How to Lead a Roman Catholic to Christ

I want you to take just a few moments with me as we prepare to look at a method a suggested method for witnessing sharing the gospel telling a lost soul that's especially in Roman Catholicism about the Lord Jesus Christ but before we do that I thought it would be good to share with you what I personally believe is the greatest moment in modern history almost 500 years ago a young monk an Augustinian monk was converted to Jesus Christ no one more completely sought to please God through the Roman Catholic Church I don't think in history more completely sought to do that than Martin Luther he reminds me so much of the Apostle Paul in Judaism what Martin Luther tried to do in Romanism and I'd like to read to you just briefly condensation of his personal testimony in the summer of 1505 Martin Luther entered the Augustinian convent at Erfurt that's a city in Germany he became a monk as he thought for his lifetime the circumstances which led to the sudden step we can gather from his fragmentary utterances and by the way he used to have what he called table talks and people could come to his home and his wife he had so many children already and she just said Oh anybody that comes can eat and someone wrote down his table talks and so by collecting all those together fragmentary utterances you can kind of put together what happened Martin Luther was shocked by the sudden death of a friend who was struck by lightning as he walked by Martin Luther's side that would be frightening shortly afterward on the 2nd of July in 1505 two weeks before he entered the convent he was overtaken by a violent thunderstorm near effort and as he returned from a visit to his parents he was so frightened by the thunderstorm thinking he was going to get it next that he fell to the earth and trembling Lee exclaimed help beloved Saint Anna I will become monk st. Anna and she knows Mary's mother and so he devoted himself to the monastic life if ever there was a sincere earnest conscientious monk it was Martin Luther his sole motive was concerned for his salvation he wanted so desperately to go to heaven to this supreme object he sacrificed the fairest prospects of life into the convent or into the monastery Luther was welcomed by his brethren they would sing hymns of joy and pray as he joined the Augustinian order he was clothed with a white woolen shirt in honor of the pure virgin a black cowl and frock tied by a leather girdle this was his outfit as he assumed the most menial offices to subdue his pride he would sweep the floors he would beg in the streets for bread and he submitted without a murmur to the ascetic severity he would say 25-pot there no stairs with the Ave Maria in each of the seven appointed hours of prayer each day he was devoted to the holy virgin and regularly confessed his sins to the priest at least once a week at the same time a complete copy of the Latin Bible was put into his hands for study first one he'd ever held and he was enjoined by the new code of statutes drawn up by the monastic leader stout pits at the end of his year of probation Luther solemnly promised to live until death in poverty and chastity according to the rules of the Holy Father agustin to render obedience to the Almighty God to the Virgin Mary into the prior of the monastery he was sprinkled with holy water as he lay prostrate on the ground in the form of a cross they would just lay flat in the form of a cross as he rose from the ground he was greeted as an innocent child freshly cleansed from all sin by baptism and assigned then to a separate cell in the Augustinian order with a table a bedstead and a chair that's all he had you know you renounce all things poverty and chastity and and all that that's all he had the next two years which followed he divided between pious exercises and theological studies he read diligently his copy of the Bible he excited the admiration of his brethren because he was able to dispute on scholastic questions from the Bible and no one had ever quite done that before they they didn't get that interested in the Bible his heart though was not satisfied with brain work his chief concern was to become a saint and to earn his place in heaven if ever he said afterwards a monk got to heaven by monk eree I would have gotten there he observed the minutest details of discipline no one surpassed him in prayer in fasting in night watches in self-mortification he was always held up as a model of sanctity and if you know anything about Luther's life you know that he nearly died on many occasions because he would sleep without blankets or sheets he would sleep on the stone floor in the German winters at the on the floor of his little cubicle and he would often be so sick and feverish that that they had to carry him to his prayer times and to mass but he was sadly disappointed he hoped to escape sin and temptation behind the walls of the cloister however he found no peace and rest in spite of all this pious exercises the more he seemed to advance externally the more he felt the burden of sin internally Stout hits with Luther's spiritual father he was the abbot of this monastery and Luther said first caused the light of the gospel to shine in the darkness of my heart stopped its directed Luther from his sins instead of constantly he was always focusing on his sins and