2017JAN15 - Effective Witnessing To Roman Catholics - Mike Gendron

well good evening this morning there were many questions about now that I know that the Catholics worship and trust the different Jesus what is the best way to reach them many of you came up with concerns about your Catholic friends and neighbors and I hope this message this evening will equip you and encourage you to be faithful witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ I'm sure many of you know that there are two different ways to witness there is man's way and there's God's way and unfortunately there are many churches today that are teaching man's way as evangelism rather than God's Way man's way is to tell them that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life you know this is one of the four spiritual laws of Bill bride and Campus Crusade for Christ but before bill bright went to glory he recognized that this was not biblical and so bill bright repented and proclaimed God's Way that we need to not only say that God is a God of love but he's also got other attributes yes he's a God of mercy and grace he's also a God of holiness justice and righteousness man's ways his goal is to get decisions but we know the Great Commission is not to go and get decisions it's to go and make disciples teaching them to observe everything that Christ has commanded man's way is to ask them to repeat a sinner's prayer or to accept Jesus can I tell you that this is not biblical nobody gets to heaven by repeating a sinner's prayer the only sinner's prayer you see in the New Testament is when the publican convicted of a sin cried out to the lord have mercy on me a sinner and no one needed to lead him in that prayer and I don't know where the term except Jesus came from but nobody gets to heaven by accepting Jesus we receive him by faith we trust him we believe in what he has accomplished on our behalf so God's way is to call than to repentance and to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ that's the first command Jesus gave in mark 1:15 and that is the only response as we give the gospel what must I do repent and believe the gospel well Charles Charles Spurgeon had this to say in fact when Spurgeon wrote this I believe he was teaching at a mark Mark's Gospel where Jesus said follow me and I'll make you fishers of men and I don't know if you know the difference between fishing for fish and fishing for men but when you fish for fish they're alive and then they die but when you go fishing for men they are dead they are dead in their sins but then you have the joy of seeing them come alive in Christ but only as we do it God's Way and that's why Charles Spurgeon said we long to be successful fishers for Jesus but we are tempted to try methods which Jesus never would have tried shall we heal to the suggestion of the enemy we must follow Jesus to succeed can we imagine the Lord Jesus using such means as they're now commonly used Spurgeon went on to say we must preach our Lord's doctrine and proclaim a full gospel for this is the net in which souls are taken we must preach with his gentleness and boldness with his love to have success with human hearts we must work under design anointing depending upon the Holy Spirit then we shall be fishers of men well I'd like to share with you some principles for effective fishing and it's really interesting because some of you probably go fishing for fish and you will recognize that some of these principles can be used both for fish and as we fish for men well first we need to know the nature of who we're trying to catch we need to know that unbelievers are dead in their sins they're spiritually blind the Prince of this world blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel or the glory of Christ the natural man is running from God no one seeks after the true God so we need to seek after those who will not seek after God so we must know the nature of the men we are trying to catch we also need to be properly equipped use the right lure we need to have the gospel with us the Word of God it's great to carry gospel tracts with you as you communicate the gospel you can always leave it behind in print and we need to go where the fish are we need to go we're lost people gather the fish don't come out of the water and come to us we need to go for lost people are and that's the reason we go out to Roman Catholic churches on Resurrection Sunday we go out on Christmas Eve we have a gospel tract entitled the greatest news ever spoken about the greatest gifts ever received from the greatest man who ever lived and as people come in and go out on Christmas Eve we simply engage them and we say what is the greatest gifts you've ever received because Christmas is the season of gift-giving and oftentimes these Catholics will talk about the riot their watch or their jewelry we're talking about their children as being a greatest gift but then we share with them there's even a greater gift than that and it's the gift of eternal life that can only be received by trusting the Lord Jesus alone as you're all sufficient Savior you know it's really interesting as we go out and we often do we feel like maybe we might reach 20 30 40 people on a given evening but one particular time we went out to a Catholic Church so happen we engage the radio producer of a Catholic radio station in Dallas and so after engaging him for a while he said would you mind coming on our radio show on Monday and explaining to our audience while you were trying to evangelize Christians at a Catholic Church I said I'd be delighted to come on your radio and I knew that they would probably set me up and probably lay a trap for me and so I had many people praying for