George Orwell, famous British novelist, of course, and author of the books Animal Farm in 1984, he once said, and I quote, We have now sunk to such a depth That the restatement of the obvious has become the first duty of intelligent men. End of quote. And I thought about this quote a couple of weeks ago when I read an article in USA Today. The article was talking about a host of nationwide religious surveys, and as part of their summation of these surveys, here's what USA Today said, and I quote: They said, Americans of every stripe overwhelmingly believe that all good people go to heaven. This in spite of the fact that the Bible expressly and specifically says differently.
Now, we're going to talk about this today. Today, I feel constrained to take Mr. Orwell's advice and to restate the obvious when it comes to Jesus Christ being the one and only and exclusive way that people get into heaven. We're in a series entitled People Jesus Met. And today, Jesus is going to meet Thomas, one of his disciples, in John chapter 14.
And this very subject comes up, and we want to see what Jesus said 2,000 years ago, and then we want to bring all of that forward and see, well, what difference does that make in your life and my life today?
So, here in John chapter 14, remember, this is all happening during the Last Supper, and during the Last Supper, the subject of heaven comes up, and here's what Jesus said, verse 2. He said, In my father's house, that is heaven, there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you, I am going there to prepare. Prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am.
Here in John chapter 14, Jesus tells us that there is a real place called heaven where real people go after they die. As a matter of fact, Jesus talked about heaven all the time. In John chapter 6, verse 38, he said, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 11, Jesus said, Blessed are you when people persecute you because of me. Rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven.
And to the thief on the cross, Luke chapter 23, verse 43, Jesus said, Today you will be with me in paradise in heaven.
Now, there's a lot of people out there who would like to To change what Jesus said to the thief on the cross, some Catholics would like to change it to today, you will be with me in purgatory.
Some Seventh-day Adventists would like to change it to today, you will be with me in soul sleep. The Hindus would like to change it to say, Today, you will be reincarnated. Buddhists would like to change what Jesus said to read, Today, you will be reabsorbed into the cosmic all. Atheists would like to change it to today, you will be blown out like a candle. And Jewish people would like to change it to today, your guest is as good as mine.
Where are you going to be? But, friends, Jesus said none of these things to the thief on the cross. What did he say? He said, Today you will be with me in heaven, in paradise. You say, Well, Lon, you know what?
I hear what you're saying, but I got to tell you, I don't really believe there's a real place called heaven in the afterlife and a real place called hell. I honestly believe that heaven and hell are right here on earth. You make your own heaven. You make your own hell right here on earth. What do you think about that, Lon?
Well, I think you're entitled to your opinion. The only problem with your opinion is that Jesus Christ, the only individual to ever go to the other side of the grave and come back and tell us about it, he says you're wrong that there really is a place called heaven and there really is a place called hell. You can believe what you want, but I'll stick with him. Verse 4, Jesus continues, talking to Thomas. He said, Thomas, you know the way to this place where I'm going.
And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going.
So how in the world could we possibly know the way to get there? And Jesus answered, verse 6, Thomas, I am the way that you get to this place called heaven. And I am the truth. And I am the life. No one comes to the Father.
No one gets into heaven where the Father is except through me. Here we have the clearest statement that Jesus ever made about how a person gets into heaven. And notice what he says. He says that it's through personal faith in him that God grants people entry into heaven. It's not through sincerity and it's not through religious zeal.
Hey, look. There are a lot of sincere and zealous Catholic people who go to Mass every day. And there are a lot of sincere and zealous Jewish people who keep kosher and go to synagogue every day. And there are a lot of sincere and zealous Muslim people who pray five times a day and make their pilgrimage to Mecca. And there are a lot of sincere and zealous Hindu people who touch no beef products and bathe in the Ganges.
And there are a lot of sincere and zealous Baptists who don't drink or cuss or smoke or chew or hang around with them which do. You understand what I'm saying? But folks, here in John 14, 6, Jesus declares without apology that the only basis upon which God grants entry into heaven is not sincerity, it's not religious zeal. It is on the basis of personal faith in Jesus Christ and active reliance on his blood to pay for our sin in the sight of a holy God. And this is the constant message of the Bible, the unbroken message of the Bible.
Acts chapter 4, verse 12, the Bible says, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved. And so let's summarize. What Jesus said to Thomas here in John 14:6 forms, if you will, the bedrock of true biblical Christianity. Namely, that faith in Jesus Christ is the one and only exclusive way that God grants people eternal life and entrance into heaven.
Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage today because we're going to stop now and we're going to ask our most important questions.
So, all of you at Loudoun and Prince William and in the Edge and on the Internet and here at Tyson's, are we ready? You sure? All right, here we go now, nice and loud. One, two, three. Oh, yes, how sweet it is.
He said, All right, Lon, I hear what you're saying, and I've heard this before, so what difference does all this make to me?