he says why don't you look at the merits of Jesus Christ which was a novel thought for Martin Luther he directed him from the law to the cross from his personal works to faith from scholasticism to a study of the scriptures he taught him true repentance consists not in self-imposed penances and punishments but in a change of heart and must proceed from the contemplation of Christ's sacrifice in which the secret of God's eternal will was revealed stop his was seeking to lead him to Christ well he encouraged Luther to enter the priesthood in 1507 he brought him to Wittenberg a town now famous to us he introduced or he induced him into the school and asked him to take the degree of Doctor of Divinity and to start regular preaching well by the continued study of Paul's epistle Luther was gradually brought to the conviction that the sinner is justified by faith alone without the works of the law he experienced this truth in his heart long before he understood it in all of its bearings he found in it that peace of conscience which he had sought in vain by his exercises as a monk he pondered day and night over what the meaning of the righteousness of God truly was and thought that it's righteous punishment of sinners but the closer to the close of his convent life he came to the conclusion that it is the righteousness which God freely gives in Christ to those who believe in him and here's his conclusion righteousness is not to be in quiet not to be acquired by man through his own exertions and by his own merits it is complete and perfect in Christ and all the sinner has to do is just to accept it from him as a free gift that was his first conclusion his second was justification is a judicial act of God whereby he acquits the sinner of guilt and clothed him with the righteousness of Christ on the sole condition of personal faith which apprehends and appropriates Christ and shows its life and power through good works as a good tree brings forth good fruit so righteousness is Christ and justification is received graciously and it close us finally Luther's beliefs found faith far more than ascent of the mind to the authority of the church to Martin it was a hearty trust a full surrender of the whole man to Christ and that faith lived and moved in Christ as its element disconnected from Christ it was pernicious error he said well in the second year of his monastic life as he was making these discoveries he was still in a state of perplexity and Luther was fully ordained to the priesthood and on May 2nd 1507 he was able to say his first mass this was a great event in the life of any priest and he was so overwhelmed by the solemnity of offering the tremendous sacrifice of Christ for the living and the dead he fainted at the altar well the Pauline doctrine of justification set forth by the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians had never been before clearly and fully understand not by agustin nor by Bernard who confounded justification with sanctification there is the difference Luther found between Catholicism and his Protestant conception in the Catholic system justification is a gradual process condition by faith and good works to Luther the Protestant system it was a single act of God the justification is followed by sanctification all based on the merits of Christ not the merits of the individual this experience was a revelation to Luther it shed light upon the whole Bible it made to him a book of life and comfort he was relieved of his terrible load of guilt by an act of free grace he was led out of the dark prison house of self-inflicted penance into the daylight into the fresh air of God's redeeming love justification broke the fetters of his legalistic slavery - all of the machinery of Romanism and filled his soul with joy and peace because he was adopted and he had had the very gates of heaven open to him well it was the autumn of the Year 1510 and he was in Wittenberg but before he graduated as a Doctor of Divinity Luther was sent to Rome in the interest of his order and at the suggestion of stout kids who wished to bring about a disciplinary reform in a closer union of all the other convents and monastic orders in Germany Martin Luther went to Rome and ascended on bended knees the 28 steps of the famous Scala Santa said to have been transported from the judgement Hall of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem to Rome by Leo the 4th and 850 at every step as he climbed up those stairs on his knees the word of the Scriptures sounded as a significant protest in his ear you understand they they go up one step and they stop and they they pray through and by the way if you go to Rome they're just people swarming the steps and they're all going by each other and it's just crowded with people and they just go up under knees up to 28 steps praying one of the rosary prayers on every step up but Luther is he was on his way up he kept hearing in his ears the just shall live by faith the just shall live by faith Romans 1:17 thus we have the marvelous conversion of Martin Luther it was at that moment he said that everything in his life finally connected together and though he had read the scriptures and studied justification and found all that Christ had provided it was until he was in the midst of his ownself efforts climbing as it were the steps to heaven that