Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Let's start our meeting this evening with #18 on the hem sheet.
God loved the world so tenderly.
His only son. He gave that all who on his name believe.
It's wondrous power will save.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
God loved the world so tenderly.
It's only sunny day.
It's 1 crystal will save.
For God, so.
Whatever.
Lasting life.
And only.
For God, So God the world.
So bad for me blessing him.
Should not perish, but I've never lost in mind.
Before we pray, I'd like to read 2 verses in first John. The first verse is.
In chapter one.
Just three words out of verse 5.
God.
Is.
Light.
The other one is in chapter 4.
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And verse 16.
In the middle of the verse, another 3 words.
God.
Is.
Love, let's pray. Gracious God our Father, what a privilege to be able to open my precious Word and to speak of the glory of Thy person.
A God of light and a God of love.
Oh, our God and Father, help this evening as we read thy precious word and speak about it. We don't know.
Each one that is here present, if they are ready for that eternity that's ahead. We pray that thy word might penetrate. If there's anybody that still is not ready that tonight, bite me the moment.
That they would be saved. We pray and give thanks, Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Wonderful privilege to be able to speak of a God of light and a God of life. You know what? He knows everything about you. There's nothing that you can hide from him.
But at the same time that He knows every single detail about you. He loves you and He loves you with a love that can never, ever end. It is a love that is eternal.
We go to a prison back east and the state of Illinois and get to talk to the prisoners and sometimes I say you may not accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You may decide to go to a lost eternity, but you will never be able to say nobody ever loved me because there's somebody that.
Loved you so much He went to the cross so that there might be a way for you to be saved. Oh, what a God. The God that has been revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus. You know, this is the day that most people celebrate the entrance of God's beloved Son into this world. We don't really know if it was.
Today.
There's those that say it was different times in the history of the people of Israel. Perhaps in October is more a time that it might have been. The point is it is a tremendously marvelous thing that God came into this world, the eternal God, the God that.
Existed always as something that just doesn't fit in my brain.
But that's what the word of God reveals. He is a God that always was there.
And he loves you, and he loves you so much that he made the sacrifice.
That I can never understand His own beloved Son He gave to go to that cross to pay the price of my redemption. What a God, what a tremendous God and Savior we have come to know in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is a incredibly wonderful thing that God came into the world. You know, when I used to work at a hospital in the city of.
One of the ladies that worked in our department, she was Jewish and she said to me, why don't you celebrate the 25th of December like everybody else, she knew that I was a Christian. I say I celebrate the fact that Jesus came into this world every day of my life, not only on.
December 25th.
Oh, what a wonderful thing it was. But I said to her, Jesus never asked us to remember his birthday. He asked us to remember his death. And that is far more significant than the fact that he came into the world. Yes, he had to come into the world to be able to go to the cross and pay that price of our redemption.
00:10:09
You know, this morning a brother read.
In the breaking of bread meeting a verse in Exodus that I would like to read again. Exodus chapter 3. It's in the life of Moses.
In the Old Testament and Moses, the Lord was going to send him back to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt.
And so Moses says in verse 13 of chapter 3 of Exodus.
Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, shall say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses.
I am that I am.
And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.
That rather interesting.
Name. I'm going to talk to you. I'm going to say I'm Bob.
But he just says I am. He is the ever existing one. He always existed.
And so God has come into this world in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus, and then our brother. Read in John chapter.
Eight, just read it again because it's good to get this from scripture, not because what I say.
John, Chapter 8.
And verse 58 Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was.
I am. They took up stones to cast at him. They knew what that meant. It was God's name, the eternal God.
And they thought that Jesus was blaspheming because he used that name. The truth was, he is the everlasting. I am. And I'd like to go back to the book of John.
Brother Bruce went over some of these scriptures the other day, and our brother Bill referred to them too. And I just like to go back to, let's go first of all to Chapter 6.
Of John's gospel, because the Lord Jesus says a number of times in this gospel, I am, and in each case it's something different that we need, desperately need in this life.
Chapter 6 is the miracle of the loaves and fishes that the Lord Jesus multiplied to feed the 5000. But notice what he says in verse 35.
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.
There is a void in the heart of every human being.
That only God can fill. That on the Lord Jesus can fill.
And I know you young people, sometimes I watch the year young people as they sit in meetings and I've seen some that look just totally bored.
And I can tell.
