Witnessing to Catholics

teaching series here at Trinity that we have occasionally that's really focused upon application of God's word and specific key areas of life so we're thankful that you guys could be here with us today especially those of you who are new to Trinity for your first time visiting welcome welcome to our church we're glad you're here my name is Kevin Joseph I'm the pastor of Outreach here at Trinity um and so we're excited you're here thank you all for coming uh one of the one of the key ministries of our church is evangelism we we want to be faithful in proclaiming the word of God we want to see people come to Faith to repent of their sins and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and so to that end we have a Ministry called the evangers where people from our church go out each week at different parts of the city and strike up conversations with people in order to share the gospel with them it's a it's a fun Ministry Luke stainback heads up that Ministry if you're interested in it Jonathan and Jeremy Hartfield are key people we've got several folks here I see that are part of the The Avengers so I'm glad you guys are here but as they go out to share the gospel when they share the gospel it's not uncommon for them to encounter Catholic people people from a Catholic background people who have been influenced by Catholic theology and so how do you share the gospel with Catholic people how do you engage with Catholic people not just strangers but friends co-workers family members neighbors how do we engage with Catholic people and and explain to them what the gospel is what the differences are between genuine biblical Christianity and Catholicism well we're in for a treat tonight because we're gonna welcome here in a moment Mike Gendron uh Mike is the founder and director of a Ministry called proclaiming The Gospel Ministries and Mike has for over 30 years been Faithfully sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Roman Catholics Mike himself was a converted Catholic came to Faith and has been in full-time Ministry for over 30 years Mike is a graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary and he's been a a faithful and effective minister of the Gospel throughout the world so we're we're thankful for that he's here this evening and would you guys please give a warm welcome to Mike Gendron [Applause] thank you Kevin and thank all of you for coming out on a Friday night to be equipped and encouraged to do the work of evangelism it is really my joy and my privilege to be here I've been able to reconnect with some long-lost friends and make some new friends tonight so what a joy it is to open the word of God with you and to look at this most important subject let's begin by going the throne of grace shall we Our Father we do thank you that we can gather together this evening as the body of Christ to learn more about your exalted son the head of the church our Lord Jesus Christ father we thank you for his all-sufficient finished work of redemption we thank you for the Glorious gospel of grace and we pray father that we would all leave here with a greater compassion for those who are being deceived about life's most critical issue so we pray that you would impress upon us the shortness of time The Nearness of Eternity and the sense of urgency to reach those who are perishing and we ask this for the glory of our Lord and savior and on the power of His name amen as Kevin mentioned I grew up as a very devout Roman Catholic for 35 years and when God miraculously saved me as I opened the Bible and began reading it for the first time at age 35 you might be wondering why it took me so long and well it's because the priests were discouraging us from reading it they said it was too difficult to understand so when I opened it I was alarmed very quickly that the Plan of Salvation in the Bible was diametrically opposed to what I was taught as a Catholic and so I did the wrong thing I would call my uncle who was a Roman Catholic priest and I'd say why does the bible disagree with Catholic teaching on salvation he said well Mike that's just not true I said well Ephesians 2 8 9 it says for by Grace we have been saved through faith it's not of ourselves it's the gift of God not of works so that no man May boast my uncle said my God doesn't mean what he's saying there seriously and so I would go back to the Bible I would dig some more and there was just no way to reconcile what the word of God was teaching me and what the Catholic Church taught me so I had a crisis of faith and it really came down to this should I trust Christ in his word or the teachings and traditions of my religion I knew I couldn't believe both and it was then God granted me repentance and gave me the gift of faith and literally turned my life upside down I left the Catholic church and I found myself in a Bible study every morning of the week before I went to work and I just couldn't get enough of God's word I very quickly found out that the only two things in this life that are eternal Are the souls of men and the word of God and I wanted to invest the rest of my life and those two things so I'm sure you're aware that the Roman Catholic Church represents the largest and most neglected Mission field in the world today 1.3 billion precious Souls neglected Mission field because many Evangelical leaders are signing Unity Accords with Roman Catholics daring to say that we share a common faith in the gospel if you're not already convinced that that is so untrue I think at the end of this evening you will be the gospel of the Roman Catholic religion is antithetical to the biblical gospel so the principles that we will look at this evening can really apply to anyone who is lost in religion and ultimately our goal is to get people to exchange their religion for a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and let's remember that success in evangelism is presenting the gospel clearly and completely and then leaving the results to our Sovereign Lord he is the one that brings the increase so why is the Roman Catholic Church of mission field well according to its teachings and I'm going to be quoting from the catechism of the Catholic church tonight according to the catechism Catholics worship and trust another Jesus and believe a false gospel which have has them on the wide road to destruction and this shouldn't surprise us because in second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 4 2000 years ago Paul warned that some would come and preach another Jesus and another Jesus always leads to another gospel and it's always under the influence