About people who NEVER hear the gospel

so today we're gonna answer the question what about people who live their whole life on earth from birth till death and they never hear the Gospel message they never even hear it they're never exposed to the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus now this is a big question and I hear this given answers I hear people giving answers to this question online and they tend to give sort of short summary answers they don't always support these summary answers with clear teachings of Scripture and then those answers always lead to more questions you're like well if that's true then what about and so my goal tonight is to do a thoughtful careful step-by-step answering of these issues I'm gonna try to answer as many questions as I can relate it to the topic and what I'll do is then open it up to Q&A at the end and don't hold back you know if you have a question if you're like but what about this or what about that like please ask it I mean the worst I can do is tell you I don't know which which I'm open to doing that but if I can I'll give I'll give an answer because I have a theory when it comes to tough issues I think and this is my opinion I think that there are threads of wisdom going through the scriptures where when you pull in these other different ideas throughout the text of the 66 books you get a really thorough answer for what might seem like a tough question and I've seen it happen over and over again so my theory is that it's there a lot more than we realize cuz sometimes we just don't consult the text that much so instead of a short answer here's a long answer um what about people who never hear the Gospel message okay but so before I can give a simple short answer to that question I need to establish some truths the first question is what is it really that causes people to be condemned in the first place like why would anyone go to hell like why would anyone be apart from God the answer is this it is not because they didn't hear about Jesus this is something commonly said I hear people say it like the only real sin is rejecting the gospel and I'll be like well if that was really literally true than murderers not bad this is obviously there's obviously that's a very crass way of putting it it's like that's not obviously true on its on its surface so the first thought is this wrath is on us because of sin not merely because of unbelief unbelief is a sin in and of itself but it's not all there is it's not the only sin that exists is unbelief wrath is on us the wrath of God because of the sins we've committed not only is there things like lying that we've all done thing which is the greatest commandment to love God with all my heart soul mind and strength to love my neighbor as myself I've not done this and so I've brought wrath upon myself by not being loving I may not feel that's a big deal but God seems to God seems to think love is a big deal it's his primary thing but also Jesus comes along and he exposes to us how God is going to judge obviously the person who never hears the gospel doesn't hear this message but I'm trying to establish here what does the scripture teach us about about how God is going to judge he shows us that hatred in your heart is seen as murder to hate someone in your heart without cause that's murder in your heart we tend to think oh man you just thought it and didn't do it it's okay and it was okay to look but not touch Jesus said if you look with lust you've committed adultery in your heart to which every humans like are you saying I'm not a good person to which we say yes that's the point that's that's the point I'm not a good person none of us are actually good in the sense of that God is good I might be good at sports I might be a good friend but I'm not good like holy I'm not like that Jesus goes on he talks about how there's some people and this is in the Sermon on the Mount how some people do good but they do it for wrong reasons how you give what you give so others might see you given you pray but you pray so others might see you praying how there's these religious activities we do for the sake of other people watching us and how that is means nothing to God means absolutely nothing to God and so Romans 3:23 kind of summarizes mankind's condition this way it says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God this is something we've established well in our Roman series but this is some it has to be said before you can answer the question what about people who never hear the gospel well let's before they never hear the gospel they sinned and fall short of God's glory this is something we need to recognize wrath comes upon us because of sin it stays upon us because of unbelief but that's that's an important distinction because I've heard people say I can't believe in a God who would send someone to hell just because they didn't believe in Jesus and I'll be like that's not Christianity like that's not what the Bible teaches people don't go to help because they just didn't believe they go to hell because of their their wrath that's on them because of their wicked sins unbelief is the thing that keeps it that way I like the analogy of a firefighter imagine a firefighter they they come up to a call and the call is a result of you and here you are you're in a building playing with fire and the fire catches you know you didn't realize toilet paper burns so fast a lesson I learned at a young age and so so there you are you know writing your name with spray paint and then lighting it on fire to see what it would look like and you set the building on fire and the firefighter comes and crashed through the window comes the ladder of the firefighter and he climbs up a ladder and he says he says I'm your only way out