Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Like to start our meeting tonight with #23 on our hymn sheets?
Behold.
Behold the Lamb of God on the cross.
For us he shed his precious blood on the cross. So here the overwhelming cry Eli lama Sabachthani draw near and.
The same eye on the cross.
One verse verily.
Verily I say unto you, The hour is coming.
And now is when the dead.
Shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
Let's pray.
I had an interesting.
Experience in January.
Of this year.
My privilege to visit, as I do sometimes in Madrid, Spain.
Brethren that have immigrated from Bolivia and Argentina and the Dominican Republic.
And while we were there, we decided to make a trip over to visit.
A few brethren who gathered to the Lord's name in the South of Portugal.
Of course, Portugal, they speak Portuguese, and it is.
Quite related to Spanish, but I find it a challenge.
To communicate, I do my best.
What I didn't know was.
There's a sister in fellowship there that was very ill and while we were on our way over.
She passed away. She went to be with the Lord.
So when we got there, the brother, brother Leonardo Paquette, said to me.
You have to preach the gospel.
Well, that was quite a challenge for me.
But I you know, I've learned when it is difficult.
To express oneself in another language.
It's best to keep.
As simple as possible. You know what I found even when I speak the Gospel in English.
That it's best to keep as simple as possible.
So they gave me a Portuguese Bible.
And I went to John's Gospel, where I want to go with you all tonight.
Before we go to John's Gospel, I just want to.
Quote to you a verse in the Old Testament.
When Moses was sent to Egypt to deliver the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt.
He said to God, God, if they ask me your name, what am I going to tell them?
And the Lord said.
You tell them.
I am that I am.
Tell them.
I am hath sent me unto you.
You know, only God can use that term.
I am.
I can tell you who I am, but I have to qualify it by saying I am Bob, Tony.
That qualifies. But God is so vast, so tremendous in every conceivable way that he can say.
I am. He's the ever existing one. He's the one that inhabits eternity. It's with this God that you and I have to do.
It's with this God that it says in the book of Hebrews.
All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
You cannot escape this God. He has come in the person of the Lord Jesus to this world so that we can know him.
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Right here, where we are.
And when we go to the book of John's Gospel, where we want to go tonight, we're going to start with Chapter 6.
We'll find that there are several times that the Lord Jesus uses that term.
I am, and then he puts something else with it so that we can understand how very simple the message really is.
Chapter 6 of John's Gospel 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.
Are your ears open, young people?
I want to ask you, please, to listen intently. These are not my words. These are the words of the Son of God, the Creator of the universe. He's the one that spoke them.
Open your heart and let these words penetrate.
I am the Bread of Bread of Life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never first.
I said to those people that came to the funeral.
No estoy falando de una religion, estoy falando de mua persona. I'm not talking about her religion, I am talking about a person.
It's a person that you and I have to do with. We're not dealing about a religion here.
So many people get hung up with the thought of a religion. We're not dealing with religion here. We're talking with a person who said I am the bread of life, What do you need bread for?
To satisfy the hunger. And we're not talking here about the hunger of our bodies, we're talking about.
The human soul. And it's so evident that there are so many people.
That have an emptiness in their heart and in their soul. I don't know where you are in your relationship with God, but I know that if you do not know the Lord Jesus on this personal level that we're talking about tonight.
There is an emptiness in your soul.
And it can only be filled with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the bread of life.
If you believe in him, you will never hunger. He is the one that can fully.
And eternally satisfy your soul. You know, this world has a lot of things that it offers.
In this world.
Sports is a big item on the list and I'm amazed how people get enrapped.
In the sports world.
United States, it's different kinds of sports. When you get out of the United States, it's soccer called in Latin America, football, Football.
And people get very fanatical about it.
But you know what?
It leaves an emptiness in your soul.
Remember hearing about in Peru? They had a championship game to be played with another country.
In the other country they're in Lima, Peru, defeated the Peruvians.
It was such a shock to those Peruvians that several young girls went out and hung themselves to light poles.
Out on the street, they couldn't stand it. Their soul was too empty.
Those things don't satisfy. Other people go for music and they try to drown their soul in music. Music isn't going to be the answer either. Others try alcohol, drugs, sex. Whatever it is you're trying, that is not the Lord Jesus. It's going to leave you with an emptiness in your soul. I remember when I was young.
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I loved American football.
And Saturday afternoons, a bunch of us young guys from Oak Park area would get together and go up to the park and play football.
I enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can specifically remember one Saturday afternoon after the game was over going back to my house.
