In this episode, we delve into the profound contrast between light and darkness as illustrated in the Scriptures. The Gospel’s transformative message of hope is explored through the lens of Jesus Christ’s teachings and the Apostle Paul’s unwavering commitment to spreading this light. As we wrap up the year, we’re reminded of our role as bearers of this eternal truth—a truth that brings salvation and hope in an often dark world. We unpack Paul’s unparalleled example of faith and dedication, highlighting his sense of obligation and the burning desire within him to share the Gospel. From the Greek philosophers
Welcome to this weekend’s In Touch podcast with Daryl Stanley. The message of the gospel brings hope and transformation to all who accept it by faith. Let’s wrap up 2024 with a reminder to carry the light wherever we go.
SPEAKER 01 :
In the very first chapter of the Bible, we find God separating light from darkness. In chapter 1, verse 4, and He calls this separation the first day. If you’ll go through the Bible, what you’ll find is that God oftentimes identifies darkness or light with things that are evil. For example, in Romans chapter 1 and the 21st verse, He talks about a person’s foolish heart being darkened. On the other hand, light is usually identified with things such as good, such as holy, and also of truth. So that all through the Bible, God identifies darkness one way and light the other. For example, Jesus said, I am the light of the world in John chapter 8 and again in John chapter 9. He again said He was the light of the world as long as He was here. And then in Matthew chapter 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, He said that you and I are the light of the world. Now that Jesus Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand, you and I are walking lights of truth, that is, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1 John chapter 1, the fifth verse, He said, God is light, that is, God is holy, there is no darkness in Him at all. And then in the seventh verse, He said, we are to walk in the light, even as He is in the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, would cleanse us from all sin. So all through the Scriptures, we see this distinction, this contrast between light and darkness. For example, the Bible says that you and I have been translated. from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light so that we as believers are identified with light and that light in essence is the simple truth of the saving gospel of jesus christ it is the message of truth and that truth is that god the only eternal god sent his only begotten son jesus christ into the world And through His death at Calvary paid our sin debt in full. And all who are willing to respond and receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior can be saved and their salvation is forever. That is the gospel message. That is the truth. That is the light. And you’ll recall that John in his gospel in his first chapter talked about the life within us… being the light within us, which is the very life of Christ. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It is the truth of the message of the gospel of Christ that we are to carry. I know of no one who has carried it like the Apostle Paul. And in Romans chapter 1, which is our text for this message, Romans chapter 1, I want you to turn, if you will, to verse 14, 15, and 16. For herein lies, I believe, the sense of motivation that stirred this man of God who was not only a sinner but an enemy of the gospel of Christ, an enemy of the church of Christ. And upon his conversion… God so radically changed his life, he became the greatest carrier of the light this world has ever known apart from the light himself, and that is Jesus Christ. And Paul is saying in this first chapter, writing to the Romans and desiring to come to see them, he says in verse 11, I long to see you. In verse 12, he says, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you. And then he talks about… And then he says in verse 14, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And then Paul begins in this 17th verse, the rest of this chapter, an explanation of the condition of lost man. As I think about the Apostle Paul and the world in which he shared the gospel of Christ, it is different in many ways than the world in which you and I live, but on the other hand, it is not. He shared the gospel of Christ to a world desperately in need, living in darkness. That hasn’t changed. Many people have been saved, but there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of people who have never even heard one single solitary time the truth of the gospel of Christ because no one has ever carried them the light of that truth. So as we look at this passage, I want us to think about the church today because I believe what was true of the apostle Paul is certainly true of us today. And what he felt is certainly what we should feel. Here’s a man who felt an inescapable obligation to preach and teach the Word of God to the people of his day. He says, I am under obligation, both the Greeks and the barbarians. That was their way of describing people who were cultured and those who were uncultured, people who were wise and those who were unwise or educated and uneducated. He said, I feel an obligation. He said… I feel this weight, this burden, this indebtedness. Now, I want you to think about something. He felt an indebtedness, first of all, to the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, who saved him. And naturally, he was motivated by love and devotion to Christ. But Paul also felt an indebtedness to another group of people. He felt indebted to people who were wicked, people who were evil, people who were sinful, people who never heard the gospel. He didn’t simply feel indebted to those who shared it with him. He felt indebted to a world that desperately needed to hear what he had heard and it so transformed his life. He could not keep it quiet. There was something burning on the