Gospel—R. Thonney
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Let's start our meeting tonight with number six on our hem sheets.
God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin and done. Jesus Christ was crucified to us for sinners. Jesus died.
Oh, the glory of the grace shining in the Savior's face, telling sinners from above. God is light and God is love number six.
God in mercy.
Let's.
Right, and our God and our Father were thankful for the Lord Jesus, and that through him we have come to know thee. And tonight.
Our thought in this meeting is that perhaps there are some who have not accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior here in this room. We're concerned about them, Father, and this is the purpose of this meeting to address.
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Such a person, if there is, we pray that there might be a hearing here so that Thy word could penetrate. Father, we ask for blessing wherever the message goes out. Bless Thy precious word. We pray here as well, in that most worthy name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Like to read a verse first of all in?
Say about 3 verses in chapter four of Two Corinthians.
Pistol of Paul to the Second Corinth to the Second Corinthians.
Chapter 4 and verse 3.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
What I'd like to speak on.
Tonight is the knowledge of God. You know this world that we live in. People have different concepts as to who God is. Even here in the United States, where the light of the gospel has shined out for many years, people have different interesting, weird ideas about who God is.
God does not leave us in the dark as to who He is.
He has given us a complete revelation of who He is.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ here in verse six it says He has shined in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Oh, how wonderful it is to be able to say that we have been brought to know God.
God is so immense in his being, infinite in his power. How could a human being like myself ever be brought to know Him?
God has revealed Himself in the Person.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, his beloved Son. And now we can say we know.
God, oh, what a wonderful thing that is.
You know, in the world we live there's a lot of darkness and increasing darkness as to the knowledge of God.
The Muslim religion that is supposedly the fastest growing religion in the world says God is unknown and unknowable.
Isn't that tragic? Over a billion people profess allegiance to a religion where God is unknown and unknowable.
We go over to the land of India, a land where there is, I understand now, over a billion in population. There's another religion, the Hindu religion, and if I remember rightly, Hindu religion says there are approximately 300,000 gods.
And one of the highest manifestations of God in the Hindu religion.
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Get ready for this is the cow.
You laughed, but the cows wandered down the major avenues of that country, and you'd better not bother it that's gone.
Sad.
It is not the true revelation of God.
God has been manifested in His own Word, in the Person.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His beloved Son God is known today. You know what the Scripture says. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Oh, I revel in the fact that I can say.
This poor rebel Sinner, saved by the grace of God, I can say I have been brought to know God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know God? You know what concerns me?
I like to ask young people sometimes about God. What's God like?
And I get a lot of interesting responses.
But God has revealed himself. We can know what God is like.
And you know, in Judaism, in the Old Testament, which was a religion ordained by God, God was known, but it was a partial revelation.
And in Judaism, I like to think of it that the focus was more on man and if he could render to God what was due to God. Man showed himself a complete failure. And God in effect said at the end of that time of trial, they took those Jewish people, took their own Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And took him to the Roman authorities and had him hung on a cross.
The most awful crime they could ever think of doing. God says, in effect, the test is over. I'm not going to test man any longer. He's shown himself to have failed. Now I want to reveal to you what I am. And God in Christianity has revealed himself fully in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that very awful crime that they committed.
God has taken it, turned it around and made it the means of the greatest blessing that this world.
Has ever known salvation full and free to the Sinner that repents and believes simply in the Lord Jesus Christ?
God is known that, you know, what concerns me again, I say, is the fact that we're sitting here.
Amongst a group of people that I would guess most of us would say we're Christian.
And yet.
Amongst the Lord's 12 disciples of those 12.
One was not real.
I don't know how many were here tonight. 100 and 5200 people maybe.
Is there somebody that's not real here?
You say you're a Christian, but you know deep down in your heart you've never come to grips with your relationship with God. God is holy. God is omniscient. He knows everything. Somebody said some time ago to me.
One of the characteristics of God is that he can never learn anything.
He knows everything. He never learns anything. He knows everything. He knows every detail of your life. Those things that you've forgotten about, he knows about. And you can fool me. I've been fooled by a lot of people. Yeah, I suppose there will be a lot of other subtle Fool me too.
But as God looks at you tonight, you are completely manifest in His presence.
The Word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His presence, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
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Be warned.
I really fear that there are those who have been brought up.
As I was brought up in the meeting, so-called, we say.
Where we hear the word of God.
And yet never come to grips with the issue of our soul's salvation. Most important question you'll ever face is what you do with Jesus here and now in this life. It will determine your eternal destiny.
Two days ago in Washington DC, I had the privilege of visiting the Chilean consulate.