With an emptiness in my heart.
Football couldn't fill that emptiness, and God allows that to happen so that you and I will realize there is only one that can fill that void. It is the Lord Jesus. Let me quote those words again that he said I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall.
Never thirst.
Don't try.
To satisfy that empty spot in your soul with anything else but the Lord Jesus Christ.
He does fully satisfy. Let's go over next to the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John and verse 12.
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.
I am the light of the world. What do you need light for?
Says in Ephesians chapter 5.
Light is that which makes everything manifest. Without light, you can't see. You can guess, but you can't see. Somebody swips on the light switch and you can tell how many people there are in this auditorium, how many of them are listening, how many many of them are talking. You can see everything.
The light makes everything manifest.
You know what?
God knows everything in your life. There is nothing that you can hide from Him. People try to hide things.
We go to a prison there in Illinois.
To preach the gospel. And I like to stand at the door as the men are coming in and say hello to them and shake hands with them, and I try to look them straight in the eye.
So many of them won't look back at me. They'll have their head down. They'll have their head to one side. I'm not sure why they do that. Maybe they're just timid. Who knows?
But sometimes it's because there's something on their conscience.
I don't know what it is.
But there's somebody that knows every single detail of your life. Even those things you have forgotten are an open book to him. He is the light of the world.
In this chapter where this verse occurs, we have the story of a woman.
Who was brought to the Lord Jesus?
By the Pharisees, the religious of that day.
And they said to him, this woman was taken in adultery.
In the very act.
And Moses said we should stone this woman.
What do you say?
They thought they had the Lord Jesus trapped because they knew he preached forgiveness of sins.
And if he said you should forgive her, they would say well.
You are contradicting Moses.
But the Lord Jesus, at the same time as they were speaking to Him, saw through their hypocrisy. The sin of adultery necessarily involves a man. Where had they left the man? Why they only brought the woman?
And so he just simply Stoops down and writes on the ground. It doesn't say what he was writing.
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But finally he stood up again and he said.
He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.
The Searchlight was trained right on them. And you know what happened.
One after another, from the oldest to the youngest, they got up and they went out.
Until there was nobody left except that poor woman.
And the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus was without sin.
He yes, he could lift the stone and cast it at her. But you know what he had not come to condemn? He had come to save wonderful, wonderful message. And he says to the woman, Woman.
Where are thine accusers? As no man condemned thee, she said. No man, Lord?
And he said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Isn't that wonderful? I don't know the story of your life. You know what happens so often, even amongst those that are brought up, as we say in the meeting, in Christian circles, they are into stuff that they don't want their mom and their dad to know about.
They may be even in the meeting. They try to hide it from their brethren that are interested in them.
You know what you've got to realize? You have to do with God, and He knows every single detail of your life. You cannot hide one single iota from Him. But He does not want to condemn you. He came to save.
And he's the same tonight, if you're there.
Just open your heart in realization that he knows your whole story and let him shine his light in. You Know what When his light shines in on you, it will set you free.
People that are always covering stuff up.
And their lives are not free people.
I find there's people that like to tell lies to try to cover stuff up, but you know, the only problem was they have to remember all the lies they told, so they don't. One lie doesn't contradict another.
And they generally end up contradicting themselves.
You cannot cover up in the light.
The light manifests everything at the same time that he is the light of the world. He is the savior of the world, and he wants to save you tonight. Where are you sitting? Down up there and those bleachers up there? Maybe you think that I can't see up there.
I may not be able to see There is a God who can see you and he knows everything you're engaged in.
Remember, he doesn't want to condemn you. He wants to save you.
Let's go on to the next one in the 10th chapter.
Where the Lord Jesus again says I am.
It's verse.
9.
Listen to these life giving words.
I am the door by me if any man enter in.
He shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
Here's the door. The Lord Jesus is the door, not a religion. He doesn't say. You go to search your such a religion and there you will find the door. No, he says. I am the door. It's a person we're dealing with here.
And if you're going to get saved, you have to do with him, because he is the door. Wonderful simplicity.
Next one in verse 11.
I'm going to read verse 10 before I read verse 11.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal.
And to kill and to destroy.
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
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I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
The Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
He is the I am the Good Shepherd.
Wonderful.
He knows that people are like sheep. Scripture itself says all we like sheep have gone astray and people are like sheep. They like to follow. They get some major name in music.
Or in sports, and they love to focus on that particular person.
They're like sheep.
