GYC SE 2012: Not Very Far

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GYC Southeast

Doug Batchelor

The Delay

And we do have a few more Bible questions if that's okay with you.

The reason we stopped earlier is because you needed a break and his battery went dead.

If God is loving, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people?

The whole book of Job addresses the question, if God is good, then why do bad things happen to good people?

Job, Job, Job was a perfect and upright man and yet all that stuff befell him and it tells really that there's a battle going on behind the scenes.

This world is a battlefield and in war sometimes there are innocent collateral casualties and all of these people that there are good people who are suffering because of the sin and the disease and the sickness in the world it's because there is this war going on and there's a devil And I know that might sound like a cheap answer, but really that's what the story of Job tells us about is that the devil is accusing people.

God allowed Job to be tested as a demonstration of his faithfulness and that we can be faithful even amidst trial.

Okay, how can I witness to people who don't know Christ without them influencing me?

How do you try to reach the lost without being reached by the lost?

Missionary families go to remote pagan parts of the world where they're surrounded with all kinds of heathenism and of course they and then their children are exposed to those things.

I think that if you're going into a situation like that, whether it's witnessing to, you know, some friends in a workplace or a university where it's not a Christian university, You really need to pray that God will compensate by giving you his spirit and then go in humbly All right, he that thinks he stands needs to take heed lest he fall If you've got friends that have a drinking problem make up your mind not to witness to them at the bar You know what?

And if you're a new Christian, a lot of new Christians say, Oh, you know, I'm gonna go back to my church and try and reach all my old friends.

Make sure that your roots are down deep enough to withstand the winds that are gonna come.

And So get grounded in what you believe before you go and try and reach people who are out there so you won't be influenced.

If Jesus knew ahead of time that Judas was going to betray him, why did he still accept him as a disciple?

Evidently, Judas was 1 of the 12 that, you know, it says, Christ said, have I not chosen 12 of you and 1 of you is a devil?

You read in the book, Desire of Ages, and that was partially a choosing and partially a volunteering.

There was a certain scribe that came to Jesus and said, Lord I'll follow you wherever you go.

And Jesus knowing that he was looking for earthly gain, said, foxes have their holes and birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

He was letting him know, if you're following me for earthly gain, don't do it.

And all the other apostles said, oh Lord, he'd be a great part of your inner circle.

He is so bright, he's so sharp, he's so good looking, he's well dressed, he's a scribe and and Jesus I think really allowed Judas to be part of that inner circle at the recommendation of the others because they thought he had so much to offer.

But he kind of I think wormed his way in a little bit and then Jesus allowed it.

When owning a business or working for a company, is it okay to fudge the rules if they don't hurt anyone?

But I think what you mean by fudging the rules is I'm old fashioned.

I think that you can go to hell for stealing somebody's pencil just like you can go to hell for stealing a million dollars.

And I believe that Christians should be above board and honest and have good ethics and that should be especially in the workplace.

And yeah, you might be persecuted when you stand up for what's right but Peter said it's we're better if we're persecuted for doing what's right than doing what's wrong.

So yeah I think we should be consistent Christian witnesses.

Will good people who have not received the Word of God be just as able to go to heaven as someone who has known God and followed God all their lives?

Wow, you know I can get in trouble answering this question, but I want to give you an honest answer.

Will there be people in heaven who maybe did not know the truth about Jesus and accepting Jesus as their personal Savior?

The Bible tells us many will come from the east and the west and sit down in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and some of the children of the kingdom will be in outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth." But the Bible is clear in the book of Acts that there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.

Nobody, Nobody goes to heaven except through Jesus.

Anyone who is there is there because of the sacrifice and the grace of God.

There will be some people there who walked in all the light they had available, but maybe they never heard the entire story about Jesus.

Maybe they had some elements of truth that came through divine revelation and dreams and visions or angels, and they walked in that light, but they didn't have the Bible and they didn't know the whole gospel story, but they were God's children.

You find examples of them in Naaman, in the woman that Elijah stayed with during the famine.

Matter of fact, Jesus nearly got thrown off the cliff when he stood up in Nazareth and he said there were many widows in the land in the days of the drought during the time of Elijah but Elijah didn't stay with an Israeli woman, he stayed with a woman of a Zidon, a pagan.

And there were many lepers in the land of Israel, but none of those Israeli lepers or church members were healed except Nahum and the Syrian.

And the people in Jesus' church were so outraged they just about, they tried to kill him.

Because basically he was saying there will be others saved who maybe didn't know everything.

And even Naaman, after he was cleansed from his leprosy, he said to Elisha, I'm not going to worship any God but Jehovah, and I'm even going to take dirt from Israel back, so when I kneel and pray, I'm kneeling on the soil of Israel.

But, he said, please have mercy on your servant.

He leans on me when I take him to the house of his God.

I remember what the God Dagon, whatever his God was.

And Naaman understood the Jews did not believe in idolatry and Elisha told him go in peace Naaman was saying I'm not gonna worship that God anymore.

I'm only worshipping Jehovah, but I need to push the wheelchair for the king when he goes to church And see God understands.

He's a loving God And so I think they're gonna be a lot of people out there, now some of my Baptist friends would tell me I'm a heretic by saying all of those people who lived in the Inca Empire that never heard about Jesus, or the Aborigines in Australia for millennia that never heard the gospel story.

Are we saying that they are all automatically lost?

No, I think there will be some who will get to heaven and say, Lord, what happened to your hands?

Jesus said, to whom much is given, much is required.

He judges us according to the light that we receive.

If you had no light, did not have light, or you did not see, you would not have any sin.

We want to preach the gospel to the lost because most people don't know.

When learning new light, how do we discern what is good and what is bad when it all seems to be truth?

Well, you know, I'm not really ever looking for new light.

I just find I've got my hands full trying to live up to the old light.

There is new light that God's going to reveal and we should evaluate everything based on the word of God, dependable Christian counsel, and the evidence in history.

But, and I do believe God has new light that he's revealing to his people.

So ultimately it has to all measure up to the word.

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