That they have not eaten of this bread.
Of life because when you eat of this bread, you will be satisfied forever. You know, this world offers a lot of things to try to fill that void. So many different things in this culture we call so advanced that is supposed to help fill that void.
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But it never really does.
And so people drugged themselves so they don't have to deal with the emptiness they feel.
Some people like sports. Just had the World Cup played.
And it was kind of a surprise that Argentina came out with a World Cup.
You think that's going to satisfy them? I watched a little bit of the team when they went back to Argentina and the welcome they got, wowie, pretty impressive.
Do you think that filled their hearts?
I'm sure they were happy at the moment. I remember as a young person going out on a Saturday afternoon and praying football. This is American football with the young men and boy, I enjoyed it. I really liked to play football.
But I can never forget when I was returning to my home after the football game.
And there was an emptiness in there.
It did not satisfy that void and you might try any other thing that this world offers as well. I don't say that football in itself is wrong, but what I'm saying is that it will not fill the void. There's only one.
That can fill your heart so that you will never hunger again or thirst again.
It is the one who says I am the bread of life. You know what bread? I can have a loaf of bread in my hand and it doesn't satisfy my hunger by having it here in my hand. I know it's good, Brad. I've got to eat it. I got to put it in my mouth, chew it up and swallow it and make it my very own. And I say to you.
People don't just think because your parents have taught you that that's enough.
You've got to take it into your heart and soul yourself.
Notice the Lord Jesus repeats this in verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Verse 51.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.
Oh, it makes such a difference when you just simply accept the Lord Jesus when you take this in for yourself.
Dear young people, I fear that there are those that are here that have been raised in Christian homes and you know how to answer all the questions maybe your folks think she had, that you're a believer, but you haven't made it your very own yet.
I ask you tonight to accept Him as you would taking a piece of bread and ingesting it, eating it. Take the Lord Jesus as your very own. Let me tell you, He does fully satisfy the heart that trusts in Him.
Now let's go over to Chapter 8. Here's a one that our brother Bruce touched on the other day yesterday.
Says Jesus went into the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes. And the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taking an adultery, And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken.
In adultery, in the very act now, Moses in the Law commanded us that they that such should be stoned.
But what says thou This they said, tempting him that they might have.
To accuse him. But Jesus stooped down.
And with his finger rode on the ground, as though he had heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience.
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Went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even unto the last.
And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers, that no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee.
Go and sin no more. 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 white light of life. You're the Lord. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Oh, this is.
A interesting story how they brought this woman. The Lord Jesus was fully aware of the hypocrisy.
To have adultery, it needed a man in the picture, and they let the man go somehow.
And there was that poor woman. Think of the shame of it, standing in the midst of those Pharisees accused, and he, they want to stone her.
It was a serious sin. Sexual sin is serious before God.
Dear young people, make it serious. Your sexual purity is important.
And so here is this poor woman. She's guilty.
Caught in the very act.
And they asked the Lord Jesus we should stone this woman.
But the Lord knew if we're going to stone that woman, there was a man that had to be stoned as well.
And so instead of saying anything about that, he just says he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her, and then he stooped down a road on the ground.
If you look around this room, is there somebody without sin? God says in his Word. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if you don't realize that, you need to get into the light, because the light is going to show you how sinful you really are.
That's what happened here, those men convicted by their own conscience. Yes, God has given you a conscience.
The conscience is the knowledge of good and evil, and you have that.
Sometimes I've seen a little boy.
In his mother's living room and his mother has told him not to touch that vase on the.
On the table in the middle and he goes up to that table and he knows what his mom has said and he wants to touch that vase. He looks around and looks at his mom, see if she's looking before he tries to touch that base. Why does he do that?
Conscience. You have a conscience. There's such a thing as having a seared conscience. When somebody sends a whole bunch, they don't feel the ****** of conscience like they need to, but still.
Be beneath. The conscience is still there.
And that's the light that makes you realize how sinful you really are.
And saw out they go, the oldest 1St, until there is only that poor woman and the Lord Jesus. And he stands up and he says woman where are your accusers as no one can accused you.
She says no one Lord.
Wait a minute, there is one person there that's without sin. Wait a minute, he has the right to stone her.
But he says, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. What a Savior God is this. You know what it cost him to say, neither do I condemn thee. He was going to have to go to the cross to pay for that sin, to absolve that serious.
