What About Those Who Never Hear? — David Guzik

The title of this message is What About Those Who Never Hear? and was delivered by David Guzik at Calvary Chapel of Simi Valley on March 11, 2001.

Go ahead, open up your Bible to the Book of Romans, Chapter 1. Tonight we're going to study a very important question. And that question is simply, what about those who never hear? And what I mean by what about those who never hear, I mean what about those who never hear the Gospel?

They never hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. They never hear the teaching from the New Testament. Now I think that's one of several very good questions that people might have. Some people might ask the question, well, who needs salvation?

What makes a person necessary to be saved? I mean, saved from what? Other people might ask, how good do I need to be in order to be saved? Other people might want to ask if Jesus is the only way, or if there are other ways to salvation.

All of these are very relevant questions and important questions. But tonight, we're going to ask a question based on these previous ones. This question is, what about those who have never heard? Now let me sort of explain to you the framework that people ask the question from.

They say, if salvation only comes through Jesus Christ, and by the way, that's what I believe the New Testament teaches. I believe it teaches it very plainly. And those are the words of Jesus. That's not my opinion.

It's Jesus's opinion. And I'm just relaying it to you. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me. Those are the words of Jesus. They're not the words of David Guzik.

But if we take it that salvation only comes through Jesus, then what about those who have never heard of Jesus? It's a pretty relevant question, isn't it? I mean, when you consider both the past and the present, billions upon billions of people on planet Earth have never even heard the name of Jesus.

I mean, when you think about all the people who lived in past distant cultures, ancient Egyptians, ancient Incas, ancient Aztecs, ancient people of all different places and societies and cultures, very, very few of them have even heard the name of Jesus.

What do you think in our world today? You know, demographers and statisticians will tell you that a minority of people, less than half the people on the face of planet Earth right now today, have even heard the name of Jesus.

Now, those who have heard the name of Jesus, how many of them do you suppose have really heard an intelligent, accurate presentation of the gospel? Not very many. It's shocking to me how people right here in Southern California, people that we meet and rub shoulders with every day, well, of course they know who Jesus is.

They've heard the name. They know that he was born around Christmas time. They know that he died around Easter time. And then everybody says he rose from the dead. But friends, those things in and of themselves, that's not an accurate explanation of the gospel.

They need to hear how the events of the life of Jesus relate to their life. And I've met many people, when I start talking to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, they have never heard it before. Never.

That should give us pause for consideration. People you live with and work with and go to school with and are around all the time, you think they've heard the gospel, but many of them never have. Well, what about those who have never heard the gospel?

Now, if those people have never heard the name of Jesus, or if they've never heard an accurate, intelligent presentation of the gospel, how can God send those people to hell? How can God say, well, there's no salvation except in Jesus.

You, Mr. Pygmy in Africa, you're going to hell. You, Mr. Aborigine in Australia, you're going to hell. You, Mr. Ancient Aztec in ancient Mexico, you're going to hell. Is that how God operates? Well, let me answer that question by laying out some biblical principles.

Humanity's Guilt Under God's Righteous Wrath

And the first one is found in Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter one, which I asked you to turn to at the beginning. Romans chapter one, we're going to begin at verse 18. And let me start reading here.

Where he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, 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. Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. You know, the first few words of verse 18 of Romans chapter one, when we read them, if we really thought about what they meant, we'd give a great big gulp when we read it.

It would say right there, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. That's pretty heavy, isn't it? The wrath of God revealed from heaven against what?

Well, it's against the ungodliness of man. Ungodliness has reference to man's offenses against God. That's how man offends God, by blasphemy, by disrespect, by not listening to God. And then he says, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Unrighteousness has the idea of man's offenses against other men. And that's how we sin, don't we? We sin against God. We sin against other men. And God says, because of this, because of ungodliness, and because of unrighteousness, my wrath is revealed from heaven.

Let's just give a silver pause. Basically, what Paul is saying is something that we have a hard time dealing with. He's saying that the human race is the worthy object of God's wrath. In other words, we deserve wrath from God.

