Gospel—Bob Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good evening.
Like to start the gospel meeting with a verse of scripture?
The wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God.
Is eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let's pray.
Gracious God our Father, we're so thankful for the good news of the gospel.
About thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks for Him.
And ask thee tonight that thy Spirit may have liberty to strive with anyone who is still holding out and has not got their accounts straight with thee. Father, bless Thy word tonight wherever it goes out, but especially here.
There's anybody that hasn't got the amount the account settled that they wouldn't have peace until they rest. Lord Jesus, in thee we pray and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's sing #23 on our hymn sheet.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God.
On the cross.
Verse that is very basic, The wages of sin is death.
Did you hear it? Listen, The wages of sin is death.
You sin, you die.
It applies across the board. Or have you heard of somebody that has escaped to death?
You never hear of such a purse. They may live a long life, but the time comes.
When they die, it's the result of sin, and scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There were men in the beginning of human history that lived a long time.
Adam got up to 930 years old. Pretty impressive. One of his descendants got up to 969.
But he died.
Sin is what brings death. Sin means missing the mark. It's not trusting God. In the beginning, when Adam and Eve were put into the garden, they were put there in innocence without the knowledge of good and evil. And God said you can eat of all the trees of the garden, but that.
Of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of that tree.
And that very one commandment.
They committed the infraction of violating it, and death came into this world. From then on, the whole human race has been affected by that problem of sin. And now the average of the.
Lifespan of man is down to around 70 years old. Whatever happened.
You know, it's interesting to look through the history of the Bible.
After the flood, it dramatically decreased. Noah, the one who came through the flood with his children, lived up to 950 years old, but his sons got up to only about 600 years old.
And then it goes drops down to 400 years and then Abraham's father 205 years. I believe it was Abraham got up to 175, Isaac to 180, and then Jacob 147.
And then a little further down Moses to 120. And then we have the norm.
00:05:04
It's about down to about 70.
Sin degenerates. It looks attractive, but it degenerates and it would be a pretty sad picture if it weren't for the second part of that verse. And that's what we want to talk about tonight. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A gift is something that you do not earn. It's given.
Because of the goodness.
Of the heart of the one who offers you that gift.
Tonight, I want to go back to John's Gospel chapter one. I'm not going to apologize.
For the fact that it was spoken of last night and also this afternoon, because Scripture is inexhaustible and every time I read it, it's still fresh. So we're going to go back to that chapter one, I say if you are.
A new person that is beginning to read the scriptures. This is a good place to start to read the Bible. John's Gospel. Let's read verse one. In the beginning was the Word.
Bird was with God, and the Word was God.
The same 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.
The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
This afternoon our brother explained that first verse clearly. In the beginning was the Word. You know, on the other gospels we have the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, at least in Matthew's Gospel, in Luke's Gospel. But there is no genealogy here. Why? Because when there was a beginning to talk about.
And time.
Is measured by the movement of heavenly bodies and so when God called this creation into existence, time began that was the beginning and when that beginning was the word was already there he is an eternal person that's something that just stretches our minds to the breaking point here was a person who always was who had.
No beginning. He is eternal. He heard that verse this afternoon. From the everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. He was always there. And so in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was a distinct person in the Godhead.
You know that title, the word. I don't know if you understand why that is used as to the person of our Lord Jesus.
I sometimes say this if I would stand up here.
And not say one word, but just look at you. You would look at me and say, what in the world is he thinking about? You wouldn't have a clue. You can make some guesses.
But when I opened my mouth and used words, I make you understand.
What I'm thinking about and God is so great, so infinite in his being.
There is no way that we can know who God is.
Until God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus. He is the word of God.
Here is the full expression of all of all that God is.
You know in the Old Testament there is the revelation of God in creation.
It is an amazing display of God's power and God's wisdom, incredible display. But nobody would, might, might not have guessed that God is love until the Lord Jesus came into the world and he is the word of God. It's not talking about God the Father.
00:10:00
It's not talking about God the Holy Spirit is talking about God the Son.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is that word.
And the last phrase is the word was God. So he is in every sense of the word, God.
Is full deity the same was in the beginning with God. In other words, in the beginning there was no change in God. He was that in the beginning.
When the creation took place and then verse 3, all things were made by him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. In other words, He is not a creature. He is the creator of all things because He was before all things that were created necessarily. He is the Creator. Wonderful reality. You know, I sometimes think in preaching the gospel that we need to take time to speak of creation because it is.
Incredible display of God's power. I love to view.
The stars at night, especially on the high Andes of South America. To look up in a clear night when the moon hasn't come up yet and see the display of the stars. Incredible. You can actually see with the naked eye galaxies that are not the part of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is fantastic the view of the stars in those places.
And yet how little we see so that you get an idea of how great the God is we're talking about. Let me tell you just a few facts about the Milky Way Galaxy of which we form a part here on planet Earth. We are revolving around the sun, which is one of approximately.
