All right.

You ready?

You're rested up, ready to go?

Okay.

I'm going to be reading two passages of scripture, but the one I want you to turn to is Acts chapter 4, verse 8 through 12.

I'll get to that just in a moment.

We're in a series called Dirt Road Discipleship.

You're having to use your noggin.

You're having to think a little bit, especially in the first two messages, which that's okay.

Because we've talked about that something is happening in our world that hasn't happened in a very long time.

And there is a deep spiritual hunger in the present generation, but especially in the next generation coming after us.

Last year alone, Bible sales, we said, surpassed 14 million in the first 11 months.

And that's been true of every decade in the modern age.

No book has ever outsold the Bible.

But the last few years, especially, there's been a 20% increase.

And like I said, when something increases even 10%, we call that an epidemic.

So there's an epidemic of spiritual hunger.

So as you look to the next generation and we're trying to figure them out, we're noticing that they have lost faith and trust in world leaders, in health organizations, in politicians, in teachers, in governments.

They're looking for an objective source, something that will guide them to what is real, what is true, what can be trusted.

something that is not manipulation or power play, something that is truth.

Now, here's what we said.

Here's what that means.

It means you and I are living in a fantastic opportunity right now.

This is the time where you and I need to become educated to be able to give a hope or a reason rather for the hope that is within us.

And I asked you last week, how many of you, if you were asked what it is to be a Christian, could define it?

If you were asked, what makes Jesus different than any other religious leader?

Could you answer it?

If they ask you, Why do you believe the Bible is the word of God?

Or why do you believe Jesus died for your sins?

Why do you believe those things?

Could you, not in a deep philosophical language, but could you just give them a simplistic answer?

Because it's the time for the church to lead the way, not merely an experience.

Experience is important.

I mean, if something is intellectually true, it should be existentially felt.

But not only an experience, but also an intellectual understanding.

So this series is your opportunity.

to be discipled.

That's what I'm trying to do, to remind you of what following Jesus truly looks like, to equip you to be able to give a reason for the hope that is within you.

That's why you can go back and watch the YouTube videos.

You can notice on the app, the notes are extensive.

We're going to be putting the manuscripts out.

We're actually going to do a booklet after this is over for everyone to have access to.

So if you're serious about the call on your life, to take the good news of the gospel to your friends, neighbors, to those people who ask you to give a reason for the hope that is within you.

It is our hope that we can equip you to do that.

Now, what we have said is that truth by nature, it is objective.

And if you want to know the truth to life and living, if you want the answers to life's most deep penetrating questions, then Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life.

And no one comes to the father except through me.

And then in the book of Acts, the passage I told you to turn to earlier, in chapter 4, verse 8, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit.

And he said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead.

that this man stands before you healed.

The stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone, salvation, listen carefully now, salvation is found in no one else.

For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

Now, right then and there, I just read to you the most offensive verse to the modern world.

That's it.

The modern world detests exclusivity.

Its highest value is inclusivity.

At least that's what it claims.

So you're going to be asked, how can you Christians claim to have the truth?

How can you claim that your way is the only way?

There are many other religious believers who are just as sincere as you are.

Why can't there be many paths to God?

Why can't you Christ followers be more inclusive?

So I want to address this.

I want to address it in three segments.

First, the problem with inclusivity.

Second, the reason for exclusivity.

And third, the solution to intellectual and spiritual anxiety.

So first, what is the problem with inclusivity?

Folks in the past, here is what inclusivity meant.

It meant equal treatment under the law and equal opportunity under the law.

It was referred to.

In the early days, even when our framers were framing the Constitution, part and partial to American culture was an idea called the marketplace of ideas.

And the marketplace of idea was that every idea or ideology should be given equal hearing in public spaces in order that the superior idea might emerge.

Now, what did this mean?

It meant that you cannot persecute someone for not believing the way that you believe.

It meant that...

all ideas should be given a fair hearing.

It means that no one can be denied the rights and privileges associated with citizenship based on their differences of opinion.

And that is what it means to be inclusive.

And if that's what it means to be inclusive, then Christ's followers are all in.

In fact, even in the modern world, the five major world religions, out of all of them, listen carefully now in the wording.

Only Christians possess no policy of persecution in the modern world for religions that don't agree with them.

Now that's ironic, especially when you have Hinduism in India that claims total inclusivity.

In many, not all, Muslim countries, there are indeed policies of persecution that include punishing those who convert to Christianity, making conversion illegal, making the building of a Christian church building illegal, and making illegal any proselytizing of new converts.

Unfortunately, around the world, it goes beyond that.

The New York Times, no friend of the Christian, reports that there is an attempt to eradicate Christians from society in places like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, and much more.