Now, many of us don't want to deal with that fact. We think that we deserve nothing but good from God. How many times have you heard of somebody shaking their angry fist towards heaven because they're in a time of disaster or personal calamity?

Some great tragedy has happened to them. And they say, God, why did you put this upon me? I don't deserve this. How many times have you heard somebody who's been tremendously blessed and prosperous and things are going just great, and they're crying out before God, God, why I don't deserve this.

No, we think we deserve good from God, don't we? And we wonder why we ever have bad. But Paul says that we're the worthy objects of the wrath of God. And he's going to explain why. And we'll talk about why in just a moment.

But just get used to that idea. Sometimes we don't like that phrase, the wrath of God, because we kind of equate it with human anger. It's not the same thing. And you know what your wrath is like, right?

I know what my wrath is like. It's pretty ugly. You don't want to be around me when I'm angry. It's not much fun. You know, I'm just as much as a jerk as anybody else when I'm angry. And you see how when a person is angry, it's not very pretty.

And most of the time, when a person is angry, they're motivated by personal reasons or for desire for revenge, but not God. You understand that the wrath of God is completely righteous in character. God never sins, even when he's angry, even when he reveals his wrath.

Now, again, he reveals it against ungodliness. He reveals it against unrighteousness. And why? Look at it here. He's continuing on in this idea where he says. Against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

In other words, God is angry at man because man does, in fact, suppress the truth in righteousness. Now, please notice this. What God is saying here is that God has spoken the truth to every man. Every woman, too.

If I use man tonight, please excuse me. I mean it in the sense of humanity. I'm not trying to exclude the ladies here. I mean men and women, humanity in general. God has spoken to every human being. You say, well, wait a minute.

How has God spoken to every human being? And Paul says, I'm glad you asked that question. Take a look at it here. Verse 19. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

Verse 20. 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.

You just know what verse 20 says, says that God has revealed himself to man in creation. He has communicated to man some of his invisible attributes. Now, we can't see God and we can't see his attributes in him directly, but we can see something of his nature, something of his character by looking at creation around us.

General Revelation Through Creation

And so what do you look at? You look at the incredible glory of the starry sky at night or the majesty of the Sierra Nevada mountains or the beauty of a eight foot swell peeling off on a beautiful point break.

You look at all those things and you say, our God has got a power, right? I mean, amazing the power, the strength of God to make such things. I mean, somebody bigger than those things made those things.

That's our God, his invisible attribute of incredible might and strength. It's clearly made known by creation. Or you can get out the microscope and look at the infinite detail. Look at the infinite detail in the flower or in the amoeba or in the human cell with its very, very intricate DNA structure.

You look at all those things and you say, somebody smarter than all of that built that. You don't have to tell me about the intelligence of God, about his wisdom. I can see it in creation. I see it clearly.

I know that there's a God of power. I know that there's a God of planning. I know that there's a God of order. I know that there's a God of detail. I know that there is a God of unspeakable majesty because of what I see in creation.

Now, the universal character of this revelation and the clarity of it makes man, look at the end of verse 20, without excuse for rejecting it. What's God going to say to the atheist on the day of judgment?

The atheist will say, well, you know, I did all these evidences for you, God, in the laboratory and I looked in the test tube and I looked I couldn't prove the existence of God. God's going to say, I wrote my nature and my existence and my character all over creation.

You're without excuse. Everybody has had a sermon preached to them through creation. And the great thing about this is that this is a sermon that preaches to the pygmy in Africa, just as much as it does to the person in the United States of America today.

Everybody who has ever lived on planet Earth has heard the sermon that God preaches through the glory and the wonder of creation. And so everybody has had a message preached to them. The message that God preaches through creation.

General Revelation Through Conscience

Now, that's not the only sermon that God preaches to everybody. He has another one. Another sermon that God preaches to every human heart is found described in Romans chapter two. Look at verses 14, 15 and 16, where we read there.

For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves. Now, Paul carefully here who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and between themselves, their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.

In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. You see what Paul talks about here, about the conscience bearing witness and the thoughts either accusing or excusing them.