inside of him. And I believe when the gospel of Jesus Christ is burning in your heart, you’re not going to be worried about how you say it and what you say and if you do it exactly right and everybody accepts it or if everybody rejects it. You’re not concerned about that. When something is burning on the inside of your heart, you’ve got to tell it no matter what the response may be. That was the Apostle Paul. And he told it and told it and told it and told it, preached it, proclaimed it, and he taught it until finally they took his life. Only by the permissive will of the Lord Jesus Christ was his life taken. When God knew he had finished the work that God had called him to do, then he took him home. But here was a man who felt an inescapable obligation to the world of his day. Now you think about this. Are we not obligated? Do we not have a debt to the people who share the gospel with us? The man who shared the gospel with me for the first time that I ever remember anybody sitting down with me telling me how to be saved came to my home. He was the pastor. And he may have left and went home and told his wife, well, I went by to see Charles today, but probably was a waste of my time because I don’t know that he’s interested in being saved. But just a few months later, I was saved. He took the time to share the gospel with me. And I want to ask you a question. When is the last time you got on your knees and just thanked God for saving you? And when is the last time you brought up the name of the person, of the persons who shared the gospel with you in your lifetime? Or the one person who confronted you, prayed for you, and you thought they were badgering you and being a little overbearing and you wanted to just push them away and tell them to just forget it, you’re not interested, but they kept on and they kept on and they kept on until you yielded and you received Christ as your Savior. Now you’re grateful to God they didn’t quit. When is the last time you thanked God, called their name, and praised Him that He didn’t give up on you and they didn’t give up on you, and today your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Isn’t it interesting how we take things for granted? You see, we’ve heard the gospel so many times. Listen, it takes something absolute, dramatic, and traumatic to shake us up. Because you see, this is old hat for us. And many of you who are listening or who are watching, you’ve heard enough truth, enough gospel. You’ve read the Bible enough. You know enough verses. You’ve read enough books. You’ve experienced enough in your own Christian life. You know enough gospel to convert the whole world. And the reason many of them will never hear is because we sense no obligation. But I want to tell you, we are indebted to the world of our day to get the gospel to them. That’s the only reason your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That’s the only reason that you’re saved is that somebody felt the same obligation and came to you and said, I want to tell you about Christ. I simply want to ask you, are you satisfied? Selfishly, self-centeredly satisfied? You’ve got it. Your family’s got it. You’re all saved. You’re all going to heaven. And once in a while I hear people say, well, you know, my wife or my husband, my sons, my daughters, we’re all saved. We’re just so grateful, just thankful to God. There’s nothing wrong with that. But what about those other children of your neighbors and your friends? And what about hundreds and millions of people out there who’ve never heard it one single time? Jesus had gone to all the world and preached the gospel to every creature. Then he says, as my Father hath sent me, so send I you. That doesn’t mean he’s going to send everybody. But here’s what he is going to do. He’s going to send all of those whom he chooses to the uttermost parts of the earth. Those whom he does not choose to send, he’s going to choose to work in our hearts to be sure that we’re able to hold the ropes while they’re out there doing the work that God has called them to do. We have an obligation. If it isn’t to go, it’s to give so that those who go can do the work God has called them to do. Which means that there’s no such thing as a believer who does not have a personal missionary obligation. It is an inescapable obligation. And if I love Christ, I’m going to love people. And if I don’t love Him, then I won’t love them. Paul said, I have an obligation. The second thing I think is true of Paul here in this passage is this. Paul saw not only that he had a personal inescapable obligation, but he also saw that he had an unparalleled opportunity. Now think about this. He knew what the Greeks believed. He argued with them in Athens. He knew what the Romans believed. He knew what the philosophers believed. And he knew that his message was superior. It was superior to every religion, every philosophy. And he knew that though there may be arguments and someone may attempt to get the best of him, but Paul knew that his message was superior to any message that ever existed. There is no message to equal the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is that Jesus Christ came into this world, the only begotten Son of the only one eternal God, laid down His life at Calvary to pay the sin debt of the entire world. And every single one who would respond to the resurrected Christ will be saved. The Apostle Paul knew by experience it was a superior message. He knew in logic it was a message that was superior, and this is why he challenged those in Athens. He said, you’ve got gods. He says, you have images to the unknown God. I want to tell you, the real true God who can forgive you of your sins, who can set you free, who will live on the inside of you through the Holy Spirit, who will answer your prayers, who will meet your needs, who will make life meaningful to you. He says, I can identify Him in the person of Christ. He knew that his message was superior. You want to know why Paul says, he says, I’m indebted and I’m ready and