me and as they began asking me questions I answered their questions with the power and authority of God's Word they were going to go to a commercial break and come back and have questions from the audience but because I kept feeding the Word of God and proclaiming the glorious gospel of grace they decided it was best that they cut the radio program off at that time but you know this is what the Lord does when we make ourselves available he gives us greater opportunities to share his gospel to those who are perishing we need to use the right lure and when you're fishing for men there is only one lure the Lord Jesus said if I be lifted up I will draw all men to myself we need to cast our line and that simply means we must preach the gospel we must share the gospel using words because we know from Romans 10:17 faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of Christ you need to be patient how many fishermen do you know that they give up after five minutes and say the fish are not biting today when we're fishing for men that simply means we need to give the Spirit of God an opportunity to illuminate the Scriptures to their heart to bring conviction of their sin and the need for righteousness we also need to stay out of sight we need to decrease and the Lord Jesus needs to increase we also need to reel in our catch and that simply means when you have someone that appears to be interested in what you are sharing you can maybe see a sparkle in their eyes or leaning forward or asking questions you need to ask them what is keeping you from trusting Jesus as your Savior today real in your catch and then listen to what they say maybe you need to offer more scriptures but we need to let them know that today is the day of salvation that God doesn't promise anyone tomorrow and ultimately we need to trust the sovereign God he is the one that opens doors of opportunity he's the one that opens hearts as he opened Lydia's heart so these are principles that we can follow to witness God's way as we witness to Roman Catholics there are two things that are most important to share with them number one is that scripture must be their supreme authority in all matters of faith Roman Catholics submit to three different authorities are said to be equal but we need to show them that there is no higher authority than Almighty God and he has revealed his message through the inerrant inspired Word of God the second thing we need to share as you heard this morning is that Jesus is sufficient to save sinners completely in forever you need nothing else Jesus Christ is our only hope those who submit to any other Authority will end up with another Jesus which always leads to another gospel and I hope that you understand that we must make a distinction between precious Souls and the Roman Catholic religion and the Roman Catholic religion itself we need to love Roman Catholics who are trapped in religious deception keep in mind that they don't even know that they're deceived they have been indoctrinated for the most part since the time they can think and so they've been told they belong to the one true church and so they're trusting their religion to get them to heaven we need to share the truth that will set them free you know the Apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 that anyone in opposition to the gospel we are to pray for them that God would grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth so they can escape the snare of the devil who holds them captive to do as well so we need to recognize that every unbeliever is held captive by the devil and Jesus said in John chapter 8 verses 31 to 32 if you're truly a disciple of mine you will abide in my word then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free free from what free from religious deception free from the bondage of religion free from the bondage of sin we need to make a distinction we need to despise the religion which deceives its people with the false and fatal gospel we need to understand that the Roman Catholic religion is an enemy of Christ it's an enemy of the gospel it stands under the condemnation of Almighty God because they preach another gospel the Bible tells us to love the truth and to hate which is that which is false so when we recognize 1.2 billion souls are following Roman Catholic traditions that nullify and oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ we need to go on a rescue mission let me share with you some biblical principles to share as you witness to those lost and religion we need to use the law for conviction of sin it is the law that brings knowledge of sin and condemns everyone under God's wrath we read that in Romans 3:20 and in James chapter 2 verse 10 we read whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking the entire law before anyone will seek a Savior they need to recognize that they are condemned there on death row and they need a Savior to rescue them we need to also share with them that no one is righteous because as we engage people lost and religion we ask them how do you hope to get to heaven the most frequently response is I hope I'm good enough I hope my good is that way my evil deeds and that God will look upon me and welcome me and I have no we need to know then that no one is righteous God demands perfect righteousness for instance into heaven your only hope is the righteousness of Christ and that's the relationship between the law and the Savior the law is a tutor to lead convicted centers to Christ when people recognize they cannot uphold the law they look to Christ who obeyed it perfectly he redeems believers from the curse of the laws we see in Galatians 3:10 and Jesus Christ is the end of the law for