Gospel—R. Thonney
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John's Gospel chapter one, verse one.
In the beginning.
Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 14 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.
Dear friends, this evening our desire is to speak to you about the wonderful person of Jesus our Lord. He is called in the first verse of this chapter as we've been meditating in these meetings, the Word of God, the expression God expressing himself to us, He does it through His Word.
If I ever thought you don't know what I'm thinking until I open and through means of words express what I'm trying to tell what I'm thinking about, then you know my thoughts. God is a being who is eternal and infinite in His being.
No way that I or you as a finite being who have our beginnings, our ends in this life.
Can comprehend the infinite? No way.
But God.
Has expressed the love, the light that he is in his own person through means of the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus we have a full revelation of who God is. You know, it's interesting to go through the Bible and to consider the different names.
That God uses to express himself in the Old Testament. Probably one of the names that is most common is Jehovah. Jehovah. But he has other names as well. The Almighty, the Most High. But one of the names that he has in the Old Testament that I've often enjoyed is I am.
Tremendous thing to think about. You know, when I introduced myself to somebody, I have to say I am Bob. That's my name. I have to qualify and I am and you have to too. But when God speaks, he doesn't have to qualify it. He simply says I am because He always is. He is the ever existing one.
That's the God we are speaking about tonight. People talk a lot about God today, but I sometimes fear that in people's minds, the God they're thinking about is that God that is pretty well confined to the dictates of their own minds. That's not the God we're talking about tonight. We're talking about an infinite, eternal God, and he's been revealed in the person of the Word of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we want to speak of the Lord Jesus.
The same time that Jesus is Jehovah, Jesus is God in every sense of the Word, we read in verse 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came into this world through the same channel that you and I have come into this world. He was born not in a natural way.
Like we are with a father, a human father and a human mother, but he was born by means of a virgin, the Virgin Mary. He came, he had no human father. The Virgin Mary conceived by the power of the Spirit of God. His Father was God, and it's through that means that he was born into this world, the blessed Son of God.
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He became flesh, the apostle John says here.
And dwelt among us. Just think, the eternal God was walking through this world like a man. The majority of those in that day had no idea who this Jesus was. Some said this is the Carpenter. Yeah, we know his father, his mother there. His brothers and sisters are with us too. We know them. They had no idea who he was.
He was the eternal God, and as I think of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Creator, the sustainer of the whole universe. At the same time that he took up little children into his arms and blessed them, he was by the word of his power, sustaining the whole universe in clock like order that it whirls around in space.
That's my God, that's the person we're announcing to you tonight. But at the same time that he is so great in his person in the Gospel of John that we want to meditate on this evening, we have him using those precious words.
I am again and again and very often.
He uses in conjunction with those two words, I am something that you and I can relate to in the very basics of life because although the Scripture, the Gospel of John especially, is profound, it is at the same time simple.
This is the word of God, friends, and when I read it and see the depth and at the same time the simplicity of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, I rejoice. It makes me glad I can understand it. No one can stand up and say I can't understand it. I haven't got a college degree to be able to understand these things. No, you can understand it. Let's go over to the 6th chapter of John to consider one of those places.
Where Jesus says I am.
John chapter 6 and verse 35.
And Jesus said unto them.
I am the bread of life, He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Oh, what a wonderful verse this is.
I am the bread of life. Can you understand that? Do you know what bread is? Is it too difficult for you to understand what we need bread for? No, I think everyone understands exactly what we need bread for. For our physical bodies. We need food to sustain us. If we don't, we're going to die in the end.
But my friend, you not only have a physical body.
You have dwelling in your body a soul and a spirit.
And that soul needs food just as much as your body does.
And that's why Jesus said I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Oh, I rejoice in those words. You know. I know that a lot of you all relate to what I say, but when I was younger I really enjoyed getting into playing sports and Saturday afternoons off times. That was our occupation. Go out and throw myself into the football game.
Hard as I could.
And let me tell you, I enjoyed it, but I still can remember after a time going home after the game was over. It's kind of sore, but.
Inside there was an empty feeling. Empty. That enjoyment lasted for a while, but it didn't satisfy my soul. And I see young people, and older ones too for that matter.
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Throwing themselves with all their interest into sports, into any kind of diversion and amusement.
And I know.
They're getting some enjoyment out of it for the moment, but I know, and you know too, friend, that's going to leave your heart with a void, an empty void only Jesus can satisfy. That's why he says here in words so plain, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst.