of another spirit and you know the end of that verse Paul says and you put up with it you bear this beautifully rather than contending for the exclusivity and sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ you put up with it you allow these false christs to be preached in false gospels to be embraced so I want to look at two methods of witnessing before we go any further but before we do I think you would all agree that the most cruel and wicked thing anyone could ever do would be to deceive people about life's most critical issue and that is what must I do to be saved what must I do to become right with God and so when you look at the Roman Catholic religion you're going to see that it deceives its people about this most critical issue but when we look at two methods of witnessing man's way is to tell them that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life if this sounds familiar to you this is the first law of Bill Bright's for spiritual laws now before he went to Glory he repented of this and he recognized this was not biblical but how many of those four spiritual laws were in circulation by then what is God's way well we Proclaim all of God's attributes yes he is a god of love and mercy and Grace but he's also a god of righteousness Justice and Holiness and one day we must tell everybody we witness to that we will be held accountable to our creator and when we meet him and we all will meet him he will either be a Merciful Savior or a sin avenging judge man's way is to get decisions that's the goal of man's method of evangelism but God's way is to make disciples the Great Commission does not go and make decisions is it it's to go and make disciples teaching them to observe everything Christ has commanded man's way is to ask them to repeat a sinner's prayer or to accept Jesus and I don't know where that term except Jesus came from but nobody gets to Heaven by accepting Jesus we're called to trust him to believe in him to receive him by faith sinner's prayer so many people do that today and many well-meaning evangelists but the reason this is not biblical is Jesus even said some people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me so if you get someone to repeat a prayer how do you know that they're just mouthing the words and their heart is not right with God so God's way is to call them to repent and believe the Glorious gospel of grace the only way to see God produce true converts is to evangelize his way according to his word in Psalm 160 or 70 years ago Charles Spurgeon said this we long to be successful Fishers for Jesus but we are tempted to try methods which Jesus would never have tried shall we yield to this suggestion of the enemy we must follow Jesus to succeed can we imagine the Lord Jesus using such means as are now commonly used Spurgeon goes 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 and love to have success with human hearts we must work under Divine anointing depending upon the holy spirit then we shall be Fishers of Men how much has changed in 160 years man's methods have got even more perverse than when they were doing it in spurgeon's day well we have to be concerned about false converts because man's way produces false converts who could hear the most terrifying words from the Lord Jesus that we see in Matthew chapter 7 verse 23 listen to the words of Jesus not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day many will say to me Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do Mighty works in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness I want you to notice a couple of things in the words of Jesus number one they were calling him Lord but they were trusting in what they were doing rather than what Christ has done they had a Works righteousness salvation they were boasting in what they did the other thing I want you to notice is they never departed from iniquity there was no repentance and so we want to make sure that we never produce a false convert if we love people we must tell them the truth you know the Lord Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven his mission was to seek and to save that which was lost as we see in Luke 19 10. but the descriptions of Hell in the New Testament are just overwhelming hell is a place of punishment where Divine Justice is satisfied for Sinners who die without Christ it is the place of Despair and Desperation it is called the Lake of Fire Burning with brimstone it is a place of terrible torture Dreadful Agony and soul racking remorse hope never enters there light never shines there only pain Gloom Restless Agony and an Indescribable torment there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth forever [Music] my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ I believe that the reason more Christians are not more faithful to the Great Commission is because they cannot sense the reality of what awaits those who die without Christ if we could just for a moment glimpse into hell right now and to say the suffering and the torment we would do everything in our power to rescue those on the wide road to destruction no one will ever seek a savior until they know that they're destined for the fires of hell when we witness to Catholics we need to expect a stubborn resistance religious indoctrination is a captivating power that causes a strong resistance to God's word I can tell you from the time I could think I was indoctrinated with the Roman Catholic catechism and that's how most Catholics grow up indoctrinated with Catholic religion I believe it's one of the most powerful tools that Satan uses to Blind the minds of unbelievers so they cannot say the light of the gospel for the glory of Christ religious indoctrination another tool that he uses is religious Pride it's also a powerful tool that Satan uses this is why by the way religion has been one of the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ down through the centuries because it goes against the word of God that holds people captive with religious indoctrination if you look at the life of the Lord Jesus whenever he engage religious leaders there was always conflict and hostility Supernatural blindness can over can only be overcome by The Sovereign Grace and power of the holy spirit so as God's word is proclaimed the spirit of God does his work men will then be delivered from the power of Darkness into the Glorious light of the Gospel so it's our Sovereign Lord who shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ second Corinthians 4 6. as you witness to Roman Catholics and some of you already have done this and you see the obstacles that