What Happens to People Who Never Hear the Gospel?

let me just say we'll go to acts 17 to talk about whether you can be saved and with natural creation Psalm 19 talks about the extent of it and Romans 1 actually it's what you were talking about creation is one of the components so we'll go through all that but I had to write it down because a very short memory let's first start in the Old Testament Psalm 19 as your attorney with me to Psalm 19 where Jeremy's question was really a question that many people have it usually starts out when you know especially when I'm talking to college students or high school students remember I was a youth pastor and so that's where I was used to being they would I mean many years ago when I was starting out they would say are the pygmies you know gonna be saved the Aborigines you know the people that have never heard of Christ will they be saved and why would God send them to hell and is it just for God to send someone to hell that's never heard the gospel really that's that's one of the strands of what Jeremy was talking about so starting out with Psalm 19 now the reason now I want you to connect the dots here because this this question this first question Jeremy's question is is a big question many people wrestle with many people struggle with the belief that the Bible is true knowing Christ died and then saying what about all those people that have never heard so my short answer the first part is no one well let's see for Alan for Alan's sake he told me it's not big enough writing no one or none go to hell because they haven't heard about Jesus okay people do not go to hell because they haven't heard of Jesus because they haven't heard the gospel because they haven't been to church people do not go to hell because they don't have a copy of the Bible people not go to hell because they've never been an evangelistic service and heard Billy Graham preach or anybody else people go to hell because they're sinners period the bottom line is all sinners all sinners who Jesus said this one of the office things Jesus ever said is he looked at a group of people he was preaching they were rejecting him in the Gospels that was common he paused he stopped giving the gospel he looked at him he said you will die in your sins you and he was saying in 21st century English go to hell that's what he was saying they were rejecting him and any sinner who rejects the only antidote for sin goes to help people do not go to hell because they never heard of Jesus they go to hell because they're sinners and all sinners face the wrath of God forever so it's very sobering so what has God done about that because that's how it's been from the beginning that's why he remember salvation was initiated by God in Genesis as soon as Eve was tempted and deceived and came and disobeyed and sinned and came to Adam who was not deceived and presented her her sin her disobedience Adam joined with her in that sin Paul clearly says in first team of the two the Adam was not deceived he chose to sin he went along with his wife but from that moment on sin passed to all humans it was before it was in humans it was in the devil because God created everything perfectly so Lucifer fell and became Satan and sin entered the universe but it did not spread out until Adam who was given the given the authority over the whole race the headship and so when Adam sinned death Romans has passed also let's go to to Psalm 19 and this is just one of the ways you can explain this and I'll go to those three passages number one that it says in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God the firmament shows his handiwork damned today utters speech night and tonight reveals knowledge now when you take Biblical Hebrew usually this is the first place you start because this is one of the easiest ones to to memorize because it's rhymey but when David wrote this he says Hashem I am that means the heavens masaf arene which means declare kavod al the glory of God al is God kavod means heaviness so it says the heavens declare the glory of God the firmament shows his handiwork and day on today and that word utters is the word for a fountain like we're talking about hierapolis this morning a fountain of springing up so it's it's it's the firmament is bubbling up his handiwork and the heavens are declaring his glory and they're there uttering this verse - 24/7 a day on today and night unto night now look at verse 3 there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard continuing the same thought keep reading verse 4 their line has gone throughout all the earth their words to the end of the world in them that's in the heavens he set a tabernacle for the Sun and and he goes through this whole picture about verse 6 about the circuit of the Sun and there's nothing hidden from it wow you know that says it says that God's revealed himself Jeremie through creation so there's your revelation remember you said three things personal Jesus on earth written the Bible creation right there in Psalm 19 the the heavens are are speaking 24/7 about the we've got so what impact they have well look at Acts chapter 17 now you have to string together three passages to get the what about the people that have never heard answer and here goes a group of people that Paul's ministering to that have never heard they grew up in Athens Athens was Greek Athens was a place of sophistry and highbrow you know knowing all university town kind of place that's what Athens was like and Paul stood in the midst in verse 22 of the areopagus or Areopagus and said men of Athens I perceive and all things are very religious verse 23 I've passing through and considering the objects of your worship I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God now little background Paul was a student of his culture and Paul knows how to in this 17th chapter is how to confront a godless culture that don't have kind of where America is moving to I mean we have had generations of decline of Christianity in America we are becoming pagan in America we can't pray we can't talk about God can't have Bible studies can't can't do any of that stuff anymore and so a whole generation of kids are growing up and they know more about Halloween than they know about Jesus Christ and that's why if you notice Halloween gets bigger and bigger and bigger every