do it.
One of Jesus disciples, remember he had 12 disciples.
One of them was false.
Nobody else.
Found out that until the very end.
And to me it's solemn that when the Lord says, one of you shall betray me.
I said is it me? Another said is it me? Nobody suspected Judas Iscariot.
But Judas Iscariot loved money more than he loved Jesus.
And today, Judas Iscariot is burning.
In the flames of Hades.
He was so close to the Lord.
He preached the gospel. He did miracles, as far as we can tell.
And he's burning in hell.
I must say.
I fully agree with the fact that a true believer can never be lost, the Lord Jesus said in John chapter.
Ten my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
The point is that there are those who say thee are believers.
But are not real.
There was a case of that in Acts Chapter 8, Amen, called Simon Magus.
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He was a great man doing magical.
Tricks and when the power of God in the Gospel came to Samaria.
He found that he was in second place and he wanted to be in first place.
So he comes up to Peter and John and says, give me this power that you are.
Extending the Holy Spirit to those who believe, Peter says.
Your money perish with you, for you have thought that the gift of God can be purchased with money.
You have no part or lot in this matter, for your heart is not right with God to repent therefore.
You know, repentance is an important ingredient for salvation, the Lord Jesus says in Luke's gospel.
If ye do not repent, you shall all likewise perish. What is repentance? It comes from a Latin word. Pent simply has to think. Repent means to change your thinking about matters. You like to have your way. You like to do it your way.
Repent. Jesus is Lord, not you.
You know, we live in a world that is humanistic and people think I have my rights to do the things I want to do, and who are you to judge me? It's not a matter of us judging you, it's a matter of God judging you. And Jesus is Lord, not you. And I think that's some of our problems. Sometimes we haven't settled in our soul. Who is Lord in my life?
We think I can do things my own way. I can get away with it.
Yes, you may get away with it, with your parents, with your brethren.
That you'll never get away with it with God, because God has declared that Jesus.
Is Lord he died, and rose again to be Lord not only of the dead, but of the living.
And so Jesus is going to come again, and I think it's so amazingly solemn to think of what's just ahead for this world. I want to go over to Matthew's Gospel chapter 24 to speak briefly about some of the awful events that are going to take place.
There after the rapture takes place.
Some of those events, we're seeing the beginnings of them right now. Somebody has said coming events cast their shadows. Notice.
Verse three. As he sat, This is the Lord Jesus upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, Tell us what shall be When shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world, or the end of the age?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come.
In my name, saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many.
This is true in our world.
Few years ago there was a man down in Waco, TX.
Was Christ.
He would take other people's wives away from them for his own wives.
It's awful what he did, but people believed him. I can't believe that Americans who are supposed to be intelligent would follow such a man.
But I was impressed by what happened there in Waco, TX.
What I heard was a news reporter on the radio.
Said he wasn't so impressed that David Koresh said he.
Was Christ. What impressed him was how many phone calls they got into the radio station.
Telling him David Koresh can't be Christ because I'm Christ. That was across the United States, they said that.
It's incredible the blindness that is taking this country because they've lost sight of God. This is happening in today world. You have heard, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. That's our world today. See that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass. The end is not yet, for nation shall rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom. There shall be famines.
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Pestilences.
And earthquakes. I'm sure you heard that there was an earthquake. I don't know if it was today or yesterday out in California, another earthquake, 7.1 on the Richter scale.
The earthquakes in diverse places. I'm telling you, this is describing the way things will be after the Lord comes to take us out. And now they're starting to happen in our world. This is to awaken us. We're getting close to the end. All these things are the beginning of sorrows. Now down to verse.
15.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
Stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. I am sure maybe of you. Many of you have heard that.
The Jews all have the material ready to reconstruct their.
Temple.
Because it's going to be necessary in the Great Tribulation that there be a temple, because the Antichrist is going to go into the temple to show that he is God. They have all the plans made. They're waiting for the signal to begin to construct the temple. And when that temple is built, the Antichrist goes in.
That is what is called the Abomination of Desolation.
And that's going to take place at the middle of the Great Tribulation week, or I say week, I mean seven years after 3 1/2 years at the middle is when the Antichrist will go in. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes and want to them with child.
Them that give suck in those days, but pray ye that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath day. Notice verse 21.
Then shall be great tribulation.
Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time.
No, nor ever shall be you listening.
The most awful session of judgment is just ahead, and if you get left behind, you're going to face that judgment. I doubt if very many in the Americas are going to survive this great tribulation period. It's going to be so terribly awful.
This is what Scripture speaks about and This is why we are so insistent on that. You get your accounts straight with God. This is what is ahead. Jesus is coming again 1St to take his people out and then he will come back to this world at the end of that great tribulation period. And I just want to read a few verses to describe.
How it's going to happen in I Thessalonians chapter one?
Two Thessalonians chapter one and verse.
Seven listen to the account of how.
He's going to come back at the end of the Great Tribulation period.
With his people. To you who are troubled, rest with us.
When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. There's a detail there that is very interesting. He's not only coming back.
With his redeemed people, but with the myriads of mighty angels, it's going to be one mighty invasion from outer space.
In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know.
Not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day. So Jesus is coming again.
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Oh, that's what we look forward to. We.
That everyone here is ready. Is there somebody?
Out there that isn't ready yet.
Please get serious with God. It's way too important I stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account how I preach the gospel tonight and you say you weren't that clear in what you said. I want to be clear tonight. Where are you in relation to God? Get it straight.
You can fool me, You cannot fool God.
And so I plead with you.
Get it straight. The way of salvation is clear. Repent.
And believe on the Lord Jesus Christ those sins of yours.
Are going to take you to a lost eternity. Repent. You can't wash away those sins.
But when you turn in simple faith to the Lord Jesus.
Then, as Scripture says, the blood of Jesus Christ.
His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Did you understand? Did you?
Get it straight.
If there is anybody that has further questions after the meeting is over.
I'll be sitting over there a bit. Please come and talk to me. I'm not going to try to scare you. I want you to have clarity in your soul about.
Let's pray, Father, bless thy precious word. We.
Confess our insufficiency in speaking it properly, but we pray that Thy Spirit would drive home the words of Scripture to the hearts of those who have heard it. Tonight we pray for Thy blessing wherever the message goes out. In the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.