the Word of God brought faith so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and there on those steps he was converted there's a marvelous letter that Martin Luther wrote to his son Paul explaining the moment of his conversion and this is what his son wrote in 1544 in the year 1540 for and by the way this letter is in a glass case in a castle in Germany it's one of the treasures that you can see its historical and beautiful this is what his son wrote dr. Paul Luther in the year 1540 for my dearest father in the presence of us all narrated the whole story of his journey to Rome he acknowledged with great joy than in that city through the spirit of Jesus Christ he had come to the knowledge of the truth of everlasting gospel it happened this way as he repeated his prayers on the Lateran staircase those 28 steps of Pilate the words of the prophet Habakkuk and the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:17 came suddenly to his mind the just shall live by faith thereupon he ceased his prayers return to Wittenberg and took this as a chief foundation of all of his doctrine Martin Luther converted as he knelt before God and realized he could not save himself let's open to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 10 really there is no unique way of leading a Roman Catholic to Christ there is a mindset though that is vital in leading anyone to Jesus Christ and I'd like to kind of sketch that for you now because I really believe our basis for evangelizing a Roman Catholic or Hindu or a Buddhist or anyone else just a pagan American are all the same and and I'd like to call this the very basis for evangelism period what is our basis for any evangelism and I'd like to read with you second Thessalonians 2 and verse 10 and then we'll have a word of Prayer and let's let the beauty of this verse which some of you may never have thought of in this life done in our hearts second Thessalonians 2:10 it says this and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish it's talking about the horrors of the tribulation the Antichrist and all that here's why people perish because they did not to receive the love of the truth that they might be saved interesting thought let's bow before our Lord thank you a father that we who are born again received by your gracious mercy a love for the truth that could not be dissuaded we wanted to meet you who are the way the truth and the life and you drew us to yourself and we have received a lifelong consuming desire for the truth and we were saved but I pray that we would understand the very basis for our evangelizing anyone with the good news burn it deeply into our hearts bless it to our souls and then fill our lips with the inability to stop speaking about Jesus in whose name we pray amen there are three truths that that I've kind of latched on to that others have taught me over the years as they've guided me in my evangelism I remember as a young boy I used to always be a soul winner as they called it an archer I was always out soul-winning I remember many nights coming home to my parents and tell them about who in the neighborhood and what they had responded to the gospel and over the years different pastors that I've had have pointed out verses to me that kind I summarized in three points and the first one is this only God can give sinners the hunger for truth now I saw that most clearly when I was sitting at dinner in Switzerland in 1978 the summer in 1970 I got to stay with Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith and it was very exciting was a fun time at their home and I can distinctly remember the dinner at their home that summer because they were telling the story about a man from India and basically the story in fact dinner started at 6:00 and didn't get over till 10:00 and I can't tell you a thing we ate but I'll always remember the store because it's so gripping but basically in the 60s some tourists in India had wrapped up some food in a gospel tract and thrown it to some of the starving and and malnourished children that were there in this village somewhere out in the distant part of India and that was an interesting method of evangelism a gospel page they actually his tour pages out of the Gospels and they were throwing it with food in it to the kids now it's unusual but a young man hungry grabbed that unwrapped it ate the food and then notice it was written in a different language it was German actually and so this young man kept it and he would go everywhere asking if anyone could read it to him because he had this desire to know why the tourists threw him food and so finally found something that could read it what they said is it's the German language and it's about the God of the Europeans so he saved up and did everything he could and he got enough money and he started up the long train ride if you know anything about going across there's a train that that's very dangerous and you can get from India through the high mountains across Turkey in the Mesopotamian area and into Europe and he did that keeping with him this piece of paper and then when he got to Europe he started saying does anybody know what this is I want to know about this and so they started reading it to him and and he understood by then enough language that they started reading to him from the Gospel of John and he says where