Rising attacks on Christians is part of the broader issue of many parts of the world.

In India, Hindus raid church buildings, services during the worship service.

Imagine that happening here.

They throw the women and children to the ground.

They shout Hindu supremacist slogans, and they beat and torture the pastors in front of their congregations.

Now, I know you guys would never let that happen to me, right?

Okay.

The problem is they're doing this without any repercussions, and in many cases, at the encouragement of the local authorities.

Similar things occur, not in all Muslim countries.

And this is not, let's pick on the Muslims.

I'm simply trying to show you that Islam, that Hindu extremism, and even Buddhist, I'll show you in a few moments, there are all kinds of persecutions happening.

There are policies of persecution happening, not in all of these countries, but in many of them around the world.

New York Times prints this.

In the summer of 2014...

A Muslim group waged a bloody blitz through Iraq's Nineveh province, crucifying, beheading, raping, torturing, forcibly converting to Islam, and driving out every member of the region's 2,000-year-old Christian community.

Christian girls as young as three were sold, it should be, as sex slave markets in Mosul.

Ancient churches were burned and dozens of Christian towns in Syria were attacked.

Many in the West, even Christians, remain unaware of the scale of this persecution, and even fewer know what can be done about it.

In India today, there is a policy of persecution toward both Christians and Muslims.

But there is, listen carefully now, there is no policy of persecution toward any faith in any proclaimed Christian country.

Christians by and large believe that all men and women are created in the image of God and should be loved, prayed for, and valued.

Can you show me a Christian country where, in the modern world, people are imprisoned for not being a Christian?

Where families are raped and tortured just because they are not Christians?

Where Christian families disown and, in many cases, encourage honor killings when someone converts to another religion?

The reason there are so many people wanting to get to this country is because America may no longer be a Christian country, but it remains heavily influenced by its Judeo-Christian values.

And as a result, it has no policy of persecution toward those who are not Christian.

The bottom line is Christ followers believe that it is a sin against God to harm anyone just because they're not a Christ follower or just because they don't agree with you.

In this way, Christ followers are indeed inclusive.

They desire to converse with those of differing opinions believing that the truth will win out in the end.

Now, unfortunately, the definition of inclusivity has changed, and now it is a logical impossibility.

The old definition went like this.

Inclusivity means equal treatment for all people, regardless of ideas or ideology.

The new definition says this.

All ideas are equally valid and equally true.

Before, All people are equal and should be treated with dignity.

After, which is today, all ideas are equal and should be treated as true.

And therein lies the problem Christians have with this kind of inclusivity.

For the first, for the most part, folks, it violates the law of non-contradiction going all the way back to Plato and Aristotle.

If I say to you, I have two children, and then five minutes later, somebody walks up and says, do you have any children?

And I say, no.

Both of those statements cannot be true.

The law of non-contradiction says two statements that are made about the same thing that fundamentally contradict each other cannot both be true.

You can't say slavery is bad and then say slavery is good and both statements be true.

You can't say racism is a sin and then say racism is a value.

Both of those statements cannot be true because they fundamentally contradict one another.

Now you think about it for a moment.

If all ideas are equally valid and equally true, then you should never condemn slavery.

You should never condemn racism.

And you should never condemn treating women as inferior to men, if all ideas are equally valid and equally true.

So a couple of years ago, I was asked to go up to Valencia and speak at my buddy Rusty George's church, real life church.

I had the most interesting experience.

I just, he asked me, they were doing an apologetic series and he said, come up and preach a message on truth.

So I did.

And after the service, they get a lot of people from Hollywood and all kinds of different places.

And there was a lady visiting from Berkeley who was a professor.

And I walked out and she was ready for me.

And she had two of her students with her.

And I go out in the parking lot.

She goes, I'd like to talk to you about your sermon.

I said, sure, how can I help you?

She goes, well, I have a fundamental disagreement about your idea that truth is absolute.

Now you think about what she just said.

I said, okay.

But she was very aggressive and sarcastic.

She goes, I'm not holding it against you because you're not as educated as I am.

She said, if you were as educated as I was, you know, so I'm going to cut you some slack here.

I said, well, and I said, okay, help me then.

Educate me.

Help me understand.

What is it?

What problem do you have with my statement?

And she goes, well, my problem is if you had traveled around the world.

Now, she didn't know that I've traveled around the world, that I lived in Africa, Zimbabwe for 10 years, that I lived in the south.

She goes, well, if you'd traveled around the world, you would know that it's arrogant to suggest that some truth in your culture trumps the truth in another culture.

Folks, you can't make this up.

I said, okay, let me ask you a question.

And I started going down a path of trying to get her to admit that there are some things in her life she sees as absolute, whether she's willing to admit it or not.