Well, let's talk about it. I think all of us realize that there are a lot of people in our world who struggle with this idea that God only dispenses eternal life to those who believe in Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people in our world who chafe under the idea that there's only one way to get to God and one way to get to heaven, and it's Christ. And maybe you are one of those people.
Well, if you are, you came to the right place today because we're going from the Bible today to settle this question once and for all.
So let's begin by asking: what does God say in the Bible about people who are outside of Jesus Christ?
Well, I'll give you a few verses: John chapter 3, verse 36. Whoever believes in the Son, that is the Lord Jesus, has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see eternal life, for the wrath of God remains, sits, rests on that person. John chapter 3, verse 18. Whoever does not believe in Christ stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 1 John chapter 5 verse 11.
And this is the record that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has eternal life. Watch. And he who does not have the Son of God does not have eternal life. How can you say it any clearer than that?
Acts chapter 4, verse 12, which we read earlier: salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven. Not Buddha, not Confucius, not Muhammad, not Joseph Smith, not Rabbi anybody. No other name under heaven by which we can be saved. And just in case there's any doubt about what happens to people outside of Christ, here's 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 8. God will punish those, the Bible says, who do not know God and who do not obey the message of our Lord Jesus Christ.
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and will be shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. Wow.
Now, this is a verse that you do not want to be on the receiving end of. And yet, God says this is exactly the status, this is exactly the fate of every human being who is outside of Jesus Christ. He said, Well, Lon, wait a minute. Say, I'm understanding, I'm with you, but I've got some objections to all of this. All right, how many have you got?
You say, I got five. All right, let's hear them. All right, here we go. Number one, Lon. You know, this is incredibly intolerant for you to stand up there and say there's only one way to get to heaven, there's only one way to get to God.
I mean, don't you think that's just amazingly intolerant to take that kind of a position?
Well, friends, listen, there are a lot of things in our world that there's only one way to do. For example, there's only one way to add two plus two, there's only one way to land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier, there's only one way to launch the nuclear arsenal of the United States. But when we say this, does anyone accuse naval aviators or mathematicians or the person carrying the atomic football of being intolerant because they say that? No, because there really is only one way to do it. By the same token, if there really is only one way to get to heaven, it is not intolerant for God to tell us that, and it's not intolerant.
For us to tell other people what God told us. You say, all right, well, then I've got another objection. Why would God be so unfair? to people who are outside of Jesus Christ.
Well, let me just say by simply asking that question, it's clear that spiritually you've got the emphasis on the wrong syllable. You understand what I'm saying? There's a part you're missing here, and that is Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Therefore, the Bible says, sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, and so death passed on to all men. The Bible teaches that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they brought a flaw upon the entire human race.
It's a flaw that the Bible calls our sin nature. It's like a defective gene that every human being inherits. And the result of this is that Ephesians 2, verse 1, we are all born spiritually dead in our trespasses and our sins. We are all born alienated from God, separated from God, and under the judgment of God for our sin. This is why John 3:18 said, Whoever does not believe in Christ stands condemned already because God sees us all as sinners.
From the day we're born because of this inherited sin nature.
Now, That's where we start. That's where we start. We start with a huge predicament. But God in His mercy stepped in and made a way out of this predicament for us. God in His mercy stepped in and created a way of escape from this predicament for us.
But, friends, if a person rejects God's mercy and he ends up as a result experiencing God's judgment, has God been unfair to that person? Of course not. I think all of us know that in recent days the price of precious metals has been skyrocketing. Silver right now, for example, is up to $25 an ounce. And I have a bunch of silver that I bought years and years ago, bulk silver, and you say, wow, Lon, you've probably made a lot of money in this market, haven't you?
Well, no, not really. Because I bought my silver in 1980 and I paid $35 an ounce for my silver. You see, I got so caught up in the silver frenzy that was going on back then that I emptied Brenda's and my savings account and went and purchased silver with all of it without telling Brenda. Ooh, that yeah, that was not my finest moment, friends. It wasn't.
I went to this coin shop. And I went in with all the money and I said, I want to buy bulk silver and my historic purchase here. And there was a sign with huge letters right by the cash register in this coin shop. And here's what it said: it said, All sales, final, no exceptions. And when I was checking out and paying for the silver, the coin shop owner said, You see the sign here, right?
I said, Yes, sir. He said, You understand the sign here, right? I said, Yes, sir. Well, wouldn't you know, when less than a week after I purchased my silver, the bottom dropped out of the silver market, the price of silver dropped like a rock. And so I called up the coin shop owner and I said, Sir, you're not going to believe what I did.
I emptied my whole savings account out to buy this silver. I'm on the verge of losing our entire life savings. And I begged this man to let me come back and give him back the silver for the price I paid for it. You know what he said to me? He said, son, He said, Do you remember the sign by the cash register?
