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What Happens to Those Who Never Heard About Jesus?
Romans 2:12
David Mitchell
Difficult to think about; sad and depressing when you do think about it; friends, relatives and neighbors, say no to The Word, all the people in other lands that have never heard about The Gospel.
First, let’s look at some statistics, from a world view: The current world population is around 6.4 billion people. Because that number is so large, it helps to think of it this way: It would require 40,000 trips around the world to equal 1 billion miles. Here is a breakdown of the world’s population by religion:
33% Christian 2.1 billion
21% Islam 1.3 billion
14% Hindu 900 million
10% other religions 725 million
6% Buddhist 376 million
16% no religion 1.1 billion
We can further analyze the world’s population this way:
1/3 of the world belongs to some branch of the Christian movement.
1/3 of the world has heard a presentation of the gospel in some form.
1/3 of the world has never heard the gospel in any meaningful way.
Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in Asia. Some scholars say that the church in China may number as many as 100 million people.
that 1.2 billion Chinese still are waiting.
Most of that 1.2 billion would be in the 1/3 of the world that has never heard the gospel at all.
Let’s take those population statistics and make them more personal. Every day around the world, 350,000 babies are born. 159,000 people die. So, about 4 people are born every second, 2 people die every second.
What happens to never heard about Jesus? HYMNS- most nearly 100 years old.
Here are some first lines of these mostly-forgotten missionary hymns:
“Dost thou not care that millions are dying?”
“O Christian, can’t you see them?”
“Let us go with Christ to the harvest fields.”
“Heathendom’s millions wait for the light.”
“Out in the darkness of sin they are waiting.”
“Millions the story have never heard.”
“To the regions beyond I must go, I must go.”
“There are souls in heathen darkness.”
Then I found this verse that struck me: “Today they die in heathen lands. They die in want and dread, for they have been omitted in the breaking of the Bread. Lord, I would give them the Bread of Life.”
A question I myself asked for years was, “How can God send people to hell for not believing in Jesus, if they never even heard of him in the first place?”
Romans 2:12-“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” Paul divides the entire human race into two categories:
-2 Circles, one large, one small
Paul says that they also “perish” apart from the law. But how can that be? On what basis does God judge us if we do not know his law?
Romans 2:15- about law written into the heart of every man. Moral Principles= 10 commandments.
Romans 3:12- There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” in verse 19 He writes this so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
Illustration: Rice Farmer in Thailand
4 children and a wife-hundreds of miles from the capitol of Bangkok. Buddhist, knows nothing of Christianity. Got sick, doctors couldn’t help him, finally went to Bangkok, Cancer, goes home, find cure-chicago, no time, why did he die?
World dying of the cancer of sin. Cure was found 2000 years ago, the blood of Jesus. Over 2 billion don’t know about it. They don’t die because they didn’t hear the Gospel, they die because of the Cancer of Sin. Sin growns, from small, insignificant things into full blown, all out immersion in Sin.
Application in daily lives:
Witnessing, funding missions, going on mission trips, and having a Christ-filled life.
Matthew 9:37-38: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
The church’s primary response to the needs of the world can be summed up in one word. Ask. The church is to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest fields.
And how are we to pray? Jesus said we are to ask the Lord of the harvest to “send forth” workers. The underlying Greek word conveys a very powerful image. The word is ekballo. The ek part means “out” and the ballo part means, “to throw” (like throwing a ball). It comes into English as the word “ballistic,” which refers to the explosion that occurs when the hammer of a pistol hits a bullet, propelling it out of the gun. We are to pray that God will light a fire inside the church that will ignite a movement inside many hearts that will result in people being “thrust out” of the church into the harvest fields of the world. We need to pray that God will throw some people out of the church and into the mission field.
AUTHENTIC SUNDAY 
What Happens to Those