Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes.
Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. We're sharing God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, just as a tether in outer space only saves an astronaut who is willing to grab a hold of it.
Just as a net below a burning apartment building can only save the woman who is willing to jump into it. So the gospel only saves those who believe in it. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Throughout the Old Testament, we read hints about the coming Messiah who will bring salvation to the world.
And while Christians believe that Savior is Jesus Christ, millions of Jews are still eagerly awaiting their Messiah. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress examines how one Jewish man described his encounter with Jesus. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thank you, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Well, we're in the middle of a thought-provoking teaching series, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. And this is a perfect time to let us know if you want a copy of my brand new devotional by the same title.
Now is the time to reach out and request it. God has appointed all of us to be His representatives on earth and to proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. It's the most loving thing we can do for people around us. My new devotional gives you 100 days of encouragement, and it will equip you to live joyfully in the knowledge of our one-of-a-kind Savior.
Ask for your copy of my new book. It's titled Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. The subtitle is 100 daily readings about our only hope for eternal life.
And it's yours when you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory. Now, in addition to the devotional, I've also prepared a practical brochure called Christianity Cults and Religions. In this resource, I highlight the key beliefs of biblical Christianity and compare them to 16 other false religions. It's designed to expose how Mormonism, Islam, and other false teachings stack up against biblical Christianity.
So get in touch with us today by going to ptv.org. More details are coming later in today's program, but right now it's time for us to get started with the next message in our series, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. Today we're talking about the world's most famous Jew who found Jesus. One of the gotcha questions the media loves to ask evangelical pastors is this one. Do you believe that a sincere Jew who professes his faith, follows his religion, but never accepts Christ, do you believe that Jew is going to spend eternity in hell?
I have found myself the best way to answer that question is head on. Yes, the sincere Jew who practices his faith without accepting Christ is going to hell. Just like the sincere Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, or Baptist who follows religion without ever accepting Christ is going to spend eternity in hell as well.
How do I say that with such confidence? Because the three most prominent Jews of the New Testament, Jesus Christ, the Apostle Peter, and the Apostle Paul all said the same thing. Even as Jews, they said there is no salvation apart from faith in Jesus Christ. In our series, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven, we've been looking about what the Bible says about the most important doctrine of all, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation.
We've seen that Jesus, the founder of our faith, taught us by both his words and his example on the cross that there is no other way to heaven. Last time we looked at what the Apostle Peter, the leader of the church at Jerusalem said, and now today we're going to see what the third prominent Jew said about this subject, and that is the Apostle Paul. Paul said, I was not only a Jew, I was the Hebrew of the Hebrews. I kept the law as best I could, and not only that, I was so zealous for my faith that I persecuted the church. You say, well, now why is that a commendation to say you persecuted the church? Do you know the reason Paul persecuted the church, that he had people imprisoned and put to death?
It wasn't out of sadism that he did that. It was out of the sincerity of his Jewish faith. He believed he was doing God's work. He believed that Christianity was a heresy that needed to be stamped out. He was sincerely following God. He should have been saved if religion can save anyone.
But notice what happened to him. He had a dramatic encounter on the Damascus road that changed his life forever. In Acts 9 verses 3 to 5 it says, and it came about that as he, Paul, also known as Saul, journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell down to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. And that confrontation with Jesus Christ transformed Paul from being the greatest antagonist of Christianity to the greatest evangelist for the Christian faith. Paul's own experience demonstrates that sincerity of religion is not enough. We see that also in the ministry of the apostle Paul.
Turn over to Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. For I am 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. For in it, that is the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith.
You know, at first glance that phrase seems strange. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why would anyone be ashamed of the gospel? We all demonstrate that we're ashamed in a way of the gospel when we refuse to speak out, but not the apostle Paul. He never backed down for proclaiming there is only one way to heaven.
In fact, just look at his experience in ministry that's recorded in 2 Corinthians 11. Paul gave this testimony about what he endured for preaching the gospel. He said, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, a beating with the cat of nine tails, that whip.
Forty lashes would kill a man. Not only that, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and day I've spent in the deep, that is in the ocean.
I've been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Now, here's the simple question. If everybody's going to heaven anyway, regardless of what they believe, why did Paul risk his own life? Why did he go through all of this? Why was he ultimately beheaded if everybody's going to heaven anyway? No, he was willing to go through all of this because he believed that Jesus was not just another way to heaven. Faith in Christ was the only way to be saved. And that's why he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
Thirteen times in the book of Romans, Paul uses the word salvation or save. And here he links salvation to the word gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God to salvation. That word gospel literally means good news.