I’m not ashamed. Because he wasn’t ashamed of Christ. And he wasn’t ashamed of the message. And he wasn’t ashamed of the end result. And he wasn’t ashamed of making someone a promise and being ashamed that someone would come back and say, oh, but God isn’t what you say he is. You and I have the only eternal message. We have the only philosophy that’s going to last beyond this life. We have the only message that can give men true genuine hope. And every single religion in the world, what do they say? They say you have to do the following things in order to reach some kind of state of acceptance before their God. In the Christian faith, we simply receive what the Lord Jesus Christ did at Calvary. Listen, I believe Paul was so excited when he wrote Galatians and he said to them, listen, let me tell you how to get free. You don’t have to keep the law because Jesus Christ paid your sin debt in full and the law has been fulfilled in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are free. Here’s a man whose heart was burning because he knew the truth and the only truth that would set men free forever. You have the message. You have the same message the Apostle Paul had. In fact, you’ve got one on the Apostle Paul. You’ve got all of his epistles written. Plus you’ve got the Gospels. Plus you have in one book called the Bible all of the Old Testament revelation. Plus you have the book of the Revelation, the last book of the Bible which Paul did not have. You and I have it all. And I want to ask you, can you give me one reason For being ashamed of the one message and the only message that can give men hope for now and absolute assurance of eternal life. Here’s what I want you to see. Apart from Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and the Gospel, life has absolutely no real purpose and meaning. But if the gospel is true, and it is, there is meaning and purpose. Every single person is important. Every single person is valuable. Every single believer is a walking, living light of the gospel of Christ. And we have an obligation. And we have a superior message. Listen. One of the reasons it is superior is not only because of what it offers, but also because of how applicable it is. Listen. Listen. There is a universal need for the message we have. Every single person on the face of this globe desperately needs what we have. And some have it and some don’t. You see, there are many messages that may apply to some folks, but think about this. We don’t have to say, well, we send this missionary here because those folks don’t need it. Send this missionary to that culture because this culture doesn’t need it. Send the missionaries over here to this language group because these folks don’t need it. Every single nation on this globe needs the gospel. America needs the gospel, and every other nation needs it. And God has opened this awesome opportunity. I believe there are more people turning to the gospel today from other religions than ever before. And while that ultimately may create warfare and bloodshed, The truth is, we have the greatest opportunity to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to our whole world. Listen, a greater opportunity than any single group of people who have ever lived on the face of this globe, second to none. Today, you and I have the privilege of sharing it by our life and our lips and through the media to every single corner of this earth. You see, the problem with the church today is we have become satisfied. Listen, we’ve become satisfied being a Christian, being the recipients of the blessings of God. I want to ask you a question. Why does God send a single blessing to anyone at any time? In order, listen, to do something in us with a greater purpose to do something through us as we share it with someone else. The Apostle Paul knew his message was superior, is applicable to everyone, available to anyone who would believe it. The one thing you and I can say, listen, we can say this to the entire world. If you are willing to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He will forgive you of your sins on the spot. And I’m going to tell you, it is forever and ever and ever. And think about this. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ needs no additions. You don’t have to come back one of these days later on and say, well, you know, you were saved some time ago. Now we’ve got to have an update on your salvation. Or we’ve got to have a repeat performance. No. Saved once and forever. We have the only message in the world that can change a person’s eternal destiny. And the question is, what is the body of Christ in the most opportune time in human history to obey God and to get His message in every corner of the earth? What are we going to do? You see, because His message was so simple, listen, it was superior. It was so simple. What’s the simple message of the gospel? Somebody says, well, what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, there may be many definitions, but you could wrap it up in one sentence. The one and only eternal God, Jehovah, sent His virgin-born, eternal, divine Son of God into the world. for the purpose of laying down his life at Calvary. And upon doing so, God the Father placed the sin debt of all mankind upon him. And he paid in one glorious, eternal, dramatic act the sin debt of the whole world. And anyone who is willing to accept his death at Calvary as payment for their sin personally and receive him by faith is saved by the grace of God the moment they do it. That is the gospel. And Paul was so excited. He says, I feel a debt. And he says, I see this awesome opportunity. The simplicity of his message. And the fact that it lasts forever. Paul didn’t have anything you and I don’t have. We’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit. We’ve got something Paul didn’t have. We’ve got the whole revelation of God. And here’s a man who was committed not to allow his life to be wasted. but to be invested in something that has eternal and lasting value.