That hunger, that thirst, that throbs in your soul, if you're here and you feel it tonight, I want to tell you that the answer is in Jesus. He said I am the bread of life. And if you come to him, it's not something that you'll enjoy for a moment or two, but if you in truth open that heart of yours to accept him as your very own Savior, you.
Will never hunger. You will never thirst. I proved it, friends. You know, sometimes people say to me.
You Christians, you can't do anything. You can't go to the movies, you don't smoke, you don't drink, you don't do drugs. What do you guys have anyhow going for you? I say, friends, Christianity isn't You can't do this and you can't do that and you can't do the other thing.
No, the reality of the matter is that Jesus filled my heart. He filled it so full. I'm really not interested in those other things that are so disastrous to so many people. I'm satisfied I don't need those other things, Friends, that's the truth of the matter. I still remember, maybe I've told this story to some of you, but when I was in Lima, Peru a number of years ago.
Is thumbing through the paper.
And one picture really caught my attention. It was of a young 16 year old girl and she was standing on top of a building 13 stories high.
Getting ready to jump off and to end her life and underneath the fixture was the caption.
This girl had three things going for her. She.
She was a wealthy, she was from a wealthy family. She was a beautiful girl and she had a good education. She had most of the things any girl would like to have. But, you know, they had left an awful emptiness in her life that she could not stand a moment longer. And it said that they were standing around trying to persuade her not to jump. They couldn't persuade her. She jumped off and ended her life.
She didn't know Jesus, friend. The answer isn't difficult, Jesus said.
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Come to Jesus, friend, prove it. You know I could have a piece of bread in my hand and I could die of hunger. I need to satisfy that hunger of mine. I need to eat the bread. I need to put it right down inside of myself.
And I greatly fear that there are many who are sitting in gospel meetings like we are tonight, who know about Jesus, but who have never put it inside, who have never accepted the Lord Jesus as their very own. When you eat something, you make it your very own. It becomes part of you. And if you haven't done that, you may know about Jesus.
That's not enough. You must receive him in your heart.
To as many as received him gave he the power to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name. And so Jesus is the bread of life. Now let's go over to the 8th chapter of this same book.
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And the 12Th verse. Here again we find Jesus.
Using those words I am, but in conjunction with something else that is extremely basic.
In life that we all know about.
Let's read this verse, John 812.
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying.
I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Jesus said I am the light of the world. We've been speaking about this a little bit. What is the light?
The light is what makes you see everything, what manifests. You cannot hide in the light. You can hide in the dark, but not in the light. In the light, everything is manifest. The guy was mentioning yesterday if we'd switch off the lights in here, I might hear a few noises out there. I can start to guess what might be out there. But if I had come in in the dark and I didn't see you all before, well, I would have.
Not too good of an idea. What was what this room was filled with. Somebody comes in and switches on the light. Immediately it becomes manifest. Everything in this room where you're sitting, how you're sitting, if you're paying attention, if you're not paying attention, everything becomes manifest in the light. Everything.
Jesus is the light of the world. You know. This story in the eighth of John is an interesting story about one time when the Lord Jesus was here.
They brought a woman to Jesus, the religious leaders of that day, the scribes and the Pharisees.
They brought a poor woman who had been taking in the very act of adultery, sexual sin.
Terrible, shameful thing to be taken in the very act and to be brought.
Right into the presence of Jesus standing around so she couldn't escape any way were those religious men and they asked Jesus.
Moses told us we should stone her.
What do you say?
And at first, Jesus didn't answer. He stooped down and started writing on the ground, it says.
And they kept asking him and he stood up and he said.
Let him that is without sin among you, cast the first stone at her. You know the Scripture says here we had time to read it, that they started going out from the oldest to the youngest, until there was nobody left except Jesus and that poor trembling woman, that poor guilty woman.
What made those men go out? It was the light that shone on their consciences. They were as guilty as that poor woman. Their marriage laws allowed them to divorce their women, their wives, and a drop of a hat, and to get another one. They were just as guilty as that poor woman. And so when the light shined on that woman, it had to shine necessarily at the same time on those.
Religious.
Pharisees, those hypocrites, and it manifested their sin, and they couldn't stand the light, and instead of staying to receive pardon from the only one that could give it, they all went out. They all went out to escape, to get back to the dark.
Is there some area of your life that's shameful that you don't want anybody to know about? I want to tell you there's somebody that knows every single detail of it. You cannot hide from Jesus. You must meet Him someday. And if you try running away from him now, it's only for a time that you'll be able to run away from because you're going to meet face to face with Jesus someday.