In that downtown Washington, DC.
He is a son of a brother in fellowship in Santiago, Chile.
He went to Sunday school as a boy.
I said, what is your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?
He knows the gospel.
He doesn't, he says. I guess you would call me a Christian.
But I don't really have any relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I think everybody here, as I look around the room, I don't think there's anybody that hasn't had some form of Christian teaching.
What have you done with that?
You just kind of hold it as a certain amount of knowledge in your head.
Or have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart? You know, it's not just mere head knowledge that will be a blessing to you. It's accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Again, I say, remember here tonight, you're not dealing with me. I'm just up here talking a little bit.
You're dealing with God, and God knows everything about you. He looks straight through you. He knows every thought of your heart. Don't try to fool God. I plead with you. I see young people sometimes and I can tell by the way they react.
That they're goofing around with the things of God. It scares me. It scares me stiff because there's going to be a lot of people in hell that know how to quote John 316.
And it will be a torment to them forever. Is there somebody here who hasn't accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior? I ask you to think seriously about these things. I want to go over to the first chapter of John's gospel because there we have presented to us the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's beloved Son.
Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of man.
In those two titles we have the glorious truth as to who He is in his own person. When we say Son of God, we are dealing with the question of His deity. Jesus is, in every sense of the word, God.
But at the same time, the Lord Jesus is, in every sense of the word, man.
Brother put it like this and it was a help to me. He says Jesus.
As God had a father, but he had no mother, Jesus as man had a mother but he had no father. He is unique in human history. There is no one like him. There is one God Scripture tells US1 Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. To be a mediator, a go between necessarily, he had to be God.
Necessarily, he had to be man, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'd like to read a few verses here in the first chapter of John's Gospel.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe He was not that light.
But was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light.
Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him.
And the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.
The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I speak. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, and of His fullness have all we received in grace. For grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man that's seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
He hath declared him.
Oh, what a wonderful portion this is. You'll notice in verse one that the Lord Jesus.
Is presented as the word of God. What does that title mean?
He is the expression of all that God is.
I stand here and I've got a thought in my mind. Now I want to try to communicate that thought to you. I use words to communicate that to you.
The Lord Jesus is God. He is very God, the Son of God.
And he is the full expression of all that God is. Isn't it wonderful to go to the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and read through them and realize this is our God?
To know Him is to know God in the fullest sense of the Word.
He is the word of God and we have 3 brief statements in verse one.
The Word in the beginning was the Word, His eternity. The Word was with God, His distinctness as a person in the Trinity.
And the Word was God, his deity.
He is in every sense of the word. This is the person we're talking about. How important it is that you young people get a hold of this to know who God really is.
Verse three says all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
There are some people that say that Jesus was the first creature and that he created everything else.
That directly contradicts what it says in verse three. Look at it carefully.
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Without Him was not anything made that was made necessarily. He was before everything created. He is not a creature, He is the creator. It's amazing how people try to get away from the truth of creation, that God spoke everything we know here in this creation.
Into existence by the word of his power.
Knowing that God to be the God that we do, that he is all powerful.
That he is all knowledge.
Is there anything difficult to believing that he spoke it all into existence, but people, because they do not know God, try their best to try to deny the existence of God?
In the recent edition of the National Geographic says on the front, was Darwin wrong?
I saw it in one home somebody had put underneath. Yes, big time.
But the article in that magazine tries to establish that Darwin was not wrong. Why do they take so many pains to try to establish the fact that man?
Evolved. It's because if that is true, there is no ultimate responsibility to a creator God, and man wants to get away from that. His conscience bothers him.
Now the truth is that there is a God who made it all.
And you and I are ultimately responsible to God. We will give an account to God. Believe it or not, you and I are someday going to meet up with the Lord Jesus Christ. Like I say, you may say I don't believe it. That does not change the fact that you are going to come face to face with Jesus someday. Have you ever thought about that? Seriously thought about that?
Verse four. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The Word of God is compared to light in the book of Psalms, but here it wasn't his word, but His life. His very presence here was the light. And what is light? Very basic question, what is light?
I've got some good eyes in my head, I can see you all, but if somebody would turn off all the lights.
Seal off all the windows.
For Askew, as much as I have good eyes in my head, I wouldn't be able to say a thing.
You need more than good eyes in your head, you need light, and light is what gives you to understand what is.
And Jesus is the light of the world. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, you know, man's darkness was a willful darkness.
You can shine all the spotlights you want into the face of a blind man and he won't be able to see a thing.
Says in where we read in Two Corinthians chapter 4 the God of this world. And if you noticed when we read it, it's small God. It's not talking about the God of the universe, it's talking about Satan. The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
Satan does not want the revelation of the true God.