I said, Yes, sir. He said, I asked you if you'd read it, right? I said, Yes. And you told me you understand it, right? I said, Yes.
He said, Son, I'm sorry. The sign means what it says. And so do they. I have a lot of silver. And I'll be happy to sell it to you for exactly what I paid for it.
I don't want to make a dime. I'll be down front after the service. Y'all come and see me. But here's the point, my friends. Was that coin shop owner unfair to me?
No, he had made the rules clear, right? And then he enforced them.
Now, I was foolish, but he wasn't unfair. And by the same token, my friends, God tells people over and over in the Bible what the rules are for getting into heaven. He says, No one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. He says, Salvation is found in no one else. And then not only does God tell us the rules, but God begs us in the Bible to listen to the rules and to bring our behavior in line with them.
But friends, if somebody doesn't want to listen, it's not about God being unfair, it's about people being foolish. You say, all right, well then my third objection is this. What about people who've never heard of Jesus Christ? Huh?
Well, let me just say before we answer that, that that may be an interesting thing for us to talk about, but it doesn't make any difference for you. Because you're hearing today. I'm telling you today.
So, whatever happens to them, that's completely different than what happens to you. You're hearing the gospel. But let's answer the question: Romans chapter 1, verse 20 says, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, what are they? Namely, his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly on display so that people are without excuse. The Bible says that there is enough about God revealed in the natural world, revealed in creation, the stars, the moon, the trees, the human body, all of that, that any thinking person ought to be able to recognize and be able to acknowledge that there is a mighty creator God out there.
And if and when a person does this, God takes it upon himself to get them the rest of the information, to get them the gospel message, so that they can close. The deal with Christ if they want to. And I know this is true because it's what happened to me. In 1965, I was a young Jewish high school student and I spent six weeks at Virginia Tech in a National Science Foundation seminar. And one of the things we studied that summer were enzymes in the human body.
Did you know you have thousands of enzymes running around in your body and they're all code-specific, meaning every enzyme only does one job. And if an enzyme is missing or broken, no other enzyme will pick up and do that broken enzyme's job. They have a union contract, friends. This is the way it works. And I remember seeing that incredible system in the human body, and it's just one of the many systems in the human body.
And walking across campus in July of 1965, I stood on the steps of my dorm before I went in. I'll never forget it. It was a bright, sunny day, and I said out loud: there has got to be a God.
Now I didn't go looking for him. I didn't even want to go looking for him. The way I was living, I hope that he and I never met, honestly. But I acknowledge there has to be a God. Six years later, walking down Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I was a student, high on dope at the time, right in my path, God put Bob Eckhart.
I couldn't go around him. I couldn't go over him. I couldn't go under him. And I couldn't go through him. And he was determined to tell me about Jesus Christ.
He was determined to put a Bible in my hand and get me to read the Bible. And one month later, I came to faith in Christ. But it all started in 1965 when I said there has got to be a God. God said, okay, son, I'm going to get you the rest of the story. Number four, you say, well, Lon, I understand that.
But let's say a person looks at the natural world and they acknowledge there's a God, but they don't live in America. They don't live in Chapel Hill. They don't have street preachers where they are. And the closest religion to them is Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam or Judaism or whatever.
So they turn to that religion to sincerely seek God. Won't they be okay if they're sincerely seeking God in the closest religion?
Well, friends, the answer is no, no, a thousand times, no. What did Jesus say? He said, John 14:6, No one comes to the Father except through me. What did 1 John 5, verse 12 say? He who does not have the Son of God.
Does not have eternal life. You say, all right, well, then that brings me to my last objection line, and that is, if these people, Are sincerely seeking God. Through Buddhism or Islam or Judaism or whatever, couldn't God just kind of credit the Blood of Christ to them and take them to heaven, and they still get into heaven through Christ. It's just they don't know about it till they get there. Couldn't God do that?
Well, let me say God can do anything God wants to do, but God says in the Bible he doesn't do this. Romans chapter 10, verse 9. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, not that Buddha is nice, or Muhammad was a prophet, or Joseph Smith saw an angel. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and if we believe in our heart, God raised him from the dead, it's then, and I might add, only then, we will be saved. The point is for a person to confess with their mouth, Jesus is Lord, and for a person to believe in their heart, God raised him from the dead, certainly this means that that person has heard the gospel message.
Somebody has told them Jesus is Lord.
Somebody has told them that Jesus rose from the dead, and they decided willingly and knowingly to embrace the gospel message. They had cognitive facts about Christ and they decided to believe it. That's how saving faith comes. This is why Romans. Romans 10:17 says, Consequently, faith, saving faith, comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard by means of the Word of God, the Bible.
