Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening to everybody.
#13.
Man of Sorrows.
What a name for the Son of Man, who came ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah.
What a savior.
Man of sorrow.
S.
Dangerous.
And the same Alaska and goddamnit.
Nsnoise. Hello sweetheart.
You've been having a good day. I'm a little bit of a little rude.
Before we pray, I just want to quote.
The 1St 4 words of the Bible.
In the beginning.
God.
Let's pray.
Father, we're so thankful for another opportunity.
To speak about the Lord Jesus, to talk about him, who he is and what He's done for us, we ask for blessing.
We pray that thy spirit may have liberty not only here, but wherever thy word is opened, bless it. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray, Amen.
Like to sing another song that's not on our hymn sheet, but I think we know it.
By heart.
I mean, before we sing it tell you that the first time I heard this song.
Was when I was going to junior high school.
The city of Walla Walla, WA.
I think it was when I was in the eighth grade, there was a popular singer that came to the school and we had a all school assembly in the gymnasium and he sang quite a few different songs. I don't remember exactly what they were, but at the end of his program.
He got to the microphone and he said I've asked your principal.
For permission to sing my favorite song.
And he gave me permission.
And he got up to the microphone.
And he sang How great Thou Art. Still one of my favorites.
He had, you know, a big stomach on him and those kind of people can really pump it out.
So I think we.
No, enough of you here that we can carry the tune for the others that might not know it very well.
Oh Lord my God.
The world's like a Hathaway.
I believe I can hear you about the way. Uh-huh. Whatever the bar and borrowers the people are.
00:05:10
Giving me the first gifts the way they're getting.
Let, everything's my fault. My name is.
I'll regret it.
That's where life is, that God is unlocked and everything. Then we can build ourselves and they will be at the end of the day.
Nsnoise.
When I shall come? Where thou from? A high blood and we have taken shrine. I have anything to call. What are you? What are you gonna help me get on the phone. I can come back on my phone number.
Johns Gospel chapter one and we'll start with verse one.
In the beginning.
Was the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was made.
In him was life.
And the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
00:10:11
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist. The same came for a witness.
To bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness.
Of that light.
That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But.
As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name which were born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, he that cometh after me.
Is preferred before me because he was before me.
And of his fullness have all we received in grace. For grace For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
He hath declared him.
Wonderful. The story of the Lord Jesus that we have in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, each one giving a different focus on this wonderful person of our Lord Jesus Christ. But here in John's Gospel, it starts out in this wonderful way.
In the beginning was the word.
It doesn't talk really in this chapter about his birth, except verse 14 is the only one that comes close to speaking about his coming into this world.
The Word was made flesh because in this gospel he's presented as the eternal one. He always was there. Let me tell you, it just blows my mind to try to think of a person that will always was there, never had a beginning. He's eternal, the Word.
Of God the Word.
Was God the Word in the beginning was the Word, that's his eternality. And the Word was with God that it's distinct person in the Godhead because God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the distinct person in the Godhead and the Word was God, that's his divinity.
Oh, what a wonderful person. And then it goes in verse two says the same was in the beginning with God. There was no change.
In the beginning, whatever beginning you wanna talk about, he was already there. And then verse three says all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Everything that was made was made by him.
00:15:11
A. By deduction of these verses, we have to say he was not made. He always was. He is the maker of everything that is made.
Wonderful reality, you know, They stop and think sometimes. We need to reflect on the grandeur of the creation that we are living in. We are living on planet Earth.
And I love parts of this planet.
I love the Andes of South America.
Where I've traveled quite a bit of the time.
As the Andes Range goes down the western coast of South America.
In the southern Peru, it splits into two main ranges down through Bolivia, and in between those two Rangers, the inner Andes and the outer Andes is what is called the Lt. Plano, a High Plains that.
12,000 feet altitude and above those High Plains, those mighty, and they stretch upward toward the sky.
So remember coming over the Andes from photo C towards the High Plains of Uyuni, and as we come to the point where we drop off, coming down to the 12,000 feet altitude level, we stopped there just to take a look. They're out in the distance, couple 100 miles away.
We're the outer handies along the coast of South America.
Just the grandeur of it all makes me wonder at the tremendous power of God that created it all.
But really the end is doesn't do much justice to what creation really is because it's far greater than that. You know that we are on planet Earth, which is a very small globe in relation to the sun, which is about 1,000,000 times greater than.
Planet Earth and that our sun is one.
Of approximately 200 billion stars in what is called.
The Milky Way Galaxy.
And the Milky Way Galaxy is only one of they say, now I understood, I've seen in a book approximately they calculate now the numbers always grow up at least 250 billion galaxies more in the known universe. The farther they go, the more they see, the more they realize the grander of this creation. And here's the person.
