No Other Way to Heaven Except Through Jesus

Romans 1:16-22
(Program 1965, Airing on 3.1.09 & 3.8.09)

1. INTRODUCTION
   1. There is a question that has plagued believers and non-believers alike:  Can a righteous, loving, and holy God allow someone to die and go to Hell who has never heard the name of Jesus?
   2. God is indeed righteous, loving, holy, just, and good.
   3. There is no other way to Heaven except through Jesus Christ.
      1. John 14:6
      2. Acts 4:12
2. THE REVELATION FACTOR – ALL MEN HAVE SOME LIGHT  (Romans 1:18-22)
   1. Two witnesses testify to the existence of God
      1. Creation – the outward, objective witness
         1. Romans 1:19-20
         2. Psalm 19:1
      2. Conscience – the inward, subjective witness
         1. Romans 1:19
         2. Romans 2:14-15
   2. There is a built-in knowledge of God.  St. Augustine said, “The soul of man is restless until it rests with God.”
   3. Atheism is not an intellectual matter; it’s a matter of morality.
      1. Romans 1:22
      2. Psalm 14:1
   4. John 1:9
3. THE REFUSAL FACTOR – LIGHT REFUSED INCREASES DARKNESS  (Romans 1:21-22)
   1. If we do not believe in or trust in God when He gives us light (speaks to our hearts through creation and conscience), then we will begin to regress and lose even the light that we have.
   2. In the Bible, the opposite of truth is sin, not error.  The error is the baggage that comes with sin.
   3. We refuse truth because of the sin that’s in our hearts.  (Romans 1:18)
   4. When we choose our sin rather than the love of God, the baggage that comes with that sin is delusion, believing a lie, and damnation.  (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
      1. Mark 4:25
4. THE RECEPTION FACTOR – LIGHT OBEYED INCREASES LIGHT  (Romans 1:16-17)
   1. God gives us truth; when we believe that truth, God gives us more truth.  Light obeyed increases light.
      1. God speaks to us through creation and conscience; we respond to God, “I want to know You, I need to know You”; God gives more light.
         1. Example of the Ethiopian eunuch  (Acts 8:26-39)
         2. Example of Cornelius  (Acts 10)
   2. The reason we as believers don’t understand the Bible any more than we do is because we have not been living up to the light that God has already given us.  Why should God show us more in His Word until we obey what we already know?
      1. If you want to understand the part of the Bible you don’t understand, begin to obey the part you do understand, and you’ll understand what you didn’t understand.
   3. John 7:16-17
5. THE RECKONING FACTOR – GOD WILL JUDGE US BY THE LIGHT WE’VE REJECTED  (Romans 2:5, 11-12)
   1. The question is not what will God do with those who have never heard the gospel of Jesus, but what will God do with those who have heard the gospel message and refused Jesus.
      1. Many of us have far more light than others, simply because we live in evangelized or churched areas.
      2. God will hold accountable more so those who have heard the gospel and refused the truth than those who have not heard.
      3. Luke 12:48
   2. Matthew 11:23-24

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