Paul explains here why a person who has never heard the word of God, the person here who he calls the Gentile, the person who the word of God was not originally brought to, was brought to the Jewish people, not to the Gentile people.

He says this is why the Gentile can be confronted with the judgment of God is because he has the work of the law written in his heart. And that work of the law written in the heart is enough to condemn or theoretically enough to justify any man.

In other words, God has preached a sermon in creation and he's also preached a sermon in conscience. Everybody knows what conscience is, right? Conscience is the thing that you have to overcome in order to do the things that are bad that you want to do.

It's little Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder, right? You remember Pinocchio, right? That little song he sang, always let your conscience be your guide. Now, that's generally good advice, except because we are fallen human beings.

We can twist and warp our conscience, can't we? Some people can do unspeakable evil and their conscience never bothers them at all. It's because they have deformed and twisted their conscience. But it wasn't always like that.

They started out with a good conscience. They started out with a conscience that preached a message to them from God. So, friends, what I want you to see here is the bottom line is simply this. God has given a testimony to every person.

He's preached a sermon to everyone who has ever lived on this planet. Since the days of Adam and Eve to our present day right now, God has preached two sermons to every human being who's ever taken breath.

The sermon preached in creation and the sermon preached in conscience. And God will judge the person who has never heard the name of Jesus Christ by how they respond to the message preached in creation and the message preached in conscience.

Providential Preparation for the Gospel

Now, when we think about this, we wonder, well, God, how do you do this? How do you work this out practically? And, you know, is that all you do for people? But we need to understand that the work of God in preparing man for the gospel goes even beyond the message in creation and conscience.

Let me give you a couple of very dramatic examples. These are taken from a book, a wonderful book, by a man named Don Richards. The book's titled Eternity in Their Hearts. And it's a book filled with these kind of stories.

And it's a delight for me to share a couple of them with you here this evening. He speaks about the Mabaka tribe in Central Africa. Now, they first heard of the gospel in the 1920s. It was brought to them by a missionary named Eugene Rosenau.

And when he came to the Mabaka, they explained their belief system to him. You know, any good missionary, the first thing he wants to do when he comes among the people is discover what their beliefs are and discover how they think and how they look at the world.

And so he got an explanation of the belief system of the Mabaka. This is what they said. They had a creator god known as Koro. And Koro, the creator, sent word to our forefathers that long ago he had already sent his son into the world to accomplish something wonderful for all mankind.

Later, however, our forefathers turned away from the truth about Koro's son. In time, they even forgot what it was that he accomplished for mankind. Since the time of the forgetting, successive generations of our people have longed to discover the truth of Koro's son.

But all we could learn was that the messengers would eventually come to restore that forgotten knowledge to us. Somehow, we also knew that when the messengers came, they would probably be white-skinned.

In any case, we resolved that whenever Koro's messengers arrived, we would all welcome them and believe their message. Now, when this missionary named Eugene Rosenau heard this in the 1920s, what did he have to say to these people?

He said, I'm the man. This God, Koro, as you call him, the creator God. I serve the God who created heaven and earth. And you have worshipped him or honored him or thought about him in ignorance. But now I have come to bring the full message of him and to tell you about Koro's son.

And he delivered the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Now, what about people who lived in that tribe before that missionary ever came? Well, I suppose that if they had a proper and adequate response to God's sermon in creation and in conscience, and if they trusted in God's promise to send this deliverer in his son.

And judging on where their heart was and where their response was, then perhaps those people were saved and we will see them in heaven. But I want you to see that God was working among those tribes even before they heard the message of Jesus Christ.

Here's another example, the Gedo tribe of South Central Ethiopia. They believed in a God called Magano. Now, Magano was the omnipotent creator of everything. However, the people of his tribe did not pray to Magano.

They did not sacrifice to Magano. Instead, they did all their prayer and all their sacrifice to an evil God whom they called Shaitan. Now, when a missionary came with the gospel, he said, I don't get this.