I am not ashamed of the good news because it is resulting in salvation. Two years ago, the Academy Award winning movie Gravity came out. Some of you may have seen the movie.
It's about two astronauts who are stranded in outer space. You know, any plan for mission control that would have allowed them to come back to earth would not have been seen as bad news. It would have been welcome news.
It would have been good news. You know, the Bible says the moment we are born and draw our first breath on planet earth, we start drifting further and further and further away from God. Isaiah 53 says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone unto our own way. Every day that you and I live, we're moving further and further away from God.
God could leave us just to suffer the eternal results of our separation from him. But instead, because of the great love God has for you and me, he instituted a rescue plan to bring us back home again. And that rescue plan is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to notice something else Paul had to say about this gospel. In the teaching of the Apostle Paul about exclusivity, notice what he says about the gospel and specifically the necessity of faith. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who what? Believes. Paul believed that faith was necessary to receive the rescue, the salvation that God offers.
Now listen to this. Just as a tether in outer space only saves an astronaut who is willing to grab a hold of it. Just as a net below a burning apartment building can only save the woman who is willing to jump into it.
Just as a life preserver can only rescue from the deep somebody who will grab hold of it. So the gospel only saves those who believe in it. And that's why Paul said it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Notice in verse 17 of Romans 1, he emphasizes again the importance of faith. For in it the gospel, the righteousness of God, that means a right standing with God is revealed from faith to faith. For as it is written, the righteous man shall live by faith. You know as we saw in a previous message, faith is what connects our need with God's provision to meet our need. We're not saved by faith, we are saved through faith.
Now I want you to look at just one section of Romans. Romans 3 verses 21 to 25. How many times, six different times Paul talks about faith or believe in relationship to salvation. But now apart from the law, the righteousness, that is a right standing with God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift of his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Whom God displayed publicly as the propitiation, that means satisfaction in his blood through faith. And he might be just in the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now again Paul is clear, we're not saved by faith, we are saved through faith. And that's why Paul said in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace God's work on the cross that we had nothing to do with. For by grace we have been saved through faith.
Does that make sense? Faith is the connection between God's offer and my acceptance. Now another important point, our faith is only as reliable as the object of our faith. You know in Romans 4 verse 5 the apostle Paul says, But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. The moment I come to the point in my life when I realize I can't save myself, I can't work, I refuse to work for my salvation, but instead I believe, trust in the one who declares not guilty, that is Jesus Christ. God takes my faith no matter how small it is and he counts it as righteousness. We are not saved by our faith, we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Now we've looked at what the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, even Jesus himself said about this topic of exclusivity. They were very clear, not all roads lead to heaven, different religions are not simply different paths up the same mountain of truth that lead to God. There is one way to be saved. Now that should settle the issue, shouldn't it?
But I want us to look at one more example. Let's look beyond the apostle Paul to one other writer in the New Testament. He was the writer of the book of Hebrews.
Turn in your Bibles for just a moment to Hebrews chapter 10. You know we don't really know who wrote the book of Hebrews, but we know the circumstances that caused this letter to be written. It was written to Hebrews.
Seven years of seminary, I know that now. It was written to Jewish people, but it was written to a special group of Jewish people. Jewish people who had recently converted to Christianity. They had laid aside Judaism, they had placed their faith in Jesus Christ, but because of pressure from family and friends, they were thinking about giving up their Christian beliefs and going back into Judaism. Some of you listening here today, some of you watching on television, you've recently come to faith in Christ, but you're getting a lot of pressure from your mate or maybe from family members or friends to renounce your Christianity and go back to your old way of living.
That's what was going on here. These Jewish Christians were thinking about giving up Christianity to go back into Judaism, and this book was written as a warning to them. The writer says very simply, why in the world would you give up Christianity to go back to an inferior belief system? And he shows throughout Hebrews how Christianity is superior to Judaism. What makes Christianity superior?
Three things. He says, first of all, Christianity has a superior priest, Jesus Christ. Judaism has human priests who sin and have to make sacrifices for their own sin. Jesus was the perfect high priest. Not only does Christianity have a superior priest, it offers a superior sacrifice. Judaism just offered the blood of animals, but Jesus Christ offered the sacrifice of himself. A superior priest who offered a superior sacrifice to obtain, thirdly, a superior salvation.
Judaism, the sacrifices had to be offered over and over and over and over again, but Jesus Christ, who offered the superior sacrifice, obtained eternal redemption. The question is, why would you give up something superior for an inferior religion? Now you know today, the writer of Hebrews would be called a bigot.