And so, here's the bottom line, my friends. The most sincere Muslim, the most sincere Jewish person, the most sincere Buddhist, the most sincere Hindu, the most sincere atheist, the most sincere American do-gooder until that person hears the cognitive facts about Jesus Christ, his virgin birth, his deity, his sinless life, his death on the cross, his blood payment for our sin, his resurrection from the dead, until they hear all of this and believe it, that person is lost, lost, lost. And this is what the Bible says without hesitation. This is what the Bible says without reservation, and this is what the Bible says without equivocation. This is the truth of the Bible.
Now Woof. Take a breath. You say, all right, Lon.
So, what difference does this make for me? I mean, what does all this mean for my life here today?
Well, it depends where you stand with Christ. There's two places you can stand with Christ. Number one, if you're an active believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you've given your life to Him, you know you know Christ and He knows you, then let me tell you what this means for you and me. It means that apart from Christ, every single person you and I pass every single day-the man on the metro, the woman at Starbucks, the people in the hallway at work, the FedEx lady, and the UPS man- all these people, every one of them, is separated from God, under the judgment of God, and headed for a disaster in eternity. And it also means that the only hope, the only hope these people have is for you and me to open our mouths and lovingly share with them the cognitive facts about Jesus Christ so they've got the information they need to close the deal.
But listen, friends, you and I will never be outspoken, bold witnesses for Christ like this unless we believe what the Bible tells us. About Jesus being the only way to get to heaven. We'll never pay the price in rejection. We won't be willing to pay the price in ostracism. We won't be ready to pay the price in broken relationships.
If we believe that there's any other way for people to get to heaven, we'll say, well, they can get to heaven some other way. I don't need to pay that price. And I hope we've settled that issue once and for all today: that Jesus is the only way, that's what the Bible says. And I hope that you and I, as followers of Christ, will take the advice of Paul when he wrote Timothy, 2 Timothy 1, verse 8, and said, Timothy, do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord. And the question I want to leave you, if you're a believer here today as we end.
For discussing with other people, for asking yourself, is this question: what is holding me back? From being an outspoken witness for Jesus Christ wherever I go. What is it? Is it fear? Is it embarrassment?
Is it that you don't feel like you're prepared? You don't have the skills? We can help with that. Christianity 301 starts in two weeks. Is it that up to this point you've really had doubts whether Jesus really was the only way?
I hope we've settled that today. What is it that is keeping you from being a bold, outspoken witness for Christ? And the follow-up question is: Am I willing to ask God? to help me overcome it.
So I can be. A bold, outspoken witness for the Lord.
Now, if you're here today. And you have never trusted Christ as your real and personal Savior. Then you're in a different category in terms of what this means for your life today. Friends, what this means for your life today is that you are fully exposed to God's judgment for sin in eternity. It means for you today that you are not on your way to heaven, and it means that no amount of good work is going to remedy that situation.
No amount of religious activity is going to remedy that situation. No amount of human effort is going to remedy that situation. Only your willingness to transfer your trust off of everything you've ever trusted to get you into heaven and onto the blood of Christ shed on the cross to pay for your sin. That's the only remedy. And if you've never availed yourself of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for your sin, then you know what?
We're going to give you a chance to do it right now. Let's bow our heads together. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, and nobody looking around. If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ, you've been trusting your own good works and your own religious activity or whatever. To pay for your sin and get you into heaven.
And you understand as a result of the Word of God today. That that's all a dead end stream. And you're willing today to To trade all that in. And embrace the blood of Christ shed for your sin. Then here's what we're going to do.
We're going to pray a little prayer, very short. I'm going to pray out loud one phrase at a time, and I want you to repeat it right after me, silently. I'll pray out loud, you pray silently, one phrase at a time. And let's get that transaction done and ratified right now, today. Here we go.
Lord Jesus. I come to you today. Because I want to go to heaven. I want to have eternal life. And I want to know that I've got it.
And from the Bible today. I've come to understand. that all my good works In all my sincerity And all my religious activity. will never accomplish this for me. And so today I give up.
All of those other remedies. For my sin. And instead I transfer my trust. Onto the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Onto his blood.
as the payment for my sin. In the sight of a holy God. Lord Jesus, come into my life today. I surrender to you as my Lord and my Saviour. Assure me.
of eternal life. And transform my earthly life. into something really worth living. I yield myself to you today. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. And Father, I want to pray for the folks that prayed that prayer. That you would confirm in their hearts right now as they sit here that a great transaction has taken place in the heavenly places, that as John 5, 24 says, they have passed from death into eternal life, never ever to go backwards. And, Father, I pray for all of us here who've already made that decision: that you would challenge us today with the exclusivity of Christ for salvation. Challenge us to go out to our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, our relatives, strangers.
And give them lovingly the information about Christ.
So that they have the opportunity to make this same transaction happen in their lives. Father, help us be missionaries every single day here in Washington, D.C., or wherever we go. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? Amen.
