What About Those Who Have Never Heard About Jesus? – Part 1B

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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pastor, are you saying that the only way a person can go to heaven is by trusting in Jesus? And therefore, if they have not heard about Jesus, they're going to be confined to an eternity in hell?

It's not fair. What about those who have never heard about Jesus? Well, welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, from our human standpoint, it certainly seems unfair that God would exclude anyone from spending eternity in heaven.

Why must we do anything at all to receive God's free gift of forgiveness? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress addresses this common stumbling block to accepting the exclusivity of Christ. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message. Dr. Jeffress, Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In a moment, I'll continue this important teaching series called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven.

But first, I'd like to send you a copy of my brand new devotional for the series. It's called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven, 100 Daily Readings About Our Only Hope for Eternal Life. Look, in today's world, it's unpopular to embrace the message Jesus gave us. He said in no uncertain terms, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me. This strong message from Jesus has offended many people because they truly believe the lie that all roads lead to heaven. Well, my new devotional will reinforce your confidence in the narrow road Jesus paved for His children. And a copy is yours today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. In this expansive four-color pamphlet, we'll examine the teachings of Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and 12 other false religions and see how they differ from biblical Christianity.

Now, David and I will say more about these resources later in today's program. But right now, I want to help you answer this common question from believers and unbelievers alike. What about those who have never heard about Jesus? If somebody were to ask you, you believe Jesus is the only way to salvation, what about those who have never heard about Jesus? Would you know how to answer that question in a way somebody could understand? We're going to answer the question about what about those who have never heard the gospel by stating four biblical propositions, four biblical truths that when you add those truths together, answer the question clearly about what happens to those who have never heard about Jesus Christ. Today, we're going to look at the first two of those propositions. Next time, we'll look at the final two. The first basic understanding you have to have to answer this question about those who have never heard the gospel is this.

Write it down. Everyone is guilty before God. Now, to the secularist who believes that man is basically good, the idea of anybody going to hell is just preposterous.

Okay, not anybody. Child rapists deserve to go to hell and drug dealers, but for the majority of people, they don't deserve hell. People are basically good, aren't they? And even if they're not perfect, maybe slightly flawed, basically they're okay, but that is not the starting place of the gospel. The gospel begins by saying everyone is guilty before God. You see, there is no good news of salvation unless you understand the bad news, and that is our guilt before God. Do you remember in our year and a half study of the book of Romans how Paul, like a prosecuting attorney, spends the first three chapters of Romans declaring mankind's guilt before God? He says the Jew is guilty before God, the Gentile is guilty, the religious person is guilty, and then he closes in Romans 3, 9, and 10 with these words, what then?

Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. And then verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous among us. That word righteous means in a right standing before God. In Romans 3 verses 10 to 12, in those three verses, Paul says no or not even or no one, six different times, no one is righteous, not one is righteous, no one is righteous, not one is righteous.

Get the message? Nobody is in a right standing before God. You say, why is that true?

How could that be true? Well, the answer to that question, how we all became estranged from God, is found in Romans 5 verse 12. Paul says, therefore, just as through one man, that is Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. When Adam sinned, his sin virus was passed on to every man, woman, and boy and girl who has ever lived. You know, a lot of people have trouble with that. They say, no, wait a minute, are you saying we are held responsible for what Adam did?

Absolutely. There you hear the protest. It's not fair. It's not fair that I would be held guilty for what another person did.

That's just not fair, even though you and I, every hour of every day, only confirm Adam's choice, don't we, when we sin against God. Every one of us deserves the wrath of God. You see, the starting place for answering this question, what about people who have never heard the gospel?

What about this person, this person? The starting point is to realize they're guilty. They're guilty before God. They are guilty before God, and therefore, they are deserving of the wrath of the punishment of God. You know, today it's very unpopular to talk about the wrath of God. People will applaud you if you talk about the love of God, but nobody wants to hear about the wrath, the anger of God. You know, when we sin against God, God doesn't flare up and lose his temper and pour out his anger on us and then gets over it in the next hour or two. That's not the wrath or anger of God. Instead, the wrath of God refers to God's settled and building opposition to everything that is unholy. We experience the result of his holy revulsion for breaking his laws in our everyday lives. We experience that individually. Whenever we ignore what God's commands say about our life, we experience the consequences of it, whether it is broken relationships, divorce, illness. There are natural, immediate consequences that come whenever we break God's rules. That's not only true for us individually.

It's true for us as a nation as well. What is the cure for what is happening in our country right now? It's the same cure, the same solution that God gave 3,000 years ago to his people. When he said in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. Then I will forgive their iniquities, and then I will heal their land.

Returning to God as a nation in prayer perhaps is not the only thing we need to do, but it's certainly the first thing we need to do. We are experiencing right now as a country the consequences, the wrath of God for turning away from him and his word. But make no mistake about it, even though there is an immediate experiencing of the wrath of God, there is a future time when that wrath is going to be experienced as well. The final unleashing of the wrath of God is described in Revelation chapter 20.