The Lord Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Here we have the very focus point of the gospel, and let me tell you about how he gave his life for the sheep. To me, it is the most wonderful story. We're not talking about just some mere man of history.
Yes, Jesus was a man of history, but we're talking about somebody that is far greater.
He is the creator of the whole universe.
But he came into this world.
He was born a human being he took.
Human flesh.
And he was born and he lived for 33 1/2 years.
The last 3 1/2 years of his life he was going about in public ministry, healing the sick.
Raising the dead.
Feeding the hungry?
Preaching the gospel to the poor.
The end of those 3 1/2 years?
The Jewish religious leaders arrested him and took him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. They were not allowed to put anybody to death, so they had to do with the Romans.
And Pilot realized that they didn't have a case in this person.
And.
He tried to get out of that difficult situation, but when he saw the way things were going, he finally accepted their demands and sentenced him to the most awful death possible, the death of crucifixion. And I, I marvel when I think of it, the treatment they gave to the very Son of God.
Pilate condemned pronounced that he was innocent. He said, I find no fault in this man and then he tells him to take him out and scourge him. The Romans scourging was such a terrible process that those that were scourged often died when they were being scourged.
But they scourge Jesus, And then he was delivered to the soldiers, and they mocked him. They crowned them with thorns. They spit in him. They.
Beat him in the face.
And then they took him outside of the city of Jerusalem, and on Golgotha's hill outside they stretched out those hands that had dispensed such blessing, and they nailed them to the cross. And there they hung up the Creator of the universe on a cross.
Outside Jerusalem.
There he hung in terrible physical agony.
There was the reproach that broke his heart.
They said if he is the Son of God, let God deliver him.
Did God deliver him?
No answer from God.
Reproach has broken my heart, he said. And I'm full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, and there was none.
And for comforters, but I found none.
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But what I want to speak specially to you about.
Our brother this afternoon was talking about righteousness.
God is righteous. He is completely righteous.
No question can ever be raised about His complete righteousness.
If he's going to forgive sin.
Somebody has to pay the price for those sins. He cannot just sweep it under the rug. Sometimes we have that idea that God can just sweep our sins under the rug and that will be the end of it.
That cannot happen.
God must be vindicated in his holy character so that he can come out and extend forgiveness of sins.
And justification to the believer in the Lord Jesus.
And in those three hours when there was darkness over the whole earth, when Jesus was hanging on, that cross from 12 noon to three in the afternoon, was when Isaiah prophecy was fulfilled. 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 in those three hours of darkness God laid on Jesus.
The iniquity of us all and that storm of divine judgment that would have sunk us into hell forever broke on the head of our Lord Jesus. For three hours, the waves and pillows of God's judgment rolled over him so that God could be vindicated in his holy character so they can forgive you and me our sins.
I can't understand it. It's too tremendously wonderful.
This God himself paid the penalty for our sins in those three hours on the cross.
Before he died, he cried. It is finished.
All the judgment that was against me as a guilty Sinner.
Is finished.
The price of our redemption has been paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary.
After he gave up his life.
As he was hanging dead on that cross, a soldier came up to make sure that those three that had been crucified were going to die that day. And he broke the legs of the one thief and of the other thief. And then he comes to Jesus when he says sees that he was dead already.
He didn't break his legs. He takes that spear and plunges it into his side.
And outflows blood and water.
The price.
Of our redemption was paid in full with the blood of God's beloved son. Oh, what a tremendous story.
They took him off that cross, they buried him.
And the third day, Sunday morning.
When they came to anoint his body, they found the grave clothes empty.
He was not there. He had risen from the dead. God was so satisfied with the payment that Jesus made that he raised him from the dead. And God did not cease to raise Jesus until Jesus as a man now sits at God's right hand over all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name that is named not only in this world, but in the world to come.
Yes, there is a man.
Of flesh and bones in the glory of God tonight.
And that man is able to save to the uttermost all that come into God by him.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Oh, what a wonderful story it is. He gave his life.
Where do you stand in relation to him?
Is he your Good Shepherd?
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It is a matter of you coming by simple faith to him.
And accepting him as your savior, as your Good Shepherd.
Go over to the 11Th chapter now and we'll read one verse there. In verse 25, Jesus saith unto her, This is Martha.
Should maybe, before we read it, tell you what had happened?
Many of you know that Martha was one of two sisters.
That had a brother named Lazarus, and Lazarus had died.
And he had been buried four days. He had been buried.
And Jesus came.
And Martha?