Spoke it all into existence. He spoke and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And so it doesn't matter if you want to look out into the grandeur of it all or if you take a microscope and start looking into the intricacy of our human.
Being.
The structure, the genetic structure that is so tremendously complicated.
They used to talk about the simple cell. They found out the simple cell was not a simple cell was extremely.
Detailed and so here's the one that we're talking about the word. Why does it give him that title? The word? What does that mean? The Lord Jesus has many titles, but what does the word, the title word mean? You know, I could stand up here.
And look at you folks.
And not say anything.
And you can look at me and guess what I'm thinking, but you probably wouldn't know too much until I open my mouth and use words to express what I'm talking about, what I'm thinking about. And so God is so immense, so infinite in his being.
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He's everywhere at once. He's omnipresent, He's omnipotent, He's all powerful, he's all knowing. He's omniscient. He knows the very details of your heart, those things that you try to to hide from others. He knows every single detail of it. This is the one we're talking about. But God is so immense that there's no way.
That we could know him.
Until he sent his word, the word of God. Now we know because the Lord Jesus has come. We have the full revelation of who God is, and it's wonderful.
Verse four in him was life.
End the life was the light of men. What is light? These are basic issues to me. It's so wonderful to notice that verse four, it's only it's a short verse. It only has monosyllable words. Every single word is just one syllable long. And yet the depth that is in that verse, listen to it again.
In him.
Was life and the life was the light of men? What is light?
Light is what is necessary to see.
If there was number light in this room, I could listen, I could make some guesses what might there be out there, but I really wouldn't know. Somebody flips on the light switch, on comes the light and I can tell, oh, there's some people in here. So many men, so many women and young people.
With the light you can.
See things that otherwise you would not be able to see, and I say if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot see properly.
In him was life, and the life was the light of man. And then it says this sorry commentary. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. What's this? This is a darkness that is not a natural darkness.
Because natural darkness, you take a light and shine into it, and it makes the darkness.
Go away. Lighten and darkness cannot exist in the same space at the same time. In the very first chapter of the Bible, God divided the light from the darkness. Either there's light in your soul, or there's darkness.
And the light makes you see everything properly.
But you know, this is the darkness. That's a spiritual darkness. It's a blindness, says in Second Corinthians chapter 4. The God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not. You can take big searchlights and shine them into a face of a blind man. How much is he gonna see? Nothing.
Why can't he see? Because he's blind. And it would be a sad situation except that God can give a command and the light penetrates the darkness. And that's what happens in the preaching of the gospel. Oh, it's wonderful, the message of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then it says verse six there was a man sent from God. I mentioned this already.
That this is John the Baptist, not John the Evangelist.
He came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men might believe through him.
He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light.
What would you think?
00:25:00
I go outside and a nice sunshiny day and walk up and down the streets. Everybody I met, I said, hey, the sun's shining, the sun's shining, let's see, you crazy guy. Everybody can see that the sun's shining. But you know what? When Jesus came, nobody was aware that the true light was here, and God had to send a man ahead of Jesus.
John the Baptist to tell them this is it. This is the true light that cometh into the world. He's come in. He came to bear witness of the light. And then it says in verse 9 that was that true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Like it or not, his light is shining into your life right now.
I hope there's not a willful resistance.
Of the light of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where do you stand in relation to Jesus? That is the tremendously important question. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him.
And the world knew him. Not an amazing. And he came into the world.
The animals knew him.
But the religious leaders of his day did not know Him. They rejected Him. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. The Jewish people in general rejected Him. But then, it says, as many as received Him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name.
Isn't this beautiful simple truth?
What do you have to do to receive him? Is there something you have to do? You have to pray.
Remember one time in Bolivia, we were a resident there, a young man who had been coming to some of the meetings came to our house.
And is definitely under conviction.
And he said I don't know what I have to do.
To accept Jesus.
The brethren told me I have to repent, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
He was a law student at the university, so I said well.
You can raise for me a verse, please. And I had him read verse 12 and I said, what does that say you have to do to receive him? What is it that you have to do? Does it say you have to pray? I think it's good to pray, but does it say anything about praying there? No, not really. What does it say you have to do?
He looked at it for a while, said believe on his name, you got it, I said. That's what it says. He did kneel down and pray and they got up. We took him to the river to baptize him.
And as far as I know, he's still going on to this day. A beautiful simplicity.
Receive him. What does that mean? Believe on his name. Trust him. He's big enough. He's true enough to be trusted. Trust him.
And then it says in verse 13, this is interesting, which were born, these are the ones that become sons of God, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. That's the way we were born the first time.
But this is a new birth.
