Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening.
For God.
So loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let's pray.
Gracious God our Father, what a tremendous message we have to proclaim.
And tonight, Father, we're not sure.
About everyone who is sitting there here in this room.
But we pray that if there is one who is still not ready.
Has not settled the matter of sin. We do pray that he might be convicted and brought in saving faith to the Lord Jesus.
We pray in His most blessed name. Amen. Amen.
Let's sing number.
25 on our hymn sheet.
Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheep. Be in time.
Why that best is very.
Challenging.
Time.
Voice of Jesus.
And your pride is just to land in time.
Thank you, Thank you. Pass away, although you have not long to stand.
In time.
For Spirit gets you from sin.
Place to see them, general? Let's see, how do you know? Maybe in time.
Time.
I can slide strictly by.
Judgment from the arms of Jesus.
I pray you count my cross, and the faith will light the cross.
And your priceless soul, because.
In time.
Begin time.
Standard in the morning.
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From darkness in life, from the way that she.
Started.
In time.
The voice of Jesus as you be in time.
You want your way, you may find the whole thing.
And your mind is just too late.
Being on.
The verse we started.
The meeting with this evening.
Is one of the most favorite gospel verses in the Bible.
It's the gospel in a nutshell. It's often been said it begins with God, and God is the beginning of all things because God is eternal as something that we have a difficult time comprehending.
In other words, God had no beginning. He always was, and there is no way to put a measuring stick on God.
In his power, in his wisdom, in his love.
He is infinite.
People sometimes think that God, when they're dealing with God, they're dealing like with an earthly judge. I ask you to step back, if that's your thought, and think of who you are really having to do with the eternal God, the one who created the vast universe in which we are living.
Those vast galaxies.
The hundreds of billions and trillions of stars that there are in the universe. Here we are in a little speck.
On a planet called Earth.
And God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
But I want to focus somewhat on that word in that verse that may not seem too pleasant, and it's the word perish. What does that word mean? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. What does that mean?
Somebody has used it as an acrostic in this way?
It means to pass eternally ruined into Satans hell.
You don't realize how serious this matter is. God takes sin seriously. Oh, you say, Oh, I just told a little white lie.
But sin is what has brought in so much ruin into God's creation.
I don't know if you remember how many years Adam lived after he sinned. It got up to 930 years old.
Whatever happened to us today?
Sin degenerates, and as the human race has gone down through the ages of history.
The length of the lifespan of humankind has been seriously reduced. Today the average is about 70 years old.
Tremendous to think about it. And then what comes is death.
And death does not end at all, because it says very clearly in God's Word after death, the judgment people think when they close their eyes in this world, that's it.
Think again. That is not the truth.
There is a God that is going to call us to account.
And that's why, let me tell you, my friend, it is so tremendously serious that God sent his own beloved Son into this world so that we could have a way to escape perishing in a lost eternity.
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And I want to read a few verses on what scripture describes as hell.
And the lake of fire. There are two words in the Greek that are used in the New Testament. One is Hades, That is the place where souls go when they leave their body.
They die.
Their soul goes to a place called Hades if they have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. And it is an awful place. I want to read it to you in Luke chapter 16 where we have a the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Interesting we don't have.
The name of the rich man? Why not? I don't know for sure.
But he did not have any faith, and so he went out into oblivion. But he was there nonetheless. Let's see what this tells us. Luke 16 and verse 19. There was a certain rich man. Notice that it is not a parable.
This actually happened. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, fared sumptuously every day, and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores. Interesting.
Lazarus, we know his name. The beggar, we know his name. Where's that? Because this beggar had faith in God.
And desiring this is the beggar to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked. His sores came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also.
Died and was buried.
And in hell there's that word Hades. In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus.
That he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.
I am tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now he is comforted in Thou art tormented beside all this. Between US and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence then he said.
I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would send him to my Father's house.
For I have 5 brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come to this place of torment.
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses, and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham.
But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose from the dead. Very interesting this story, and as I say, it was an actual.
