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Jul 12, 2024 · 49 minutes

Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by Author and Teacher, Tony Cooke, of Tony Cooke Ministries

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Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by Author and Teacher, Tony Cooke, of Tony Cooke Ministries

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6,913 words, in two-minute parts. Made by machine, so a few words may be off.

0:0048:55

  1. 0:00

    Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassador. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. and now, The Hamilton Corner. Have you ever heard the name Leonard Ravenhill? Hi, Alex McFarland here. I'm very honored to be sitting in for Abe Hamilton, attorney, pastor, journalist Abe Hamilton III. And this is The Hamilton Corner. We've got a great show and just a moment we're going to hear from author, church historian, and just a wealth of knowledge. Tony Cook, he's got a brand new book called Magnificent Jesus and we'll get to our conversation with Tony Cook in just a moment. But I want to talk a little bit about Leonard Ravenhill's challenge to seek revival like we would seek our next breath of oxygen. So I was down in Texas preaching a couple of years ago and I quoted Leonard Ravenhill. Now if you don't know who that was, he was an evangelist and writer really in his lifetime. I think he was probably the greatest living voice on spiritual awakening. He wrote an incredible book called Why Revival Terries. I would encourage everybody to read that book, but I was down in Texas. I quoted Leonard Ravenhill. Several people came up and said, oh, Alex, he went to this church. Lindell, Texas was where I was. This is where he went to church, and he's buried in the cemetery. I was like, really? Amazing. go out in this graveyard and there's hundreds of tombstones as far as you can see. And I looked around and I had like a 10 minute break between speaking sessions and I thought wow there's no way I'll find his grave site you know with just 10 minutes. But I just randomly walked a couple of hundred feet into this cemetery and I'm looking around. Well I looked down and right at my feet was Leonard Ravenhill's Timston, and Leonard Ravenhill, evangelist, and I took a picture of it with my cell phone, but there's this question on his Timston.

  2. 2:30

    It really motivated me, and I think about it often. And here was the question on the gravesite of the man who said, we should seek revival like our next breath of oxygen. Here's this question, are the things I'm living for worth Christ dying for? I mean, you think about this, as we get into our conversation with Tony Cook, we're going to talk about his new book, Magnificent Jesus Unmatched Unrivaled Unparalleled. That's true. You think about it, folks. The Son of God, the Second Member of the Trinity, gave his life on Calvary's cross that we might be saved. He filled us with his Holy Spirit. He gave us his great commission, go into all the world, make disciples of every nation. And we have not only the mandate, the mission, and we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to do things that count for eternity. And as a son and daughter of the king, why would we trifle our life away doing silly things that don't matter. When you and I have the ability and frankly the obligation to do things that actually count for eternity, contribute to the salvation of the souls of people and my goodness, what a thrilling thing to be a believer and what an exciting, wonderful time to be alive and to minister. And so our nation needs a spiritual awakening and you can play a role. really, really can. I mean, Esther 414, the words of Mordecai, to me, they speak to me. Who knows? Maybe you have been born for just such a time as this. So we're going to talk about this and I invite you to stay tuned for the entire show. A lot of exciting things, I think, very motivational. But somebody that I've just come to love in ministry. He is a colleague in ministry. His Tony Cook, he travels the world, seems like every time I talk to him on the telephone, he's maybe in Greece or Europe or somewhere in the world. But he's written, he's spoken around the world, he's authored 16 books and they've been translated into various languages. He teaches at a number of universities around the country and he's just I've come to trust him as just a brilliant Christian thinker and passionate colleague in ministry. He's with us now, Tony Cook.

