Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, December thirtieth. Before Jesus returned to heaven, He instructed His followers to go and tell others about Him. Let's embrace our role while we focus on investing in eternity. What does it mean to invest in eternity? Eternity is a long time, and if you look around at the circumstances today, you'd think, well, I don't think I want to invest in anything very long because the situation's not very inviting. But there is some way and one way that you and I can invest that we don't ever have to worry about whether we get a good return or not.
So, when we think about investing in eternity, we're talking about investing in people's lives, all over the world, who desperately need to hear the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The reason you may be a Christian is because somebody told you. And the reason somebody told you is because somebody sent someone and made it possible for you to hear. You heard, you believed. You trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. He made you a brand new creature in Christ.
Your whole life has been changed. There is a world of people out there, first of all, who've never heard. Many of them have heard but have not believed. Does that mean we have to stop telling them?
No, we have to keep on telling them, keep on shouting the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Well, what I want to talk about in this message is why. Why should I be giving to send some missionaries somewhere else when we have our own problems in this country? Well, that's a reasonable question.
But the answer to that is not somebody's opinion. The answer to that question is a very clear biblical statement. And that's what I want us to examine because the truth is, every believer has a responsibility to sharing and spreading the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I want you to turn, if you will, to First Timothy. And Paul writing to Timothy here in this first epistle. In the second chapter, I want us to read these first eight verses. And especially three of these verses, I want us to notice. And what he begins doing here is challenging us, encouraging us to pray for those who are in authority over us.
And so he begins in this manner. First of all, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men, for kings and for all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, now listen to this, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Two things. Here is one of the primary reasons you and I are to share the gospel to the world. First of all, it's the desire of the heart of God. He says He desires that everyone be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, if someone should ask you, what do you mean by salvation?
Because people have all kind of ideas, but think about this, and as you write it, I want you to think about what it says. Salvation is the gracious act of God, whereby He rescues us from our guilt of sin, the penalty of sin, and ultimately its power and presence, and makes us a new person, a whole person through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what salvation's all about. That is the message the world needs to hear, that they can be rescued from their sinfulness, from their separation from God, and become a new person in Christ Jesus. God says He desires that all people be rescued from their sinful condition and become a follower of Jesus Christ. That's what we're about.
That's what we're up to. That He says is His will and His desire. He says, Who desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, when He says, for example, all persons, what does He mean by that? Well, what does A-L-L mean?
A-L-L means what? All. And so, when He says He desires that all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, that means He's not excluding anybody. Now, listen to what He says in Scripture. He desires that everyone come to a knowledge of the Christ.
There's a reason for that. So, let me give you a couple of Scriptures. For example, look in First John. Slip on over to First John and I want you to notice a couple of verses here because if He desires that we are all saved, there must be a reason for that. And here's what He says in the second chapter of First John. My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you sin not. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous. An advocate is someone who stands between us and someone else, but in our behalf.
Here's what He says. And He Himself, listen, and He Himself, that is Jesus, is the propitiation or the sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. When somebody says to you, Well, Jesus just died for the elect, what you have to ask is what does the Scripture say? He died for the sins of the whole world, that is, for everyone.
And there's a reason for that. There's only one person, and I want to show you something very important in a moment, who could die for the sins of the world because there's only one person who's ever lived a sinless life and therefore only one person could be that sacrifice. So, He says He died for the sins of the whole world.
Then what do we quote? We quote very freely John three sixteen which says, For God so loved the world. He's not talking about the earth.
He's talking about the world of mankind. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever, whosoever, what does that mean? Whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life, which says there are only two ways to go.
You'll either perish or you'll have eternal life. And He so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son that if a person, whoever you are may be, would believe in Him, you would have the gift of eternal life. He says God desires that all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Now, it's not enough just to be saved. God isn't satisfied with just people being saved. And I think many people probably had the same thing happen to them that happened to me when I was saved.
As a twelve-year-old kid, I walked down the aisle, sat, always sat on the second row, gave my life to Jesus Christ. Nobody ever said, Now here's what you do. They didn't say, Read the Bible. They didn't say, Pray. They didn't say, Come to church. Give money. They didn't say anything.
They just sort of left me hanging out there. Well, with the grace of God, He began to speak to my heart very early. He says it's the desire of God that everyone come to a knowledge of the truth. Now, knowledge of the truth about what? He wants us to have a knowledge of the truth about Himself.
But watch this. You will not understand who God is. You will not understand His ways. You will not understand why He does the things that He does and why He operates in your life the way He does until first of all, you have acknowledged your sinfulness, accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior as the only way to heaven.
Until that happens, that's not going to be in His knowledge business. But the simple truth that when you're saved, the Holy Spirit comes into your life to dwell within you and one of His primary responsibilities is to give you understanding of what happened, understanding of who God is. Why does He operate the way He operates? Understanding of His Word. He gave us the Holy Spirit in order to enable us to learn how to walk in the Spirit and to walk in obedience to Him and to grow in our Christian life and to become godly men and women. It isn't enough just to be saved for the simple reason He has the work for all of us to do.
And you have nothing to share if you do not know who He is. And so many people are so willing to say, Well, I got saved and I'm going to heaven, period. That's like stepping into eternal life and then God closing the door behind you and let that be it.
No. Listen, He says that we're children and we're to grow in our knowledge and understanding of who He is. It's the desire of the heart of holy, righteous, eternal God for you and me to be saved and then to begin to grow in our knowledge and understanding of Him.
And at the same time as we're growing, sharing it with someone else. If God desires to save us, listen, He will also equip us because He never requires of us something that He will not equip us to do. So I just want you to get this in your heart. Whoever you are, wherever you are, it doesn't make a difference what kind of life you've lived.