Case of a rich man and a beggar. They both died in the course of time because touch death touches every single person in this world.
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And so the time came for the beggar to die, and the angels carried him into Abraham's bosom.
And the rich man died. And you can imagine he says he was buried. He didn't say.
Lazarus was buried.
But the rich man, he probably had a tremendous funeral service.
In a beautiful tomb for his body to be placed.
But that had nothing to do with where he was. He was in torment, in the flames of hell. Not only.
Was he in torment? But he could see, he could feel, he could remember.
Son, remember.
Your memory in that side will be functioning perfectly well.
Oh, how solemn this is. Is there somebody here who has not settled accounts with God? I plead with you to think of this place that you will go if you have not gotten straight with God. Be real with him. There's been a lot of pleas in these conferences.
To not put on a front with God.
You know you can fool us. I've had lots of people fool me.
You cannot fool God. He is looking straight through you right now, and if you're just faking it, He knows exactly where you are. And I plead with you, yet straight with God. Don't continue in that way because this is where you're heading.
Where this rich man is?
Of course, on that side there is no sense of time. There he is today.
Still in torments the torment, the flame.
He asks Father Abraham send him, then he may tip the his finger in water and cool my tongue. Sometimes people say he asked for a drop of water, doesn't say that only dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue.
Was that granted? No. There is a great gulf fixed. There's no way to get across that goal. Then he asked for another thing. He said please send Lazarus to my brothers at home, that they don't come to this place of torment.
He says let them hear Moses and the prophets. They had the scriptures in your hand. He says if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe. And even if one rose from the dead, Can you imagine somebody that you know that has died and all of a sudden he appears to you to warn you? Get ready, because there's a place of torment if you don't believe the Scriptures that we're reading tonight.
You're not gonna believe even if one rose from the dead.
How solemn this is.
These things are written to warn us as to where we might be going. I want to read a few verses now as to the other Greek word that speaks of the place of torment, that this is the eternal place of torment.
Hades is the word that is used to her, the people, until the resurrection of that great day of judgment, when they will be their bodies, will be resurrected and united again with their soul and their spirit, and they will have to stand before God in that final resurrection. Until that day they are in torments. But good in Mark Chapter 9, please.
To what is spoken here and here is a different Greek word that's called Guiana.
It relates to what we have in parts of the Scripture that is called the lake of fire. It's an enclosure of which there is no getting out, and it's not a lake of water. It's a lake of fire.
Let me just read these verses.
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Think you can see how serious it is?
Chapter 9 of Mark's Gospel in verse 43.
If thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed then having two hands to go into hell. And that's the word for Guiana, the lake of fire. Into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
What is the worm?
Worm is whether eats you inside and your conscience will say you sat in that gospel meeting in Burbank, CA and you resisted God's plea to get right.
It will issue from the inside and the fire is not quenched.
People say that's figurative speaking. Well, what is it a figure of? If it's figurative speaking but of torment, I don't know. People try to get reason it away.
Remember preaching the Gospel down in Peru years ago?
In the mountain areas and in this particular place, there were no electrical lights, so on the table that we had to speak from they had 4 candles lit.
And so to make a point of what we're talking about.
I asked if there was any volunteer in the audience that would come forward and put his finger into the flame of that candle. Just for one minute. I said I've got my watch here. I won't let it go over the minute. To my surprise, I had a volunteer. I said OK, come up here.
And he came up.
And I said, OK, when I tell you to put your finger into that flame, I want you to do it and don't pull it out. Just hold it there for one minute. I'm not going to let it go over the minute, so it's OK. He put his finger into the.
I said whatever happened, you didn't even last for two seconds, but it hurt.
Had hurt. Can you get the picture? We're not talking about your finger in flame.
We're talking about your whole being in flame without ever having any hope of getting out of that place. It's so terribly serious that God warns us with these words. If thy foot offend the verse 45, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.
Where their worm dieth not in the fire is not quenched. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into Kingdom of God with one eye and having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Oh how serious this is.