the righteousness to everyone who believes remember Paul prayed for the Israelites in Romans 10 they had a zeal for God as many Roman Catholics do but their zeal was not based on knowledge they did not know the righteousness of God and so they sought to obtain their own righteousness many Roman Catholics are the same way they need to know the truth and that's why I love to ask the question why did Jesus have to die we need to share with them that righteousness and justice of the very foundation of God's throne we need to share that Jesus died to satisfy divine justice for the transgressions committed against God's holiness he satisfied divine justice by dying in the place of sinners he bore the wrath of God as a substitute for sinners that were condemned to death as I shared with you this morning please understand the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ was never preached in Roman Catholic churches we need to show them Isaiah 53 that Jesus Christ died for his people he died as a substitute so his people would not have to suffer divine justice john macarthur calls purgatory and venial sin the safety net for Roman Catholics they have a different view of sin they have actually two categories of venial sin and the mortal sin venial sins do not cause death and many Roman Catholics don't know that they are actually repeating Sadie's first lie with the doctrine of venial sins remember Satan's first lie in the garden he said you surely will not die if you disobey God so that's what Roman Catholics learned today venial sins will not cause death Catholicism declares that venial sins are only punished temporarily and the fires of purgatory how do we respond to that well we point to the Scriptures Romans 6:23 teaches that the wages of sin is death ezekiel 18:4 says the soul that sins will surely die every sin is deadly every sin is mortal the second principle we need to get the gospel right and I want to share with you several characteristics of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ first we need to know that it's eternal it was first announced in the garden right after Adam and Eve fell into sin the gospel was delivered to Abraham the same gospel will go throughout the world and then the end will come it is the same message for every generation of the human race those in the Old Testament looked forward to a crucified Messiah those in the New Testament looked back the Calvary's cross but everybody in heaven will be there because they believe the one and only eternal gospel of Jesus Christ and here's the offense of the gospel it is exclusive it dare is to say that all other faiths and all other religions are false we live in a pluralistic society when you declare there is only one way through Jesus Christ you will be considered intolerant and unloving but the gospel is about one man Jesus Christ who declared that he is the only way to the Father you know this is where the attack of the gospel is being his more often than not today the exclusivity of the gospel so many evangelical leaders today want to make the gospel more inclusive they want to broaden and narrow road and make it wider so that more people can come through but we need to maintain the purity of the gospel we need to show that it's only of grace and those who add anything to God's grace stand condemned Paul drove with a stake in the ground in Galatians 1 he also said in Romans 11:6 if it is by grace is not of works otherwise grace is not grace the gospel is also according to scripture alone we need to show this to Roman Catholics because they want to take you outside the Bible they want to take you to their infallible pokes into their ungodly traditions that Paul defines the gospel in 1st Corinthians 15 verses 1 to 4 the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ according to what scripture everything we need to know about our salvation is found in Scripture Paul wrote to Timothy from infancy you have known the Scriptures which are able to do what make you wise unto salvation so we need nothing else other than God's words it also has divine power to say those who believe it Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the very power of God for all those who believe it we must get the gospel right it is about only one person and that is the eternal God incarnate his virgin birth and his perfect life it's about one person and only two events the unique historical unrepeatable atoning death of Jesus Christ and his glorious resurrection from the dead if you were here this morning you know why I have to describe the death of Christ as unique historical unrepeatable because the Roman Catholic Church believes that they emulate Jesus Christ on their altars every day why must we get the gospel right well before the Lord saved me I was a rocket scientist down at Cape Kennedy very quickly I learned that when rocket ships re-enter the Earth's atmosphere they must enter the angle of reentry precisely correct if they come in too heavy the rocket ship will burn up if they come into light it will skip off into outer state and it's the same way with the gospel if we add anything to the gospel we will burn up into the eternal lake of fire if we take anything away from the gospel we will skip off into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth the gospel must remain sure nothing can be added to it nothing can be taken away from it the gospel is good news because it makes several promises that promises the complete forgiveness of sin it promises the power over sin to live Aquarius Li it also promises a permanent right standing before God it promises every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus than the assurance of eternal life