you must overcome they would include Catholics are utterly dependent upon their priests from the time they're born they receive the sacrament of baptism which is said to be the sacrament of regeneration in the sacrament of justification then they are utterly dependent upon the priest to receive sacraments whereby they get the grace of God and even after a Catholic dies he is still utterly dependent upon the priest to get them out of a fictitious place called Purgatory as he offers the sacrifice of the mass another obstacle to overcome Catholics believe that Heaven Must Be merited by what they do Catholicism is no different from any other religion in the world they all teach a Works righteousness salvation biblical Christianity is set apart from all the religions we have faith in an all-sufficient Savior and salvation is offered by grace Catholics think venial sins will not send them to hell venial sins we'll talk about that more in a moment Catholics believe they belong to the one true church this is a major obstacle to overcome we must tell them that Christ has only one church and he purchased it with his own blood we see that in Acts 20 28 the one true Church of Jesus Christ contains only those who are saved we see that in Acts 2 47 the one true church of Christ every member of that church has their name written in heaven that would disqualify the Roman Catholic religion because they believed that those who are baptized and commit a mortal sin and die in that state will not go to heaven but will go to hell Catholics also have much family pressure to remain Catholic this is huge I want to share with you a testimony of God's grace I was invited up to Wisconsin this church had been praying for a Roman Catholic husband of a woman who was a member of the church for three years every time she invited her Catholic husband to church he bit her head off and refused to come but when she found out that a former Catholic was coming for the weekend she convinced him to come and at least listen so Saturday night I gave a message entitled where will you spend eternity at the end of the message I walked out of the pulpit she walked up to me and introduced me to her husband she said he is a very devout Catholic and I looked at him and introduced myself his name was Peter I said Peter based on what you have just heard tonight from God's word about where you will spend eternity what is keeping you from trusting the Lord Jesus Christ right now as your all-sufficient savior he just looked at me like a deer in the Headlights and I wasn't going to say another word until he answered about a minute goes by and finally his wife blurts out it's your parents you don't want to offend your parents he said you know what she's right I don't want to offend my parents so I gave him a couple of my gospel tracks I said Peter read these tonight and I shared with him in Matthew 10 before he left I said Jesus came to the vine father against son and mother against daughter who Do You Love More do you love God or do you love your parents more so the next morning the first two people into the church were Peter and his wife he said I read I read what you gave me I tossed and turned all night and then I cried out to the Lord to save me and then I couldn't wait for my wife to wake up and we sat on the side of the bed and I just apologized to her for biting her head off every time she invited me to church and he told her I trusted Jesus in the middle of the night well needless to say Tears of Joy or streaming down our face the word of God and the spirit of God brought conviction it was about eight months later I was preaching in another church in Wisconsin and here's Peter and his wife and family coming up and I said wow Peter I didn't know you were coming I said do you mind if I share a testimony of how God saved you after I finished the message this morning he said no I'd love you to do that and so when I did I asked him to stand up and of course the whole church just applauded with great joy but I share this with you because be ready for these obstacles we need to know how to overcome them by using scripture as our Authority so I want to share with you that Roman Catholics have many traditions and you can see two circles on the screen most of their Traditions are outside the Bible now there is a thin overlap Roman Catholics and Evangelical Christians share common beliefs those beliefs we would be we believe in the Triune God we believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity that he was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life and died on calvary's Cross was raised three days later and he'll come back to judge the living and the dead but that's just a thin veneer of truth that hides a false and fatal gospel you can see their Traditions are outside the Bible everything we need to know about our Salvation is fully contained in scripture as we see in First Corinthians 15 verses 1 to 4 Paul defines the gospel as the death burial and resurrection of Christ according to scripture but the Roman Catholic Traditions oppose and nullify the very Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and we will look at some of the ways that they opposed that in a few moments the Roman Catholic Traditions do distort the gospel they deny salvation as by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to scripture alone in fact that was the Cry of the reformers the reformers came out of the Catholic Church the Catholic church was teaching that in order to be saved it's Grace plus Merit Faith plus works scripture plus tradition Christ plus other mediators and Glory was going to God and Mary and all the saints so the reformer said no grace alone faith alone Christ Alone scripture alone all for the glory of God Alone the Roman Catholic Church rejects the promise of the Gospel eternal life Catholics don't have eternal life because again it's based on what they do rather than what Christ has done that's why as you witness to Roman Catholics make sure you take them to First John 5 13. John writes to those who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life you can know right now that you have in your possession Eternal everlasting life with the Savior it's based on God's promise backed up by God's power Catholics continue the work of Redemption on an altar that Jesus finished on the cross another ungodly tradition and they deny that all sins are mortal knowing all these distortions of the Gospel ahead of time will help you focus on reproving and correcting what Roman Catholics believe so let's let's look at seven keys for witnessing to Roman Catholics I'll go through