But I didn't have to do that because these two young girls, her students gave me the I mean, you cannot make this stuff up.

So we start talking and these two young girls are talking about how.

They are going to Africa.

Now, they don't know that I've been there, lived there.

They're going to Africa the following summer with their professor from Berkeley.

And I said, oh, yeah, what's the reason for your going?

Oh, we want to educate the women of Zimbabwe to tell them that they don't have to be secondary subsequent citizens and they don't have to take abuse by their husbands and they have every right to pursue a career.

Now, I happen to think that's a good thing to do.

But wait a minute.

So I said, hold on.

You're telling me that you think the way you look at women is higher and more valuable than the way the Zimbabweans look at women.

Man, the Berkeley professor, these are people who are educated, a high place of education.

And the look in her eye was like...

there's nowhere to go.

There's nowhere to go.

You cannot make this stuff up.

Everybody lives.

Everybody lives with exclusivity.

Truth by nature is exclusive.

It excludes what is false.

A bigger problem with inclusivity, and you're wanting to know how it ended, aren't you?

Well, forget it.

I'm not telling you.

No.

At the end of the day, she did humble herself, and I took her down the road, and she said, and I love the way the conversation ended.

She says, absolute truth does seem to emerge, doesn't it?

I said, yes, it does.

I said, all right.

So a bigger problem with inclusivity.

There's a lot more to that story, but let's leave it there.

A bigger problem with inclusivity as defined by modernity is that when it comes, here's the, when it comes to religion, and this is the problem, I think, that the Berkeley professor had to, is that when we hold true.

to inclusivity until we start coming to religion.

And then we work off of a false assumption.

And the false assumption is that we believe those who aren't part of a religion or study religion believe that religions are fundamentally the same and only superficially different.

The reality is they are superficially similar and fundamentally different.

In fact, guys, Of the world's five major religions, so again, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism.

Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism were all born out of a rejection of the fundamental beliefs of a previous religion.

For example, Guatemala Buddha was born a Hindu.

He rejected the two most fundamental doctrines of Hinduism, which is the authority of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, and the caste system.

He accepted neither is true.

So he began his own religion, his own journey of enlightenment, came up with the four noble paths and the eightfold path, or the four noble truths, rather, and the eightfold path, and then the extinguishing of desire on his way to a nirvanic pursuit.

The bottom line is that Buddhism was born out of the rejection of Hinduism and the major fundamental doctrines associated with it.

Likewise, Muslims, like Christians, are monotheists.

They believe in one God.

but fully and completely reject the major fundamentals of Christianity.

Jesus is not God.

They say that's blasphemy to suggest that.

He did not die on the cross.

They're the only religion to make that claim, by the way.

He does not atone for sins.

He is a prophet, but he's not greater than Muhammad.

And salvation is based on merit, definitely not through faith in Jesus'atoning work on the cross.

Now, you don't have to be a rocket scientist when it comes to religion to know that these are fundamental differences.

A journalist recently wrote, in Time Magazine, actually it was in 2007, so it's not so recent.

He said, anyone who believes that there are inferior religions is a right-wing extremist.

Now, do we really want to say that religions that offer child sacrifice, that mutilate young girls and kill homosexuals, are not inferior?

Yes, Jeff, but those are rare occasions.

Listen, 230 million women alive today have been mutilated.

Saudi Arabia...

Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Brunei, Nigeria continue to sentence homosexuals to death, all on the basis of religion.

Are they fundamentally equal to all other religions?

There's an old saying, just because two things have something in common doesn't mean that they are related.

I have ears, elephants have ears, I'm not an elephant.

Steve Turner, an English journalist, says this, we believe that all religions are the same, at least the ones we read were.

They all believe in love and goodness.

They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

By the way, just while we're on this topic, in my view, atheism is the most exclusive of all religious dogma.

It categorically rejects the supernatural.

It categorically rejects anything beyond the material world.

It postulates an absolute negation.

It says there absolutely is no God, so they're not agnostic.

They're not saying, I don't know if there's God.

They're saying there absolutely is no God, which is a logical impossibility.

You've heard me say this before, because the only way you could know with absolute certainty that there is no God is if you possess absolute knowledge of the universe and nobody does.

Which is why in one of my favorite debates between a Christian philosopher, as he confronts an atheist, he drew a big circle.

So imagine this huge circle.

And the Christian philosopher says, let me ask you something.

As a scientist and as an atheist, how much, if this represents the entire universe, how much of it does science really understand?

And the scientist, atheist, was honest.

And he said about this little dot right down here.

And then the Christian philosopher said, thank you for being honest.

Isn't it possible then that God can be found in this area?