To shine into your heart and soul. I ask you, dear young people, dear friend here tonight, if you do not know the Lord Jesus, don't put up the roadblocks to the Word of God. Open up your hearts to receive this revelation of the true God that we have in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will bless you forever if you receive that light.
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Verse six says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now this is John the Baptist, not John the.
Evangelist that wrote this, it's John the Baptist. The same came for a witness.
To bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
John the Baptist was a witness that was sent before to give testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have sometimes used this illustration if I would go downtown here in Millville during the day on a nice bright sunny day like it was today and.
Go up to every person I meet in the street. Hey Sir, you see sun shining? They'd look at me and say, what in the world are you talking about? Everybody can see the sun shining. I know that. Why are you saying that? But you know, when Jesus, the true light came into this world, men were so blind that God had to send a man before him to tell people this is.
The true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Man was so in darkness that he had no idea that the true light had come into this world, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was in this world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, the Jewish people, and His own received Him not. How tragic. Here was the Creator of the universe who had come into his own creation.
And I love to think of it.
Friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, the wonder of it.
That in Bethlehem.
2000 years ago.
One night there was a little baby born in the city of Bethlehem.
And where when his mother who was great with child.
And they came to the inn, a kind of hotel. We get pretty deluxe accommodations at conferences like this.
Mary, his mother, was great with child. Where did they tell her to go?
You might find some space out there where the cows are, and that's where our Creator came into this world.
In a stable.
Oh what a story it tells. The religious people had the Bible in their hands. They knew where he was to be born. They could tell the answers. They knew about the time frame he was to be born to. He used to be presented to Israel. They had no clue that their Creator had come into the world.
You're sitting there. You have the Bible in your lap. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you accepted Him as your own personal Savior?
Notice now verse 12. In contrast, there were some who received him, as many as received Him. To them He gave gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Isn't this wonderful? What do you have to do to become one of the children of God? What does the scripture say?
Believe on His name. It's not the mere acceptance of a certain quantity of historical facts about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is putting your trust, your confidence in that person.
That's the secret to becoming one of the children of God.
Was a joy to me in Bolivia a number of years ago when I was there by myself, a young man that I'd known in the area who was.
A student of law at the university there in Bolivia came to my house and.
Said you know what, I want to be saved, I want to get saved. And I asked the brethren what I have to do and they said you have to repent. He says I don't know how should I do that? What should I do? Well it was evident that the Spirit of God was working in him. So I took him in the house and we sat down and we read the 1St 12 verses of this chapter.
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And we got down to verse 12 and then I stopped and said, now look at verse 12.
You're going to university. You can read for yourself, what does God say you have to do to become a child of God? And he looked at that and he said.
Believe on his name, I said. Exactly. It doesn't say hear of anything about praying.
If you want to pray, that's fine. I'll get down on my knees and pray with you. But it doesn't talk about praying. What saves the soul is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I say the moment you trust in Him, you become a child of God. You're born into God's family by believing in His name.
Oh, how wonderful, how simple that is. He got down on his knees and prayed.
But I trust he understood that it wasn't in the praying that he was saved. It was in the believing. You may express that believing that trust by praying, but it's not in the praying. It's in the believing that there is life communicating, communicated.
Now look a little bit further here verse 13 which were born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.
But of God, you know, you and I did not decide to be born the first time.
It was not our will, it was the will of our parents.
To have children and we were the result.
You and I do not decide to be born the second time either. It's by the will of God. God wants children and His family and that's why He's sending forth His Word in this world tonight. Are you listening? Are you hearing? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Listen, I can tell sometimes by looking around the room.
People.
Who perhaps are politely sitting there, but they're really not listening.
Are you listening?
How important it is I can understand. If you have trouble with what I say, my explanations, I can understand that. But listen to what God says. It's a vital importance that you let His word penetrate into your soul. We are born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
By the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, all the glory of man as the flower of the grass flower fades.
The grass Withers, but the word of the Lord abideth forever. Oh, how wonderful it is to get that into your soul.
You know, I marvel at how you hear see in the front rows and back in the back rows too. Intelligence, freshness, energy, strength, and the young girl's beautiful young girls. How long does that last? Let me tell you, I sat on these front rows.
A few years ago. It doesn't seem like it's that long ago that I sat there. I'm up here now. Today you can see I got a bunch of Gray hairs on my head and I got a bum knee here. It makes me squirm a little bit Sometimes. Life isn't very long. Don't fool around with the years that you have. Make your ears count for eternity, not for the brief moments of time.