come to me and I will save you and you look at him and you say you know I'm really offended by the idea that the only way out of this fire is down your ladder that's very rude and you burned to death and died feeling very justified about your position but you see if the firefighter had caused the fire I could see your problem but you caused the fire and this is the same situation it's like I caused the wrath through my sins through my wickedness through my evil and therefore I cannot shake my fist at God if I reject the one way out you know I caused the fire that that would that was the initial cause so Jesus is the cure he is not the cause for condemnation he's the Cure condemnation does increase if you hear the gospel and reject it Jesus talks about these cities corazon Messiah which rejected his message and he goes oh it's gonna be worse for you now because you have rejected the message so for the one who's never heard the gospel versus the one who's heard and rejected it well that that person's worse off than the person who never heard but the the never hearing is not the cause of their condemnation some people another issue some people enter in the way I'm gonna do this tonight is I'll go through one issue after another after another and as we answer all these different issues it should do it be like a tapestry like it draws a big picture of all the details that should answer our questions about this some people they enter in the conversation going is God really fair when he you know condemns people only save some people and doesn't save others or something along those lines for that person who's really stumbling over that issue if God is really fair to condemn some and forgive others I think what we have to do is realize that fair would mean we all go to hell based on Scripture a biblical teaching is that fair would mean everyone is condemned everyone is lost that's actually fair that's actually justice right if a thousand murderers walk into a courtroom a thousand murderers should walk out and go to prison or worse that would be fair now if one of them got a pardon or another got a pardon for some particular reason and then we got mad that all didn't get pardoned and said that wasn't fair well you would have to say wow you have to have a actually what you need is a good excuse to pardon any of these guys that's that's the truth you need a really good reason to pardon any of these people and it's the same case for us I'm gonna say something that seems kind of extreme but I think that if you think about it rationally instead of emotionally you'll understand if if people lived and died and there was no gospel Jesus never died on the cross for us if we lived live sinful lives and then died and were judged God would be just if every human had been condemned because of their sins and no human was saved if all the murderers went to jail so to speak God would be just and fair that would actually be fair you see salvation is a grace thing and one mistake people make is thinking that grace is deserved okay what about grace don't I get grace like I deserve it like I it belongs to me it's something that I'm owed if you if it's owed to you it's not great tres is a merciful kindness that God gives us so fortunately that's not the whole story right we have the gospel we have Jesus paying the price for our sins but this is a merciful Grace and some people ask the question what about the unsaved what about the people who've never heard the Gospel message as though they deserve to be saved those are they have some there a right fair thing would be at least half of them should be saved right like 50% like just like just pick a percentage that doesn't make a lot of sense once you look at the reality of humankind okay but that's not the whole story thank god this is not the whole story I'm just drawing I'm just trying to put little little pieces in place that will help guide us in our connect the dots to figure out this the big picture view and answer to this question the next question is this what does man really know what about the person who never hears the gospel well what did they hear what are they aware of and if you've been with me in the Romans study then you know that there's two things that every man is aware of that all humans having a sense of accountability for based on Scripture and it says in Romans 1 verses 19 and 20 because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse so the first thing that every man is accountable to no I'm not talking about infants that's a different study altogether but every person is accountable to know is that there is a God you can tell this by looking around you can see through creation that there's a create tour and whether you're deep in the sciences or if you just have never been exposed to that stuff you can still look around and see the evidence for God around you that's this is this is this is good stuff that means the person who never heard is not they never heard nothing theirs might be things they don't know but it's not that they don't know anything they know there's a God the second thing they know you could probably guess right it's morality they know about God and they know about morals right wrong sin they know these things so Rome to 14 through 16 it talks about this about Gentiles who don't have the revelation of Moses and this sort of stuff he says for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law like not murder not steal not not do those sorts of things these although not having the law are a law to themselves who show they demonstrate the work of the law written in their hearts what do we call that their conscience also bearing witness and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them and so their thoughts accuse them or