"Does Everybody Really Need Jesus?"

This is on Solomon and I like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God is given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward and I'm so glad you tuned in to listen and be part of that. Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio and now let's get to the work of managing here today brought a viable open that to act after 17 to be studying again in the life of a great man. The apostle Paul will be coming back 17 in just a moment or two. Remember, the apostle Paul is on his second missionary journey you got three bodies with the knees got Timothy's got silence in his God Dr. Luke they crossed over from Northwestern modern-day Turkey across the Aegean Sea to the northern Greek town of Philippi here at Philippi. The apostle Paul spent several weeks preaching. He established a small church and as a result of that, he split his team. He left Dr. Luke and Timothy hearing Philippi to watch over this church and he and Silas then continued the hundred mile cell down the yellow streak that you see if this is the nation way the famous Roman road down to the town of Thessalonica, as we saw last week in Thessalonica. Paul spent six months having a tremendously successful ministry with Jews and Gentiles. There, but in the process. The unbelieving Jewish community there in that town developed a seething hatred for Paul and finally at the end of six months. They succeeded in getting a mob together, and running them out of town. Now that's where we left off last week so let's pick up verse 10 act, 17 verse 10 as soon as it was night the brothers in Thessalonica sent Paul and Silas away for their own safety from the small to Berea and, on arriving there. Paul went into the Jewish synagogue back to our map would show you again what happened. Paul and Silas walk the 45 miles southwest from Thessalonica to the small town of Berea when they got to Berea, they went into the Jewish synagogue as was Paul's custom and in our next message were going to talk about what happened in the Jewish synagogue.

But what I want you to notice is verse 13 when the unbelieving Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God and Berea, they went there to and they began agitating the crowds and stirring them up against Paul in Berea and so the brothers and Berea immediately sent Paul to the coast to go to Athens that you get the picture here right these opponents of Paul from Thessalonica. They hated him so much that running amount of Thessalonica. What good enough for may want to run them out everywhere so they actually walk the 45 miles to Berea so that they could get a mob going there and running matter that down which they do not. Paul refers to these guys and this whole experience. In a letter that he wrote to the Thessalonians.

Here's what he said.

First Thessalonians chapter 2 verse what he said you know you Thessalonian snow that our visit to you was not a failure for after we had suffered and been mistreated in Philippi.

What happened to them in Philippi. Remember, he was beaten with rods and had the skin ripped right off the boat all down his back and then he was thrown in jail and chained to a ragged old brick wall overnight after that happened.

Paul says as you know, that didn't discourage us. We had the boldness to come speak the word of God to you. We kept right on going. Even amidst strong opposition from your own countrymen, those very countrymen not only drove us out of Thessalonica, but then they kept trying to hinder us at Berea from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved. But you remember that when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted and this is exactly what happened so far. Remember now. Paul is been abused at the city in Antioch.

This is on his first missionary journey. He's at his life threatened that I Coney on this was on his first missionary journey. He was stoned and left for dead. It list draw on his first missionary journey. He was beaten to a pulp and thrown in jail at Philippi and now and both Thessalonica and in Berea he's had mobs who wanted to kill him flat running right out of town and friends. I tell you what before his career is over. There's a lot more this, stuff common to the apostle Paul, but in spite of all this opposition in all of this persecution in all of this hostility to physical abuse. The apostle Paul. Just like John Wesley Goheen and Govind and go now. That's as far as we want to go in the passage today because it's time to ask a question you don't know what our question is, so you ready are you ready all right.

Well good all right here we go ready with a 123 right is a lawn.

So what setting is really good though all this, and I appreciate what you said about Paul and I love the energizer bunny but what difference does this make anything in my modern life today will work and try to make that connect for you now, Brendan. I recently with another couple and the lady we were with was expecting her third child and so just to make small talk. I said to her. I said well when you do and so she said well I'm doing a couple of months and I saw straight so you know makes more small talk.