year because humans gravitate toward paganism because we were lost and and we are we don't like the light and so we we are drawn to the darkness so how do you reach a group like that well Paul he found commonality with them see says hey while I was walking here to talk to you verse 23 of Acts seventeen I saw an altar with this inscription to the unknown God therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaimed to you now for just a minute how did they do that well if you know anything about history of Greece in 600 BC there was a plague that swept through that area it was devastating plague and a prophet King and this is this is actually in literature app amenities as his name a writer Paul's quoting him he's quoting arretez - and he said that this guy came and said you've offended this prophet says you offended a God you don't know and the only way that you can that you can make him pull back the plague is turn loose a flock of sheep and wherever the sheep lay down sacrifice them to that unknown God on an altar build an altar right there kill him on the spot sacrifice him and put to the unknown God so they did that six hundred years before and Paul comes along knows this story and so did all of those people in Athens and he says I want to introduce you to this this God that that six hundred years ago some prophet og was out there and you've never met him and he says this is who he is look at verse 24 and this is how you share the gospel with a pagan world number one God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of Heaven and Earth does not dwell in temples made with hands creation a creator that's the first place why because down deep we'll see in a minute in a third passage right here in Romans 1 everyone is born with a god-given awareness through their conscience and through looking around them at creation that there's a creator they know that there's they have a conscience God gives conscience is an ally of gods that's a part of our created Constitution who we are as humans we have this conscience and this conscience is is revealing when we sin and it says you know you shouldn't be doing that you shouldn't kill people you shouldn't eat them either you know and you shouldn't steal other people's wives and theirs they don't even have the Mosaic law it's it's a law inside of them that God put in them that you shouldn't do this stuff and the other one fact my friend John MacArthur always says everybody is born John always said this when I was out of grace it everyone every baby is born with two candles well Bonnie and I were newlyweds and we were after we were grace for a couple years Johnny was born I was right at Verdugo Hills waiting and watching for those two candles because he says every baby is born holding two candles in their hands and Johnny wasn't but everyone is but but look what he said so you start out you you're hitting this creator thing God made the world verse 25 and verse art me verse 24 verse 25 nor is he worshipped with men's hands though he needs anything since he's given to all life breath and all things he has made from one blood every nation of men that dwell on all the face of the earth whoa look up for a minute Jeremy didn't even ask this God is non prejudiced and does not see racial distinctions did you know there aren't three races there's one look what it says he has made from one blood every nation of men there's only one race the human race now there were three sons of Noah and our current population makeup of this planet has three distinct related branches but there's only one race and so racial inequality or racism or whatever has no place in the scriptures God has no respect to persons no distinction there's one race one blood every nation and God has determined look at the end of verse 26 there pre appointed times in the boundaries of their dwellings now now here comes the gospel verse 27 now remember how do you how how do people that never saved get hurt Paul gets into that right here and see it's not speculation saying well I think well I don't think it's fair how did Paul who wrote half the New Testament and who really understands Hannah's question we'd like to invite him in to explain that chapter to us how did Paul explain it he says so that they should seek the Lord in hopes that they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us Wow remember when Adam and Eve fell into sin who came for whom it says God came seeking Adam he said where art thou Adam who is the initiator of salvation who is did you know Paul and Titus calls God God our Savior most of us think of Jesus as our Savior God by nature is a saving God he he wants us not to go to hell he knows we're all in sin but he look look he's not far look look what it says in verse 27 he is not far from each one of us for him him we live verse 28 and move and have our being also some of your own poets have said for we are his offspring Wow Paul quotes by the way from two Greek unsaved poets right then that first line of verse 27 so that they should seek the Lord in hopes that they might grope for him and find him then he says in verse 28 for in him we live and move and have our being that's what a greek poet named a poem in ADIZ said and then at the end of the the passage he says for we are also his offspring that's what another Greek poet arretez said so Paul is using this foundational knowledge that that pagans had that there they didn't know the true God but they knew that there was someone out there and he says verse 29 therefore since we are the offspring of God that's the creator from way back in verse 24 who made everything since we are the offspring of God we ought not to think of the divine nature like an idol gold silver stone something shaped by arter man's desires our devising verse 30 truly these times of ignorance God overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained and has given assurance to this by all by raising him from the dead and now he goes in to introducing Christ so what he says he start with a creator and then you talk about a Savior he's not far he's looking for you didn't talk about a judge now so that's the how to hit pagans now turn to Romans 1 and we'll finish this you see why we only had three Mike's biblical questions are very complicated the Bible is not a Paul little what and why God you know he was a