Says verse 24. I know that he that is Lazarus shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day.
Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.
Believe us thou this, the Lord Jesus, is the resurrection. We live in a world that is full of death.
It even hits those who are believers in the Lord Jesus.
But isn't it wonderful to know that the Lord Jesus?
Is the resurrection and the life he his glorious person not a religion? Again, we're talking about a person.
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Never die, You know, they say the two things that are most certain in life are taxes and death.
Well, there's something of the truth there. But you know what? I'm not really sure I'm going to ever die, not even physically.
But even if death should touch this body.
That I am in right now.
I have a life that death cannot touch, and when that time comes, if it should come before the Lord comes.
I will be present consciously, present with the Lord.
So we do not know we who are believers, if we will even physically die. It may happen, it may not happen. We are not certain of that. Because the Lord Jesus is the resurrection and the life. You know what's going to happen. The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. This is going to happen at any moment now 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 unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord that's going to take place.
Any moment now.
I'd like to go over before we get to the end of our meeting to the 14th chapter where we have a very well known verse as well.
Verse 6.
Jesus saith unto him.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but.
By me. Here we have three I am the way.
I am the truth and I am the life.
Oh, how wonderful it is to know this person. We're not talking again about a religion.
Sometimes people qualify that we're religious people. Well, people have a lot of different opinions. Sometimes they might be right, sometimes they may not be right. I don't base too much on those opinions.
But we're not talking here about religion. We're talking about a person.
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God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way.
You want to get somewhere, you have to look for the road.
And if you want to know something, you have to have the truth.
And if you want to live, you have to have the life, and the Lord Jesus is those three things.
Let me say that when we when he says this word, I am the truth.
We're talking about the truth in its absolute form.
Nobody else could dare say such a thing, and if he were not the truth, what he says here would be the terrible.
Deceit.
But it is what it is, the truth.
Absolutely the truth. You know, people say truth is just a relative thing. It just depends how you look at it.
If it depends on us, yes, it depends on how we look at it. But it doesn't depend on us. There is one who said I am the truth. Let me give you a little illustration if I reason from myself.
You can prove me wrong. Let me just give you a little illustration. I say that direction is up.
Looks like up, doesn't it to you?
But you can prove me wrong, because that direction on the other side of the world is down.
Why am I wrong? Because I'm reasoning for myself. When you reason from yourself, you will.
Be wrong and the great majority of the time.
You must begin with something absolute, and the Lord Jesus is the truth in its absolute sense.
It is so important that young people and older ones to realize that truth is absolute when we have it in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wonderful, wonderful person to know.
One more verse before we close our meeting and it's found in the 18th chapter.
Here, at the end of his life, they are coming to arrest Jesus, to take him, to condemn him to death.
Verse 3 Let's read from there. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him.
Went forth and said unto them, Whom Seek ye they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus saith unto them.
I am.
He and Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. And as soon then, as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground.
What we're talking about is a person who is very God.
Never was less, when he became Incarnate in this world, he still was God in the most absolute sense.
And as he comes out and meets those that came to arrest him, he just merely says I am and they fall backward to the ground. What happened?
There were soldiers there that were ready for conflict. What happened? It was the eternal God that it said I am. I read that because you know, dear young person, dear older one too, if you don't have to do with Jesus tonight.
You will meet him in the coming day. That same glorious person, the one who said I am, you cannot escape him. There is a day of judgment coming and we really believe that it's getting close.
God has appointed a day in which he will judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead.
You.
Escape Jesus.
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You must meet Him. If you will not have Him as your savior tonight, and He wants to save you tonight. If you will not open your heart to accept Him by believing in His name, then you will meet Him in a coming day as your judge. But it will be too late for salvation.
Don't put it off tonight. You can be saved, You can experience.
The fulfillment.
Of the Lord Jesus, the bread of life. Filling that void in your heart, you can experience what it means to follow the light of the world. No darkness there.
You can experience what it means to go through the door of salvation to know the Good Shepherd that gave his life for the sheep.
You can know him.
As the resurrection and the life in a world of death.
You can know him as the way, the truth and the life. What are you waiting for?
Right where you're sitting. Open your heart. Accept him as your own personal savior. So many young people are raised in the meeting, and sometimes I wonder.
If they are ever saved, they know all the answers.
They're not saved. Where do you stand with God tonight? I plead with you. Don't put it off tonight. There's an opportunity to receive him to them, that received him to them, gave he power to become the sons of God.
To them that believe on his name, let's pray.