This is.
Being born again.
And it's of God.
You know, the first time we're born, we're born of a father and a mother human seed, which is corruptible. That's why I got Gray hairs on my head. That's why I got sometimes my knee hurts me.
Corruptible seed. We don't last that long. Before the flood they lasted up to 900 years and more.
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I don't expect to last that long with this body, but you know what? When you are born again, God gives you.
A brand new life.
It's eternal life. It's life that can never die. To me, it's the most wonderful thing. Yes, this body might die, but the life I have that the Lord Jesus gave me is a life that can never die. And the moment comes.
When we will live no longer in this?
Corruptible body. We will have an interruptible body that the Lord Jesus will give us at his coming again. But now verse 14. And like I said, this is where it speaks about his coming into the world, since in this gospel we have the Lord Jesus presented as the Son of God.
The eternal Son of God, really. It wasn't his beginning when he came into this world. It was his beginning as a man. Yes, he was conceived in the womb of a virgin. That's very important because all of us have been born of sinful parents.
The Lord Jesus was born of a virgin. He had no human father.
God was His Father, so that when he was born, the Angel announced to the Virgin Mary, That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. He was holy at birth.
Sometimes I've seen South America.
Little babies just born, they say, oh, what a holy little child. I say to the parents, just give them a little time and he doesn't get his milk on time and he will show that he's really not holy, he's sinful.
And all of us have that sin nature in us. But the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin, so he was made flesh and dwelt among us, And it says we beheld his glory, the glorious of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth. Oh that thrills my heart to talk about it. Grace is the outshining of the love of God.
Truth is the outshining that God is light, God is light, and God is love.
Was seen in this person full of grace and truth. You know, sometimes we are rather lopsided.
Maybe we're full of grace, but we forget about the truth. Maybe we're really strong for the truth, but we forget about grace. But in this one, there was a perfect balance of grace and truth.
Wanna go down a little bit here in verse 29?
The next day, John, this is John the Baptist again.
See if Jesus coming into him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So here's another title of the Lord Jesus. You've had the word of God, we've had the light of the world, and now we have the Lord Jesus presented as the Lamb of God. What is this mean if you go to the Old Testament?
You would read that when people in the Old Testament times sinned, they could bring an animal sacrifice to God, a lamb or a goat or an ox or some other animal, sometimes little birds, and that animal would be sacrificed.
To cover the sin of the guilty party, God.
Accept substitutes. Well, when John saw Jesus, you know John was the Baptist was related to the Lord Jesus in the flesh.
His mother.
And the Lord Jesus, his mother we're cousins, so they were related but.
Uh, here he sees him coming and I don't know how he knew this, but it must have been that God showed it to him. He saw Jesus coming. He said, behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
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In what way was he talking about? And this is what I want to tell you about because this is the most wonderful story. Absolutely baffles me every time I think of it. This same one who is the creator of the universe, This one who is all powerful, is the one that came to pay the price for our sins.
On the cross.
And at the end of his 30 and 3 1/2 years of life down here, they took him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, because the Jewish people could not execute anybody. They had to do it through the Roman Empire, which was in power at that time.
And Pilot, even though he knew that there was no charge against him, really.
He accepted the will of the people, that Jesus would be crucified and gave sentence. And the soldiers took Jesus away. And the Roman soldiers were not known for mercy. They were cruel, they were practiced in cruelty.
They crowned him with thorns. They took him out, They tied him up and they beat him. They plowed upon his back. Those terrible Roman scourges ripped open his back.
They hit him in the face, the chief priests in one place that says they came up and they spit square in his face. You know, I've had people spit at me. I've never had anybody come and spit in my face but the glorious Son of God.
The creator of the universe.
They came up to him and they spit, squaring his face.
Man naturally speaking as an enemy of God, we proved it by the way we treated the Son of God.
And then the soldiers took him outside the city of Jerusalem, out to the hill of Golgotha, the place of the skull, where man's skull is empty.
There they nailed him through his hands and his feet to a cross. There they lifted them up and hung him between heaven and earth.
There he hung from 9:00 in the morning till 3:00 in the afternoon.
For six hours, he hung there. In life, I don't think we, any of us, have any way to imagine the pain of hanging through nails pounded through your hands and feet out there under a blazing sun.
Not only that kind of suffering, not only that physical suffering, but they taunted him. They say if he's the Son of God, then let God deliver him.
If he delighted in him.
And you know.
God didn't deliver him.
He says prophetically in the Psalms. Reproach has broken my heart. You know, sometimes you can.
Better physical suffering.
A reproach is an emotional suffering that is sometimes even worse.
