Key Scripture: Mark 7:1-23

Introduction:
We have been going through a series of teachings based on Mark’s gospel and the book No Perfect People Allowed. We are calling it ‘This Beautiful Mess’ because Jesus reached out to very imperfect people and embraced them in their mess, and transformed their lives. It’s about how He reached out to his disciples in their doubt and unbelief after He was resurrected, to bring them to faith and belief. We are going to explore some questions that come from us in our modern day doubts.

How can it be fair that Jesus is the only way to God?
Will there be people in heaven who had never heard Jesus’ name?
What is it that God is looking for?
What is it that God sees when He looks at us?

A. Mark 7:1-23:
     1. In Mark 7:1-5, the Pharisees engage Jesus about ceremonial washings and eating with unclean hands, and observing the traditions of the elders. They say, “Why don’t your disciples wash their hands?”
     2. In Verses 6-7, Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 to them, saying, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” He is saying they are hypocrites.
    3. In verses 8-14, He tells them that they are “leaving the commandments of God and holding to the traditions of men.”
    4.In verses 19-23, He tells them that it is not the things that come from outside that defiles them, but it is the things that come from the heart. “For within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts…” He is trying to draw them to the issues of the heart, not outward concerns.

B. John 14
1. In John 14:1, Jesus made the statement “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” Jesus is speaking a reality; that we all have troubled hearts. And He is saying that the way to be free from this is to trust in God and to trust in Him.
2. In John 14:5-6, Thomas says, “Lord, we don’t know the way. Jesus replies, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

C. Jared’s story (from No Perfect People Allowed)
Jared questioned, “How can you say that Jesus is the only way to God?” Jared was an engineer and trained in linear, rational thought, yet he easily held the idea that all moral truth was relative, and that all religious claims were equally valid, even though he recognized that they claimed contradictory things.
Eventually they were able to work through to Jared’s real concern, which was that it doesn’t sound fair that Jesus is the only way to God. Jared said, ‘That’s it exactly. How could it be fair that God would send a little Chinese kid to hell even though he never had the chance to hear about Jesus? Or what about some holy man who devoted his whole life to doing good and serving God as he understood him, but had always been taught that Jesus was nothing more than a prophet?” These are compelling questions

D. Give Me An Answer: Real Answers to Tough Questions About Christianity, by Cliff Knechtle. (givemeananswer.org) He answers two questions:

How will God be fair?
What will God do with those who never hear about Jesus?

And he puts it into two categories:

What we do know
What we cannot know. (There are some things we cannot know.)

I. What we do know
A. God is the God of all people. He created all people in His image.

2 Chron. 16:9- “for the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” He is looking for people whose hearts are in a certain condition.
God is not just the God of the West, or of America. He is not just a regional God. He is the God of all things.
John 1:3- “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”

B. Scriptures tell us that all people know about God through several common ways:

Through nature:

Romans 1:20- “For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
Psalms 19:1- “The heavens delare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands “ God makes himself known through His creation.

Through our conscience when we do right and wrong.

Romans 2:15- “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on the day when, according to my Gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” He has put His conscience in us all.

It’s saying that we all have these accusing thoughts and thoughts that we excuse. (We think we are not so bad or wrong compared to others.)
It’s telling us that no one has an excuse for out-right rejecting God.
God looks at the heart, not the religion of every person

C. We do know that there are people in heaven, who are made right with God, who have never heard the name of Jesus!

All the people of faith in the Old Testament, like Abraham, the father of our faith; Noah, Moses, Rahab (who was not a Jew but a Gentile, and a prostitute), David, Elijah, Isaiah, were all made right with God by faith.

Heb.11- by faith Noh, by faith Abraham, by faith Moses, by faith, the prostitute Rahab- “for the Lord, your God, is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (Joshua 2:11)
Heb. 11:6- “and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him, must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
John 8:56- Jesus acknowledged this. “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad.” Abraham saw Christ from a distance, and he came to Him by faith.