  3. 5:05

    Thanks for making time to be with us on the American Family Radio Network. It is so good to be with you again. Just every time I've been around you, interacted with you, we've caught some of the same places together and just it's It's always, always enriching. You always challenge me. And I just loved hearing what you said about Leonard Ravenhill, just anybody who picks up Y Revival Terry's. They need to be ready to repent quickly because he gets right to the point. It is very powerful. Yeah, it is very convicting. You know, I've got to ask some of the people like Leonard Ravenhill, actually there's some videos of him on YouTube. And let me tell you, he was a lay the cards on the table kind of preacher. You know what I mean? Some of these spiritual giants of past eras, what do you think they would think about the current state of preaching in our nation and ministry? And look, I know there are a lot of great, they're godly committed people that are in pulpits and ministries. But I'll tell you, Tony, I don't hear a lot these days about sin, repentance, hell, judgment. I mean, what do you think? Leonard Ravenhill and Billy Sunday and some of the fire in brimstone voices of old. What would they say about the current state of ministry today. I was thinking of another voice, A.W. Tozer, who was very prominent, amazing books that he left behind. And he was pretty vocal about the state of many, many churches. I just visited Yale University a few weeks ago. I was preaching in that immediate area and went to Yale and visited the Divinity School and visited the cemetery that's right there, adjoining campus and saw the the grave of Timothy Dwight, who was one of the early presidents of Yale University. And he became became president at a time when the school had been horrifically influenced by what he and others called French infidelity.

  4. 7:38

    Just with passion for students, with passion for the Word of God, he was able to bring the school back to a biblical place at that time. And it's one thing to achieve a place of respecting and loving the Word of God and honoring the Word of God. But then to keep it, you know, because every generation, every few years, you know, if people don't stay on fire for God, they'll slip into a backslidden state, perhaps becoming entirely apostate. I know when George Whitfield visited Yale, he actually had some problems because he and some of the younger ministers were outspoken. It became what they called the new lights versus the old lights. And the new lights, the younger revival oriented preachers were saying, you know, very overtly, you know, a lot of these older ministers aren't even born again. You know, they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power they're of. And I think there have always been those voices, Alex, whether it's a Leonard Ravenhill, an A.W. Tozer, George Whitfield, that have always called the church to awaken. I mean, even as early as the book of Revelation in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 where Jesus speaks to the churches of Asia Minor. Jesus is telling some churches, you have a reputation that you're alive, but you're dead and you need to repent and strengthen the things that remain. Jesus said to the church at Laodicea, you're not hot. You're not cold. You're lukewarm. And I'm standing at the door knocking. Well, what is Jesus doing outside the door of a church knocking, trying to get in?

  5. 9:40

    So when you just mentioned Laodicea or Tregma Hill, you're really mentioning somebody who speaks for a broadband of ministers through the centuries that have called a dead apathetic church to repent and come alive again. Do you remember, you know, talking about this, I think cultures, individual churches, denominations, even, you know, individual believers, we've always got to be vigilant about staying true to the Lord Jesus, staying faithful to the Word. That's why every day we should, I tell people, you can call it devotions, you can call it quiet time, but you need every day, you need to get alone with the Lord and pray that that's you calling out to God. But read the Bible. That's God speaking to you. And unless we are nurturing the fires of our walk with Jesus, we're going to slide. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher of more than a hundred years ago, he said in one of his books, and by the way, Tony, did you ever see the Spurgeon book Morning and Evening Devotions by Charles Spurgeon? Yes, yes, I have those wonderful... That book, I cannot overstate how good that is. Now, I realize the Victorian English, sometimes the language, you've got to read it carefully and slowly because we're talking 125, 150 years ago. But Spurgeon's book, Morning and Evening Devotions, Hendricks and Publishers has a really good edition of that. But Spurgeon said, the Christian life is like a man climbing a hill of ice. If you're not forcibly climbing upward, you're going to be sliding backwards.

  6. 11:44

    There is no plateau. And I thought that was a wise observation. You can't just be static or plateau. If you're not going up, you're sliding down. And we've seen that in schools. We've seen once stalwart denominations really compromise. That being the case, speak to how important is it that Christendom stay rooted in the Scripture? Well, it's absolutely imperative to go back to Raven Hill's statement about your next breath of air. If we don't, you know, the Bible is full of admonitions. I'm thinking in the book of Revelation, Jesus said to the churches, hold fast what you have. He talked about not letting Paul talk about don't let anyone steal your reward. He said in Colossians, as you have therefore received Jesus Christ, the Lord, so walk in him. And so many people have had, you know, probably many people listening today may think back to the time in their life where they had a summer camp experience, church camp experience where they just had an encounter with the love of God and encounter with Jesus. And I saw this joking thing the other day about, so and so got saved at seven consecutive youth camps. And kind of tongue in cheek, but pointing out the fact that it's happened so often where people have an experience and then they get back into their regular environment and instead of maintaining the fervency and the vibrance, they just kind of drift back into being like the world and being like the people around them.