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Sin she had committed.
I am the light of the world, and that light is shining in your consciences, dear young people.
I don't know. I don't know how you stand with God, but I say if you haven't rectified your accounts with God yet.
The light of God shines into your conscience. Don't try to avoid it. Don't be like these Pharisees that went out instead of facing the light. You cannot escape the light.
Now go over to the 10th chapter where we have the Lord Jesus presenting Himself twice again as the I AM. Notice.
Chapter 10 and verse 9.
I am the door by me if any man enter in.
He shall be saved, shall go in and out and find pasture. Here's the door of salvation. It's not about religion.
It's about a person.
You have to do with Jesus.
He is the door, he said. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. How many people struggle with being religious on one side and another? It's not about religion. Religion may have its good points, it may have its points that are questionable. But I say it's not about religion. It's about.
Person. It's about God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
You know, when we come into this room, we come in through the door. I suppose you might be able to get up and come in through some place in the attic up here, but that's not the normal entrance. It's through the door. And so the Lord Jesus is the only way of salvation. There is no other way.
Now go down to verse 11. The Lord Jesus says I am again.
Here it is, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Verse 14 I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
God's or the people of this world are looked at as sheep. You know, there's a lot of ways in which we are like sheep.
On the High Alta Plano of Bolivia, they have a lot of sheep and it's very interesting to hear the brethren talk about their sheep and I you probably know some of it, But once they start following one of the sheep and they start running, the whole group runs. And if they run over a Cliff, the whole flock will run over that Cliff if they can't get them stopped.
That's the way sheep are.
But the Lord Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Isn't this wonderful? And this is where we want to stop and talk about how He gave his life. If there was going to be blessing for you and me, there had to be a substitute that would give his life for the sheep, and that was the Lord Jesus himself. God's beloved Son is that Good Shepherd that gives his.
Life for the sheep. You know God as God.
Cannot die. God is immortal. It's impossible for God to die.
But to be able to die, he had to become a man. And that's what happened when he was born into this world. He became a man in the person of our Lord Jesus. Wonderful, wonderful truth and the end of his 33 1/2 years.
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They let him outside the city of Jerusalem they had.
Shredded his back, they had crowned him with thorns, they had spit in his face, and there they stretched out his hands and they nailed him to that cross. And there they hung him between two other malefactors to make it look like there were three malefactors that were to die that day.
The Lord Jesus.
Suffered.
Physically, in ways that I don't think we have much clue.
And then?
He suffered as well and says reproach has broken my heart. They said if he's the Son of God, that God deliver him, then did God deliver him?
No. Why didn't God deliver him? If it was His own beloved Son, why didn't He deliver him? You know why, folks? It's because He loved you and me, and there was no other way for us to be saved than that His Son would go to that cross and die. But it broke His heart.
And then at 12 noon, everything got dark. And in three hours of darkness, you don't read of any sound that comes from that center cross where Jesus was hanging.
In those three hours, what happened?
That's when Isaiah 53. 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 within those three hours that God lay on him the iniquity of us all. And God let the fury of his divine judgment fall.
On His beloved Son in those three hours, Jesus suffered what we can never understand, the judgment of God. God's name had to be vindicated, and it was fully vindicated by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on that cross. He is the propitiation for our sins.
And not of our eyes only, but for the whole world.
Lord Jesus paid the price in full, and it wasn't until the end of those three hours of darkness that there's a cry from the center cross.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Can we ever answer that question? It was because He didn't want to forsake us in the Lake of Fire forever. He wants you to be saved, and He paid the price of our redemption in full before He died.
He said it is finished.
The price was paid in full by the Lord Jesus on that cross, and he gave up his life. No man took it from him, He gave it up of Himself.
And then after he was dead.
There's the body of Jesus.
Mangled body on that cross, and a soldier comes up with a spear and pierces his side and out blows blood and water.
Price of our redemption was paid by the blood.
Of God's beloved Son can never forget that awful price that was paid for me. So I feel a debt of gratitude to that person and I can never pay, but I'm going to do a high possibly can to show my gratitude.
He saved me by his grace, thank God.
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Notice a little further down in this chapter, the Lord Jesus speaks again about his sheep.
And notice, he says in verse 27, 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. Understand that is.
A strong negative in the original language you could say, They shall never, never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one.
Can a sheep of the Lord Jesus ever?
Be lost. If they could be lost, the Lord Jesus would be a liar.