I hope you will take it seriously.
Don't.
Put it to one side. Face the issue tonight, please, for your own eternal welfare, I plead with you.
You know God is a God of love and He's warning you.
So that you would not go there. In fact, I like to put it this way, sometimes God has blockaded the road to hell with the cross of Christ.
He doesn't want you there. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Today we had in our reading meetings that He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the whole world.
The Lord Jesus has made propitiation so that God will not be compromised even if the whole world would simply repent and believe.
We know that's not the case because many have chosen not to believe God, and there they are in torments, waiting the judgment of that great day.
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And I want to talk to you about the tremendous sacrifice that God has made in giving his own Son, the Lord Jesus. This is the time of year when people remember his coming into this world as a little baby. I marvel at the fact the eternal God coming into this world.
Yes, that's what happened to me. It is the most marvelous thing. Incredible.
Where is he to be born? In Bethlehem. OK, let's go to Bethlehem. Where can we find him? Where is he to be born?
He wasn't in any hotel. He wasn't any fancy clinic.
His mother was relegated to the cow barn.
She went into labor and there was that little baby born and wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a Manger. Oh, what a tremendous story it is. And in all his life down here he was not recognized. You know, the angels came down to see for the first time they had never seen their Creator.
Flesh and blood, and there he was, laying in a Manger.
And they were astonished. Does nobody realize who this really is?
No, they didn't realize.
So these angels go out into the fields where the shepherds are, and they tell the shepherds the first ones to find out about this. Oh, what a story. So the Lord Jesus grew up in the city of Nazareth.
And he was basically not known for who he was. He was known as the Carpenter. He was the carpenter's son at first. And then later on we have that they knew him as the Carpenter. We know his brothers and his sisters are with us today.
And so.
The Lord Jesus.
Was basically unknown.
Oh, what a story.
And one day, John the Baptist is baptizing.
And here comes Jesus, you know, John the Baptist mother.
And Jesus mother were relatives, and so perhaps John the Baptist knew something about Jesus.
But.
It's interesting the way Scripture speaks about it. And so and Jesus comes to him to be baptized. John's baptism was baptism was a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
And John seemed to realize.
He said to Jesus, I have need to be baptized of thee.
And you come to me. And Jesus said, let it be for the time being, for thus.
It becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.
Isn't that amazing?
Did Jesus have anything to repent of? No.
But in being baptized, he identified with those people that were repentant. He did not identify with those unrepentant religious leaders of the Jews.
Where do you stand in those two groups? Do you think you're good enough?
Or do you recognize that you are a Sinner and that you need repentance? But it was after he came up out of the waters that the heavens opened, and the voice came from heaven. This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.
And the Spirit of God came down upon him in the form of a dove. And from there the Lord Jesus went out into his public ministry, healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, preaching the gospel to the poor. Oh, what a story.
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His life was.
You never find that the Lord Jesus had a home.
He said the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man?
Has nowhere to lay his head. Why didn't he have a home? Is it wrong to have a home? No, it's not wrong to have a home. Why didn't he have one?
You know, the only answer I can come up with is.
That he came from the father's house and there was nothing to compare with it in this world, so he wasn't really interested in having a place. And so he spent many a night under the stars, probably in the cold.
Oh, what a story. Well, it comes to the end of his life and they, the religious leaders, wanted to get rid of him and they arrest him and take him first to their own Jewish council.
And after they had false witnesses against him, they said he's worthy of death. And the chief priest came up and speed into his face.
And they led him to Pilate, and Pilate declared again and again, I find no fault in this man. But at the same time he commanded him to be scourged. And they crowned him with thorns. And they led him outside the city of Jerusalem. They stretched out those hands, they nailed them to a cross.
There they lifted him up to die.
Oh, a story.
But the story doesn't end there. For three hours, he was hanging on that cross.
He says reproach has broken my heart.
They said he's the Son of God. If he is really the Son of God, let God deliver him. Did God deliver him?
Why not? Didn't God love his son?
He did love his son, but you know what? He loved you and me.