If Jesus is the only way, then God took the faith that they placed in Him; in the light and knowledge revealed to them, and God looked ahead to Jesus’ death on their behalf, and applied His atonement for their sins to them.

In recognizing their need for God’s forgiveness and their need for a redeemer.
We do not know how this works totally, except that is only by faith. It is always by faith.

Nobody will be in heaven because they lived a good life or because they were sincere, but only because of God’s gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and received from God by faith.

Acts 10- God saw Cornelius, a Roman, a Gentile soldier, who was God fearing and devout. He gave generously to those in need, and prayed continually to God. God heard Cornelius’ prayers. He sent Peter to his house and he preached the gospel of Christ to him and those in his household.
Verse 34- (Peter says) “ I know now it is true that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.”

We do not know, nor are we meant to know, exactly how God deals with those who have never heard of Jesus’ name, but are humbly seeking God. But we can have confidence that everyone has an opportunity to choose life with Him or to reject Him.

Romans 10:18- “But I ask, ‘Did they not hear?’ Of course, they did: Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Ps.19:4) God’s voice has gone out to all people.

D. We do know that God cannot be unfair.

Genesis 18: 23-33- Abraham petitions God about not destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins.

Verse 25- “will not the judge of all the earth do right?”
Verse 23- “ Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”
Verse 25-33- Abraham asks God if He will spare the cities from judgment if there are 50, 45, 40 30, 20, and even 10 righteous people there. God says, “Yes, I will spare them” each time. God cannot be unfair or He is not God.

God alone knows the heart of every person.

God will not send anybody to hell for a lack of knowledge or place of birth, or ethnicity.
It will be because we seek to justify ourselves, we don’t acknowledge our need of Him, and we refuse to humble ourselves before Him. We live in this constant state of excusing our sins, not willing to admit them. Every person since Adam has wrestled with this. Jesus said, “Out of the heart comes every sin and kind of evil.”
We cannot judge others accurately, because God has not given us the insight into their hearts. This is not our responsibility; it is God’s.

E. We do know that God wants people to find confident assurance that they are right with Him, and that is why He sent Jesus.

John 5:13- “ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Romans 3:23- (NLV) “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (But) now God, in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who freed us by taking away our sins.”

F. How will God judge people who have never heard? We don’t know.

Will God be fair? God is the only one who will be fair! We push Him away, but He is not unfair.
God cares more about other people than you or I ever could.
Christ gave His life for all men.
1 Tim. 2:3- “God wants all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” For there is one God and One mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all men- the testimony given in it’s proper time.”

G. The more important question is “What will I do with the claims of Jesus now that I have heard?”

When I (Phil S.) was in college I took a World Religions class. Our final exam was to name the religion that we thought most answered the questions that man has and give reasons for that... I was shocked to realize that I chose Christianity. My answers made me aware that I was a sinner and I needed a savior.
Last week Joy, a Buddhist who was seeking to know God, said it like this, “The speaker said he didn’t know how God deals with people who never hear (About Jesus). That made sense to me, and it felt honest. There must be a mystery about God. So we don’t know everything about how God works, but the thought that we could be confident and reassured through Jesus, intrigued me.” Joy opened her heart to Jesus, and now helps others wrestle with the question, “How can this be fair?” She said, “I think the concern for God being fair to others has more to do with ourselves. I don’t think most people are honestly concerned for others. The pains of our own lives are underneath these questions…pain that makes us wonder about fairness and hope. But at least now I know that there is hope for us all.”

Discussion Questions:

Was there ever a time when you believed that it was unfair for people to say that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ? Why can we trust that it is not unfair?

Share your own story of coming into faith in Christ. What were the avenues that God used to reveal Himself to you?

Why can we not accurately judge the salvation of others?

What do we base our confidence and assurance of salvation on? (Rom. 3:23)