How much better to come to him now in recognition?
Of your sin before God in confession and receive his pardon, his forgiveness, He wants to forgive you here since. And so when Jesus looked up and only saw the poor woman standing there, she said.
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Where are those men that were accusing you? No one stayed around to accuse you, she said. No, man, Lord.
And he said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin. No more wonderful words of our Savior. He did not come to condemn the world. He came to save my friend. He's here tonight to save you. He wants to save you. Won't you let him save you tonight? But if you refuse to be saved, I say you must meet Him.
You must meet Him someday, and if you refuse to come to Him and receive His forgiveness, His salvation that He offers free and full to all now.
You will have to do about the question of your sins with Him in a future day, and without any hope of mercy or salvation. That is this plain.
Teaching of the Holy Word of God. And I ask you, my friend, to consider it solemnly.
In the presence of God, Jesus is the light of the world. How awful to be walking in darkness. If you walk down a road in the dark, thank God in this country you've got lots of lights and you don't have to walk, generally speaking, in places that are too dark. But if you walk down a dark Rd. without any light, if there's a hole up ahead in the road and you're walking along and you don't see that hole, you fall square into it. You know that's what's happening to people today.
They fall into drugs, they fall into alcohol, they fall into all sorts of problems. Why? Why does that happen? Because they are walking in darkness. They don't know where they're gone and everything topsy turvy in their lives. They don't know which way is up. Is that the way it is in your life? My friend, I want to tell you, Jesus is the light of the world. He said he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light.
Of life, come to Jesus. Oh, how wonderful to know where you're going, to see what's ahead.
Come to Jesus, you'll know where you're going. You'll be able to see what's ahead. Let's go on over to the 10th chapter now of John's Gospel.
John chapter 10 and verse 9. Here we have some more of the words of our Lord Jesus.
Very simple.
But profound.
John 10 and 9:00.
I am the door.
By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. How simple this is. You know what a door is. Everybody uses a door almost every day of their life.
When we go camping out in the Wilds, we don't use the door for a few days, but we all know what doors are. How did you get in here? You came in through the door. There's no other way to come in through this. There's not even any windows. A few small windows perhaps, but that's not the way to come in. You come in through the door, and if you want to be saved, if you want to get into salvation, you must come through the door.
Jesus said I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. I want to make something clear here this evening. Some people think when we stand up on a podium like this and we open the Bible that we're talking about religion.
Friend, that's far away from my thoughts tonight. We're not talking about religion, we're talking about Jesus.
The Son of God. We're talking about a person that really, truly lived down here. We're not talking about some philosophy that's difficult to comprehend. We're talking about a man who lived in this world, who walked through this world.
A man, a real man, who died.
And who rose again?
He is the door. He didn't say in any part of the scripture.
Religion is the door. Never. Religion may have its good points, may have its bad points.
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But religion is not the door to salvation. If you want to be saved, you must come to Jesus, he said in words so simple that you wouldn't mistake it. I am the door by me if any man enter in.
He shall be saved. Then go on to the 11 verse of this chapter. We get another time that Jesus says I am, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Shepherds and sheep. I don't suppose there's too many people here who know a lot about shepherding and sheep like they do in other areas of the world. Maybe out West they know a little bit about it. I suppose there's a few sheep around.
But South America, where I had the privilege of living a number of years, there's a lot of sheep and a lot of shepherds. And I've got to know people who have worked as shepherds. It's interesting to talk to them, to ask them stories about the natural enemies that sheep have. South America, there's a number of natural enemies. They have the Condor, that bird that's 10 to 12 feet wingspan.
That will swoop down and catch a little lamb and take it away if they're not careful, if they're not watchful.
They also have foxes.
And they have the Mountain Lion in South America, remember?
Hearing the story of a young boy who was taking care of the sheep and goats at one place.
The Mountain Lion appeared. That boy went tearing down the mountain pretty fast.
But hear the Lord Jesus says.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. You know Scripture speaks of us in that simile of sheep. We are like sheep. Isaiah 53 verse six says all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
Isn't that true? You go out in the streets of Des Moines this evening and you're going to find everybody doing their own thing.
And they don't like it when you tell them not to do that. I've got my rights to do my own thing. That's just exactly what God has said in His Word. Oh, we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His own way.
That's exactly like we are. But you know, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and he's not going to turn away when the enemy comes. You and I have an enemy too, that is seeking the destruction of your soul. And I marvel at how the enemy of our souls, Satan.
Can get young people into eternal perdition so fast they don't have to grow up to die any longer. They die young.