great apologist Paul II little and he wrote the the what and why guide and and what he does is he answers all the questions and little paragraphs those don't come in the Bible you have to you have to connect a lot of passages and this is what it says in Romans 1 this is the the candle idea it says in Romans 1 verse 18 the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness God's wrath is revealed because of sin not that God hates people God loved the world so much that he sent his son I was talking to someone today and talking about their marriage and I said you know you should you should love the person you're married to and they said I don't and said I that thing should have warm fuzzies about him I said you should make a conscious choice to sacrifice for them that's what love is love is not a warm fuzzy feeling that's liking that's filete Oh God made a choice that he was going to save sinners that he was going to make a way for them because his wrath verse 18 is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men no matter where they live no matter how much or how little unrighteousness they've done because look at this verse 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them whew IND them and God has shown it to the now you're back here this this is the idea of creationists is constantly 24 hours a day seven days a week creationists saying there's a creator here there's a creator here there's a creator here there's a creator here and inside of us look what it says it talks about both 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 back to jeremy's see the the christ the personal the bible reading is the written but here is this creation revelation that's biblical that that idea that there's revelation from God since verse 20 the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made even is eternal and Godhead so that they are without excuse oh oh now what we're saying if you combine and I won't you know drone on and on about this but if you combine these three passages we looked at acts 17 says he's not very far from you if you grope after him remember the Bible says twice it says in Luke 1 the last couple of verses that all of us were sitting in darkness in the shadow of death we're blind in in the dark can you imagine being blind no eyes that work and in the dark and we're sitting there next to a chasm and we're gonna fall off forever into the blackness of darkness forever into hell and that's how we're sitting in a great light shone and and that that is how the Bible describes the gospel but what it's saying is while you're sitting there next to the chasm in the dark God has Romans 1 says given there's John MacArthur's two candles in them that's conscience a God some have called it a god-shaped vacuum inside this awareness that what I'm doing you know when they interviewed the acha remember the occas that what year was it 1956 in January 56 they killed the the five missionaries Nate Saint and Jim Fleming and all those people do you remember when they got saved and were interviewed they said you know we knew that was wrong I mean they never saw a Bible they never met a missionary they were Stone Age cannibals but they had this this conscience that God put in them and since the creation of the world his invisible verse 20 attributes are clearly seen so to summarize all this the Bible says that every human being from the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were were pushed out expelled from the garden the cherubim guarded the way of the Tree of Life and they raised their boys every person from then on has been born with their two little candles and what happens is the conscience one it's kind of like the the light on the dashboard it keeps coming on redness oil oil or check engine check engine check engine and what you're supposed to do is pull over lift the hood and see what's going on but you know what some people do I heard about one driver didn't like that light and so they got some scotch tape a little piece of paper and they taped over it they said I'm not gonna let that thing bother me and they're one of those people that you see along i-94 that smoke is billowing out from under their you know their car has seized up and and the motor is running with no oil and it's ignited and you have a car fire that's what most people do with their conscience they they drink it too you know much or they sex it too such you know hardness of their heart that they're so insensitive they're like a branded cow you know some people get like a cow you ever seen a cow with a brand marking on the triple bar whatever take your hat pin sometime and poke that brand that cow will not stop chewing its cud you can't feel anything they're people desensitize their conscience and they finally not gonna listen to that and they blow out that light they still have creation the invisible attributes of God either one of those jeremy the the creation the written the the seeing christ any one of those bring us to groping after God saying I know I'm a sinner of fact I saw this firsthand for two weeks of my life I remember I lived with Francis Schaeffer at LaBrie in Switzerland and I used to fact I didn't know who he was I was sent there by some missionary friends of mine and they sent me the herb garden there's a funny little man with a goatee wearing pants that were pulled up you know squatted pulling weeds and I talked him and I says the smartest man I ever met and that night at supper he said at the head of the table was Francis Schaeffer every night at supper 20 seats at that table dinner went from about 5:30 to 11:00 at night and they populated it with seekers and people came from India they came from Central Asia they came from Africa they came from the northern European elevated you know Aryan Nations and everything else and they would sit at that table with their questions and Schafer would say you're doing this you're groping after God let me tell you like Paul did and x17 you see the the natural revelation creation and and any any sermon we've heard or whatever brings us to the point of doing this and feeling after God and groping after him I'm not gonna because we're not there yeah I'm not talk about who gropes and who doesn't and whether only the elect grope and feel after God and all that stuff acts 17 Paul told people that knew no doctrine