Turn there if you have just a moment. This is going to be the time when God finally judges sin in the world. You remember this judgment well, Revelation 20 verse 11 says, and I saw a great white throne, and him who was upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The ultimate unleashing expression of God's wrath will be at that final judgment when every human being who has ever lived will be sentenced to the punishment he deserves. And that is eternal separation, eternal torment in the lake of fire, hell.

Every one of us deserves that. The only people who will be exempted from that final judgment will be those who have trusted in Christ as Savior and had their name written in the Lamb's book of life. The only way to have forgiveness of your sins is by believing in that Jesus who satisfied the wrath of God on the cross for us. And that leads to the second truth. The first truth is everyone is guilty before God.

You know, that settles a lot of questions when you think about it. Nobody who goes to hell goes there unfairly. Everyone deserves to go to hell. But the second part of this question is answered by this. No one is saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

Everyone is guilty. No one is saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. God has provided one way of escape through faith in Jesus, but it's the only way of escape. A few years ago, I was speaking on a program with a Muslim who had converted to Christianity. And as a result of his conversion, he went to the seminary, graduated from the seminary, and was going to give his life to going back to sharing the gospel with his Muslim brothers and sisters. And he said to me, we were just talking afterwards, and he said, you know, pastor, the single greatest hindrance to sharing the gospel with Muslims is our unwillingness to use the word Allah instead of Jesus when we share the gospel. If we would talk about Allah instead of talking about God or Jesus, we could win so many Muslims to Christ. Well, he is absolutely wrong about that. The Allah of the Qur'an is not the Jesus of the Bible.

They are two completely different beings. And yet I'm surprised at how many Christians believe that. They believe, oh, everybody worships the same God. They're just calling by a different name.

Remember that poll? 63% of Americans believe that Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists all worship the same God. And yet the Bible says that is not true. I hear all the time people say, seemingly Orthodox Christians say, you know, heaven's going to be a lot larger than we think it's going to be. There are going to be all kind of people there we never expected to be there who worship Jesus by another name.

Have you heard that before? How big heaven's going to be? It's going to be so much bigger than anything we could imagine. Even Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher of the 19th century actually believed that heaven was going to be larger than hell. He wrote, some narrow-minded bigots think that heaven will be a very small place where there will be a very few people who went to their chapel or to their church. There will be more in heaven than there are among the lost. For God says that there will be a number that no man can number who will be saved. But he never says that there will be a number that no man can number that will be lost. There will be a host beyond all count who will get into heaven. Was Spurgeon right?

Absolutely not. He was misquoting and misapplying in Revelation 7, 9. John says he saw a vision of those in heaven who had been saved during the tribulation and it was too many people to count. Well, I'm sure that's true.

When you get past a million, it's probably too many to count. That's just an expression of speech. But to say that there will be more people in heaven than hell, that completely contradicts what scripture says.

I don't know if Spurgeon was having a bad day or Alzheimer's or what he was going through when he said that. But he obviously forgot what Jesus Christ himself said. And when it comes to this, I'd rather trust the words of Jesus than Spurgeon or anybody else. Listen to what Jesus said about the relative population of heaven compared to hell. In Matthew 7, 13, and 14, he said, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it.

But the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it. On what basis do otherwise orthodox people say, Oh, there are going to be people in heaven who don't know Jesus by name, they just worship him by another name. How do they say that?

It's because they don't understand the significance of a person's name. Let me illustrate that for you. Let's just say for the last few weeks we had been announcing today that my friend Dr. David Jeremiah was going to be the guest preacher today. And everybody came and all excited about hearing Dr. Jeremiah. And when the time came for the sermon, I stepped up and I preached for about 40 minutes.

And I finished and some of you came up to see me afterwards and trying to be polite and hide your disappointment. You said, Pastor, I thought Dr. Jeremiah was going to be here. It says he's preaching here. Is he sick? Did something happen to him? Oh, no, he's fine, I say.

You say, Well, why isn't he here today? Why does it say David Jeremiah? And I were to say to you, Oh, David Jeremiah is just another name I go by sometimes.

No, names mean something. Now, it's true that David Jeremiah and I share some common characteristics. I mean, we're both Caucasian. We both did our THM at Dallas Seminary. We both are on radio and television.

There are some similarities, but there are a lot of differences as well. And David's taller than I am. I'm better looking than David is. No, not really.

He's not that much taller than I am. But anyway, we really are. We're different people.

Understand that? Names mean something. And the same is true with Jesus. Yes, there are some similarities between Jesus and Allah and Buddha and the Krishna and other human prophets and pagan deities.

There are similarities, but the differences far outweigh the similarities. When we talk about Jesus Christ, we're talking about a particular person in history who lived at a specific time, who was born of a virgin, who lived a perfect life, who died a horrific death on the cross for our sins, and most importantly, who was raised again on the third day unlike any other prophet or any other deity that has been known to man. And that's why the Apostle Peter said without hesitation in Acts 4-12, for there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

No one is saved apart from the name of Jesus Christ. And that's why, ladies and gentlemen, we ought to be sharing that message with people. We share that message not because we hate people of other religions, but because we love them.