See, the only way you can postulate an absolute negation is to have absolute knowledge, but there's so little of the universe we truly understand.

Atheism is extremely exclusive.

It seeks to eradicate all religions from planet Earth and will do whatever it has to remove all religions without violence, they say, from the public arena.

Now, here's the irony.

You still with me?

Here's the irony.

Number one, inclusivists claim that exclusivists are arrogant.

Who are you to claim that you have the truth?

Now, I'm going to show you one of my favorite illustrations here.

It's about three men, three blind men and an elephant.

And it's been around, I guess, since atheism got a hearing.

So you can imagine you've got this huge elephant and three blind men, let's say they're blindfolded or maybe they're blind, are trying to determine what an elephant is like.

So the first one goes up and grabs hold of the trunk and says, Wow, elephants are long, elongated, flexible.

The other blind man goes, let's say, to the leg of the elephant.

No, it's strong, sturdy, round, firm.

And then the other blind man goes to the side of it.

No, it's large and flat surface.

And then the atheist would say, see, religion is like three elephants and a blind man.

Each one has part of the truth, but none of them have the whole truth.

Now, what's wrong with this little illustration?

The only way you would know...

That they had part of the truth and not all of the truth is if you yourself had all of the truth, which you're saying nobody does.

You with me?

So what you're saying nobody has, you're claiming.

That's why Tim Keller in The Reason for God says this, skeptics believe that any exclusive claims to a superior knowledge of spiritual reality cannot be true.

But this objection is itself a religious belief.

It assumes God is unknowable.

or that God is loving but not wrathful, or that God is an impersonal force rather than a person who speaks in scripture.

In addition, their proponents believe they have a superior way to view things.

They believe the world would be a better place if everyone dropped their traditional religions, views of God, and truth and adopted theirs.

Therefore, their view is also an exclusive claim about the nature of spiritual reality.

If all such views are discouraged, this one should be as well.

If it is not narrow to hold this view, then there's nothing inherently narrow about holding to traditional religious views.

So first of all, inclusivists claim that exclusivists, those who claim to have the way, are arrogant.

But all religions and all views and all philosophies are exclusive at some point because they exclude what is false.

Second, And here's one I've not dealt with before, so new territory.

Inclusivists today claim sincerity is equal to reality.

So think of the logic here.

How can you say, Jeff, that Hindus are wrong because they are just as faithful and just as sincere as you are to your faith?

How can so many people be sincere and yet be wrong?

Now you think of the logic here.

Can I tell you something?

I promise you Hitler was sincere.

He sincerely believed that the Jewish race would tarnish the Aryan nation and it needed to be eradicated completely from planet earth.

He was sincere.

The KKK, I grew up in the South.

Let me tell you, they sincerely believed and dedicated their lives to the eradication of African Americans in the South.

They believed sincerely they were serving the purposes of God.

They sincerely believed they were protecting their families and children.

The Amalekites in the Old Testament in sacrificing their babies, their children, were sincere and truly believed that by doing so, they would reap the blessings of the God Molech.

The people in the day of Jim Jones, if you've been around as long as I have, they were sincere right up to the time they drank the Kool-Aid.

It's not a matter of sincerity.

It's not a matter of diligence.

It's not a matter of commitment.

It is a matter of truth.

Which is why we started this whole series out with the fact that truth is objective and truth is discoverable.

Now, where inclusivity is concerned, I want you to think about something for a moment.

It's interesting that where all the world's religions began, that place continues to be their center today.

Islam, primarily Arabia, not only, but primarily it's Mecca.

Buddhism has the Far East and Hinduism is still primarily and predominantly an Indian religion.

Christianity is the exception.

Its center is always moving from Jerusalem to the Hellenistic Gentiles, from the Hellenistic Mediterranean to Alexandria, North Africa, Rome, to the Northern Europeans, the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Celts, all of Europe and beyond.

So here we are in the 21st century.

Christianity is flourishing where?

Latin America, Asia, Africa, China, Russia.

So when I hear somebody say Christianity is a white man's religion, Let me tell you something.

It was dark long before it ever became white.

Even today, what continent has the most Christians?

Africa.

What people group has the most Christians?

Latinos.

Christianity is growing rapid in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Russia.

The point is, when all is said and done, here's the thing about Jesus, and this is what I love.

No matter where you're from, no matter what language you speak, no matter what the color of your skin, no matter what religion of you or your people or tribe, no matter where you've been or what you've done, all are welcome to the table.

Which is why, which is why I often say that Jesus may be exclusive, but he's the most inclusive, exclusivist you'll ever find.

You will find his people among every tribe, people, group, and language.