200 billion stars.
In the Milky Way Galaxy.
The distance across the Milky Way Galaxy is what they calculate to be 100,000 light years.
Light traveling at a velocity of 186,000 miles per second.
It takes 100,000 years for light, a beam of light, to cross our Galaxy alone.
Incredible. But wait until I tell you this.
Scientists now say that there are probably according and the numbers just keep going up and up.
250 billion more galaxies in the known universe.
Just like our Galaxy.
And how did they come into existence? Scripture tells us clearly. He spoke and it was done. He commended and it stood fast.
Oh, the power in his word, as he spoke the whole universe into existence.
People think they are so great. Amen. Stop a minute and take a look at the God we're talking about, the God of which the Lord Jesus is the Son of God.
Oh, what a tremendous thing to be able to know him now. Verse four in him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Interesting.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. It doesn't say his words.
We're light, we know that they are, but here is his life.
His very presence amongst men was the light of men.
What is light? That's an interesting question.
Says in Ephesians chapter 5, light is that which makes all things manifest. Not only do your eyes see light, but by that light you see everything else.
Still remember in our years in Bolivia speaking to a man where we took our Toyota Land Cruiser to get it tuned up once in a while.
00:15:07
Mechanic shop and one day after he had done his work and I paid the bill, I said.
Don Alfonso, I paid the bill with you now, but don't forget we all have a.
Account to settle with God.
He looks at me, he says OK.
Roberto, he says. We're all pretty good people. You're a Goodman. I'm a Goodman.
I said, well, you can talk for yourself, but you can't talk for me. I'm not a Goodman. I've sinned innumerable times, he said. Well, I guess I'm not that good of a guy either.
But I left him a New Testament and in a subsequent visit.
He says to me, I can't understand that book you left me. Why don't you come over to my house sometime?
And explain it to me. And so we went over to his house on a evening a week and we started with John's gospel. Look at that verse six to me it is so interesting. 12 words.
All monosyllable words, and yet the depth in that verse in him was life and the life.
Was the light of men, and I remember when we got to that verse.
With Alfonso.
I said Alfonso, what is light?
He just looked at me for the longest time and he didn't really say anything.
But we went on in the study of the chapter one.
It was sometime after when I stopped in at his mechanic's shop again, he says. You know what?
That book you left me, I understand it now. It makes sense.
What happened? The light penetrated the darkness.
And that's what God wants to do for you. Nothing makes sense in life until you see.
This one who is not only the word, but he is the light.
But notice in verse five and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Now we have another word, Darkness.
You know what darkness and light don't cohabit. They cannot be in the same place at the same time. And if you go back to chapter one of Genesis, you're going to find that very right there at the first God separated the light from the darkness. You know, there's people that try to mix light and darkness.
You can't do it.
There are two distinct things.
And so the light shined in the darkness of this world where the Lord Jesus had come.
But the darkness comprehended it not. Man is in darkness.
And it's a willful darkness. It's not so much that they cannot see, but they will not see.
Because they don't want to see what the light exposes in their lives.
The light makes you uncomfortable if I have a shirt on that had all sorts of dirty.
Spots on it.
And I would be alright if everything was dark in here, getting up in front of you all. But somebody switches on the light. Immediately I get uncomfortable, I'm going to start trying to hide what's on my shirt. Why? What's made the difference? What made me so uncomfortable? It was the light. And so the light exposes our sins.
And that's why they could not see it says in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
That men are blinded because they believe not the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, which is the image of God.
And so they're in darkness. Now. Notice verse 6.
There was a man sent from God.
00:20:01
Whose name was John? This is not the Evangelist John. This is John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah.
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.
What would happen if I go downtown Walla Walla?
On a sunshiny day and go down the street and everybody I meet up with, I say.
Hey, the sun shining, the sun shining. What would they say, you crazy guy? Everybody can see that the sun's shining. But you know what? When Jesus, that true light came into this world, people were so blinded, God had to send a man before him to give testimony. This is the true light.
Open your eyes to see him.
Verse 9. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Yes, the light shines on you. You know, if you have a blind man, you can show China Searchlight into his face and he's not going to see anything because he's blind.
And so the light shines, and it even shines on a blind man. He was in the world, the Lord Jesus, and the world was made by him. Here's the creator of the world.
And the world knew him not. To me it is extremely interesting in the record of the life of our Lord Jesus, how that?
The animals knew who he was when he gave the command for the fish to fill Peters net. They obeyed.
When the donkey, the call of the full of the donkey, was carrying the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem.
Donkeys, naturally speaking, don't do that. They buck off anybody that wants to get on them. But he evidently knew who was riding on him, and he walked calmly into Jerusalem. The animals knew him, but humankind?
Sorry, they didn't know him. He came unto his own.