Because we have a terrible enemy. Don't try to deny it, friend. There are powers in this world that are awful, that are awful. You know it yourself and that you cannot escape on your own. If you're not going to be caught in one side, there's going to be some other side where you will get caught. You need somebody to help you. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He gave his life for the sheep. And I want to stop here to tell you.
About this fact that he gave his life, Jesus came. He was the only man in this world who never sinned and as such he didn't have to die. Word tells us that the wages of sin is death.
Since Jesus never sinned, he didn't have to die.
The time came when he could have gone directly back to heaven, to the Father where he had come from.
But he chose to die. He chose to go meet the enemy of our souls. He chose to go destroy him. You know how he destroyed him? Satan was the one who wielded the power of death and held all men in fear because of death that he wielded as a sword.
And Jesus went to the cross. He allowed himself to be taken and nailed through his hands and his feet to the cross. He was hung up there for all to pass by, to mock and to scorn.
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He was crowned with thorns. His face was beaten.
Until it was so marred more than any man.
And for three hours, the scripture tells us in the record that he suffered from the insults of man, his creature, as he hung on that cross.
For three hours they strung out in front of him, the religious leaders too, to keep insults on him. And then at 12 noon till 3:00 in the afternoon.
The whole earth got dark, and in three dark hours God laid on Jesus.
My sin and Jesus took the punishment that I deserved to.
There in hell forever he took it, and he bore it all.
He paid my debt. He paid it in full. When he finished those three awful hours, he cried out. It is finished. The debt that I owe to God, that awful debt that would have sunk me into eternal hell.
That debt he paid in full. He died. He gave his life. After he was hanging lifeless on that cross, a soldier, a Roman soldier, brought a spear and put it into his side and out of his side full of blood and water. The testimony that his life had been given, the price was paid in full for the wages of sin is death, and Jesus died. He paid.
The price of my redemption.
Isaiah chapter 53 verse five 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.
Can you include yourself there, friend? I have included myself there. Thank God He died for me. He died for you, friend, and he wants to extend to you this forgiveness, this salvation. Jesus is the Good Shepherd that gave his life.
For the sheep, go on over to the next chapter, the 11Th chapter, and verse 25.
Jesus said unto her, He's speaking to Martha.
I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Here we have a situation that is pretty hopeless as far as man is concerned.
There was a family that lived in a town of Bethany. It was a family of three, two brothers, two sisters and a brother. There may have been others who lived there, but at least we know that they lived there. Martha was her house and Mary her sister and Lazarus the brother. And they lived there and Lazarus got sick and when he got really sick, they called for Jesus to come. They knew if he would come.
He could heal Lazarus of his sickness and he wouldn't die, but before Jesus got there.
Lazarus died and by the time Jesus has gotten there.
He had been in the grave for four days, Four days. Anything more hopeless than a person who's died? Is there anybody in this whole world that you can call some great scientist, some great doctors that would have the power of restoring life to a dead body? Is there? Please tell me there is. You know there isn't. There wasn't any hope. But my friend, if your life is like that.
If you feel there's no hope.
Things are in such an awful mess. I want to tell you there is hope when things appear most hopeless. There is hope in Jesus, he said. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And so Jesus with those two sisters that were weeping.
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Went to where?
Lazarus had been buried. They buried different in those days. They had kind of like a hole in the Cliff and a stone was up on the hole to close the entrance to that grave and Lazarus was inside laying there dead.
And the Lord Jesus commanded for them to take the stone away.
And they took it away. And then he said Lazarus come forth and even though he was bound, that was the way they buried people in those days. They wound them up with claws.
And Lazarus, even though he was wound up. And really it would almost seem impossible to walk even if you did have life.
That dead man came out of that tomb. Why? Because the creator of the universe had said come out and he came out. Friend, if your situation seems pretty hopeless tonight, I want to tell you that there is hope in Jesus. He said I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead yet.
Shall he live? There's hope, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Death may touch his body, but we will never die. No, the moment that death touches the body, we go straight into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Life. He died. He rose again. And because he died and rose again, when I accept him as my Savior, I know that I will rise again too.
He is the resurrection and the life.
But I must say another word here.
Jesus not only has power of resurrection.
For those who believe in him.
Jesus has power of resurrecting those who do not believe in him in chapter 5 of this gospel. I'd just like to read it. You don't have to look at it, but it says in verse 28, marvel not at this. These are the words of Jesus for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall.
Hear his voice.
And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life.
And they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation.