I said also tell you you have hard labors.

You know how to learn, ask a question for Brenda to be damn hard labors and so real raving about it but I learn asset and so she said so she said well they're not really all that hard. She said, but they are long.

She said, and then she went on to volunteer this information.

She said you know when they first take me in. I say I don't need any help I can do this by myself. I'm not taking an epidural. I can make this she said bye-bye what time were liking the tenant 12 hours all my just giving you drugs God and think poorly of this lady for this because I'll tell you if men had to do this.

Labor and delivery thing. The human race would've ended centuries ago. Men in my right when we do this no, we would not do this so we love and respect you ladies but I'll tell you what her comment reminded me of a very important basic truths about human nature and that this that none of us likes paying and that given the chance to avoid it.

We will that's human nature. Now, if that's true, it leads us to the first question we said we wanted to ask today. And that's this why the apostle Paul and John Wesley if they knew that by continuing to talk about Jesus Christ.

All it was going to bring them with pain, why in the shop. Why did they keep on talking. Well, that's a real good question and let me tell you what the answer is the answer is because they believe something they believe something so totally so completely and so utterly that it drove them to a level of commitment that the world has rarely seen and what was this something that they believe. I'll tell you they believed that apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ. People cannot and will not ever be able to have eternal life. They believe that apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

People cannot and will not ever step foot on the shores of heaven and this is what the Bible teaches. This is the absolute bottom line of biblical Christianity, the conviction that apart from the redemption that God offers us in Jesus Christ. All people everywhere are alienated from God under the judgment of God and headed for a horrible eternity makes a lawn.

I'm really glad you brought that up because you know what I really have had some problems with this Jesus being the only way thing so I'm glad you brought it up. Well I'm glad that you're here if you had some trouble with this because were to try to fix the problems that you had here this morning. One of the Bible say about Jesus being the only way to heaven will listen. John chapter 3 verse 36 Jesus said whoever believes in the sawn meeting and sell has eternal life, but whoever rejects the sawn will not see eternal life. For God's wrath remain sips rests on that person. Jesus said, John chapter 3 verse 18 whoever does not believe in him, that person is condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son, Jesus said, John 14 six I am the way the truth and the life. No one. No one comes to the father. No one gets eternal life.

No one gets into heaven except through me nonstop for minute and say if you wanted to say something clearer than that. How would you do it.

I don't understand how you can be any clearer than that nobody gets eternal life are in the habit unless I get there through me will continue first John chapter 5 and this is the record. John writes that God has given us eternal life, and where is where we get this eternal life.

This life is in his son. He who has the sawn has eternal life, and he who does not have the son of God does not have eternal life. Philippians chapter 4 verse three says that followers of Christ and only followers of Christ have their names written in the book of life and in Revelation 20 tells us that if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire and all of this is why ask for 12 says salvation is found in no one else other than Jesus Christ.

For there is no other name under heaven, not Buda. Not Confucius, not Mohammed, not Rabbi Schneerson not Joseph Smith not Mary Baker Eddy.

There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we can be delivered. Friends, this is the unapologetic unequivocal position of the word of God.

Now you say will lawn you know what I got some real heartburn with this position and I got some real objections to this well, I'd love to hear okay lawn objection number one is, why would a loving God be so mean so cruel and so on. Failure were friends just asking a question like that shows that spiritually we got the impasses on the wrong's allowable if you understand what I'm saying because the problem is we are in a predicament as the human race can explain our predicament to your Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Therefore, sin entered the world through one man, Adam and death came into sin. So death therefore passed on all men.

The Bible tells us that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden that they brought a flaw on the entire human race. It's called our sin nature. It's like a defective gene that were all born with them. Look at Romans five what it says is the result of that defective gene is that every one of us is born with death were born.