And in the book of Revelation, it's awesome to see the Bible tells us every tribe, every people, every nation, every language will stand around the throne and worship the lamb.

Second, second, Second, what is the reason then for exclusivity?

What is the reason then?

Now that we've exposed the idea that this kind of inclusivity that suggests that all ideas are equally valid or equally true is bereft of logic and practicality, then now we can look at the real issue.

What is the reason for the exclusivity of Christianity?

It's very simple, folks, and you should know this by now, just a crash course.

Nothing is like the gospel.

It's good news because in simplicity, and they used to draw this on the board, they still do in seminaries around the world, I'm sure.

In simplicity, the difference is do versus done.

Everything that needs to happen for you to be accepted before God has already been done in Christianity.

In every other faith system, there's still things you got to do.

And even if you do them all, there's really no certainty, no assurance that you'll be accepted by God.

Jesus comes along.

Remember, we've done this graph.

We've used this a thousand times.

I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but I will just simply say, this is how you know you're following Jesus.

If I ask you to put your name on that graph right there, 100 representing 100% good and zero representing 0% good, where would you put your name?

Now, the second part of that is it doesn't matter.

It really doesn't because you could be 99.9% good.

By the way, if you think that's where you are, that's a whole nother sermon.

But no matter where you are on that graph, God is perfect.

And Jesus came to reveal to us the nature of his father.

God is totally holy, perfect, and pure, which means he does not and cannot associate himself with sin, sinful beings, which is you and me.

And if God were only holy, we'd all be in trouble.

But God is also loving.

This is why he sends his son Jesus into the world.

Historically verifiable, validated by the resurrection.

And so he sends his son out of love for us so that the requirements of his holiness have been met because you can meet the requirements of God's holiness either by one, keeping the law perfectly, or two, paying the penalty for breaking it.

Nobody keeps it perfectly.

So our only out here is to pay the penalty.

Rather than having us pay the penalty, God sent his son to pay the penalty on our behalf so that when God looks at us, he doesn't see us through our sin, he sees us through the blood of Jesus Christ, right?

Now this second graph we've looked at often and there's this big gap and we've said, hey, you know, we wanna go over to God, but there's this huge gap in the middle.

And it's our sin, but praise be to God, he offers the cross.

And on the cross, we don't go to God.

God comes down to us and provides a way where you and I can have relationship with him.

Now, I want you to think about this for a moment.

If what I've said is true, and what I've just done is relate to you in about, what, two minutes, the entirety of the book of Romans almost, that we are saved by grace through faith.

But if the true nature of God is holy and love.

And the true nature requires sin to be punished and that God sent his son Jesus to atone for our sins.

If that is true, as revealed in scripture, as validated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, if those things are true, then the reason Jesus can claim to be the only way to the father is because he's the only one that atoned for your sins.

Nobody else did that.

And that's why Paul told Timothy, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, men, the man, Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for us all.

So remember what we say to God revealed himself in creation.

He revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ validated by the resurrection.

God has revealed himself through scripture, validated and confirmed by fulfilled prophecy, eyewitness testimony, circumstantial evidence, all points to these truths.

Through these avenues, we learn that Jesus'sacrifice for our sins is necessary and deemed worthy and applicable to our account by God himself so that you and I can come into a right relationship with him so that, listen now, no matter what you may feel or think God is like or what he should be like, objective truth tells us he is a holy God from whom we are separated because of our sin, but he has redeemed us through the blood of his son that was foreshadowed hundreds of years before he was even born, through the celebration of the Passover lamb, through the day of atonement, through the day of escape.

Man, you think about all through the Old Testament.

Jesus, God keeps telling this story again and again and again, over and over, through the feasts, through rehearsals.

do things like the day of atonement.

When the priest would go in and take two goats, one goat would be forgiveness of his own sins as he represents the people.

And the second goat would be called the scapegoat.

Now think about this, the scapegoat, all the sins of the, you'd have thousands of people singing the songs of ascent if you read in Psalms.

And they're singing these songs going up to the tabernacle and they go up to the tabernacle and there's the priest and he lays hands to transfer all the sins of the people onto the head of this goat.

And it's called the scapegoat.

Because they tie a red ring dipped in blood around the head of the goat, and then no Jew marches him out.

A Gentile would actually be hired to march him outside of the city into the wilderness, and then they would talk about the scripture, as far as the east is from the west, though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

One celebration, one feast after the next to illustrate what was coming, and then the Lamb of God comes, and the Lamb of God is what?

He is crucified.

They put a crown of thorns on his head, which would have left a red ring just like it would have on the scapegoat.

A Gentile leads him outside of the city to crucify him, the Romans.

Who shouts, yea, the Jews.