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The flower fades, but there's something that lasts forever, and that's the word of God if you accept the Lord Jesus. That word God uses to communicate new life in the believer in the Lord Jesus.
Now, verse 14.
14 The Word was made flesh. This is His incarnation, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth, and it's beautiful.
The word was made flesh. We've talked about how he was born.
And we beheld his glory, He says here, I sometimes have thought about that. What is the apostle John referring to when he says, we beheld His glory? One time on the Mount of Transfiguration He was transfigured, and his face shone as the sun, and his garments white as the light. That was His official glory, as the coming king of His Kingdom.
There were other times too, when his glory shone through the human veil.
There was the time he was on the boat and there was a storm and he was sleeping. Does God go to sleep? You know, sometimes we think he does, but he really doesn't. The Lord Jesus was asleep with his head on the pillow.
And they woke him up, and he in calmness rebuked the wind, and the wave became a calm.
Said, what kind of man is this? This was his disciples. It looked like they didn't even understand who he was. But I want to get before we get to the end of our time here in this Gospel meeting to one of the greatest manifestations of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ was the end of his 33 1/2 years in this world. They took him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. They condemned him to death.
Pontius Pilate turned him over to his soldiers, and Romans were known for their cruelty. They took him and they hit him in the face. They crowned his head with thorns. They beat that crown of thorns into his head. They came up and spit directly in his face. I've had people spit at me, but never anybody come and spit square in my face. And they did that to Jesus.
They did it to him. What an awful insult. Did he ever claim this is unjust? I'm not going to stand for this injustice. Never. One word of protest. They let him outside the city of Jerusalem. They took him to that hill of Golgotha. They stretched out his hands. They nailed them to a cross.
Now as they were nailing him there, the only response from his lips was Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Sure they pain must have been excruciating as they drove those nails through his hands and his feet.
There they hung him and he hung there from approximately 9:00 in the morning till about 12 noon.
They passed in front of him, mocking him, jeering him, doing everything they could think of to make him suffer more.
This is what they were doing to the one who was in every sense of the word God, and in every sense of the word man, the man Christ Jesus.
At 12 noon, something strange happened. Everything got dark for three hours.
It was dark what happened in those three hours. The prophet Isaiah tells us all. We, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone our own way.
But God has laid on him Jesus, the iniquity of us all, if there was going to be.
A Bob Tony in heaven. Somebody had to pay the price for my sins. God is too just.
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To allow any sin to be swept under the rug, nothing escapes his vision. No sin will ever escape its just penalty from the hand of God. And when Jesus was hanging there on that cross, that Sinner cross, in those three hours, God took the load of my sins and laid them on Jesus. And then he picked up his rod of judgment and he let the fury.
Of divine judgment fall on Jesus. For three solid hours there was complete silence on that center cross. The end of those hours, he cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
God forsook him. Why? So they wouldn't have to forsake this guilty Sinner that stands here tonight. I deserve to go to hell forever.
Yes, if I want to claim my rights, I do have rights. Rights to go to hell.
But Jesus bore my punishment on that cross before he died, He said It is finished.
All the judgment that was rightly against me.
As a guilty Sinner.
It's gone for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Like to put it this way, sometimes in the Old Testament there were a lot of sacrifices that were sacrificed, thousands, hundreds of thousands of sacrifices, and in every case the flames consumed the sacrifices.
But in the case of Jesus, the sacrifice consumed the flames. There is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus.
The wonderful God that we know in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I say, friends, the brightest display of the glory of God shines from the darkness.
Of Calvary. There we learn, as in no other place, that God is light. He cannot Passover your sins, not even one little white lie. Absolutely impossible. It would be a denial of His holy nature to do so. Can't be done, Absolutely not.
But we learn too, that God is love. Their God's beloved Son bore the full penalty of sin for me.
Oh, we ask you to make it real with yourself, dear young boy and girl. Young people don't try to goof around any longer. We're getting close to the most awful judgment this world has ever seen. We're living right on the edge.
Of this period of the grace of God, it's going to end at any moment. The Lord may come before tomorrow dawns. Are you ready? Have you settled the issue with God or are you still trying to fool around? I plead with you, along with all those who are believers in this Lord, in the Lord Jesus in this room will unite to say to you.
Don't goof around any longer tonight right where you're sitting. Open your heart to receive him. And how do you receive him? Believe on his name.
Let's just pray.
Our God and our Father, we're thankful for Thy precious Word.
And the clarity with which it speaks to us. Yes, for thy blessing.
On those that have heard tonight, bless thy precious word, we pray.
In that most wonderful, that most blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.