excuse on this again this is romans 2 verses 14 through 16 you know I of course I know what's right and wrong I just naturally know what's right and wrong I might be a little off on some of the details but I know there's right and wrong and I can pretty well know that when I when I did that it was wrong when I did that it was the right thing to do but then check this out verse 16 of Romans 2 this kind of blows my mind it says in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel the conscience of people will accuse or excuse them in the day in the Judgment Day meaning that an unbeliever who did not receive the law who didn't have the Old Testament they will be brought up and God will judge them based on with a morals that they were aware of there that God could could sort of hey here's your conscience let me let me show you what you did now let me show you what you knew when you did it your own conscience will accuser excuse you so this is this is this is fair this is a just judgment so there's a knowledge of God and there's a knowledge of morality and there is of course in that an awareness that I failed obviously an unbeliever who has never heard any of this information from the Bible could respond to these internal awarenesses of God from creation and conscience this is what we call general revelation that's the the theological term for it meaning it's been revealed generally to all of mankind we have another term called special revelation and that refers to like God giving you some something that's not generally to all mankind the scripture is considered special revelation a dream from the Lord or some somehow God just showing you something that would be a special revelation you know to you we didn't show it to every human on earth so every man knows there's a god every man knows that there's a moral on that we don't follow it that's what every man knows I think we can start there we can start there with realizing okay justice would have us all condemned and every man is aware that there's God every man is aware of morality so we're no longer looking at is God fair or not we're now asking a different question Lord how do you handle this it's not are you fair I'm not worried about the goodness of God in this debate and this question I'm just trying to understand now as a Christian what about those people who haven't heard did they respond if they respond to this awareness of God and this awareness and morals are they somehow saved is that enough is that enough to somehow bring them to Jesus somehow but they've never even heard the name Jesus they don't know anything about the atonement or anything so I want to look now at some biblical examples Old Testament examples of people and I'll be very careful how I say this because I know I'm gonna get in trouble but people who were saved without the New Testament knowledge of the gospel people who were saved without full knowledge of the gospel they may have had some sort of seed knowledge but you couldn't have called it the gospel it would have been information maybe somehow related to Christ having his future coming some little tiny piece of it but that you wouldn't have been able to call it the gospel any more than you can call like an acorn an oak tree you know there might be related but one's not the other so so this is this is where we'll go in fact the first one we'll look at is Abraham Abraham in Romans 4 Paul Labor's hard to show us that Abraham was saved by what faith he's worked hard at it in written in Romans 4 3 he talks about it wasn't Abraham justified by faith and then he quotes Genesis 15:6 where it says abraham believed God and God accounted it to righteousness for Abraham so Abraham was righteous by faith we're talking Genesis here Old Testament guy who believed God and was counted righteous this was before the law so he didn't have any of the law of Moses this was before the cross so he didn't have any knowledge of Jesus but Abraham was clearly This Old Testament Saints saved by faith and what did he believe he believed God when God God gave him special revelation so it wasn't just general it wasn't just creation and conscience there was more he had revelation that God was gonna multiply his seed and bless the whole earth through him now it relates to Jesus doesn't it because Jesus is the ultimate seed of Abraham but he doesn't know all these details yet it's still a mystery revealed later in the gospel so Abraham's one example he's someone who was saved by faith but not full knowledge of Jesus and I think this is important I think this is important let's look at some other Old Testament examples um naman in fact let's turn to 2nd Kings chapter 5 we're gonna read the story of Nahum and Naaman was a Syrian general from from Syria believe it or not and he was a leper he had gotten leprosy now in the Old Testament text the word leprosy is often used to talk about all manner of skin diseases so it may or may not be the particular disease we think of and today we say leprosy it could have been a whole host of different skin related diseases maybe he was you know like something related or similar we don't know but it was definitely something that seemed to be incurable seemed to be very serious and bad and this Syrian general Naaman he comes to the king of Israel and he asks for healing and the Syrians here are more powerful than the Jews at this point in time and so the king of Syria is like hey here's my sermon my servant he's special to me heal him the king of Israel starts pulling out his hair he tears his clothes he's like oh he's just looking for a reason to come kill us like right he's just looking for a cause to start a war and Elisha the prophet he gets connected with his general and he tells him that what you need to do is you