You have this omnipotent creator, God Magano, but you don't pray to him. You don't sacrifice to him. Why do you sacrifice to this evil God named Shaitan? They explained, well, we sacrifice to Shaitan not because we love him, but because we simply do not enjoy close enough ties with Magano to allow us to be finished with Shaitan.

We want to be finished with him, but we aren't close enough to the omnipotent creator God to break this bondage that we have to Shaitan. Now, there was one man among the Gedo tribe bold enough to approach Magano.

His name was Warasa, and he simply prayed. And he asked Magano to reveal himself to the Gedo people. He soon had a vision. And in this vision, he saw white-skinned strangers visiting, building flimsy shelters under the shade of large sycamore trees.

And when they built permanent structures with shiny roofs, Warasa had never seen those kind of structures before. The ones he saw in his vision. Then in his vision, he heard a voice. The voice said, these men will bring you a message from Magano, the God you seek, wait for them.

And in the final scene of the vision, Warasa saw himself removing the center pole from his house. Now, in Gedo symbolism, the center pole of your house, it's a symbol for your very life because it holds everything up on the roof.

He saw himself in the vision, take the center pole from his own house, and he went over and took it to the buildings that these strange visitors brought. And he laid the center pole in front of them. And it was very obviously a picture that he was to lay his life down before what these men brought to him.

Eight years went by, nothing happened. And then in 1948, a Canadian missionary named Albert Brandt and some associates of his. They came to the area. They decided to set up tents, two tents right under a sycamore tree.

And when Warasa saw that, he said, that's exactly what I saw in the vision. He went to these men. He heard the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to him and he received it. And there was an amazing work among the Gedeo tribe.

Three decades later, among this Gedeo tribe, there were more than 200 churches established. And each one of those churches had an average of more than 200 members. An amazing work of God. But do you see how God was working in those people even before they ever heard the gospel?

God working in creation, God working in conscience. Friends, I think that we should really rely on the principle that Abraham states in Genesis chapter 18, verse 25. You can turn there if you like, but I'll just read that passage to you.

The very relevant passage. You see, in Genesis chapter 18, Abraham has a divine visitation from God. And God has sent two angels along the way to go visit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and to check them out and to see with their own eyes if those cities are actually as wicked as God knows that they are.

And so when those angels come, they're approaching the city and God tells Abraham about his plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their great wickedness. Well, Abraham begins to bargain with God.

God, God, what if there's 50 righteous people in the city? Are you going to destroy that city and let 50 righteous people perish in that city? God says, no, no, I won't destroy it if there's 50 righteous people there.

And then Abraham begins to bargain with God. How about 45? How about 40? How about 35? But there's a line in Abraham's dialogue with God where he looks at God and he says, will not the judge of all the earth do right?

And it's a rhetorical question. You know what a rhetorical question is, don't you? It's a question that the correct answer is always assumed. When Abraham asks, will not the God of all the earth, the judge of all the earth do what is right?

The answer is yes, he will. See, friends, this is what we have to understand is that God is eminently fair, completely fair, and there will not be a single person who tragically perishes in eternal separation from God.

There will not be a single person in that place who does not know that they deserve to be there. The cry that goes up from hell will not be I was robbed. The cry that goes up from hell will be God is just.

God is fair. I deserve to be here. This principle from Abraham's dealing with God before the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah shows us that especially in judgment, God always does what is right.

Why Christians Must Preach the Gospel

Now, let me ask a few related questions to this issue, because I think we've answered it fairly adequately. What about the person who has never heard the name of Jesus was never heard the gospel? We say God will judge them rightly, and he has a basis on which to judge them because they've heard the message from creation and they've heard the message from conscience and God will judge them on how they have responded to those messages.

Now, here's a follow up question, if you will. If God preaches a sermon to everybody through creation and conscience, then why are Christians so concerned to preach the gospel to others? Why don't we just sit back and say, hey, Lord, you're going to take care of it.

You're going to take care of it in creation. You're going to take care of the conscience and you're going to do what's right. So why do we have to be so concerned and spend the time or the money or the effort or the discomfort of going out and preaching the gospel to other people?

