When the Light Goes Out

Theme: The Gospel of Your Salvation
“Him you also trusted, after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation…” (Ephesians 1:13)
Date: October 19, 2003 - Sunday 9:30 A.M. Bible Class - (During a Gospel Meeting October 17 Through 19, 2003, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Speaker: Mack Lyon, Speaker on the In Search of the Lord’s Way Television Program
Main Scripture: 1 John 1:1-5

We’re enjoying being with you. You’re a very friendly, hospitable and kind people. You say kind things about the preaching, and I think that some of that’s exaggeration, but we do appreciate it very much, and your encouragement. And I want to say again, I appreciate very much your support of the SEARCH program. Yours is a generous support, and we appreciate that so very much, because one of the broadcasts that we have here in this area is due totally to the support of this congregation. And so, we’re very grateful.

I’m going to read you a passage from the book of 1 John, chapter 1, beginning at verse 1: “That Which was from the beginning, Which we have heard, Which we have seen with our eyes, Which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

² (For the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that Eternal Life, Which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

³ That Which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

⁴ And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

⁵ This then is the Message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is Light , and in Him is no darkness at all . ”

Now, with the reading of His Word, let’s bow for prayer: “Holy Father, we’re so thankful to You for the revelation of Your Word to us, and Your Will, by which we can live. We believe that this is the best Way that man has ever been taught to live this life with each other here upon this earth. And we pray Your blessings upon the Word as we study it this morning, and that we may be encouraged and inspired to not only study it, but to learn it and then put it into practice in our own lives. We pray Your blessings on our study, and Your presence with us, not only in this Bible study but in the worship this morning. In Jesus’ lovely Name, Amen.”

When I was fourteen years old, I was the only member of the church in our family. My father was a Methodist, my mother was Southern Baptist. My mother was very insistent that her children be brought up in the teachings of the Lord.

We lived out in the country, down in southeast Oklahoma, in the backwoods, way out to the end of the road, right down on the riverside. Nobody ever came by our house. If they came that far down the road, they were coming to our house, or else they were lost and on the wrong road, one or the other. That [road] was a dead end.

What I’m saying to you is that we lived far out in the country. We did not have access to a lot of the things that other people did have. But my Dad did go onto town and buy a battery-powered radio and a wind-charger to keep the battery charged.

On Sunday nights, I, being the only member of the body of Christ in the household, would sit up and listen to a preacher by the name of W. L. Oliphant, who preached in Dallas, Texas. Now, it isn’t so far to Dallas now, but that was a long ways in those days from where I was. In the eyes of a child, that was a long, long way, almost like being in another country, you know. And I was absolutely amazed at a number of things about that broadcast! Number one was that W. L. Oliphantwas such a powerful preacher! Oh, my! What an eloquent man he was on radio! He had a thirty-minute radio program in Dallas every Sunday night, and I just…I couldn’t believe that there were people that were that vocal about the Word of the Lord and with that kind of skill to communicate. Another thing that amazed me was, that here I am, waaaaaaaaaaay off from Dallas, Texas, out here at the end of the road, and I can listen to him preach the Gospel!

One Sunday night—I believe it was in August of that year when I was fourteen years old—I was listening to Brother Oliphant. When he went off the air, I turned the radio off, and I knelt down by the side of my mother’s rocking chair, and I prayed a prayer in which I committed my life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I remember so well saying to the Lord that, “If He would just let me live to be an adult….”

Somehow or other, I had this in my mind that I would never live to be an adult. I suppose the psychologists would tell me that maybe I’d seen and witnessed the death of some of my pets on the farm, or maybe some of the livestock on the farm, and I had a horror of it; or maybe it was because of the death of my grandfather, or somebody. I’m sure that they could explain that, but I just didn’t think I would live to be an adult, and so I promised the Lord that if I could live to be an adult, I wanted to preach His Gospel! Not only would I commit myself to preaching His Gospel, but I would preach it by radio.

Now, radio was the “new thing.” That was the means of communication in that day, you see. I remember the first radio program I ever heard. I don’t know whether you… Why, nobody here is that old. But then, you grew up with radio; but I remember hearing my first radio program. I remember the first time I ever heard one. My Dad was a Jack Dempsey [a boxer] fan—I don’t why, but he was. Jack Dempsey was going to fight Max Bare, the German. It was going to be broadcast on the radio. Well, we didn’t have a radio! But we got in our Model-T Ford, and we drove over the hills and valleys until we came to the neighbor’s house. They did have a radio, and they were going to listen to the fight.