  7. 13:49

    And I had two summer camp experiences when I was a kid growing up. And I kind of agree with that as well. Hey, this is so appropriate that you're mentioning this. We just finished the fourth of seven summer camps. So by the grace of God over this summer, I've got like 1200 teenagers that I and our staff are ministering to. So I'm glad you're saying this because, you know, the church camp, mountaintop experiences, that's great. But the proof is in how do we walk when we get back home into the routine. Hey, hold that thought, Tony. We've got a break. Alex McFarland here, this is the American Family Radio Network, our very special guest, author, speaker, and really just general expert on spiritual awakening, Tony Cook. We've got a break. Stay tuned, folks. AFR, you can listen to this again, share the show with somebody, but we'll be back more with Tony Cook after this. Stay tuned. You've heard a lot about saving babies on this show. That's because it's important to me personally. And let me just be frank with you. We need to save them. That's why we've partnered with Preborn, the nation's leader in introducing mothers with unplanned pregnancies to their babies. And once she hears that heartbeat and sees that precious life growing inside of her, she is twice as likely to choose life. Now that's a miracle. But quite honestly, if we don't save them, who will? Preborn receives no government funding, so their work is completely dependent on us. Preborn has rescued over 280,000 babies, and that's not all. They provide love, support, and counseling for up to two years for free, saving lives and souls. One ultrasound is just $28, or $140 helps to rescue five babies' lives.

  8. 15:49

    Abortion doesn't stop, so we can't. Together, you and I can save lives. Just dial pound250 on your cell and say the keyword baby. That's 250 baby. Or go to preborn.com. That's preborn.com. Shining light into the darkness, this is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. Jesus Christ is the great central fact in the world's history. To Him, Jesus, everything looks forward or backward. All lines of history converge in Jesus. That's a quote by Charles Spurgeon. It's in the brand new book, Magnificent Jesus, the author of the book, is Tony Cook and he's with us. That's by the way published by Harrison House, verifying publisher. They did my book, The Assault on America, How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late. But we have Tony Cook with us. By the way, I want to get back to what you were talking about before the break, but Tony, where may people get this brand new book and where may people find you online? Thank you, Alex. I appreciate that. My website is probably the best go-to place and it's simply my name, Tony, T-O-N-Y, Cook, C-O-O-K-E, dot org, O-R-G. book august first will be out with harrison house and then it'll be available amazon and all the other uh... venues but right now at this moment uh... it's just available for a website we have some pre-release copies and the official releases august first uh... wonderful correct uh... you know before the break you were talking about uh... church camp or you know places that god really moves us I heard an old saying, Tony, I'm from the country and I used to hear the old timers say, it's not how high you jump, it's how straight you walk when you hit the ground.

  9. 17:55

    Have you ever heard that say? Well, I have it. That's a great statement. It isn't really authenticity proven by, you know, praise God for the mountaintop experiences, But the Bible says Jesus is the lily of the valley. The majority of life is not lived on the mountaintops really is it? No, it's really not. But you know you look at the Bible, I have a sermon that I preach and it's in one of my other books and the sermon is called, and I got it from a pastor that I worked for in early 1980. So it's not original, but I stole it from him with his blessing I'm sure. The sermon is called the God of the Hills, the Plains and the valleys. We just take, there's a verse that's escaping me right now, but one of Israel's enemies was at war with him and they said, well, we lost fighting Israel because their gods are the gods of the hills. If we can fight them in the valleys or the plains, we will be able to defeat them. And of course that pagan mentality was thinking in these terms of territorial gods with limited power. And there were gods everywhere in their mind, gods of the rivers and the wherever, all different geographical locations. But God is the God of the universe. And in this message we talk about yes, God appeared to Moses on a mountain. Jesus was transfigured on a mountain. Jesus ascended from a mountain. There are these, biblically, all these great mountain top experiences, even in scripture. But you quoted that verse, I believe from Song of Solomon. And then, you know, David said, Yego, I walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