as I witnessed a Roman Catholic priest they will often say why don't you come back to Holy Mother the church for the fullness of salvation and I will explain to him in Christ I have every one of these spiritual blessings and according to your catechism you don't have any of these blessings now you need to leave your religion as the Apostle Paul did and exchange it for a relationship with Christ only then can you enjoy every spiritual blessing in Christ but as anyone rejects any of these promises they need to be evangelized because inherent with the proclamation of the gospel is the proclamation of these promises the greatest exchange in human history as we read in 2nd Corinthians 5:21 Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him is there any greater exchange than that Jesus takes my sin and gives me his righteousness do we have a glorious gospel to proclaim from the rooftops think for a moment if you are fortunate enough to find the cure for cancer would you keep it to yourself well cancer is a fatal disease there is another D disease that is more fatal and that's the disease of sin everyone born into this world inherits the fatal disease of sin we must be spiritual doctors we must share with peoples as you have this fatal disease called sin and there is no human cure but praise God there is a design cure and it's available free for the asking because of the love story written blood on a wooden cross 2000 years ago that is the only cure for your sin disease if you reject the blood of Christ you will die eternally spiritually and physically it is the greatest news that we could ever share with anyone I shared with you how grace and works are mutually exclusive what you do to save yourself nullifies justifying grace and glorify self this leads to boasting in a person's own righteousness but what Jesus has done to save sinners gives all the glory to God and all the boasting will be in Christ and His righteousness there will be no self boasting in heaven we will be praising and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ and boasting in his perfect work of redemption [Music] well Catholics pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ by declaring salvation is by baptism after baptism you must have faith receive the sacraments you must attend the weekly sacrifice of the mass you must go through purgatory to purge your sins you must have indulgences during the temple punishment for sin you must perform good works in order to be justified and you must keep the law the graphic on the slide shows how heavily burdened Roman Catholics are by all the requirements that have been added to the glorious gospel of grace in order for a Roman Catholic to be saved they must repent of all these things that have been added to the gospel and if you know anything about indoctrination that's difficult only the grace of God can open their eyes to see the sufficiency of Christ but we must proclaim it the only way a Catholic will let go of all of these requirements is when they know Jesus Christ is the all sufficient Savior third principle we must pray the Apostle Paul was such a model for all of us he prayed for the Israelites in Romans 10 he also prayed for the words to be given that we would fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel think for a moment the Apostle wrote over half the New Testament and yet he asked the God in heaven to give him the words as he was sharing the gospel of grace in Colossians chapter 4 we read that Paul prayed for God to open doors he prayed for God to open heart and we need to do the same thing pray to a sovereign Lord we need to pray for wisdom and to make the most of every opportunity there have been many times where I've embarrassed my wife by sharing the gospel and what she believes was inappropriate time I had just in quit some the church in North Little North Texas town and after equipping the church they invited me back to do the Sunday morning message and we were having breakfast in the local cafe and as I looked around the room and I recognized in Munster Texas where we were it was represented 98% Roman Catholics and so I figured of the 50 or so people in this cafe that most of them were Catholic and so as we began to walk out I was just overcome and I just stopped and I turned around I picked up a spoon and I started leading a glass until the whole restaurant got quiet and then I said I'm up here to show you how you can have your sins completely forgiven and be reconciled to God and I'm going to be giving that message across the street and all of you are invited to come so as we walk out of the restaurant my wife looked at me and she said Munster Texas no problem but if you ever do this in Dallas I will kill you but seriously we need to make the most of every opportunity fourth principle we must use the supreme authority of Scripture when you read Hebrews 4:12 you know that the Word of God is powerful living an active sharper than any two-edged sword but we also know that our words are void of power we need to use the Word of God if you're witnessing to a Roman Catholic I encourage you to use their Bible they have the same 66 books they are told mostly not to trust anything from the Protestant church and so open their Bible turn their pages for them point to a scripture and say what is God saying to you there what is God speaking to you in that verse and then let them respond you see Paul presents the truth plainly to every man's conscience in the sight of God and God doesn't try to confuse people with the gospel of salvation and so as you share scriptures and you ask this question what you're doing is you're removing yourself from the equation because many Roman Catholics have