It's a symbolic, it's foretold, it's foreshadowed.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Therefore, the reason Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

and no one comes to the Father except through me.

It's very simple.

No one else died for your sins.

That's it.

You cannot merit salvation.

If you think you could ever be good enough to stand in God's presence, you're insane.

Yet all other religions are based on works.

Why?

Now, this is going to sound harsh.

We did this before, but I want to tell you something.

Because the devil roams around seeking whom he may devour.

That's why.

Because when you have the authentic, you're going to have imposters.

And the belief that you don't need a savior and can merit your own salvation is not from God.

Where's it from?

1 John 4.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how you can recognize the spirit of God.

Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and even now is already in the world.

I want you to understand, those of you who may be struggling intellectually with this concept, I want you to understand, if you say there are other ways to God, in effect, here's what you're saying.

Number one, you're saying that sincerity equals truth.

Number two, You're saying the cross is unnecessary, which makes God a masochist.

If the cross is unnecessary for salvation, why on earth would God send his son to die a horrible death, a gruesome death on a Roman cross?

You're also saying that salvation can be earned.

And you're also saying that the core of Christianity is not an accurate reflection of the nature, character, workings, and doings of God.

Christianity.

fundamentally contradicts every other religious system.

And unless we're living in some loony bin, both cannot be true.

It's a matter of truth.

Which religion accurately reflects the nature, workings, and doings of God?

It is either Christianity, or some other religion, but it cannot be both.

Why?

Because they fundamentally contradict each other.

Jesus has a right to claim he's the only way to God because he offered his life and sacrifice for your sins, which makes it possible for you to come into the presence of a holy God.

Remember the verse that we quote and read, and we love it, John 3, 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

But have you read verse 18, two verses later?

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son.

Well, why are they condemned already?

Because we're all sinners.

Muslims are sinners.

Christians are sinners.

Hindus, atheists, agnostics, and the unaffiliated.

We're all sinners.

And for God to ignore your sin, without doing anything about it is to violate his own nature.

And if you think that God is going to make an exception for you, you do so on the basis of feeling, not truth.

The objective reality is God, through the cross of Jesus Christ, met the requirements of his own holiness and provided a way of salvation and restoration.

And praise God, all who call on his name, no matter what language, people, group, color, tribe, creed, whatever, will be saved.

Now, there's one little issue and then I want to, oh boy, it's a good thing I cut about 20 minutes out of this sermon.

You, let's say you have a disease.

Let's say my buddy Rick here, since I pick on him every weekend.

Let's say, let's say he's got a disease other than the fact that he can't hit his driver at the moment.

Let's say he's got a disease and I have the cure.

Let's be serious.

Let's say he's got a physical ailment and I have the cure.

This disease will destroy him if I don't get the cure to him, right?

He's got a disease, theoretical, and I've got the only cure.

Ignorance of the cure will not save him.

You see what I mean?

he's going to die because he's got the disease.

I have the cure.

If I don't get the disease to him, if I don't get the cure to him, he's going to die.

So somebody will say, how can God hold someone responsible for something they don't know?

Here's what the Bible teaches.

Number one, first of all, all men are without excuse.

Romans 1 tells us that there's enough in the created scenario called general revelation for all men to seek God.

All men are without excuse.

But here's the second part of that.

It also teaches that all who seek God will find him.

Jeremiah 29, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

The Hebrew word for heart in this verse encompasses the mind, the will, and emotions.

So the verse suggests that seeking God is a wholehearted pursuit that involves more than a casual effort, which is why when I traveled around with RZIM, I met people from all cultures and all walks of life who would come up to me and say to me like the woman in India did.

who said to me, you know what?

I've had dreams about this, but I never knew his name until now.

His name is Jesus.

I'm telling you that whoever earnestly and honestly seeks God, wants to find God, God has a way of sending missionaries, people, the right time, the right place to reveal himself to them, which leads me to believe that God is a fair and just God.

I don't have all the answers to everything, but I do know he's fair and he's just.

And I also know you better be careful.

Because here's what people do.

Well, since I can't figure God, since I can't figure everything out about how God works, I'm just not going to believe in him.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense, which leads me to the third and final.

The problem with inclusivity, the reason for exclusivity, the solution to spiritual anxiety.

So I had a friend in New Zealand.

He was my neighbor.

Name was Phil.

And Phil and I would have a lot of conversations.

And one day, of course, I was in my, what was it, 33, 34 years old.

And in one Sunday afternoon conversation, I poured out my heart and I really thought I had given a great defense for the gospel.

And here's what Phil, typical Kiwi said to me.

He said, Jeff, thank you for sharing that.

If that works for you, I'm happy for you.

If that works for me, he says, yeah, if that works for you.

And I was, the problem is I was young and rude at that point.