But then we come to 12 noon and the Scripture tells us the sun was darkened for those three last hours until 3:00 in the afternoon. And what took place there, no human eye could capture it. Too awful. But God is holy. He cannot forgive your sins if somebody doesn't pay the price for them.
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Who's on those most 3 hours of darkness? And God laid on him our sins, Every one of them. I don't even remember all the sins I've committed. But God doesn't forget. He doesn't have that human weakness of forgiving.
He led them on Jesus, his beloved Son, and then he poured out the fury of his judgment on the Lord Jesus. For three solid hours the waves and billows of God's judgment poured over him.
Until the very end.
The end of those hours?
Lord Jesus, through those three hours it was complete silence. He bore it all in silence until the end. And God turned his face from him and he cries out in the agony of his his soul. My God, my God, why I so forsaken me?
Don't ever understand the awfulness of the price that Jesus paid on that cross. And then at the very end he said it is finished.
And he bows his head and gives up his life.
No one took it from him. He gave it.
Freely of himself.
There he is, hanging dead on the cross.
Here comes those Roman soldiers. They were told that they didn't want anybody alive on those 3 crosses outside Jerusalem.
At the end of that day, so they went up to the one thief on one side, they broke his legs.
That they died, went up to the other thief, broke his legs, and that thief died.
They went up to Jesus. He was dead already.
The soldier takes his spear and rounds it into his side, and now it flows but.
And water, the price of my redemption, was paid in full by the blood of the very Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
That wound, Lord Jesus, had many wounds in His body, but that wound showed there was no more life in that body. He had given His life. He shed His precious blood. Oh, it's such an important thing that you know that your sins are gone before you leave this world.
And the only way you can know it is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know where you are with God tonight.
Sometimes there's young people that have been raised so-called in the meeting like we talked about it.
But they haven't gotten it straight with God. I know several young people that were brought up so-called in the meeting that are now atheists.
That scares me stiff to think about it. Is there anybody who really, truly hasn't gotten it straight? You're just kind of passing along like you're a Christian too. You have your parents all convinced, maybe even the brethren you know you're not right with God.
I ask you, don't let this night go by without getting it straight with the Lord it's way.
To important Jesus is coming back to this world.
We look forward to his coming again those of us who are Christians.
It tells us in First Thessalonians chapter 4, 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. He's coming to take us home.
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I don't know that would happen right now. Would this room be empty or would there be some still sitting here?
That's what scares me and that's why we're here to preach the gospel. Even the majority of you profess to be Christians. We don't know. We can't see your heart.
But the Lord Jesus is gonna come at the end of a period of time called the Great Tribulation. We have it. We've been reading about it these days.
In Revelation chapter 19 it tells about it that heaven opens and there is someone that comes out of heaven riding on a White Horse followed by the armies of heaven.
It is the Lord Jesus. He's coming back to planet earth. He's going to set his feet down on planet earth in exactly the same place where he went up to heaven after his death and resurrection, because he was raised from the dead the third day and after 40 days here in this world showing himself.
Alive by many infallible proofs, he was received up in glory, and there is a man in the glory of God.
A man that is powerful to save those that by simple faith.
Put their trust in him, but he's going to come back again.
You know, he went up from the Mount of Olives. If you've ever seen the picture of the city of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and to the east of the Temple Mount there is a valley, the Kidron Valley. And on the other side is the Mount of Olives. That's where Jesus went up to heaven in his ascension. That's the very place where he's going to come back down and set his feet down on planet earth again.
And those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus.
Are going to come with him.
Never gone to the Holy Land.
Until now. But I've got plans to go, and I think quite a few of you all are planning to go to at the end of the Tribulation. We're gonna come back with Jesus. We're going to see Him when he takes his place in this world as King of kings and Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ.
Tonight we just want to extend the plea to you. Like I say, I look around the room. I have no way of knowing where you stand with God. But the eye of God is on you. And I want to say to you, you can fool me. Lots of people have. You cannot fool God.
Don't think you can, because if you think you can, you're fooling yourself worse than you're fooling anybody else.
Don't do it.
Repent of your sins. Sin is an awful thing in the sight of God. It ruins people, it ruins families. It ruins countries.
And that's why God paid such a terrible price to redeem us from sin. And that's why we say, if you are not yet saved, repent tonight and by simple faith, come to Him. Accept Him as your Lord and Savior.
Whereas.
Whosoever shall confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in his heart that God has raised him from the dead, he shall be saved. Let's just pray, Father.
Bless thy precious Word. Thanks so much, Father, for that glorious man, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God. Thanks Lord Jesus, for paying the price of our redemption.
And we pray if there's just one or more people in this room that still haven't settled the issue, that they might do it tonight. We pray for blessing on Thy precious Word wherever it goes out in that most wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.