  10. 19:58

    I will fear no evil. And so that sermon we share is God is the God of the hills, the plains, and the valley. He's got everywhere. Amen. And you know, I was, Bert Harper and I, we do a show on the American Family Radio Network called Exploring the Word. And we did a message one time on the mountains in scripture because there's so many mountains. are very significant. And there's Mount Sinai, which represents law, and there's Mount Calvary, where in God's grace he paid for our sin debt. You know, let me just say that in a way everybody is on one of those two mountains. If you're thinking, hey, I've tried to be a good person. When I die and I stand before God, hopefully if there is a heaven, I'll get to heaven on my good works. You're You're on Mount Sinai and the law of God will judge you, but you come over to Mount Calvary where Jesus paid it all all to Him I owe and you say, Lord, I'm a sinner, please forgive me. The beautiful thing and this is so unique, folks, that you mentioned Toser, Tony, A.W. Tozer, Tozer said, a Christian goes to heaven on the virtue and righteousness of another. See, now Calvary, you put your faith in Jesus and the righteousness of Christ is accredited to you. It's amazing. The message of grace is so amazing. But Tony, where are you now? Are you calling in from? My home is in Oklahoma, but I was raised in North Central Indiana and I've been in Indiana this week visiting family and enjoying some time here. And today I am in Warsaw, Winona Lake area.

  11. 22:02

    And just in a few hours I'm going to be visiting the home. I know you've been there as well. billy sunday uh... we america's great evangelists and they have his home preserve uh... i understand just as it was when he lived there that that was uh... the wish of his wife who died after him that she wanted his their home to be kept as a memorial to their ministry uh... that's amazing i can i love church history and i love american church history. I find it to be very inspiring. Tony, I was preaching outside of Chicago a couple of years ago and I had a day that I had several hours and I drove from Chicago down to Winona Lake, Indiana to see Billy Sundey's home place. And I think there's a museum there. The day I was there of all things, the museum was not open. But Billy Sundey, for those that may not be aware in the early 20th century he was an evangelist. Tony was he the one that had been a professional baseball player? Yes, he had been a nice star. He was his speed around the bases was something that just amazed everyone. He played for a team that at that point, oh I'm trying to think I think their name may have been the Chicago white stockings, but I'm not sure and I think there's been some changes, you know, how professional teams change over the years but I want to say he was with the Chicago White Stockings but he was a major celebrity. Oh yeah and probably could have, you know, maintained a very lucrative career in sports but he became an evangelist and was based out of Winona Lake there so that's exciting. You know, my grandmother, I have a very godly grandmother.

  12. 24:03

    She's in heaven now. She prayed for me to get saved. And about a month after I got saved at age 21, my grandmother went to heaven. But she saw Billy Sunday live. He came to Greensboro, North Carolina, where I am right now. And there's a picture somewhere I've got a picture of him up on a platform in downtown Greensboro at the mid and there's like thousands of people in every direction as far as the I can see and without a microphone by the way, just Billy Sunday is out there preaching in the middle of the town square. But he, here's the thing I was going to say, somebody asked Billy Sunday one time, how do you get so many people to come forward? Because you know, I think Billy Sunday, I don't know, I'm not going to put a number on but he preached to millions and millions of people, like in the 20s. And countless numbers came forward to accept Christ. And somebody said, how do you get people to respond? And he said, well, I don't do it, it's the Lord. But he said, here, I will say this, Billy Sunday said, name the sins. And somebody said, what do you mean? He said, well, don't just say we're sinners. He said, call it out, drinking, lying, adultery. And I think that's important. And Toni, I'd love your comment on this, but Billy Sunday, and it's not a gimmick or a trick, but he said, as you name these sins, people fall under conviction. And you think about it, we're gonna face Almighty God one day. Every human being will stand before a holy God. And if we're not washed in the blood of Jesus, wrapped in the righteousness of Christ, I mean, we stand before God in an unforgiven, sinful state.