been told if anybody approaches with a Bible just tell them that's your interpretation but if you ask them what is God saying to you you're looking for their interpretation of the verse and then as they answer it correctly turn to the next verse take them down the Roman Road it's a very effective way to reach Roman Catholics we must use God's Word because it is authoritative you and I have nothing to say to the Lost apart from the authority of God's Word the Word of God is living and active it is the very seed that brings forth life to souls that are dead in their sins the fifth principle for effective witnessing to Catholics is we must stay focused on the sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ you know Paul was determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of the Christian faith let's point people to Christ and his sufficiency Jesus was immersed in the wrath of the sin avenging God so the divine justice could be at ease he suffered excruciating pain as he bore the sins of his people so that eternal life could be offered as a gift of His grace he died once for all sin for all time there are no more offerings percent Roman Catholics must understand who Jesus is as he is revealed in Scripture the sixth point that is so important is that we must teach empathetically there are many people that say I'm not going to be negative I'm just going to proclaim the truth well I encourage them as they spend time in the Word of God to notice how many times the New Testament writers taught antithetical II they called people to forsake all that opposed the gospel a classic examples of seasons 289 where Paul writes for it is by grace and safe through faith not from yourselves it's the gift of God not by works so that no man may boast look at Titus 3:5 he saved us not because of righteous things we have done but because of his mercy all the way through the New Testament we see the Apostles teaching antithetical II presenting the truth that then showing what opposes the truth so that people will know what to repent of the seventh principle we need to call them to both faith and repentance the first and last command of our Lord Jesus Christ included repentance for the forgiveness of sin the first command was repent and believe the gospel the last command Jesus gave he said repentance shall be preached in my name for the forgiveness of sin so in the lord jesus' ministry repentance were the bookends all the way through his ministry calling people to repent so what is repentance the greek word Metanoia means a change of mine that produces a change in direction after hearing the truth it is granted by God and results in a turning from sin and self to God the change of mine produces a change in direction so often we run across people that say we believe in Jesus but then as you go below the surface and you find out they're trusting and other things besides Jesus we must show them that it is Christ alone the cry of reformers we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to scripture alone all for the glory of God alone anyone that's clinging to any other thing or doing any other human effort or gaining any other human merit must change their mind and put all of their trust and hope and the Lord Jesus Christ so when you witness have a sense of urgency but be sensitive to the spirits leading oh how I wish I had heard a message like this before I went home for Christmas after first being converted I couldn't wait to go and share this great news with my three brothers and sister and my parents who are all in the Catholic Church I can tell you I did it the wrong way I backed up the theological dump truck and I let him have it all in one fell swoop and they were just reeling backwards and Oh Mike let us let us take a break if we ever want to know anything about your newfound religion we'll ask you I had so much joy and excitement I wanted them to have the same joy in the same excitement but the walls went up but we also have to have this sense of urgency because God doesn't promise anyone tomorrow we need to approach people with love love for our Savior love for their soul with compassion there but by the grace of God go we we need to approach them with patience the Roman Catholic religion is very complex I've often looked at witnessing to a Catholic as peeling an onion using the Word of God as a knife just peel back one layer than doctrine ation at a time until hopefully you've reached a heart that's been opened by God and also approach people with humility you know so often I think we err when we tell people we know the moment we die we're going to be in the presence of Jesus to an unbeliever that sounds like you're boasting in your own righteousness that you're so holy and good that you know you'll go directly to heaven so the way I easily say it is I am the worst of sinners I deserve the eternal fires of hell but because I've trusted in Jesus Christ as my own sufficient Savior I believe his promises that the moment I die I will be with him in heaven there's a boasting as on the Lord Jesus Christ many will have an unwavering loyalty to their religion I was born a Catholic and I'm on a diet Catholic how often do we hear that taken to Philippians 3 show them the Apostle Paul had every reason to boast in his religion but he considered it all dung for knowing Christ Jesus than his righteousness you want to be saved you need to do with the Apostle Paul did exchange your religion for a relationship can I tell you that unbelievers don't want to be preached at ask questions to provoke their thinking and to expose the object of their faith you see unbelievers don't care how much you know until they know how much you care one of the best