And his own received him not He is talking about the Jewish people. They had the scriptures of the Old Testament to tell them.
More or less when he would be coming.
And where he would be born.
They had prophecies.
They had no clue.
When wise men came from the east and asked in Jerusalem, Where is the Christ to be born? Where is the King of the Jews to be born, they could answer the questions, but they had no clue that he had come. Are you here?
Maybe you know the Bible pretty well. Maybe you can answer the questions.
Do you know him? Oh, how important it is to know him.
That we have a change in verse 12, but as many as received him.
To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them.
Which believe on his name beautiful. There were some, Yes, there were some.
And how do you become a child of God? How is it that you can be born into God's family?
What is required? What does it say?
Even to them that believe on His name, you know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so when the word of God comes to your ears, I ask for your own blessing. Don't shut out the word of God.
Listen to what God has to say. I can understand if you don't want to listen to me, go ahead and shut your eyes, your ears to what I I say, but listen to God. The blessing of your soul depends on it. And so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so that they did they.
00:25:19
Simply believed on his name.
Young law student came to my house in Bolivia one time and I could tell he was under conviction of sin and he said what do I have to do to get saved?
They told me that I have to repent and I don't understand what I have to do. So we got open John's gospel and I read this verse 12. As many as received him to them gave he power or the right to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name. I said you're a law student come on tell me what does the Bible say?
You have to do. Does it say you have to get down on your knees and pray. It's good to pray, you know, but is that what it says?
He looked at it.
Believed on his name.
Exactly, I said. That's what it says. If you want to pray, that's fine.
And he did get down on his knees and prayed, and received him by believing on his name. Beautiful, wonderful truth. But notice verse 13, which were born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of man, will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Is there anybody in here tonight that decided to get born the first time of your earthly parents? You know, you didn't decide that. That wasn't your decision. That was the decision of your parents. They wanted to have children, and you were the result of the will of the flesh and the will of man.
But now we're talking about new birth, because the first birth has been tainted with sin.
And if you want to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born again.
By the will of who? By your will? Is that your decision?
Well, here we will find out that it is God's will. God wants to have children in His family, and when you listen to His word, believe it because that's the secret of being born into God's family. How important these truths are. You may make a decision. I don't say you won't make a decision.
But it was because God wanted children.
In his family.
And now we come to verse 14. 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.
As we heard this afternoon, this is what we call.
Incarnation, in other words, the eternal Son of God.
Became a man.
As God.
He could not die because God is immortal in his being.
It's impossible for God to die, so to be able to die.
To pay our sin debt, he had to become a man. A man can die. He was not subject to death because he was not a Sinner.
But he chose to die. There was only one man.
That was born into this world, that didn't have to die, and he was the one that chose to die.
Why was that necessary? Because of our sin. God is a holy God and he cannot have sin in his presence. Impossible if God would Passover 1 little sin and not taking into account.
It would call in question God's holy character. Absolutely impossible that he would do such a thing.
Now every sin that has been committed by man, woman or child.
00:30:00
Will receive its just punishment from the hand of God, but for that purpose the Lord Jesus came into this world.
And at the end of his 33 1/2 years of life down here.
They condemned him to death, the only man.
That had no fault, and Pilate said that several times as he examined the person of our Lord Jesus. I find no fault in this man.
I don't understand why he commanded them to take him out and scourge him. Romans scourging was called in some places the living death because often malefactors died on the scourging post. It was so violent, so terrible, but they took him out side the city of Jerusalem.
And there they hung him on a cross.
Between heaven and earth, between two malefactors to look like there were three malefactors being executed that day.
And there he hung, according to the record of Scripture, from 9:00 AM in the morning to 3:00 PM in the afternoon.
For six hours, he hung with life on that cross the first three hours.
Humankind passed before him and spat on him and insulted him.
And hurled insults, he said. Reproaches broken my heart.
You know, they said, if he's the Son of God, let God deliver him.
Did God deliver him?
Not reproach broke his heart.
You know, one thing is physical suffering, another is suffering.
Of the soul.
But then we come down to the time at 12 noon when everything got dark.
It was way too horrible for any man to contemplate, but in those three hours of darkness was wet. God laid our sins on the head of His own beloved Son.
And then let the fury of His righteous judgment fallen all its weight on His beloved Son. The waves and billows of God's judgment rolled over him for three hours.
No complaint from that center cross those three hours. Only at the end, an awful cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken?
Why did God forsake His Son on that cross? Didn't He love him? Yes, He loved him more than I could never understand. But you know what? He loved you, and He didn't want you to go to a lost eternity. And it was the only way that our sins could be paid for so that God could forgive them and cleanse them away.
The Lord Jesus.
Said at the end it is finished all the judgment that was against us because of our sins. He paid the price in full and then he gave up his life.
And they took him down from that cross.