  13. 26:05

    We're in trouble. And Billy Sunday said, when you preach salvation, if you name the sins, the Spirit of God uses that to bring people under conviction. that if you would tony i would love to uh... in studying the the great evangelist and eat some of them pastor such a surgeon uh... i find witfield i think back to him i i i think of people you know the great evangelists on this continent uh... witfield and then moody and sunday and then billy graham One thing I think they all had in common was, they weren't just speaking to a multitude, they were speaking to individuals. And I think of some of the communications I've read from them and other evangelists over the centuries is they weren't talking in some abstract, okay, here I am, I'm preaching to all these people and perhaps this might apply to someone, You know, that's so indirect. They would say I'm talking to you You know, they they would That's probably a crude way for me to put it But but they would look at their audience and say I'm talking to you and and when they when when for example Billy Sunday would be specific about the sin he was helping people to own the situation There's an old statement that when you're speaking to everybody you're speaking to nobody Because everybody always thinks well, they're just talking to somebody else, but when you get right down It's a part of a term I get right down in their grill Yeah, and you name this in and you tell them You know, I'm speaking to you today if you're one thing I've done and I don't put myself anywhere near the level or the magnitude of these other men.

  14. 28:14

    But I know one thing that I've done in the last decades of ministry that have helped me is to say, you know, James said, if we keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, we are guilty of the whole thing. So if you're here today and you have ever, you know, just get right down to the brass tacks, get right down to where the rubber meets the road. And then people have to take ownership of it. It's not like you're speaking ethereally to some nebulous group that may or may not even be there. You're talking to the person in the seat. And I think that's what all those evangelists did so powerfully, is that everybody sitting there felt that the preacher was speaking to them. And I know there's a story about George Whitfield that he was so dramatic in his speaking. He drew people in to his stories so that people felt that they were actually a part of the story that was being preached about. And one time he was preaching about a ship going down and he was trying to convey the fear that would be in your life if you were part of a ship in the middle of the ocean that was sinking. And, you know, to make the person feel what he was trying to convey. And one of the thousands in the audience who had been a sailor just got so caught up in what he he was preaching, he literally stood up and yelled to the lifeboats because it was so real to him what Whitfield was not just preaching but painting in the vividness of everyone's imagination.

  15. 30:22

    Wow. That is really powerful. That is really powerful. Let me ask you this. In terms of America, are there things that you see that are encouraging Tony? I know you're one of my favorite things you and I have interviewed a few times on your book Miracles and the Supernatural in Church History. Folks, I urge you to read that book. And you know, listen, no flattery here, Tony. I became a fan of you on that book because I care about revival and I want to see America be revived and you, more than any other writer I know, are a scholar on spiritual awakening. Is there anything in America right now that encourages you and you say, okay, I see God moving over here? What are you seeing? Or are we just a nation that's really, really backslidden right now? What's your assessment? Well, a little bit of all of that. I don't see any one. You know, I don't see the entire nation as being backslidden or do I see the entire nation as being on fire for God. But I see pockets. And anywhere there are pockets of revival, anywhere there are pockets of movements of God. You know, God's always worked with small groups. And I mean, I know some very large churches that are wonderful churches, but you know, God has always started with somebody taking a Moses or taking a day that are taking a Gideon or a Deborah. And you know, when the multitudes were away from God, God would take one person and start something magnificent. And I know we always look for huge numbers, but like with Gideon, Gideon started out with 32,000 people and he's gonna save the nation and and God said now you got too many and Said tell anybody it's afraid to go home and I wanted that whittle it down to 10,000 or something like that and Get in God told to get it. You still got too many and he went down from 10,000 to only 300 but it was with that 300 that God Rescued the nation and Jesus choosing the 12 and And, you know, God always starts with a small group of things.

  16. 32:51

    So you can start putting a leader. Hold that thought. Forgive me. We've got to take a brief break. Alex McFarland with Tony Cook. Stay tuned. We're going to come back after this break more on AFR. Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at aFR.net. Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. Alex McFarland here welcoming you back to the Hamilton Corner on the American Family Radio Network. By the way, my website is just my name, Alex McFarland, AlexMcFarland.com. On the calendar, there's my speaking schedule. We've got a major event in Silverton, Texas this fall. That's near Lubbock, Texas. And then I'm teaching at Carris Bible College, teaching really political science in the School of Practical Government. And I'm on the road in a lot of churches. By the way, let me encourage you. Here's a URL, AlexMcFarlane.com, slash vote. We wrote a first time voters guide and there's a bulletin insert, a PDF that you can download and print out that just encourages people to vote. A lot of people haven't voted in a few years or some people, there are more and more young people that are, for the first time, they're now of voting age. So if you go to my website, which is AlexMcFarlane.com, slash vote. And I give God the glory on the 4th of July, just a week ago, I had a couple of things, Fox News quoted two faith leaders. I give God the glory on the 4th of July. There was America needs to turn back to God and they quoted Franklin Graham and they quoted me. And I do think our nation needs the Lord. One other thing I'll tell you and then I want to resume our conversation with Tony Cook.