need to go and I'm giving a short version of the story you need to go and dip seven times in the Jordan River the Syrian general is offended by this and he's like I go out to see this prophet I'm important man you know he doesn't even come down I thought he'd wave his hands over me or something I thought he'd Benny Hinn me or something you know and and no no he just tell he just sends word from his messenger go dip yourself in the Jordan now the jordan river is not the cleanest river in town and so he's offended he's like we got better rivers up where I live why am i why come down here to dip in rivers and his servants come and they go they go name it if he'd asked you to do some great powerful deed you would have done it he just wants you to go dip in the water why not just go do it so he humbles himself he dips in the water he gets healed and he has a total life change he's like the you know the power of this moment is not lost on him he's like the God of Israel is actually real and he knows that this means that all the other gods are false and so let's read verse 15 he says in second Kings 5 verse 15 it says and he returned to the man of God he and all his aides and came and stood before him and he said indeed now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel now therefore please take a gift from your servant but he said as the Lord lives before whom I stand I will receive nothing and he urged him to take it but he refused so Naaman said then if not please let your servant and look at his request be given to mule loads of Earth he wants dirt from Israel for your servant will no longer offer either burn offering or sacrifice to other gods but to the Lord to Yahweh that's who he's gonna offer these things to that's what he wants the dirt for he's gonna build an altar where he can he can offer sacrifice and pay homage to Yahweh to the God of Israel this has been that interesting he got converted is what we're reading then in verse 18 it says yet in this thing may the Lord pardon your servant when my master remember his king the king of Syria when my master goes into the temple of Ramon to worship there and he leans on my hand and I bow in the temple of Ramon when I bow down in the temple of Ramon may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing it seems that the king would go in with his general into the temple of Ramon and then the king would bow while the king it seems needed help walking and so he being the general was his job to help him so he would bow to and he's like saying I'm bowing to help him it's my duty but I'm not bowing to this false god it can I be forgiven for this I'm not worshiping this false God I have a duty here it shows that I think the Bible is recognizing that there are sometimes really complicated issues that we're dealing with that are ethical issues oh this is a challenging one you know it's not clear cut and dry I'm not offering to this thing but but it but he needs help and I was supposed to because it's my position in the government and how do I handle this and and so look at what he says he says to him go in peace so he departed from him a short distance and there's more story that interesting story that continues there but that's pretty much it for naman and the sake of him being a believer in Yahweh the God of Israel what does he told he's told go in peace it seems to me that Nahum and his is responding in faith he's repented of worshipping these false gods and I do believe we're gonna seen a man in heaven I think that's a safe reading of the text what did what did he what did he know I mean he wasn't even under the Covenant of Israel you can't even say well he was under the law the law is how he got saved like nobody ever got saved through the law like the Bible seems to be pretty clear on this if he was saved it was through Jesus but he didn't know that much about Jesus no but he knew see Yahweh's Jesus guy so he had his faith in God just not knowing all the details yet it was like I believe in this ACORN even though it's not yet the tree I don't know all the details I don't know what it's gonna become but I believe this and that's what we seen a man doing now it turned to Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 10 we have a passage that deals with a whole group of people who got saved by faith apart from works they got saved by faith and look at the list let's look at the list or several of them here and I'm gonna argue and I'll show you why in the text in Hebrews they're not just being lifted up because they had some type of faith they believed God for something but they're being lifted up because actually were saved the eternal life saved and that's in the end of the last three verses or four verses we go through all I think make it clear that these people were saved so let's look at this starting in verse 39 of Hebrews 10 Hebrews 10 39 says but we are not of those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe to the saving of the soul so the context is we're talking about genuine faith faith that lasts all the way through and that you get saved verse one of Hebrews 11 now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen I take that to be a description of faith not a definition of faith there is a difference I think faith definitionally is is a choice to trust a personal choice to trust something it doesn't mean unseen like I'm like blind faith that's a different issue but what does faith look like when you look at someone who has faith it looks like the substance of things hoped for like man that's the things are hoping for I see it in their faith the evidence of the things they don't see I see that in their faith so it's what faith looks like not what faith is there's a difference there's what a dog looks like and what