ways to show them you care is by asking them questions this is what the Lord Jesus did when he encountered the religious leaders he asked them questions to challenge them in their unbelief to expose their errors when you witness make sure you address the primary problem to send to send the causes death separation from God eternally we need to avoid preaching and have a balanced conversation one of my mission fields is the tennis court often times we finished imagine we engaged people with the gospel of Christ but witnessing is like a tennis match volley a question wait for a response valve volley of Scripture weight to the reactions of the Word of God but the conversation needs to be balanced avoid issues unrelated to the gospel Catholics will take you off on many different tangents say we'll get to those in a moment but let's come back to Christ and am crucified define terms biblically Catholics believe they are saved by grace but they define grace is something that needs to be merited some will reject the gospel because would mean their ancestors are not in heaven have you heard that as you're witnessing to a Catholic so are you telling me my grandfather and grandmother the deities Roman Catholics won't be in heaven how do you answer that with the Bible taken to Luke 16 the story of the rich man what did he want as he was suffering in the flames of torment other than a drop of water to quench his thirst he wanted missionaries to go back to earth to tell his brothers the truth so they would not end up in this place of torment that he's in so I tell Roman Catholics no matter where your ancestors are they would want you to know the truth and then I give them hope I asked them are you familiar with the thief on the cross he was an unbeliever all of his life he was the worst of sinners but he died next to Jesus and the Spirit of God illuminated in his heart who was dying next to him just as the same God revealed to Peter who Jesus was in Matthew 16 and so what happened to the feast he cried out to Jesus remember me in paradise he put his trust in him so maybe your ancestors looked up to Jesus on their deathbed but don't let this keep you from coming to Christ trust him hopefully you'll see your ancestors in eternal glory well you know witnessing is a discipline we need to pray for divine appointments and my wife and I do that all the time as we go out during the week we look for design opportunities that God has placed in our path but how do you know when you have a design appointment well we ask questions we need a stranger are you a Christian do you believe in heaven how do you hope to get there how did you church teach you have any hope of going to heaven if they give the wrong answer and even though we live in America where 86% of the population for claims Christ four out of five times you won't even hear the name of Jesus mentioned and so when they don't give the right answer asking that that weren't true according to the one who created heaven would you want to know the truth from God's Word and if they do you have a divine appointment if you have a very little amount of time at least you can leave the gospel track make a list of unsaved family members friends neighbors and coworkers our list continues to grow but what a joy it is when we can cross through a name that is repented and believe the gospel sow the seed of God's word with gospel tracts keep them in your purse in your pocket rarely do I ever leave my car without grabbing my pack of gospel tracts what I'm going into the post office the grocery store even if you just have a few minutes standing in line you can engage people the mail tracks along with your payments place them in strange strategic locations there are times when I'll put a quarter in the newspaper stand and I'll grab a newspaper and while it's open I'll put gospel tracts then with the other newspapers there's so much bad news in the newspapers I want to give them a little good news engage the listeners and spiritual conversations before they make their pitch solicitor calls you say I'll answer your questions at first can I share with you the greatest news you'll ever hear one of two things will happen they'll either be interested / they'll think you're weird and they'll hang up on you in those cases it's a good result well the bottom line we need to develop a lifestyle of evangelism you know there's two things that we can do on this earth that we will not be able to do in heaven to the Lord and one is to share the gospel with unbelievers and the other is to contend earnestly for the faith the reason the Lord leads us here when the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven you know his mission was completed he came to seek and to save that which was lost but he passed the baton to the church and now he's asked you and I to go after and seek after those who will never seek after God the baton has been passed to each one of us and please don't for a moment think that the only ones that are called to be evangelists are people that are gifted that way every born-again Christian is responsible for being obedient to the Great Commission it is not an option and I want you dot to fear being a failure I have a picture of a mailman the reason I have a picture of the mailman is he is responsible only for delivering the mail to everybody in his route he's not responsible for them paying their bills or answering their letters keep that mindset because you and I are only called to deliver the message of Jesus Christ to the people in our circle of influence we have been successful when we have delivered the gospel clearly and completely you see God is the one that brings the increase once they have the message