  17. 34:53

    There's a website called AmericanThinker.com, AmericanThinker.com, and I wrote an article about the preamble to the Constitution. What if the preamble were rewritten today? It would be disastrous. Because look, what people have believed and what our nation needs to rediscover is moral truth that comes from God. We don't reinvent it. We don't spin it. We don't water it down. God has revealed Himself in Scripture, in our conscience, and we need to boldly, bravely, stand for truth. And so I refer you to my own website. Also our guest, Tony Cook, he's got a new book. And I want to take this segment and really drill down into this because it's on the subject, the broader heading is Christology. Tony, first of all, thanks for making time to be with us and thank you for your numerous contributions to the body of Christ. I got to ask you this, what led you to write a book about Jesus and this subject that's on the back cover, Christology? What led you to write this, Tony? Oh, it's really kind of a lifelong endeavor. I was raised in a mainline traditional denominational church. And I'm so thankful for it. I learned the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed and things like that. But everything to me was somewhat ritualistic and simply intellectual. I don't know. I'm sure some things got into my heart, but a lot of it just stayed more theoretical, philosophical that type of thing. when I was a little bit older, at a youth retreat, a youth type camp event, I had an encounter where Jesus became real to me.

  18. 36:55

    And so I kind of grew up having this parallel experience between, on one hand, I did hear the ritual statements, the creedal statements and that type of thing, and I'm so thankful for them, but it was without that touch of the Holy Spirit. And I don't believe we choose one or the other. I think we love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. So I'm not discounting anything. I'm just saying that people do need to have more than just a mental ascent about the person of Jesus. The Bible says the devil believes, the people who killed Jesus believed in him as a person, a figure. There's people who believe in Jesus today, like they believe in George Washington. They give mental assent to his historical existence, but people aren't looking for George Washington to do something transformative in our life, but we do look for Jesus to do something transformative in our life because he is the unique person of the universe. And I think early in my Christian, when I was seriously walking with God, had a powerful experience when I was 18 years old with the Holy Spirit, and that just made Jesus all the more real to me. I had encounters with people from different cult type groups, groups that believe that Jesus is less than God, that believe he was a created being or a group that would believe that Jesus was a man who evolved into being a God. And just going back to some of my roots, I had always remembered concepts that Jesus was never created, he is the Creator that he didn't evolve into being God. He's always been God, God the Son, the second member of the Trinity. And so I began to see even in my early, you know, late teens, early twenties that it's not just enough to believe in Jesus, it's what we believe in Jesus that is important and that we need to have a, I'm not saying that everybody needs to have a PhD in theology, but people need to know, for example, that the verses that have always captured my heart in John chapter one in the beginning was the Word. The Word, the preexistence of Jesus, The word was with God.

  19. 39:42

    Well, with implies plurality that points to the Trinity. The word was God, that points to Jesus' deity, and you skip down to verse 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That points to his humanity. So in two verses in John chapter one, verse one, and verse 14, in two verses, you have the pre-existence of Jesus, the trinity the deity of jesus and the humanity of jesus and so and you know a lot in the book to teach on eternal nature uh... his is the at the but but also his humanity that he was fully god and fully man and because of that he's able to be our are saviour are redeemer are high priest is that beautiful i mean jesus was able and willing, as fully God, fully man, but not fallen man, God incarnate. He was able to be that Passover lamb and die for our sins. For those just tuning in, Alex McFarlane here, we're talking with Tony Cook, prolific author and speaker, and the new book, Magnificent Jesus, is this the most, the newest book you've got, Tony? It is. I've written 16 and it is the newest. And you know, I, spirit of full disclosure. Okay. Last Friday night, my wife and I got in from doing two camps and this book was in my mailbox. And so I started reading, I got up Saturday morning, started reading on it. I will tell you, Tony, last Sunday I preached on John three, Jesus, Nicodemus, you must be born again, but I will tell you, I use your book heavily for my sermon preparation. And seriously, I just am very enthused for one thing in this book. There's about six pages of titles of Jesus from the Advocate, Ancient of Days, the branch of righteousness, the chief shepherd. I'm going over these time does not permit us to read all of them. You know, the Holy and Righteous One, Emmanuel, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the resurrection and the life. And then you've got all of from Old and New Testaments what the Word of God says about the Son of God.