He would be called intolerant for suggesting that Christianity is superior to any religion, especially Judaism. But over and over again, this writer says that there is a dire future awaiting those who abandon Christianity for any other belief system. Look at verses 29 to 31.
You find one of these warnings here. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who is trampled underfoot, the son of God, and is regarded as unclean, the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and insulted the spirit of grace? When you reject Jesus Christ, that's what you're doing. You're saying the blood of Christ is unclean, it's got the same value as a mongrel dog roaming the streets.
That's what the text actually says. When you resist or neglect the gospel, you're insulting the Holy Spirit of God. And then verse 30. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You know, we think of God as this warm, cuddly old grandfather.
Our buddy in heaven. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says it is a terrifying thing to face God, to fall into his hands without having your sins forgiven.
That's what he's saying. Why would you abandon the only way to have your sins forgiven and go to an inferior belief system? The book of Hebrews has all kind of warnings just like that one. But I want to close today by looking at the first warning in the book of Hebrews. It's found in chapter 2, verse 1.
Look at this. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we've heard, lest we drift away from it. Pay closer attention is a translation of a word in Greek that refers to the tying up of a ship to its mooring so that it will stay in place and stay secure. He says, in the same way, we must tie up to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you don't want to keep drifting further and further away from God and spend eternity separated from him, you must tie up to, take hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the first phrase.
What happens if we don't? Underline the second phrase, lest we drift away from it. That's also a nautical term, but it means something else. It refers to a ship that, through the inattention of its sailors, accidentally drifts by the harbor. It's not that the sailors wanted to drift by the harbor.
They were anxious to get home and get home safely. But because they were caught up in other things, they neglected the narrow passageway that left to safety. And he said, you and I need to pay close attention to the gospel, lest we simply neglect to take advantage of it and drift past it. And just so nobody misses the point, look at what he says in verses two and three. For if the word spoken through angels, that's a reference to the law given to Moses, the Old Testament law. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
You know what he's saying? He's saying to these Jews who were thinking of giving up Christianity and going back into Judaism, he said, have you lost your mind if you have neglected the only offering of sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Two thousand years later, that question is just as relevant for you and me today. If you reject the gospel that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved, or if you simply neglect it for now, you say, you know, I may get around to that at some point, but I'm going to explore other avenues of salvation. If you reject the only provision God has made for your salvation, exactly what is your plan to get to heaven one day? The consistent teaching of Paul, Peter, the writer of Hebrews, and most importantly, Jesus Christ himself, is this.
There is no other way. There is no other harbor that leads to safety except through faith in Jesus Christ. At this very moment, men and women around the world are making decisions to take that narrow road that leads to Jesus Christ. Nothing gives us more joy at Pathway to Victory than hearing how God is using this ministry to bring people into his family. Today's message comes from our series, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. Only a few more days remain in our study, so I'm urging you to take down our contact information and request my brand new 100-day devotional on this topic. It's also called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven.
Have you ever felt intimidated by sharing the gospel with your friends and family? This devotional will equip you with language for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with boldness. Plus, if you have a son or daughter, or perhaps even a grandchild, who's being indoctrinated by secular teachers to believe that tolerance and inclusion are the utmost virtues, this would make a thoughtful gift to them.
We're losing a generation that has bought into the lie that all roads lead to God. My devotional, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven, will ground your family in the foundational belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and it will equip you to share this truth in a compassionate and compelling way. Ask for your copy of my brand new devotional called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. We'll send you a copy right away when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. In closing, I want to assure you that your generous gifts are making an impact. Our inbox is filled with affirming comments from listeners who thank us for telling the truth without compromise. And we can do that because Pathway to Victory has friends like you who give.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of the brand new 100-day devotional based on the bestselling book by Dr. Jeffress called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. You'll get that along with a copy of the brochure called Christianity, Cults, and Religions. To request these resources, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also send you the original bestselling book Not All Roads Lead to Heaven.
Plus, you'll receive the complete unabridged teaching series on CD and DVD along with an in-depth study guide. To request the complete package of resources, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. If you'd prefer to send your donation by mail, write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. The Bible claims that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. But what about those who have never heard about Jesus? Dr. Robert Jeffress addresses this common argument against the exclusivity of Christ Thursday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. The Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress set sail from Vancouver, British Columbia on June 15, 2024. Join me along with musical artists Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien and comedian Dennis Swanberg for a vacation you'll never forget.
I promise you will come back spiritually, physically, and emotionally refreshed. Book your spot on the seven-day Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska at ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in his word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