And they laid him in a grave.
And the third day.
A first day of the week, like today.
They went to the tomb, those women, to look for his body, to anoint him with ointment.
And he wasn't there.
There were angels that say he is not here, he is risen. Oh, the triumph.
Of the work of redemption of our Lord Jesus. He rose in the power of a life that death can no longer touch.
And that's the life, that eternal life that we talked about in the beginning of the meeting. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the gift He wants to give you. It's a life that death cannot touch. Death can touch my body, but it cannot touch the life that I have in the Lord Jesus.
00:35:14
Wonderful reality.
We're getting close to the end of our meeting. I do want to take a little bit of time to address an issue that I think is very important. Our brother Ted last night was talking about the fact that a true believer in the Lord Jesus can never be lost. And that is true. The Lord Jesus said, 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. That is a wonderful reality.
But what concerns me is what our brother Phil talked about yesterday.
About those?
That used to even break bread with us.
And today they are self-proclaimed atheists.
And I don't think they're the same persons, but I know several myself.
And it concerns me as we sit in a meeting like this, are you real with God? I look at you and I can only see the outside. I cannot see your heart. But you are standing in the presence of God. And as he looks from one person to another, you cannot deceive God. If you think you're deceiving God, you're deceiving yourself worse than anybody else.
Don't do it, it happens way too much.
It happened when our Lord Jesus was here. There was one of his 12 apostles. Yes, he was an apostle. He went out and preached. He did miracles.
Where is Judas Iscariot today?
In the torments of hell.
Why?
Because he did not have faith in the Lord Jesus. And I'd like to read some verses in Luke's Gospel chapter 13 before we close our meeting, because this is very serious matter.
Verse one. Luke 13 One there were present at the sea at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Suppose ye, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you.
Accept ye, repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Repentance is necessary for getting the remission of sins.
And repentance means a change of thinking.
Important. It repeats it in verse five. I tell you, nay, but accept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Repentance doesn't save you.
But you cannot be saved without it. What saves we've already talked about it is faith.
In the Lord Jesus Christ. But you must repent. I say that because.
Yeah, I see increasingly people who say they are Christians.
And they are living an ungodly lifestyle. And people sometimes their parents will say, oh, he accepted the Lord way back there. He said he's just away from the Lord.
Careful how we talk about those things.
I think it's very serious, extremely serious. The Lord Jesus said buy their fruit, you shall know them. And if there is not roots of a believer, we have no assurance that they are a true believer.
I agree with what Ted said last night, that a true believer.
Him never be lost. Peter fell, but he didn't stay in that position. He got up, He came back to the Lord and he got restored. But when souls go on in a sinful lifestyle, they have to understand that sin is what wrecks this creation. You have to repent of those sins.
00:40:14
Sometimes people say I was born homosexual. I can't help it. That's the way I was born.
You know what?
When I was a boy, I had a tendency to tell lies.
I could say I was born that way. I can't help but I was born that way.
Thankfully, I had a dad.
And the consequences of lying to my dad taught me it's better to judge myself to change my thinking about lying. And if you say that it's because you haven't repented of your sins, Scripture is clear that those ungodly lifestyles will lead you.
To a lost eternity, and it's scary to see how it's been accommodated by professing Christian churches today.
Those kind of ungodly lifestyles, unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And so it's extremely important to repent. When I was in Bolivia, there was a young man who helped us build the 1St house we had down in the city of Montero.
He was a professing believer.
And.
He was breaking bread at the Lord's table. He actually went with me on some of my visits to some other little meetings into the jungle areas.
Never questioned the reality of Jaime Martinez.
But in time the house was finished and he went off to get employment somewhere else and I lost contact with him.
Some time later to not extend the story.
There was in the city of Montero somebody that was killing people.
And they couldn't figure out who it was.
And it came out in the end that it was.
Jaime Martinez and the police took him into custody and he confessed it was a military government at that time and they use.
Some coercion and he confessed to having killed 12 People.
He did other things that are not going to mention here, terrible things. They took him into custody. People were so angry at him that they mobbed the police station and he had to be taken elsewhere one day under a pretense of doing an investigation out in the countryside. This is the way they deal with criminals under a military government.
The two policemen that were carrying him out into this particular place.
We're not watchful and he starts running towards the jungle.
They call it at him to stop and he didn't stop and they pulled out their pistols.
Jaime Martinez went into a lost eternity. I heard about it. It made me cringe to think that I broke bread with a man that is now in the torments of hell.
There you sit.
Are you real with God? You can fool me. You can fool others. You cannot fool God. I plead with you.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's anybody that wants to ask any question after the meeting will be here. I'll be glad to clarify anything. We'll pray to end our meeting, Father.
Bless Thy word, we do pray.
That it might penetrate anybody who is not real, they pray for blessing. Give thanks, Father, for thy precious word, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.