  20. 42:25

    Tony, in the writing of this book, did you just get revived and on fire yourself? I would imagine going through all of this wonderful scriptural truth. It touched you deeply, didn't it? It did. First of all, I want to thank you, Alex. You wrote, I put your endorsement first of all the endorsements we had. first one people see because you were so kind and so generous in your comments. But yes, I just was during the writing of this book, hundreds and hundreds of hours and hundreds of hours of research. And just it was like a kid in a candy store. I realized that's maybe not a great analogy, but I was just so enamored and I kept thinking, Jesus, you are so wonderful. And I was thinking about how people just take him for granted. I mean at Christmas, okay, he's in the manger. You know, we see all the mangers. Yeah, I love manger scenes. But people see that and just take it for granted and talk flippantly about Jesus. And, you know, I mean, he is so, so spectacular. and our hearts should be captivated and enraptured and amazed at him. And if we're not, then it's because we're not looking at him thoroughly or carefully. You know, a church eyes on staff at three and a half years back starting in 1980. They opened every service with the old hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Amen. Paul in his wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And what a great way to begin any church service or begin your devotions. Just turn your eyes upon Jesus and not be, allow him to have a minimized perspective for you to have a minimized perspective of him.

  21. 44:38

    And the Bible says magnify the Lord with me. Technically, you can't magnify the Lord because he's as big as he's ever going to be. But when you magnify something, you don't make it bigger. It just becomes bigger to you. When a stamp collector looks in the magnifying glass, he's not really magnifying the stamp. The stamp doesn't change size. in his perspective because of his focus and because of what the lens is doing, it becomes bigger to him. So when the Bible says magnify the Lord, we don't actually make him any bigger than he is because we can't. But he becomes bigger in our view, in our perspective. ever Jesus becomes big in our eyes. And that's really the opening on the whatever the pages at the very beginning of the book where there's a quote, I quote Henrietta Mears where she said, make Christ magnificent in the eyes of men. And that quote probably summarizes the purpose of my writing more than anything else to make Jesus magnificent in the eyes of men. Amen. Amen. And you know folks let me encourage you to read this book because this will transform your heart, your life. I'm talking as a born-again believer. You want the fire, relit, and you want to get a fresh dose of Holy Spirit, joy, and motivation. Turn your eyes back to Jesus. And Tony we get correspondence, Bird Harper and myself doing exploring the word and in all of my travels, you know, literally every week I get emails and correspondence. People say, you know, brother Alex, my church is declining. What do we do? We want to reach young people. We're just not having any baptisms and how do we begin to grow again?

  22. 46:44

    Well, pray, strategize. But look, you want the blessing and favor of God on your church. You want to reach lives, you want to grow, make it all about Jesus. That's why I'm so enthused over this book because personally, corporately, you keep it all about Jesus. Things will happen. Don't you agree? I do. He said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me. And that probably has a couple different shades of meaning. But, you know, we're not, we're not lifting up celebrity preachers. We may use programs, but we don't, you know, we're not exalting programs. We're not exalting human personalities. God may use all those things in different ways, but we're exalting and magnifying Jesus. And that's where the blessing of God will be. Amen. Amen. One last thing, we're almost out of time. And Tony, it's always such a privilege to speak with you. your website again and I'm sure travel schedule where you're going to be speaking, people can come and hear you. What's your website, Tony? Yes, we have an itinerary on our website. The website is TonyCook, T-O-N-Y-V-O-K-E.org. TonyCook.org. Tony Cook with an E. And by the way, one more thing, I love that you've got an explanation of some of the great creeds, like the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. Isn't it beautiful? Centuries have gone by, but the truth is still the same. It's Jesus, isn't it? It is. It is. And we need those. We need those as their reference points. They let us know today. We're just about, Tony, forgive me. Time has crept up on us. Our guest, Tony Cook, Alex McFarland here. May God bless you. Tell somebody about Jesus.

  23. 48:44

    The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.

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