In 2008 and again in 2012, Madison Park Church of God in Anderson, IN asked different groups of people for their questions.  The questions could be about anything.  The group in 2008 was primarily from inside the church and the group from 2012 was from primarily outside the church.  The questions were paired down to the top 10 questions and then each question was the subject of a Sunday morning sermon.  Pastor Jim Lyon attempted to provide answers based on a biblical framework.

My brother leads a Wednesday night bible study and has been leading the class through this series of questions.  Pastor Jim wrote a book based on the 2008 series and the class used that as a study aid.  Since there is no book for the second series and the class wanted to have something in their hands to help them focus and remember, I have attempted to outline the questions from the 2012 series.  There is no outline for question 10 and question 9 was pretty rough, so here is the outline for question 5.

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Here is a link to the sermon given by Jim Lyon at Madison Park Church of God in Anderson, IN.

http://vimeo.com/50505239

Madison Park Church of God

Jim Lyon

Salvation and Jesus

Question:

If a person in the world has not been exposed to the teachings of the Bible, then is that person going to hell for not believing?

How do you help a person come to Christ when they believe that all “good” people should go to heaven if we have a loving God?

  • The questions make 2 assumptions:
    1. There is a god
    2. We will all be judged by god
  • Very important truths:
      1. Nobody is judged for what they do not know.
      2. You will be judged based on what you do know.
  • People groups
    • Unreached:  2,689 people groups that have never heard the gospel.  (Defined as less than 2% of the population has any kind of gospel witness.  Believed to total approximately 2.6 billion people)
      • Last Frontier Groups:  Subset of Unreached that has no people with any exposure to the gospel.  Believed to total approximately 1.7 billion people.  Nobody in the whole people group has heard of Jesus!  Most of these people groups are in India.
  • Four categories of people that will be judged.
  • One – People who deny the existence of God.

Romans 1:18-22 (NLT)

18But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.21Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

  • Creation declares that there is a god.  So even people who have never heard of Jesus can know that God exists.
  • Why do we deny God?  If we can get God out of the way, then we are the top!
  • The only thing that trumps humanity is God and if we can only get Him out of the way.  A kind of pride and hubris.
  • People who deny the existence of God are judged and it has nothing to do with what they do not know, it is what they reject having known.
  • Two – People who betray their own conscience and do what they know they should not do.

Romans 2:14-16 (NLT)

14Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. 16And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.

  • Even if you miss the existence of God in the created order, you have a moral compass that you are born with.
  • Everyone in the world knows that it is not right to lie to your mother or to take your brother’s M&M’s!
  • Three – Hypocrisy, judging others knowing you have made mistakes

Romans 2:1 (NLT)

1You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.

  • Hypocrisy – We are all prone to judge others
  • Four – Idol worship – people who worship anything but God

Romans 1:23 (NLT)

23And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

  • There is something within us that wants to worship anything but God.
  • You do not have to carve a reptile out of a rock to have an idol
  • We all have idols
  • There are people groups who still worship carved idols.
  • The monkey god Hanuman – not worshipped by an illiterate but a well educated pilot

These four categories cover all humanity.

Four categories of people who do not have to know anything about the Bible to be doomed.

We are all doomed.

Romans 3:12 (NLT)

12 All have turned away; all have become useless.  No one does good, not a single one.

Romans 3:23 (NLT)

23For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

  • Based on these verses, no one is good.
  • We are all prone to judge ourselves by comparing to other people.
  • We can always find someone worse than us.  Ted Bundy
  • But we will also find people much better than us.

Romans 4:4-5 (NLT)

4When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. 5But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.

Romans 10:14-15 (NLT)

14But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

  • We are all coming to the judgement, everyone is.
  • We will be judged on what we know, not what we do not know.
  • No one will be condemned because they have not heard of Jesus or the Bible
  • People will be condemned by what they know and all of us know enough to be condemned.
  • And there is not enough good that we can do to earn our way in to Heaven.
  • So how can people be saved unless they hear?
  • How can they be redeemed unless they know?
  • That is why we need to be committed to mission work both here and abroad!

Romans 3:24-26 (NLT)

24Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

  • Old Testament patriarchs were saved even though they did not know Jesus.
  • Why were they saved?  Because they trusted God to save them.
  • Could it be that people in the world today can be saved in the same way?  If they are humble and have faith in the God that they know very little about?
  • Maybe, but none of us will know for sure.  These are mysteries.
  • Are there many people like that?  No.
  • So how can they be saved if they do hear?
  • How can they be redeemed if they do not know?

That is why mission work is so important both here and abroad!