can I find the people that wrote this and after asking dozens of people finally someone said well the person that wrote it you know he wasn't here anymore but we can tell you about people that believed it and they sent him to labrie and that young man came walking into the village of feelers in where where labrie is and he walked in and knocked on the door of the home of the Schafer's and said to them I ever since I was a young man have always asked God to reveal himself to me he said and someone threw me this paper around bread and I have wanted to know who wrote this because it's the truth and want to understand it and they led him to the Lord and every time I remember Francis Schaeffer telling a story I remember second Thessalonians 2:10 because those who do not receive the love of the truth will not be saved if they don't get that passionate longing for truth number one only God can give sinners a hunger for truth and the first key to salvation is a love for the truth and those because at the end of verse 10 they did not receive the love of the truth they might not be saved secondly let's turn back to Romans 10:17 and this is just foundational you know this verse Romans 10:17 a sinner next must come to know and understand certain doctrines or teachings from the Bible basically this faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ and so so for a person to be saved God has to give them a love for the truth and they have to understand the revelation of God which is in the Word of God and so Romans 10:17 faith comes by hearing the word and that's what the Lord does in their life they hear the word of God thirdly the message must be from the Word of God not from the teachings and traditions of men now this is where we get into trouble because a lot of people are amesh not in the Word of God but they're much like the Pharisees and Sadducees and they're bound by the rules of men my dear friends my neighbors when I share with them about Jesus Christ they usually back up and share what Saint or doctor or whoever said and what they've done is they've elevated up their traditions on the same level as a scripture and so they can't be saved because if the message that they receive is not from the Word of God if it's the teaching and traditions of men then this is what happens turn back to mark chapter for the gospel by mark chapter 4 because Jesus dealt with this in fact all of the problems we have in soul-winning Jesus encountered the same ones and in mark 4 in verse 12 jesus said this so that seeing they may see and not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand lest they should turn in their sins be forgiven them what are you saying is these people are ever hearing but they never understand and and they don't they don't ever let the word of God come through and penetrate they they don't love the truth and and they don't listen to the word and that's sad well as long as you're in mark if you want to turn to Luke 24 here's a good example of the next facet of of soul-winning Luke 24 and verse 45 tells us that Christ opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures he opened their understanding the only way a person can be saved is God and only God can open their heart and make them understand only God can do that and so the first basis of our evangelism is only God can give sinners a hunger for the truth and the salvation that God gives is holy of the Lord and they must come to the understanding that they come with empty hands they don't have anything to pay and as the songwriter says that they come and simply cling to the cross of Christ not to the object like they do in Romanism not holding on to a crucifix but but clinging to the sacrifice of Christ on that cross once and for all so number one only God gives sinners a hunger for the truth secondly and if you want to look at 1st Thessalonians 1:5 you were in 2nd thessalonians briefly and there are many scriptures but first thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5 tells us the second point number 1 only God can give sinners a hunger for truth number 2 only the Spirit of God can raus sinners to Jesus and and that's something we forget we think that that we have to somehow you know reel them in only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Christ I can't you can none of us can only the Spirit of God can look look what Paul testified in verse 5 of 1st Thessalonians 1 now this is this is not Jewish evangelism this is pagan evangelism this is a port city on the Ignatian way it was a town that was just crawling with people and all the vices kind of the San Francisco of the day look at this for our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit see it's the Gospel message of the Spirit of God at work in their hearts drawing them to Christ and only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Christ a sinner must have the conviction that the Word of God is true because God gives them a hunger for truth and then the Holy Spirit as John says in John 16:8 begins the work of convicting them regarding their sin the unbeliever will not see that he needs salvation until the Spirit of God convicts him of the sin in his heart and what's so important to see it doesn't matter if you're working with a Roman Catholic or just a lost pagan Protestant or or a pagan pagan if God has not given