Well, let me give three answers to that. First of all, those who are condemned by conscience and creation can still be saved by the good news of faith in Jesus Christ and what he did for us. Do you understand what I mean by that?

Oh, yes, it's possible that some people will be saved because they responded rightly to what God showed them in creation and conscience. But surely you want to say most people won't. Do most people honor God the way that they should because of what they see of him in creation?

No, do most people honor God the way they should responding to their conscience? No, most people don't. So what about that person who has broken God's law that preached to them in creation and conscience?

The gospel of Jesus Christ can save them. The gospel of Jesus Christ can bring them to salvation if they will, but trust in Jesus. We can say that some may be saved by their response to creation and conscience, but many, many more can be saved by their response to Jesus.

And so it's not enough for us to say, well, those people can just hear it in creation and conscience. Well, a few of them might. But how many more can hear it if we bring them the gospel of Jesus Christ?

That's one answer. Here's a second answer. The message of creation and conscience are not the good news. I want you to turn to the gospel of Mark chapter 16, verse 15. In Mark chapter 16, verse 15, Jesus gives a wonderful commission to his people.

He says here, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, do you know what that word gospel means? Literally, it means good news. And do you know what the word preach means? It means to proclaim.

So Jesus is saying, proclaim the good news to every creature. Now, here's what you need to understand. Creation preaches a message, doesn't it? But it's not the good news. Conscience preaches a message, but it's not the good news.

Creation Reveals Power, Not the Full Gospel

Let me explain to you what I mean by that. You ever like to watch those animal programs on the special cable channels, you know, animal planet or the discovered channel. And they're following the African cheetah around the plane there, you know, and there it is.

And there's the antelope. And you go, my, look at that cheetah. Oh, God, you are so good. Look at your creative power when that animal is so sleek and strong and supple. And then the camera starts following the cheetah and it's running across the planet.

Oh, the dust that it kicks up. You go, that is a magnificent creation cut. Oh, it's absolutely amazing. And then the next frame, it's pounced upon the antelope and it devours it. You go, God, that's pretty rough stuff.

Man, there's stuff flying all over the place. Let me put it to this way. Creation does not really tell us about the love and kindness and mercy of God, does it? It tells us about a strength, but make no mistake about it.

Creation can be pretty harsh. You don't think so? Why don't you sleep outside tonight? We're expecting a nice cold rainstorm. You'll see that there's not much warmth out there in creation all the time.

You see, creation tells us about God's power and wisdom and majesty and strength. But it really doesn't communicate to us the good news of his love and mercy and gentleness. Same thing with conscience.

Conscience can condemn us, but it doesn't really show us love very much. I've never really felt loved by my conscience. I've been happy when it leaves me alone. But I've never really felt loved by it.

You see the point of it here? If people are going to hear the good news, we have to bring it to them for the message of Jesus. And because we care about other people, we want them to hear the good news.

Well, yes, you've heard the news of God through creation. You've heard the news of God through conscience. But now here's the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Friend, I've got good news for you.

That even though creation shows you that there's a God far stronger and mightier and wiser than you, the good news is that you can enter into a relationship with that God. Even though conscience tells you that you're a guilty sinner, doesn't your conscience tell you that?

My conscience tells me that. Even though conscience tells me I'm a guilty sinner, the good news of Jesus Christ tells me that God has opened up a way for guilty sinners to come because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

He died on the cross in my place. I deserve to be up on the cross. I'm guilty. He wasn't. But the innocent paid the penalty for the guilty. That's me. That's you. And if I put my trust in Jesus and give my life to him so that he can transform it, then he takes the guilt, the penalty that I deserve.

That's good news, isn't it? OK, so three reasons here why we should be concerned to preach the gospel to others. Number one, so that more will be saved. Number two, so that they can hear the good news.

And number three, because we're commanded by Jesus Christ to do it. Look at it there. Mark chapter 16, verse 15. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That pretty much settles it for me.

Doesn't it for you? It doesn't have to make any more sense than that. Why do we go into all the world and concerned about preaching the gospel to our friends and neighbors and coworkers and people in distant lands?