There are two resurrections, not just one. Like sometimes as thought, there is a resurrection of life. Those who do good in accepting the testimony of God will be included in the resurrection of life.
But my friend, as I've already said earlier on, if you do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
If you refuse him, if you die in your sins, Jesus will raise you from the dead as well. The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice.
I remember standing on a.
On the Andes Mountains in southern Peru, IN a town way out beyond the end of the road and talking from the edge of this town to a teacher who taught in that town. He was graduate of a university in Peru. And there, right underneath on the hillside, was the cemetery of the town.
And he told me, he said, you know, we debated the issue when we were at school, and we came to the conclusion that that's the end of math.
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I say, I said to him, Friend, you know what?
You are not the person that can declare such matters that God that made you. The God that made me says that every single person who has died in this world is going to raise again, is going to come out of his grave. And I've walked through cemeteries at times in those high Andes mountains where the bones are all scattered around on the ground.
I don't know how they got out.
But God knows where every single person is, and come that day of judgment, there will be no way that you can escape Jesus. You must meet Him. He is unavoidable. What we're telling you now is that you can have salvation through Jesus by accepting in this day of salvation His forgiveness, His.
Full salvation. But if you do not accept him, you must meet Him in that final day of resurrection, the resurrection of condemnation.
And John, John speaks to us of it. The same writer who wrote the Gospel of John in the book of Revelations speaks of that day when the heavens and the earth are going to pass away. And the dead, since they cannot be in the earth any longer, because the earth is not going to last forever. The earth is going to be gone. Those dead bodies are going to be called out, and the dead.
Going to be raised to stand before God and he said there's a great white throne standing there in space and the dead are standing in front of that throne. No way you can escape Jesus. He's going to be sitting on that throne. It's a great white throne. God and all the purity, the holiness of his character is going to have to judge those who have steadily rejected, refused his salvation.
And it says the books are opened. God has the record of your life. Every detail of it, my friend, nothing has escaped his notice. Every word you've spoken, every act you've done, every thought you've entertained is recorded in the books above. And it says the dead were judged according to those things that were written in the books. Nothing will escape as you stand there naked before God.
Nowhere to escape, nowhere to run away. And you're judged and it's going to become evident. You heard the gospel of the grace of God, you refused it. And then in that day it says there's another book there, the Book of Life. In the Book of life are written the names of all those who trust in Jesus.
And it says those that were not found written in the book of life were cast into the lake of fire. That is the end of those who do not accept Jesus as savior. You saying don't try scare tactics on me friend. Whatever you want to call it, I don't care. But I tell you this is from the.
Mouth of the only one who never told a lie. He spoke of it. Hell and eternal fire. He spoke of it more than anybody else in the whole word of God. Jesus spoke of it and I warned you in love to your soul I plead with you. God has roadblock the road to hell.
With the cross of Christ.
And if you must go to hell, you will go around the cross of Christ to get to hell.
Don't go around it. Stop.
Accept Jesus as your Savior. He is the resurrection and the life. One more verse like to comment on briefly in chapter 14.
And verse 6.
And the most beautiful?
The simplest.
Verses we find in Holy Scripture.
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Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth.
And the life no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Three things that Jesus is here, I am the way.
The truth.
The life, in other words, friends, there is no.
Other way but Jesus, there is no other truth.
But Jesus, he said, if you know Jesus, you know the truth. The truth isn't found in religion as such, it is found in the person Jesus.
You know, there's some people that say that Jesus was a Goodman, that's all.
But I submit to you, friend, that Jesus could not be a Goodman if what he said wasn't entirely true. He would have been one of the worst deceivers that could have ever lived when he said I am the way the truth we live in a day when in religious circles it's popular to say.
Yeah, there's a lot of ways. You just pick whatever one you like, and all you have to do is have a lot of faith. Have enough faith, and you'll be all right.
Friend, you won't be all right. I'm warning you right now, Jesus said. I am the way. You must accept that fact or else reject Jesus. There is no middle ground. He cannot be a good man.
If it was not true that He is the way, the truth and the light.
No man cometh to the Father but by me. You cannot accept him as a Goodman if that wasn't true.
But my friend, we're here this evening.
That fleed with you with all our hearts to don't turn away from Jesus. You may know about him, but tonight with all my heart, I want to plead with you, please open that heart of yours. Receive him as your very own Savior tonight have Jesus, you have everything. Don't have Jesus, you don't have anything.
Friend accept him tonight.
As your very own savior, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
The Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, now shall be saved. Let's pray.