Because I'm not rude anymore.

I was young and rude.

And it hit me the wrong way.

So I just came back and said, oh, well, what if child sacrifice works for me?

You good with that too?

What if robbing banks works for me?

What if starting a cult and abusing children works for me?

Is that good?

That was my first go-to.

And Phil said, now settle down, Pastor Jeff.

I'm an inclusivist.

I believe that all religions are equal.

And I said, Jim Jones, Charles Manson?

He said, well, every one but those.

I asked Phil in the conversation, Phil, what religion are you?

He said, what?

I said, well, you said that all religions are equally valid, equally true.

Which religion do you follow?

He said, I'm unaffiliated at the moment.

Let me tell you what I've learned.

People who claim that all religions are equally valid and equally true are not affiliated with any, because if they were, they wouldn't make that statement.

But it also allows you to believe whatever you want to believe and to do whatever you want to do, because you've created your own religion in your mind and you think God has to accept it.

Now, my time is finished, but I am not.

Quickly, please, quickly.

And I don't know how much of this is going to get cut on the weekend, but you get the whole shebang.

Only about five or ten more minutes.

You're okay.

Where are you going?

The charge is lost.

You don't want to watch it.

Listen, please hear me on this.

Jesus gives you an answer, truly, Jesus gives you an answer that none of the other religions give even a faint approach of justice to.

And I just want to mention them.

Okay, this is important, so just take a deep breath.

The first is this, the nature of sin in the heart of man.

Paul studied at the feet of the greatest teachers, lived in the finest city in Greece, went to the finest universities in the world.

He knew the philosophies of Greece.

He knew the legal system of Rome.

He loved the law of God.

Oh man, Paul loved the law.

He taught the law, cherished the law.

law, but he ran into a king-sized problem.

And here's how he described it in Romans 7.

So I find this law at work.

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in me, waging...

war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

What a wretched man I am.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Do you hear what he's saying?

He's saying, in my mind, I'm God's willing servant, but in my nature, I'm bound to the flesh and it tortures me.

Who will rescue me?

Anybody in here struggle with sin?

Anybody here thought that you had it conquered and it came back?

All of us.

And Paul says, who's going to help me?

Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ.

What does he mean by that?

Well, first of all, primarily he means salvation is by grace, forgiveness through the cross of Jesus Christ.

He'll rescue me.

But second, he talks later on about sanctification, about the fact that only Jesus says that he will come and make his home inside you.

And he will give you power over time to grow in your commitment and your relationship.

The Puritans call the Holy Spirit the expulsive power of a new affection.

And then he will not only change what you do, but what you want to do.

He'll change your passions and desires.

But it is a lifelong process.

Buddha told us, obey these laws, think right thoughts, do right deeds, have right ambitions, and maybe you'll be accepted.

But my question to Buddha is, in heaven's name, how?

I want to do it, but I keep falling.

The normal temptations of life come in our direction, and no one is immune to those temptations, no matter how holy you think you are.

To live in this mortal frame is to be tempted.

My mentor used to always tell me, your affections in this world and your desires in your innermost being have very little to do with the reality of other options that stir in your heart and soul.

You may desire to want to do the good, but man, there's another desire in there, and you don't want to do the good.

And inevitably, all of us will fall.

But I'm told in the pantheistic system, I'm told in the other religious systems, work hard, do good things, travel here, and then maybe God will accept you.

The prerequisite for being accepted by God is to be holy.

But I can't be.

I've tried.

How many good people in this world have betrayed their families that never thought they ever would?

How many men are behind bars today because they never intended to cheat the government or embezzle, but they did?

How many men and women have been failed by pride who did not decidedly one day to start self-aggrandizing themselves, but they did?

Paul says he found the secret, the mystery.

And when you stand before Jesus Christ and receive him, one of the most glorious truths of the Christian scriptures, a truth that sets it apart from every other religious system, is that you will never keep the law perfectly.

God knows it, so he sent Christ to accomplish for you what you could never do on your own.

It's not keeping the law perfectly that gets you into heaven.

But the acknowledgement that Jesus Christ has met the requirements of God's law on your behalf, that is the sweetest realization that you could ever come to.

Now, second, quickly.

The Christian faith, Jesus, is the only faith that gives you a satisfactory strength and explanation for suffering.

In the religions of this world, what they end up doing is blaming you.

I guarantee right now, there are many religions in the world that are looking at the fires and Pacific Palisades and saying this, the karma you inherited is now coming to roost.

You must have done something horrible in a previous life and now you're paying for it.

That's the answer.

Buddhism, Hinduism.

You're getting what you deserve.

Jesus comes along and says, look, pain, suffering, evil, those are complex matters, but I am going to give you some certainty.