We don't want them to miss heaven. Monday, I did a segment with my good liberal Jewish friend, Alan Combs, and I knew it was going to happen. The first thing out of his mouth was, Now Pastor, I heard you said some interesting things a couple of weeks ago in your church about Islam being a false religion and inspired by Satan. Isn't that a little harsh?

I said, well, Alan, I'm an equal opportunity offender. It's not just Islam that is a false religion. Hinduism is false. Buddhism is false.

Any religious system that denies that Christ is the only way to salvation is a false religion used by Satan to deceive people from the true way to heaven. And I said, Alan, think about it this way. If you were in a burning building and I were to say to you, Alan, follow me, there's one way out of this building, why would I say that to you? It's not because I hate you.

It's because I love you and I want to save you from destruction. The reason we say that there is one way to heaven and every other way is a dead end is not because of our hatred toward Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or anyone. It's out of a sincere love and concern for their eternal destiny.

You know, Alan didn't have any response to that because there really is no response to that argument. The only people who stumble over the exclusivity of Jesus for salvation are those who really don't believe it. They really don't believe it. This is a message, please hear me, not only to be shared with others, but this is also a message we must embrace for ourselves. You know, in 1 John 5, 13, the apostle whom Jesus loved wrote these words, these things have I written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life. Do you know?

Forget other people, do you know? Ladies and gentlemen, if you wait until you die and pass from this life into the next life to discover whether you are saved, you've waited too long. Your eternal destiny is too important to be unsure about.

It's not supposed to be a mystery. God wants us to be absolutely certain that we're going to escape the wrath of God. And the only way to escape that wrath is by believing, trusting, and clinging to the name of Jesus Christ. Everyone is guilty before God, every one of us here today, and no one is saved apart from Jesus Christ.

Next time we're going to look at the final two propositions, but this is such an important time for us right now. For you to ask the question of yourself, am I absolutely certain that when I die, not if I die, when I die, when I shut my eyes for the last time here on earth, I'm going to awaken in the presence of God. Welcomed into the heaven he's prepared for me.

There's only one way to be absolutely sure, and that is by right now trusting in Jesus to be your savior. If you can't remember if there's a time in your life when you've done that, why not make that time right now? I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me to God. If this prayer represents what you would like to say to God, would you pray this silently in your heart to God as I prayed out loud, Dear God, thank you for loving me. I already know that I have failed you and sinned against you so many times. And I'm really sorry about the sin in my life, but I believe what I've heard today that you loved me so much. You sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for me in some inexplicable way to take the punishment from you that I deserve for my sins. And right now I'm trusting in what Jesus did for me on that cross, and not my own good works, but in what Jesus did for me to save me, to forgive me of all of my sins. Thank you for forgiving me, and help me to start living the rest of my life for you, in Jesus' name.

The Bible is crystal clear on this issue. None of us escapes the wrath of God apart from faith in Jesus Christ. And at the same time, every one of us is invited to accept God's gift of salvation. This is the message we deliver every day on Pathway to Victory.

And we're empowered to do so because we have friends like you who stand with us. Let me share an encouraging comment that came to my attention not long ago. Jerry wrote to us and said, I am so thankful for the clear teaching I get from Pathway to Victory. Listening each day provides the opportunity for me to grow spiritually and learn what God wants from me and for me. As a result, I'm able to be an effective witness for the Lord. I'm filled with gratitude to Pathway to Victory for helping me share the gospel with others.

Well, thank you, Jerry, for those very kind words. And if you're among those who give to this ministry, this note of gratitude really is addressed to you. God is using your investment to reach friends like Jerry and countless others as well. God has given us a platform on radio, television and the Internet, and we're seizing these opportunities to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word. Remember, when you give a generous gift today, I'm going to send you my brand new devotional called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. The subtitle is 100 Daily Readings About Our Only Hope for Eternal Life. This one-of-a-kind devotional is intentionally designed to boost your passion for sharing the good news. I guarantee you'll be motivated to speak up for God's truth when He calls upon you to do so.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your very own copy of the brand new devotional, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. 100 Daily Readings About Our Only Hope for Eternal Life. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org. And when you give an especially generous gift of $100 or more, we'll also send you, in addition to the devotional, the complete Not All Roads Lead to Heaven teaching series on CD and DVD. You'll get that along with a personal or group study guide.

Plus, you'll receive the original best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress on which this series is based, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. To request this very special package of resources, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. If you'd prefer to write, here's that mailing address. PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

Again, that's PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins wishing you a great weekend. Then join us again next week when Dr. Jeffress revisits this all-important topic, What About Those Who Have Never Heard About Jesus? Hear another message from the series, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven when you join us Monday for Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Imagine waking up to the side of Alaska's majestic coastline or spotting wildlife from the deck of a luxurious cruise ship. Experience these unforgettable moments on the Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress.

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