It's not possible.
Once a person is truly saved, he is saved forever. And this is such a beautiful thing, but notice what it says in verse 27. My sheep hear my voice.
Do you hear his voice? Because sometimes I see people when you read scripture to them. Yeah, OK, but they don't seem to really listen to it.
What's characteristic of the sheep of the Lord Jesus is that they hear his voice. Not only that, he says, I know them, and he says they follow me, and he gives them eternal life, and they shall never, never perish.
Oh, the security of a true believer. But make sure you are a true believer.
Not just a pretend one. That's what scares me sometimes. Sometimes people go through life living like the devil and they end their life ends at the funeral. They say, oh, he was a believer.
Scripture says by their fruit she shall know them and if there is not fruits of a believer there is reason.
To question.
Make sure you're real. It's too awfully important to make a mistake in this question of eternal life.
Let's go on over to Chapter 11 where we have the Lord Jesus again saying I am in this chapter. One of Jesus's friends had died. He got sick and died. His name was Lazarus and he had his two sisters, Mary.
And her sister Martha.
And they call him because they thought he could.
He could heal him in time so that he wouldn't die.
That the Lord didn't come in time, at least not according to their time frame.
Why not?
Because Jesus wanted to show something further. And here we have in verse 25.
Jesus saying to Martha.
I am here, we have another. I am the resurrection and the life. For he that believeth on me, though he were dead, shall yet shall he live. And whosoever believeth and believeth in me shall never die. Believe us thou this. This was something that is wonderful to think about too. I am the resurrection in the light. Resurrection is what takes place after.
Has taken place. God is the only one that has the power of resurrection, can take a dead person and raise him back to life. And this is what was happened. You remember the story of Lazarus?
By the time the Lord Jesus got there, he had been dead 4 days and he was dead buried.
They used to bury him in caves, and so the Lord they let the Lord Jesus to the place where he was buried.
And the Lord Jesus says, take away the stone, and they took away the stone. And Jesus stood outside that grave and said, Lazarus come forth. And even though he was bound hands and feet, the Son of God had spoken, the one who had created the universe by the word of his power.
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And now he commands Lazarus to come out of that grave. And Lazarus came out.
Bound hand and feet. Lazarus could have said, I can't walk. But the Son of God had spoken and he came out.
Oh, how wonderful this is. I am the resurrection and the life.
We live in a world full of death.
And it's going to get worse.
We've gone through the question of the.
Virus that went around and killed a lot of people. That's nothing in comparison with what I had. Far worse is painted in scriptures. That's going to happen during the Great Tribulation period.
How important it is to know the one who is the resurrection and the life if death does touch this body of mine?
He is the resurrection and the life. Oh, what a wonderful thing to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask you, do you know Him? Do you have that certainty? We don't have to fear death, because we know that even if death touches this body.
We ol be raised from the dead. But now let's go to the last one that our brother Bill read this morning in The Breaking of Bread. That is such a wonderful verse. John 14, verse 6.
Jesus.
Said unto him, This is Thomas.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
I am again.
The way.
The truth, the life.
There is a children's song that says without the way, there is no going. Without the truth, there is no knowing. Without the life, there is no growing.
It's the Lord Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. It's not a religion. Again, I say to you.
But it's a person, a glorious person that came into this world. He is the way.
There it says.
At the end of the verse, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me there is only one way, and I find that people will listen to me by saying that Jesus is the way.
But when I say this part, that he is the only way, that's where people get uncomfortable with me lots of times.
The truth is something that is absolute. When you talk about God's word, when you talk about the person of the Lord Jesus as the truth, that is absolute. Sometimes people like to refer to themselves as I have the truth.
Well, I like to think that I understand the truth, but it's not me, it's Him. It's that glorious person. He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the light. Where do you stand with God in relation to these things? Remember, we started out.
I am the bread of life then.
I am the light of the world.
Then I am the door.
Then I'm the Good Shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep. Then I am the resurrection and the life. Then I am the way, the truth, and the life. You have Jesus. You have it all. Oh, I plead with you to think seriously to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Open.
Your heart to him tonight. Accept him by believing.
On his name let's just pray. Gracious Father, bless thy precious word.
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We ask that for each one present tonight, we don't know there might be some here who are not ready for that eternity that's ahead. We pray for blessing, commend ourselves the rest of the evening in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.