it all is anyway that's another study just just a bonus just for free alright verse 2 it says for by it by faith the elders obtained a good testimony now we'll talk about those elders by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible interesting science has recently caught up with that verse for by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts and through it he being dead still speaks Abel he had general revelation right but he also had some special relation to right I mean he's offering sacrifices like you don't get that from general revelation he has some kind of knowledge there was more that Adam and Eve knew that that their kids knew then that was not all written down for us so but he offers a sacrifice he has faith he's testifies he's brightest by this faith that's interesting right a but was saved in the New Testament sense of saved but he had only a little bit of knowledge compared to the gospel that was revealed later verse 5 by faith Enoch Enoch he was the seventh from Adam in the genealogy was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God that he pleased God verse 6 but without faith it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him this applies of course to that person who is often some foreign land is God not a real border of those who diligently seek Him doesn't he want to be found so if you are responding to creation responding to your conscience and you diligently seeking God do you not think he will reward that of course of course he will this is part of who he is it's not part of who we are it's part of who he is he is so Enoch is another example someone who's safe with you might call it seed faith or faith in no I'm not TV preaching here because to them see faith is money you give them I'm talking about something entirely different without faith it would be impossible please him so Enoch has faith even though it might not be in the full knowledge of everything here but it is certainly faith in the it's accurate faith there's another example verse 7 by faith Noah being divinely warned of these of things not yet seen moved with godly fear prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith Noah was saved by faith but this faith isn't specifically a message of Jesus is it it's a message about the ark it's a message of God's judgment now we look and we say the ark is a whole picture of Christ and we see these beautiful things in there so we see his faith was pointed at Christ but without full knowledge of Christ it's a seed faith in that sense verse 8 by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called out called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going that's me sometimes just the last part by faith he dwelt in a land of promise as in a foreign country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God so Abraham had this faith and it's demonstrated but what he believed was not it doesn't say and by faith he believed that Jesus would come and die on the cross for our sins and rise again it's not the death and resurrection but it's connected to it in some way that's what we're seeing is the commonality I think between these verse eleven by faith Sara herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised therefore one from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore now it summarizes the description of all these people and it's that this is a salvation faith that they had verse 13 these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off were assured of them embrace them and confessed that there were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for those who say such things declare plainly that they that they seek a homeland and if they and truly if they had called in mind that country from which they've come out they would have had opportunity to return but now they desire a better that is a heavenly country therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them Sara eternal life they have this eternal salvation so that whole list in Hebrews 10 they have saving faith in something I would I would say as we kind of just put it all together we go case so there's like they're believing in things related to Jesus but if it's not the it's not the full knowledge of the gospel that would be I think a safe way to put it so if I was gonna answer the question is general revelation creation and conscience is that enough for me to be saved I would say I don't have an example of that in Scripture the examples in Scripture all had some measure of special revelation though it doesn't mean that they necessarily had the Bible or they had necessarily the Full Gospel message but they had some measure of special revelation Abel's making sacrifices where did he learn this you know he had some measure of special revelation so general revelation may or may not be probably is not enough but it is enough to position us for special revelation I see creation conscience so I grope for God I I reach for God I desire to find God and there's a scripture I want to share with you related to this if I can find it in my notes Acts chapter 17 verses 26 and 27 Paul's preaching here and he says again it's acts 17 verses 26 and 27 he's preaching to Gentiles here too not to non-jews and it says and he has made from one blood God made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him find him though he is not far from each one of us the God is accessible to the world as the if they seek him God wants them to grope for him and find him that's his desire the question is will they grope well they will they reach out for the Lord will they be desperate for God will they call upon the Lord and we can save like anecdotally that we've have we have many stories of missionaries and and and individuals who will talk about