And he didn't want you to go to that awful place of hell. He wanted you to be saved. And there was number other way but that Jesus go to the cross to die in our place. And so in those three hours of darkness from 12 noon to 3:00 in the afternoon.
When nobody could see the awfulness of what was taking place.
God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.
And that storm of divine judgment broken all its fury.
On Jesus head.
He paid the price in full.
At the end of his three hours, he cries out. My God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me, the only man that did always the will of God? Forsaken of God? How do you explain that? You know how I explain that? For God so loved the world that he came His only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He said it is finished.
He bowed his head.
He gave up his life.
A soldier came and pierced his side and out flood blood and water. You know there were other wounds in Jesus body.
But scripture never really speaks of the blood that came from those wounds. I'm sure it did.
But that one wound in his side showed.
To everyone, there was number more life in that battered body.
He gave his life for you and me so that you and I don't have any excuse now. The way is open for you to be saved.
The way is open for you to have your sins forgiven and washed away so that you don't have to think about that awful place of Hades and the Lake of Fire. I plead with you to not let the opportunity go by tonight, but to open your heart to Him.
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Right where you're sitting. Just talk to him. You don't have to even say it with words.
But tell him.
You repent and believe in what He has done for you.
So the Lord Jesus was taken off, that Christ laid in a tomb.
Three days later, an Angel came down to that tomb that had a big rock in the front of it.
And push that rock to one side. You know why he pushed that rock to one side? It wasn't to let Jesus out.
It was so that everybody could see that Jesus was number longer there.
He had risen from the dead, and the fact that he rose from the dead means that God.
Was satisfied with the payment that Jesus made so that you and I can have full and free salvation.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
Before we get to the end of our meeting, I want to read 2 portions more that speak of the judgment to come because as I say, God takes sin seriously. And if you decide not to accept this wonderful free salvation.
You will have to meet with God.
And there is what is called the judgment of the living.
And there's the judgment of the dead, because when Jesus comes back from heaven, he's promised to come back. And when he comes back from heaven, he's going to judge the nations that are still alive at the end of an awful period that's just in front of us called the Great Tribulation. Let's go to Matthew chapter 25 to see how this goes.
Matthew, Chapter 25.
And we'll read from verse 31 when the Son of Man.
Shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided the sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand.
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Now go down to verse 41. Then shall he say.
Also unto them on the left hand.
Depart from me. He cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Notice that he did not prepare everlasting fire for you. He doesn't want you going there. It was prepared for the devil.
That angelic being that rebelled and never has repented.
Of his rebellion.
That was what Everlasting Fire was prepared for.
But the person that does not accept the Lord Jesus.
As their savior and somehow survives that awful judgment of great tribulation that's just ahead in the history of this world.
You will stand at the throne of His glory here.
In that day when he comes back and you will be part of the goats on his left hand.
And he will say to them, Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire.
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Please don't go there.
Now let's go to Revelation chapter.
20.
To see the judgment of the dead, because people think that they're dead and buried, or maybe dead and their bodies are burnt and their ashes are scattered over the sea. They think they get away from God.
No way. No one is ever going to get away from God.
Revelation chapter 20 and verse 11. I saw a great white throne, him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them, and I saw the dead small.
And great stand before God.
And the books were opened.
God keeps books. The record of your life is recorded in God's presence. And another book was opened which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
All those that have their ashes scattered over the sea.
Those ashes are going to come back out again.
Death and hell, that's Hades delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire Guena.
This is the second death whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life.
Was cast into the Lake of Fire.
Awful, awful end of the person who refuses to accept God's way of salvation. It's the only way. There is no other way. There is none other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved, that name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh my friend.
Listen to me once more.
For God.
So loved the world that he gave His own begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let's pray.
Father.
It's thy word.
We pray thee to make it penetrate.
There's somebody here.
It still hasn't settled their accounts. We pray that they might be convicted and saved from an awful eternity in the lake of fire. Pray thy blessing on thy word, Father, in that most wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.