Why? Because he told us to. And that's all we really need to hear, isn't it? If he told us to do it, then we should do it. So let me say this. If you are tired of Christians preaching the gospel to you, please be patient with them.

They're just doing what Jesus told them to do. I know sometimes it feels annoying when Christians preach the gospel to you. Now, oftentimes unjustifiably. So I heard a great story once from a man who he was at a golf course and he saw a friend of his coming in from the last green and he had just finished his round of golf.

And the friend was kind of throwing his clubs into the car and he was very angry. And he said, what's going on with you? Why are you so angry? Thought he must have a bad run because you wouldn't believe it.

Now, his friend was not a Christian. He had not trusted in Jesus Christ yet. He said, you wouldn't believe it who I golfed with just now. He said, Billy Graham was in my foursome. And man, he was just shoving the gospel down my throat, up and down every fairway.

I couldn't even believe it. This is a true story. A guy really played a round of golf with Billy Graham. And he said that Billy Graham was just shoving it down his throat. Well, his friend who was a Christian was amazed.

He said, Billy Graham was more of a gentleman. He tells himself, it's hard to believe that Billy Graham would be really obnoxious. And he's shoving it down this guy's throat. And so he asked, well, that's fine.

What did Billy say to you? Not because, well, he didn't really say much, actually. And you get the point, don't you? Just from being with Billy Graham, the guy felt so convicted that he felt that, you know, it was being shoved down his throat.

When Billy Graham was just being a perfect gentleman and maybe saying a word here and there. But it wasn't that the Christian was being obnoxious. It was that the other person was so sensitive that they took a lot of offense.

Friends, if you're listening to this at another time and place, other than the evening where we're delivering this, and perhaps you've been offended in times past. Well, I apologize on behalf of all Christians.

I apologize for every genuinely obnoxious Christian who has offended you. On the other hand, we make no apology for doing what our Lord Jesus told us to do. And that's tell other people about the good news in Jesus Christ.

He told us to do it. And so we're just trying to do what he told us to. If you don't like it, if you disagree with it, take it up with Jesus, because he's the one who told us to do it. Interestingly enough, I told you about these tribal people, such as the Mabaka.

People like the Mabaka often asked the missionaries that came to them. Did your great grandfather know the way to God? Then why didn't he come and speak to my great grandfather? And isn't that a good question?

Why not, indeed? So let me wrap up with one final point here. And this is the last thing I want to say in this message. We've talked all about how can a person be judged of God? Or what will God do with the person who's never heard?

We've always talked about also talked about. Well, if God preaches to everybody through creation and conscience, then why should Christians still be concerned to go out and preach the gospel? Let me make one final point and simply ask.

The Responsibility of Those Who Have Heard

What about you? Yes, you could be concerned about that ancient Viking who never heard the name of Jesus Christ. You could be concerned about that ancient Incan Indian who never heard of Jesus. But what about you?

You have heard the name of Jesus. You have heard a clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because I just told you one a few minutes ago about our need as sinners, about God's great provision through Jesus Christ on the cross and how he hung on the cross as a substitute for us dying in our place.

You see, we can paint a scenario by which those who have never heard might be saved if they respond correctly to the message that's brought to them by creation and conscience. We can say that's a possibility and God will judge them rightly.

We can leave it in God's hands. We know that they've heard some kind of message through creation. They've heard some kind of message through conscience, and then God can judge them righteously from there.

We don't have to worry about it. Friends, listen carefully. There is no scenario by which someone can be saved if they have heard the message of salvation in Jesus Christ and rejected it. How can that person ever be saved?

God with an outstretched hand has come to you and said, this is my good news. This is my provision of salvation for you. Will you receive it? And many people say, no, no, thank you. Friends, I say, and I say it categorically based on the authority of the word of God.

There is no salvation for that person. We're in John chapter six, excuse me, Mark chapter 16. Look at verse 15 and 16 with me. It says, and he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Now, verse 16, he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Friends, those aren't my words. Those are the words of Jesus. So this is a very important message that goes out from here this evening.