First of all. Ephesians 2 tells us spiritually dead were born disconnected from God were born alienated from God were born separated from God and then the Bible tells us our predicament is if we don't fix that while were here we go into eternity separated and alienated from God or an eternity like that. We have a predicament now. God in his mercy, made a solution God in his mercy, made an escape plan and that's what the blood of Jesus shed on the cross is all about. That's the escape plan for the people who embrace that and trusted friends, listen, if a person rejects the escape plan if a person spurns God's way out and decides to take their chances on the justice of God and then they end up experiencing the judgment of God is God unfair because they decided not to take the way out is God unfair because he enforce the penalties he warned him about and they refused to take the escape plan. No. Is that what I got another objection long.

My second objection is what about people who never heard about Jesus Christ. I mean how can God hold them responsible if they never heard about Jesus Christ.

Will the Bible addresses that it says Romans chapter 1 verse 20 for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, meaning his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly on display so that all men are without excuse to say what is that mean what the Bible is telling us is it is you and I look around the creation.

As we look around in our natural world has we look at trees and stars in and our own human body and the complexities of our anybody. We ought to be smart enough to figure out that there's a creator God somewhere that we didn't make this nobody we know knows how to make all of this. There is got to be a God somewhere, and when we do that the Bible makes it clear that God then takes it on himself, as his personal responsibility, whether you live in the jungles of Africa or the jungles of South America or the Muslim world of the communist world, a matter where you live. God takes it on himself to make sure he gets information to you about Jesus Christ. So you can take the next step is there. I lolled and I got another objection that is. Let's say a person looks around the natural world and acknowledges there is a God. Okay, good enough, but the closest religion to them is Buddhism and Confucianism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Shintoism, animism, whatever. So what if they then instead of waiting to hear about Jesus. They embrace the closest religion to when they start seeking God sincerely to the closest religion to a multi-be okay friends, the answer is no. No thousand times no. Did we hear what Jesus said. He said nobody gets eternal life unless they get it through me disabled and I got one final objection, and that is if these people seeking God in Buddhism and Hinduism and Judaism in Islam. If they're sincere. Why didn't God just credit them with the blood of Jesus. They don't have to know about it. But God can just honor the sincerity and credited to friends God can do whatever he wants but he says in the Bible is one thing you do new get on do this us in Romans chapter 10 verse nine. The Bible says if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, not if we confess with thy mouth the Buddha is nice. Not if we confess with our mouth that Mohammed was a prophet, not if we confess what are about the Joseph Smith saw an angel. Rabbi Schneerson thought he was the Messiah. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. The verse continues, and if we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead then and might I add. Only then will we be delivered and what this means is for people to complete the deal. What this means is for people to access God's escape plan.

Look at this. They've got a confess Jesus is Lord now to confess he is Lord that got to know something about his virgin birth is sinless life and his deity. They've also got a believe that God raised him from the dead to do that they gotta know something about dying on the cross is bloodshed for our wrongdoing, and his resurrection.

People have got to have cognitive data about Jesus Christ before they can do what Romans 10 says and activate the escape plan. What that means.

Dear friends, is that the reason the apostle Paul member question Going and the reason the John Wesley kept going and the reason they put up with the abuse and the treatment that they God and the suffering is because they knew that there was no other way for all of those poor people they were touching our lives.

There was no other way for these people to ever have the chance to go to heaven to ever have the chance to access eternal life that those people needed data, those people needed information about Jesus Christ.

And unless they gave it to them their people why they had no way out. The predicament that's why they put up with the treatment they did. That's why they put up with the pain they did because they believe that people's souls were worth. Whatever price they had to pay and listen friends if there were another way to get to heaven and through Jesus Christ and every missionary wherever went overseas wasted their life. If there's another way to get to heaven other than Jesus Christ and Billy Graham and Mother Teresa are fools if there's another way to get to heaven other than Jesus Christ and the man who stood on the streets in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and allowed people to spit on him and ridiculed him and yelled obscenities at him.