them a love for the truth and if the Holy Spirit is not prompting their hearts you can't you can pray with them and you can tell them now you're saved but if God has not given them a love for the truth and if the Spirit of God has not began begun a work of conviction they are not saved they have made a decision they have prayed they've done whatever you ask them to do and they might go on their way happily but the Scriptures describe salvation as a work holy of God and that's why most Roman Catholics don't understand that God's punishment for their sins is death and so they don't ever learn they have to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who took their place and so what they think is that they're just trying to work off God being upset at them and so they think the more good stuff that they think is good that they send toward him he'll finally accept them see they don't understand that the penalty for even one sin is the absolute wrath of God and eternal punishment they don't understand that if they've been blinded to that their church will not teach them that so what they think is they're not even going in that direction they're over here and they think I'm you're you're bad and I'm bad but you know who knows who's bad but I'm gonna do as much as I can to make God happy and they think they can make it to God but only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Jesus and only God can give sinners a hunger for truth here's the last point and let's look at tom acts 20 because as I said there they're kind of three overarching principles that that are always on my mind as as I share track share a gospel witness earnestly exhort someone to come to Christ the first thing on my mind is only God can make them love the truth and and I listen and I've told you this story before that I remember distinctly someone who the Spirit of God had given them a heart desire for the truth and that person could not be dissuaded I did not want to witness to them I did not want to talk to them I was not interested in talking to them and they wouldn't stop asking me questions because God had given them a love for the truth and as I shared the scriptures finally a little bit grudgingly they were convicted of their sins it's the most wonderful thing to see Third Point only the grace of God can save a sinner acts 20:21 says this that when God opens a person's heart makes them love the truth when the Spirit of God uses the word of God to make them realize that they're a sinner and begin the process of drawing them to Christ that sinner must make a conscious willful choice to forsake their own works to forsake their own and to put their complete hope trust confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ here's what it says in acts 20:21 testifying to Jews and also to Greeks you know there's an ocean of foot that there's a gospel message for the Jewish people and there's a different message for us and the Jews had to acknowledge Jesus as Lord that's Romans 10 but the Gentiles didn't well what's interesting is here it merges and it says everybody Jews and also Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ see that that was the universal message of the first century the Apostolic Church Paul said the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked that one's faith is credited to him now if anyone will not repent of their self efforts their dead works that they hope to please God with then they can't understand a gracious righteous God if they will not look at verse 21 if they will not repent toward God and faith toward Christ if they will not what does repent they changed their mind about God they formerly thought they didn't need him where they formerly thought that they were helping him or they formerly thought that they have to turn in full conscious willful choice toward him as the only hope and only the grace of God can save a sinner and if a person doesn't realize that all their righteousness is like filthy rags why would they want to be clothed with anything else because most of us like ourselves enough that we don't need anything stripped away well mere intellectual assent to be believing certain doctrines will not save anyone there two illustrations one is used in our EE training the story goes that there was a tightrope walker who stretched the wire across Niagara Falls he then carefully walked across he carried a 200-pound dummy on his back from the New York side the Canadian side and when he safely reached the canadian side he asked the spectators to raise their hand if they believed he could now carry a real person they all raised their hands so then ask for a volunteer immediately all the hands went down they all believed he could do it but no one chose to trust him with their life similar is the one who refuses to trust Jesus with his eternal life clinging rather to his own efforts because he believes Jesus may be unable to save him completely there's another story and I'm going to share a lot of items from different Catholic missions but I like the illustration that that the Roman Catholic is but if you can imagine a person holding on that's Roman Catholic they're holding on to their baptism they swing to the next one and that's their confirmation they swing to the next one and that's going to the mass and they do that through their whole life and