The first certainty is this.

You are people of the cross and the people of the cross are supposed to be reminded that you can be in the worst place of your life and be centered in the will of God at the same time.

That when it looks so bleak that God is doing something you can never hope for, even imagine immeasurably more when a perfect sinless man is dying on a cross, it is the worst injustice of humanity, and yet God through it is saving the world.

The second thing is, the second thing is, is the story of what Job discovers, because Job is mad at God.

This is the other thing I love about our God.

We can get mad at him.

He's big enough to handle it.

We can complain.

I file a complaint with God all the time.

Every single time Rick Reed beats me at golf, I file a complaint.

God, he is unjust and unholy.

I'm not sure why your favor is on him.

No, a little carried away there, Rick.

Sorry about that.

So Job has a complaint.

Job says, God, I just want to know why this is happening to me.

You tell me why this is happening to me, and I'll be able to accept it.

He says, God, give me a...

exhaustive understanding of why I'm going through this and I'll receive it.

And do you know what God does?

God says, oh, really?

And he goes through a list of things.

He talks about the sun rising and setting.

He talks about the constellations.

He talks about the depths of the ocean, the ocean depths.

He talks about something as simple as an animal in the wilderness giving birth to her young.

And then he says to Job, tell me, Job, do you understand any of those things completely?

No, you just receive them and accept them as done.

but you don't know all the intricate details.

Job, your pain is no different.

You readily accept thousands of things every day in your life for which you don't have an exhaustive understanding.

Your pain is no different.

However, what does Job conclude?

He said, man, in this pain, before my ears had heard of him, now my eyes have seen him.

And he says, I know my Redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand upon the earth.

Job says, I don't know the answer to all this, but I knew one thing, God will have the final say.

And third and finally, those of us who are Christ followers know that even when we go through the deepest, darkest times, there's this prevailing presence that overwhelms us and enables us to do things we never thought we could do.

And we do believe in a Redeemer.

But let me tell you something.

Only Jesus died for your sins, defeated death, and rose from the dead.

I want you to think about that for a minute.

When you die, you're not going to meet Buddha, Muhammad, or Krishna.

They're all dead.

Jesus is the only way to the Father because he and he alone defeated death, which is why I told you the first week it's important for you to make up your mind concerning what you believe about the historical reality of the resurrection because the resurrection sets him apart.

Christ followers do not hope that Jesus rose from the dead.

They do not wishful think that he rose from the dead.

Their faith is rooted in history and eyewitness accounts coupled with circumstantial evidence.

And as a result, who do you want to connect with?

Who do you want to follow?

A dead leader who told you that unless you keep a list of laws and travel to certain places and live a good life, you may be accepted, or the one who's seated right now at the right hand of the Father, who died for your sins, who did what you could not do for yourself, who died but lives again, who defeated sin and death, who intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father, who sacrificed for your sins, deemed sufficient to bridge the gap between you and God.

Whether you believe it or not, whether it is your truth or not, when you die, you're going to meet Jesus and he'll either be your savior or your judge.

Which one do you want?

My father-in-law, Charlie Delaney, he's preached here before, is getting near the end of his life and I think he knows it.

We're hoping and praying.

I've told him forever he's going to live to be 100.

He doesn't want to live to be 100.

Why would I want to do that?

But when you get this close to death, to the end, let me tell you something I've noticed about my father-in-law.

He's not dreading death.

He's not afraid of death.

He can't wait to meet Jesus because he knows when I die, my next waking moment is to meet my Savior who's going to escort me into eternity and the deepest desires of my heart become a reality.

Here's what I'm saying to you.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me because only Jesus died for your sins and paved the way.

for you to have relationship with God in order that you can live eternally with him.

Father, thank you for the truth of scripture.

Thank you that truth is objective, that it's discoverable, that it's knowable, and that the evidence before us through general revelation and special revelation of Jesus, your son, reveals to us that you have made a way and all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

We're so glad you could join us for today's message.

If you would like to talk to someone about following Jesus or what that even would look like in your life, we would love to connect with you.

And you can do that by going to oneandall.church.com.

And if you're looking for more ways to grow and maybe get into the word a little bit every day, we have a great resource for you.

It is our One and All daily podcast.

You can get that on the One and All app.

or wherever you get your podcasts.

And it's a quick, short, daily devotional designed to help you get into the Word, reflect on God and His goodness before you start your busy day, and just a little bit of Jesus throughout your week.

You can get that podcast as well as a couple other resources like the One and All Weekend podcast and our Conversations podcast.

And those are also on YouTube and wherever you normally listen to your podcasts.

Well, let's go as we always do, with one hope, one life, in Christ.