It doesn't make a difference where you are at this point in your life. God, according to His Word, desires that you, listen, be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth about who He is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, how He works in your life. You can find His will, how He answers prayer, the meaning of God's Word. Listen, God is for you desiring for you to become, listen, conformed to the image of His Son. He's got the best in mind for every single one of us. The primary reason you and I are to be sharing the truth is the simple reason God desires everyone to be saved.
But listen to what He says secondly. He says, God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, for there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. Now that, those two verses are very important. Now think about it for a moment.
If God desires for you and me to be saved, then God must provide a way for us to be saved. Now listen very carefully. Many people will tell you they're all right.
They'll say, well, you know, I'm not worried about when I die because I'm going to be okay. Well, on what basis do you say that? Because I haven't been a bad person. Because I do good works and I'm true to my family and I'm true to my family and I pay my taxes and they'll give you all this list of things.
What I want you to see, my friend, is this. That has absolutely nothing to do with God saving you. Not a thing. You mean to tell me that all of my good works won't count?
No. The Bible says, not by works of righteousness which we've done, but according to His mercy, provided at the cross, He saves us. He says, for by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourself. It's a gift of God.
Not of works, lest any person should boast. There's not a single verse in the Bible that says that God's going to accept you and me on the basis of how good we've done. Now, here's what I want you to remember. He says it's His desire for us to be saved. If it's His desire for us to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, then He must provide it.
How does He provide it? Listen carefully. Here's what God says, not somebody else's opinion. He says, for all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have fallen short.
There's no possible way. We came into this world with a sinful nature, bent away from God, not toward God. We've all sinned against Him, disobeyed Him, rebelled against Him, violated the laws of God. So, how do we get to God? Simply by doing better?
Better in whose eyes? Now, listen, here's the thing you do not understand, that holy God, holy God cannot remain in the presence of sin. Therefore, God must do something about this sin issue within ourselves.
You can't do anything about it. You say, well, I can forgive myself. You're going to turn right around and sin again. First of all, how are you going to forgive yourself? You have to remember this, and this is why He says He desires that all of us be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
Here is the truth that most people overlook. Holy God versus sinful man. How does God, on the basis of being a holy God, accept sinful man to begin with? And this is what He says in His Word. There is one God, one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. Now He says Jesus Christ gave Himself a ransom for many. Well, first of all, what's a ransom? A ransom is something you pay to free someone else.
That is, you set them free by paying that ransom. And He says that Jesus Christ paid the ransom for all of us, which simply means this. Because holy God desires you and me to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
What did He do? In man's helpless, hopeless situation, there is nothing that sinful man can do to save himself. Because it took the sinless Son of God, shedding His blood on the cross, so when Christ came, the sinless, virgin-born Son of God, He went to the cross on purpose to be your substitute and my substitute. That so, when He died, His death was so powerful that He took upon Himself the sin of all mankind. And when He died, He made it possible because of His sinless death, it made it possible for anyone, everyone, anywhere, everywhere who was willing to accept His death as payment for their sins, surrender their life to Him. Listen, to be saved, to be rescued, to be delivered, to become a brand new person in Christ Jesus. The reason we say invest in eternity is because that's what God says. He says it's His desire that people be saved, come to a knowledge of the truth. He's made it possible to the sacrificial death of His Son. And now, it's our responsibility to get the truth to them and help them to understand by their saving faith that God grants to them, they can be saved, forgiven, and have the gift of eternal life forever and ever and ever a child of God. Now all that being true, because I just read it to you out of the Bible.
As a believer and a follower of Jesus and one who owns the Bible and one who reads one, I'm sure you do. What are you going to do about the people around you who are just as lost as they can be? What about your son? What about your daughter? Your grandson, your granddaughter? What about your mom? What about your dad? What about the people you work with? What about some of your friends?
What about your enemies? We've been commissioned by the Son of God to get His message to the world. And every single one of us has the privilege, the message within us, if we will share it. And that's my prayer.
And you may be listening from somewhere in the world, I don't know where, but you know enough English that you've heard and you understand what we've been talking about. I want to plead with you, my friend, to believe the message of the Word of God. There's one Mediator, Jesus. There's only one salvation and that's His gift. He's willing to forgive you and to cleanse you no matter what you've done. And if you're willing to ask Him simply by faith, because He said it, to forgive your sins and to save you, He will do that right now. So I want to pray this simple prayer that you can pray. Wherever your situation, circumstance, if you will pray this prayer based on what you've heard, because you believe that I've simply told you the truth, He will save you right now. If that's what you desire, pray this prayer. Heavenly Father, I don't know You, but I do know that I've sinned against You.
I want You to forgive me. I need to be rescued from my sinful condition. I'm accepting by faith what I've just heard from Your Word. That Your Son, Jesus Christ, is my Mediator, my one and only Savior. I believe that He went to the cross in my behalf, shed His blood, made payment for my sin. By faith, I here and now receive Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as my Savior and my Lord, in Jesus's name, amen. If you prayed that prayer, you just got rescued. And the beginning of your Christian life just began the moment you prayed that prayer. And I pray that wherever you are, if you don't own the Bible, start praying for God to provide you a copy of the Word of God. If you don't know any Christians around you, ask God to introduce you to a Christian so they can help you grow in your Christian life. Whoever you are, trust Him. He will meet every single need that you have. Because today, you just got born again.
You just stepped into a whole new life. Will it be easy? No. Will He be with you every step of the way until you enter heaven? Will He ever forsake you for any reason?
Never. Will He be your Heavenly Father forever? Forever and ever and ever. That is the promise of Almighty God. Thank you for listening to Investing in Eternity. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