how when they they were like God if you're real I'm just reveal yourself to me and then God does something to reveal himself to him and even some non-believers would say they did this God did something and they ignored it and you show well you don't really want him if that's the case so let me give you guys three truths that I want to summarize so far as I've been doing this survey of trying to pull these threads together from Scripture one God wants people to be saved we talked about this in in you know that God is not the God is long-suffering not willing that any should perish they God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that this really is a universal love he wants everyone to be saved this is a desire but he allows the step freewill allows us to make choices and live with those choices number two people can respond to general revelation general revelation creation and conscience is enough to get someone on to their knees seeking God and certainly it has caused this in many many cases and number three God responds to those who seek him to grope for him that we might find him as it says in Jeremiah 29 you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart thank God it's like I'm an interactive God and I want you to know me know bad news this seems to be a pretty rare thing how many people really are like this where they're out somewhere and they're in maybe a pagan culture surrender by false religions and then they realize like this is a bunch of baloney right here like you have like a wooden Idol and you're bowing before it like you made that dude like in a and they and there are the lights go on you know and they learn and they turn to God and they go god I want to know the real God the maker of the heaven and earth I want to know this God how often does this happen I think the answer from scripture is that it's probably very rare it's extremely rare it's not the normal thing I think that that seems to be fairly clear you don't see it happening all the time it's these certain examples carried through you know all sorts of time of history and that's unfortunate that doesn't speak to God his general revelations there it speaks to man we flippantly cast off general revelation we flippantly ignore our conscience and sear it and continue in sins that once we felt bad about now we're like who cares this speaks to the fact that again the wrath of God is revealed against the ungodliness of man another point forgive me if this seems to Braddock a kind of random but this is just how I came to how it came together for me another point is this if these people are saved they are saved through Jesus they're not saved by any other fashion Jesus alone is the payment for my sins Abraham was saved right he didn't know the full gospel but he was saved putting faith in the true God the true Yahweh and Jesus came he paid the price for Abrahamson abraham approaches God through Jesus Enoch through Jesus able through Jesus there's only one way to get to God is through Jesus there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we may be saved but that's the name of Jesus so he's the one that has to save you but we have examples of scripture in Scripture of people who didn't know that name but were saved so I think that that's I think that's why I use that's why I use it from seed faith faith in the seed but not knowing the full development of this thing so they had faith in Christ not knowing exactly who Christ was but now that I've said this it brings up a host of new questions doesn't you're like but wait a minute Mike are you saying and now this is where most videos will just turn off and stop and I want to now address those questions I want to deal with the difficult questions to the best of my ability and be very transparent about it I do think we can say that their faith was in Christ even if not fully knowingly and I think we have strong biblical case for this because first Peter talks about how the prophets wrote about this coming Messiah but didn't even know really how this would look yet they had faith in the coming Messiah yeah they don't didn't realize exactly about his death and resurrection so they don't know all the details their faith in the person but not understanding the program if that makes sense I get that it's like it's like you're drowning and someone reaches our hand out you grab the hand you don't know who it's attached to but you've grabbed the hand you get saved and you know they they grab the hand not fully understanding all the details so did they know the name Jesus did they believe in his death in his resurrection no I mean you wanted I know as a Christian who loves Jesus and loves the gospel I want to say yeah yeah abraham believed in the death of resurrection of Christ but I can't say this based on Scripture can I he didn't know the name he didn't know the death and resurrection he believed things like he thought when when he would slay his son that God would raise him up so there's these things related you know that's related isn't it yeah it is it's like a seed faith but he didn't know those details but this is a truth I have to be really really careful with so let's be careful with this okay it's like if you said Mike is there ever a good reason to divorce is it ever justified to get a divorce and I turned you and I say yes it is but let's be very careful with this information like don't use this to now act like all divorces are fine and dandy because Mike said it was okay there are rare scenarios yes but let's be careful with them we need to be very careful with this what seems consistent in these people these names we've gone through is an idea of repentance and faith they did have a sense of repentance they did have faith and they turned to the true God