it's up to God it's our responsibility to deliver the gospel from the pages of Scripture to the person's ears it is God's responsibility to take the message from their ear to their heart so never feel that you've been a failure because people have rejected you or rejected the gospel we must tell the truth God does not make centers alive in Christ until they have been slain by the law remember to stay focused on their sin that all sin is mortal God does not put his robes of righteousness on sinners until they are first stripped of their own righteousness the most terrifying words a Christian a professing Christian may ever hear the day Jesus declaring I never knew you depart from me many Roman Catholics believe they are Christians but they are merely false converts because they trusted another Jesus and believed in other gospel I don't want anyone to hear these terrifying words but yet the Lord Jesus said that many not a few will hear these words on the last day many of our churches have become mission fields not only the Catholic Church but also Protestant churches as well so we need to make sure that people understand the gospel and they're not false converts so people you care by asking questions what is the most important decision you face in this life it's a great opening question you've got a lot of decisions to make - what's the most important so often people don't even think of eternity what is the greatest gift you've ever received where will you spend eternity you know what you hear most often well I hope I go to heaven did you know according to the Bible that you can know for sure right here and now that you have in your possession eternal life take them the first John chapter 5 verse 13 where John writes to those who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life how do you hope to get to heaven have you been born again great question to ask Catholics show them that Jesus Christ said unless you are born again you will not enter the kingdom of heaven this is a phrase that were most Roman Catholics are not familiar with being born again ask them are you relying on what Christ has done or what you are doing for salvation ask them if they claim to be a Christian there's purgatory necessary to purge away your sin if they say yes and they need to be evangelized they're not trusting Christ alone ask them why do priests continue on an altar what Jesus finished on a cross what you're doing is you're challenging Catholics and their beliefs these are questions that you can ask Catholics where most of the time they will not get offended but you're simply asking them to consider the truth that is revealed in Scripture so as we close a few questions for you and I to ponder how many people in your circle of influence even though that you're a Christian what about where you work what about where you socialize do they know that you're a Christian how many have you engaged in a spiritual conversation it is so easy to engage people heaven is a great subject to talk about how do you hope to get there how are you doing with the Lord's last command is it your great comission or is it your great omission questions to ponder I hope and pray that the message has been an encouragement to all of you not only to recognize that Roman Catholics need to hear the gospel but also the Great Commission is an awesome responsibility but also a divine privilege to serve the King of Kings to take his message to a lost and dying world I'd like to share with you a little bit about our resources we have DVDs on the resource table each of our DVDs contain two messages with all the keynote and PowerPoint slides that you have seen shared with you that we begin this ministry showing gospel videos in our home challenging unbelievers with the gospel my wife prepared dessert we had great conversations with people even during and after we watched the video within three months we saw 17 Roman Catholics exchange their religion for a relationship with Christ you can do the same thing invite Catholics over put is it for the DVD end we've got one that's called where will you spend eternity I never mentioned the word Catholic or Catholicism the second message is why should I believe the Bible ten reasons why the Bible is the most unique book ever written so avail yourselves to our resources we really believe in sowing the seed of God's Word through literature evangelism and also remember our book preparing for eternity if you still would like one we don't have any length of we can mail those out to you on Tuesday make a note of our website for claiming the gospel dot org we have a daily blog we have articles that will equip you and encourage you we have proclaiming the gospel TV videos that you can look at to be encouraged and equipped to be faithful witnesses so let me close in prayer and then we're going to receive the Lord's Supper our Father we thank you again for your word that equips us to be faithful witnesses for the Lord Jesus father we recognize there is a lost and dying world that you have entrusted us with the gospel of Jesus Christ father give us boldness give us compassion for those who are perishing help us to be faithful witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ and if there be anyone here that is still trusting and what they are doing lets you grant them repentance so they can trust Jesus Christ and still be saved we ask this in the power of the Lord's name amen

Channel: Calvary Bible Church

Views: 15,219

Keywords: mike gendron, calvary bible church, effective, witnessing, roman, catholic, roman catholic, rcc, ptc, proclaiming the gospel

Id: PGHTiHpiAF4

Length: 50min 7sec (3007 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2017