then they swing up here to doing their penance when they're bad and then they swing over here and they're trying to get to heaven and hell is underneath them and when they're when they are confronted with the gospel they're they're swinging between their their loops hoping to get to heaven obvious and they bump into Jesus Christ and he says to them you got to let go and grab me and I will hold you securely and take you to heaven and they have been swinging their whole life between the bars going across trying to get to heaven on their own and when Jesus says you got to let go of all of your self-effort your own works hold on to you they go know things I'm gonna you know I've been doing this my whole and that's the problem because they have been conditioned to swing from rung to rung and that's why Romanism is such a dangerous error well are there any Catholics who are Christians I know all of us would say we know someone who is a Roman Catholic and born again but to answer that I'd like to quote someone who spent their life studying this and this is what they said are there any Catholics who are Christian not if you believe the Bible which describes the Christian as one who has been eternally saved by God's unmerited grace justified freely by faith without works and that's Ephesians 2:5 through 7 in Romans 4:5 and accepted by God only be cuz of Christ's imputed righteousness Philippians 3:9 yes they're born-again Christians who worship in the Catholic Church but they usually leave soon after they have been converted for a Catholic to be converted he must repent of dead works all this rung swinging he's been doing his whole life and believed the gospel he cannot believe salvation is by grace through faith and at the same time believe it is through water baptism and good works he cannot believe jesus paid the penalty for sin completely and still believe sins are remitted through indulgences and purged by the fires of purgatory they're just two exact opposites well I want to read to you right now just some principles for how to witness effectively two Roman Catholic number one always use your Bible as a guide for your discussion you will not ever get anywhere if you don't start out with the Bible saying hey do you have your Bible let them use theirs they can use the do way you can any Catholic Bible will do say here let's use yours you know and let them get out there they're special one always use the Bible as a guide and what you say is let's just instead of saying well I think and you think and all this let's just read the words okay so number one is always use the Bible as the guide for you discussion then use the Bible to define the truth and what you have to do is define a sinner and Romans 3 defines it and salvation it defines it he gave himself for me and we just define the terms thirdly we always start with sin God's justice demands punishment for sin and what we have to do is we have to say have you sinned what takes away sin and talk about the sacrifice of Christ always be pointing to Christ and it's so easy to get lost in the complexity of the Catholic religion therefore avoid any trails that lead you away from the saving power of the gospel proclaim Christ is sufficient that's what the Bible says Hebrews 10:10 Romans 1:16 second timothy 3:15 his righteousness his intercession then explain the free gift and I love this there are three promises Jesus offers to repentant sinners which are foreign to nearly every Roman Catholic number one the complete forgiveness of sins on this spot right now complete not partial not hold over you and you know worried about a complete number to the imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness that means they're Saints on the spot why that shakes them up I'm totally forgiven I totally have the imputed righteousness of Christ you know what the last thing is they don't realize they can be totally forgiven they don't realize they can be a saint on the spot righteous in Christ you know what the last one is they don't realize that they can have a secure salvation they don't have to go down and through the purging of the fires to get clean enough to go to heaven they don't know those things so we emphasize and explain the free gift and then we emphasize it comes by grace alone and then we go back to sticking to God's Word for by grace we've been saved through faith and that not of ourselves it's the gift of God it's not of works so we don't boast only God can give sinners a hunger for the truth do you have a hunger for the truth I do only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Christ remember when you were drawn to Christ how your heart longed to know him and finally only the grace of God has saved us sinner [Music]

Channel: DTBM

Views: 7,660

Rating: 4.8365121 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, God, Jesus, Christian, teaching, biblical, teach, sermon, trinity, church, lesson, traditional, truth, true, divine, theology, freedom, guilt, testament, pure, interpret, spirit, holy, John, Barnett, christ, father, heaven, hell, doctrine, doctrinal, sinful, forgive, forgiveness, history, teachings, chapters, verses, discover, the book, ministries, dtbm, Dr. Barnett, controversial, repent, helpful, sin

Id: M76R7jI4b1k

Length: 37min 22sec (2242 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 04 2020