Also he could tell me about Jesus Christ, even idiots and if there's other ways to get to heaven than Jesus Christ. And may I say the John Wesley and the apostle Paul were buffoons to put up with what they put up with, but they were buffoons Billy Graham and Mother Teresa not fools. The man who stood on a street corner was not an idiots because we know something is true and that is Jesus said no one will ever see eternal life or heaven unless they see by means of me now that being true, we have to ask our second question and that is what differences make us living here in the 21st century friends what all this means for you and me is that apart from Jesus Christ. Every single person you and I pass every day. Every person we pass on the Metro.

Every person we pass in Starbucks. Every person we pass in the hallway at work or in the hallway at school every one of these people is separated from God under the judgment of God, headed for a disaster when they go into eternity and it also means that the only hope these people have is for us to lovingly open our mouth and give them the data they need to get out of their predicament. Now we all know there's a price to pay when you do will know that I mean it may just be ridiculed at work people laughing at us ridiculed at school and maybe ostracism. Some people want to be around us anymore in my get more serious and sometimes it may cost us a job opportunity or job that we God or actual persecution on the job. Sometimes family will we share with them to want anything to do with this anymore don't want to talk to us anymore friends break off their friendships and don't want to be around us anymore. There's a price to pay when you open your mouth for Jesus. We all know that what that means is that the only way were going to do it. The only way you and I are going to be willing to pay that price is if we believe utterly completely and totally exactly what Paul believed exactly what John Wesley believed and that is that whatever price we have to pay it's worth it because these people don't have any other chance. They don't have any other opportunity all their good works won't do it all, their religious activity won't do it all their sincere New Age seeking of God won't do it they can look at crystals and go all the rest of their life and is not going to give them any closer to heaven. Even recycling will do we know that because we know that we care about the souls of men and women. That's the only reason you and I are going pay that price. If we don't really believe Jesus is the only way to heaven will never open our mail.

We will not you leave here today what I want you to leave with what I want you lead with two things. Number one I want you to leave with an absolute confident conviction that Jesus is just not a way to heaven. Jesus is the only way to have and the second thing I want us to leave here with is a willingness to do what Paul told Timothy he said to him. Second Timothy 18 do not be ashamed of to testify about our Lord friends listen Sherry Jesus Christ is the apex it's the climax of the Christian experience. You take sharing Jesus Christ out of the Christian experience you'll have a Christian experience, we can study the Bible all day long we can memorize Bible verses all day long. We can pray all day long we can fast once a week but if all of this doesn't issue out in a willingness to open our mouths and share the Lord Jesus would people, then we have missed the whole point. We missed the whole thing mail close by saying that if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus in a real and personal way. I hope you understand two things from being here today number one, you're in a predicament, and number 2 God Made Way out is currently it's easy. You don't have to go look for the you know the Golden fleece. You don't have to do a bunch of religious activity done because the thing and you can access it right where you sit here this morning number to give you a chance to do that because I don't want anybody to walk out here without having the opportunity to access the escape plan and so would you bow your heads with me. Would you close your eyes and if you're here today and you're willing to access God's way out and all were to do is to have a little prayer to do that right now and I'm can ask you to pray along with me silently, one phrase at a time right where you soon and let's asked Jesus Christ in your life and let's get this escape plan operative in your life. So if you're willing to do that here we go. You just pray silently right after me, Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I understand that I'm in a predicament. I also understand that in your mercy. You made a way out for me.

So today I invite Jesus Christ to come into my life. I'm willing to trust what he did on the cross for me as my only payments before you for all my wrongdoing come into my life today and forgive my sin grant me eternal life and secure me a place in heaven. I embrace you today as my Lord and my Savior in Jesus name. Father, I want to pray for the folks who pray that prayer that you would confirm in their hearts right as they sit here but a great transaction is taken place that they passed from death as the Bible says into eternal life. We thank you God for having made a way out. Thanks for the people took advantage of that today. Now for the rest of us here who've already done