and if you want to say how little can you know and still be saved I am NOT gonna answer that question I don't know how to answer that question I'm sorry that's a big I don't know it's presumptuous we don't know we just know this every example in the scripture of someone who gets saved without full knowledge of Jesus had more than just general revelation they also had some kind of special information from God beyond general revelation that we can say does this remove the need to share the gospel hey man maybe they're just gonna get saved anyways right they got general revelation not underneath - and and I would say no because this thing seems extremely rare and because throughout the Bible we have examples especially right acts in the book of Acts in particular we have examples of the gospel going into an area where people had general revelation rejected it worshipped false gods ignore their conscience the gospel goes out and many of them get saved so yes if you use this to remove the need to show the gospel then you are something's wrong with you and spiritually here's another question is it possible to do harm by sharing the gospel let's say that you encounter this rare individual who really has a special revelation from God somehow a vision dream awareness in their hearts I'm going to I don't know a piece of tape page of the Bible falls out of the sky like somehow God reaches them and you encounter them and you tell them all about Jesus and they go oh I don't like that at all and they reject it I'm just gonna say I believe this will never happen this will never happen this person is poised and ready for the gospel they have already believed in the sea they'll believe in the tree you know this is this is just natural for them and I think we have scripture to support this Jesus kind of answers this in John 6:45 he says to the Jews it is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught by God therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me the principle here is that if you've heard and learned from Jesus or from the father you know through read the revelation he's previously given you're going to come to Jesus when you hear this message you will receive it in fact he uses his presence in Jerusalem and in Judea as the indicator of whether or not they've really even listened to the stuff God has already told them if you have listened of course you'll come to Christ but here's the good news if you haven't listened and then Jesus shows up you still might come you know this might be the turning point for you so there's only hope it's only good news when the gospel goes out in John 5 46 and 47 he said something similar John 5 46 47 it says for if you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote about me but if you do not believe his writings how will you believe my words I think this I'm drawing a principle out of this I'm not saying that those that person with general revelation has Moses as the testimony of them I'm saying if you believe general revelation you respond to your moral you know needs for God you reach out to God God reveals himself to you you have faith in the true God that true God sends a messenger to you you're going to believe this you know that you're going to receive it your you won't do harm by sharing the gospel and then of course we have to answer the question about other religions are we saying that a sincere Buddhists sincere Hindu sincere Muslims sincere Hari Krishna's sincere you name it are we saying that this person might really be saved is all we're saying and I think the answer is is no but let me let me explain why because false religion inherently involves a rejection of God false religions a rejection of God so like if I'm if I believe in Hinduism I'm rejecting the god of creation whose revealed in the scripture if you're going to see a person who is involved in that Hindu culture who through general revelation and and conscience prays seeks God God reveals himself to him he gets saved in some sense you know well in a real sense but it just wouldn't look exactly like you and then you go to the culture and you meet this guy you're gonna see that he is not worshipping these false Hindu gods he's pulling away from that stuff because of the truth that he's received you would see him as being the one in the room going now this stuff's not right these guys don't get it you know he's the one resisting that sort of thing that's what you'd see so I don't think we can say like maybe this sincere and as if sincere means good anyways like I could sincerely hate you my sincere doesn't mean good like it just means genuine you know the examples that we have are guys like Naaman who goes back to Syria and refuses to worship the gods that they have that would be the example I'd look for if I was finding this person in some culture the one who's separated himself from the ungodliness around him and he's living a life like he knows it like he gets it you know so the saved pagan would separate themselves from those things faith is required not ignorance this is another point to make faith is required not ignorance it might be an incomplete faith that might not be full knowledge of every detail but it's faith not ignorance so it can't just be like well they don't know anything so maybe they're saved like that's not enough I think that if there is someone who is a Hindu Buddhist Muslim and they're in some other religion and they're sincerely seeking God I think this greatly increases the likelihood of them actually getting saved I've got leading them out of that Buddhism out of that Hinduism out of those different religions and stuff like that and that really encouraged me encourages me and now let me give you one last verse and then we'll do QA stuff last verses