if you will feel after God you'll find him read acts 17 the same guy that wrote Romans 9 wrote X 17 and he said if through your conscience being seared that you're a sinner and you are grieved over that I'm you only know that it's called sin you just know you shouldn't be doing that and and through your other candle you're looking like this and you're going you know what I don't think that this this universe could have just happened they know what you can do you feel after him I'm you know this is anecdotal but my own wife's testimony she was sitting in upstate New York in a little apartment and a huge snowstorm and she said God if you're real if you're really there show yourself to me I'm gonna read my little Gideon Bible my aunt gave me and if you're really there show me it doesn't matter if you're a pygmy or an Aborigine or you live in in the bathhouse circuit of homosexuality in San Francisco if you come to the point where you say I'm sick of this sin there must be a God are you out there he says if you feel after me that you'll find me how do they find him now this this is the last one look at Romans chapter 10 because Jeremy this this we have to go on even though all this is in the Bible and the candles and conscience and creation and all that Paul still took these people in acts 17 and declared to them the gospel and and this is what it says verse 9 of chapter 10 of Romans if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus believe in your heart god raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation verse 13 for whoever calls on the name of the Lord now we've gone from Jesus to a ward and by the way that that little verse 13 is a quote from Joel so what he's saying is there goes the answer you don't have to say Jesus Christ to be saved in Joel chapter 2 all you have to is call after the Lord because they're inextricably bound together Jesus Christ is the Lord and He is the Christ the Promised One of the Lord but look at verse 17 so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God the bottom line is this no one go in I could have said this I should just said this Jeremy no one goes to hell because they don't know about Jesus to go to hell because they're sinners if they're a sinner and they realize they're miserable in their sin and they realize there's somebody bigger than them and that they can't make themselves and someone made them and they go like this and feel after him somehow God gets the Word of God to them do people get saved without the gospel Revelation word of God in missionary letters in appeal letters and in saying that people have visions and all this stuff we hear all this but they're off the page the Bible said no people are only saved through either reading or hearing the Word of God now someone could tell it to him someone could pass it to them it can be passed from generation to generation but the Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and James makes it even clearer he says that you have to have the engrafted word word Bible scripture to save your soul so what about the pygmies don't worry about the pygmies God has a 24 hour a day 7 day a week billboard flashing in the universe he built in an operating system inside of every human being it's called their conscience if they will listen to their conscience and start seeking after whoever made this God will connect him he really will it's unbelievable to hear I mean the Ethiopian eunuch was in a chariot and Philip runs it intersects his path and shares the gospel and leads him to Christ but bottom line can a person be saved apart from the Word of God since Romans 10 no okay that's why Paul said in acts 17 God winked in time past we're not sure exact what he did it looks like Neiman got saved by by believing in the God that healed his leprosy he didn't know anything about killing animals he just believed that there was a God out there and it appears Nebuchadnezzar I believe we're gonna see him in heaven he actually wrote a chapter of the Bible he was a pagan Gentile idolaters but he bowed before the God who was greater than him and so God can do all the math of all that stuff but since acts 17 and Romans 1 nobody on the face of the earth according to God can be saved apart from the scriptures but what about then Jeremy got into this more revelation less revelation well did you know as bad as it is in Hell there are levels it's not because Dante wrote his infernal it's because Jesus said those that have much light are gonna have many stripes those they had very little light have a lesser separation from God but all of them 100% from Cain and Abel on to the last person that's going to be incinerated in Revelation 20 and during the Millennium because they rejected the true Living God every one of them are born with this operating system now you say Jeremy didn't ask and he should have what about handicapped people and infants have you ever thought about that that's the real ones you should ask about because the rest God is covered well if you ask me that I'll answer that but you didn't ask that so we'll we'll go on so Jeremy I could go on and on but but up until the revelation of the Word of God it appears that people were saved in this groping feeling after God since Paul wrote that down they're only saved by the Word of God and that's why we pray and we share and we we go because there are a lot of people that the Lord is stirring that are looking at their candles and they're saying where are you God and he sends us to share the gospel and and it's marvelous when you see how he is orchestrating all this and and he brings them I saw it at Francis Schaeffer's table people from every part of the world that were that were groping after God and they came to LaBrie and over dinner francis schaeffer talked them through what i just shared with you and many times around that table people would come to salvation and and but it was through the Word of God okay

Channel: DTBM

Views: 108,388

Keywords: john barnett, dtbm, salvation, Gospel, past, bible, lesson, teach, teaching, sermon, dr, john, barnett, lessons, learn, truth, difficult, saved, unsaved, heaven, hell, question, answers, church, verses, future, evangalize, indians, natives, africa, lost, unheard, remote

Id: zvcVIlx-V8Y

Length: 31min 14sec (1874 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2015