revelation 5:9 I'm not entirely sure what to do with this verse but I but it does it does apply to what we're talking about and I think I want to bring it into it so revelation 5:9 it says and they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation there are tribes who have come and gone without ever having the gospel come to them but here in Revelation it seems if I if you take it the way that I would understand this passage that someone from that tribe got saved now they didn't worship the false gods of their religious background they didn't stay with the paganism of their culture no but someone from that tribe got saved every tribe every tongue every people in every nation so that God is God is at work saving people is probably the minority I don't I don't I don't think this is a case for the majority of humans get saved I think that the implication I understand from Scripture is this is a minority of people but it's the decision they make to seek God respond to Revelation God reveals more and and they're saved in the same fashion as Naaman or Jobe or Abraham or we're able or one of those guys or Rahab one of them girls so here's one last thought and and I'm gonna share that I wanna show this at the end because I think it's the implication of Scripture and I I think it matters to say it even though it's unsettling here's my last thought is this and my opinion maybe I'm wrong this is what I think the Scriptures implying Jesus said that what do you Corazon in beside ax because if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah they would have repented now I take that at face value and I take it that Jesus is like if I had showed up in Sodom and Gomorrah and done my ministry in Sodom and Gomorrah death and resurrection all that there they would have actually repented so here's a question last question I'll ask is this is is it possible that there's people who if they had heard of the message or if they if someone had approached him like a missionary or something they would have been saved but no one approached them and so they stayed in their sin and they were rightly condemned they are rightly condemned but they might have been saved how they heard had they heard more had somebody reached out to them in a greater way I think the implication of Scripture is yes now this stirs my heart to evangelism more than anything I know there's people who think you know what if you know witness to your neighbor somebody else will and if they're gonna get saves they're gonna get saved and it sort of makes you feel like oh good I have to worry about it right I'm not sure that that's true I think that what Jesus said he actually meant now you might say well then why didn't Jesus come to Sodom and Gomorrah well then he be in Sodom and Gomorrah saying I'm glad you repented but unfortunately the Greco is really gonna suffer now because I came to you instead of to them so there is a balancing of God choosing when to do things and how to do them and and there's cost and consequence based on all that stuff so I'm not at all impugning God's goodness and his choice to do these things but if Jesus is if Jesus's statement is meant to be quite literally true then he's saying that we should be evangelizing because there's people that may receive the gospel if we share it and if not they may stay in their sin and all of a sudden I'm like oh man I this is real life we're living real life where my actions really make a difference in me sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as people really changes their eternity I'm not playing it's not a play I'm acting my part this is real life that's my understanding of it so let's pray and then I want to take your guys your guys questions and thoughts as well father we approach this this topic it is heavy as heavy on our hearts now it is now if it wasn't before and well we know that the world rightly deserves wrath we rightly deserve wrath we know that that you love us that you want us to know you and we just pray Lord for the believers amongst us here and who are listening right now we pray for for us that we would have a passion and a zeal a sense of urgency to share the truth of Christ with this world realizing that they're justly condemned but that this Gospel message may be the thing when they hear it where faith comes by hearing but we don't accuse you Lord we don't lift our fists up to heaven like fools thinking that you are in any way an error or in flaw God we're just so grateful that the gospel is there may we be zealous to go out and share it and we pray for this we pray for all the ministries around the world that are pushing evangelism we pray for the churches that are kind of dead when it comes to evangelist and we pray that you'd stir up your body to evangelize and to witness to their friends and their family to the co-workers to strangers to witness in love not to try to prove a point but to try to invite people to come to know Christ and we pray Lord God for for your glory in people's salvation to happen more and more we know you love them and we thank you so much that the gospel went into our lives somehow and changed everything for us in Jesus name Amen [Music] [Applause] we will [Music]

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 106,107

Keywords: Mike Winger, BibleThinker, topical, what about those who never hear the gospel?, what about the pigmies?, what happens to people who never hear the gospel?, what happens to people who never hear about Jesus?, Bible Thinker, can people be saved without hearing about Jesus?, unreached people, how were people saved before Jesus

Id: IiyxpE5UBz4

Length: 47min 0sec (2820 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/oTURKISHSAILORo]

Mike Winger’s teaching has been a huge blessing to my life!