them quickly and then we'll look at each one more clearly first we need to establish the supreme authority of God's word please don't miss this we're going to talk about why this is important in a moment we need to declare the sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ we need to get the gospel right we need to define the substitutionary atonement of Christ now you may be surprised at this but for 35 years as a Catholic I knew that Jesus died for the sins of the world that's history when I found out Jesus died for me that was salvation they don't teach the penal substitution of Christ we need to teach antithetically we need to pray and we also need to point them to the narrow way so let's look at each one of these through the lens of scripture the first principle we need to establish God's word as the supreme authority I think a great verse to go to to share with Catholics is second Timothy 3 16. I'm sure you all are familiar with this verse all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training and righteousness the word reproof means to expose and refute error once air has been exposed then you can use scripture to correct the error it's all God breathes it's all God inspired God has exalted his name and his word Above All Things that's where the Bible supreme authority comes from the Divine authority of God so the Bible is sufficient and authoritative for protection for correction and for direction it protects us from Air it corrects air and it also we can use it for direction for Godly living when you look at Roman Catholic Authority this is why establishing the Bible as the supreme authority is so important Catholics have three authorities and they're all said to be equal but in actual practice it is the Bishops of the church which are called the magisterium they sit above tradition in scripture and they do a masterful job of twisting and distorting scripture so that it conforms to their ungodly traditions the Apostle Peter had much to say about those who twist and distort scripture he said it would be to their own destruction I was witnessing to a Roman Catholic priest in Garland standing outside of his rectory and after about 15 minutes he said you know what your problem is you take the word of God too seriously I thought wow what a backhanded compliment he turned around and walked away I said the very word that you're rejecting Jesus said will judge you on the last day John 12 48. when you look at the supreme authority it is scripture that sits above the teachings of men and the traditions of men one of the great verses to take Roman Catholics to is acts 17 11 explain to them that the Apostle Paul wrote about half the New Testament and yet while he was teaching in the synagogues of Berea he noticed that his listeners were searching the scriptures every day to test the veracity of an apostle so shouldn't your pope come under the same scrutiny as an apostle shouldn't your priest shouldn't anyone who teaches the Bible be tested with the word of God itself acts 17 11 make sure you make note of that what about the Traditions the ungodly Traditions there were many ungodly traditions in the times of Christ in Mark chapter 7 you see Jesus rebuking the apostate Jews because they were nullifying the very word of God for the sake of their tradition so clearly we can point to these verses and show Catholics that scripture must have the authority over any man's teaching and over any religious tradition remember as we witness our words are void of power our words have no Authority when we witness we want to use the word of God therein lies the power therein lies the authority and we see that in Hebrews 4 12 don't we the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword we can use it to slay all the lies of the devil it's an offensive and a defensive weapon Every Lie Under the Sun can be slain by the word of God the word of God pierces it penetrates and cuts to the depths of the soul and it never returns void that simply means when you proclaim the word of God it brings salvation to those who repent and believe it but it brings further condemnation for those who reject it but it always accomplishes its purpose the word of God judges before anyone can be saved their sin must be judged by the word of God it is living and active no other words can bring life to a soul that's dead in sin and it has divine power and authority the same verse of our ministry is Romans 1 16 the gospel is the power of God for the Salvation of all who believe it so we need to use the law for conviction of sin the law was given so that every mouth may be closed and the whole world may become accountable to God the words of Paul in Romans 3 19. and then we read before anyone is a candidate for salvation the law must bring them to the knowledge of their sin and condemnation under God's Wrath Romans 3 20. a great verse that you need to have in your back pocket is James 2 Tim because one of the requirements for Catholics to be saved is to obey the law James says if you keep the whole law perfectly and stumble at one part you're guilty of breaking the entire law no one is righteous no not one the good news will have little effect until we present the bad news first I want to take you back to the Garden of Eden Satan's first lie because this lie is perpetuated by the Roman Catholic religion today what was Satan's first lie he told Eve you surely shall not die if you disobey God Genesis 3 4 how does the Roman Catholic Church perpetuate that Catholics are told you surely shall not die when you commit venial sins they say they do not cause death only temporal punishment Rome has two types of sin mortal sins such as adultery murder or missing church on Sunday and then venials sends our lesser sins which are not as serious and they don't cause death there may be nothing more offensive to God than the Distortion of his word those who promote Satan's lies as if they were God's truth are the worst kinds of deceivers I think we would all agree on that most people are unaware that Catholicism perpetuates the first lie of Satan the reason this is important is because Roman Catholics don't feel like they've done anything serious enough to Warrant hell they can rationalize their way and say the sins I'm committing are only venial sins the second principle for witnessing the Catholics we need to declare the sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ in First Corinthians 1 3 Paul writes he has become to every believer wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and Redemption we see in Hebrews chapter 10 a chapter that destroys the Roman Catholic Mass the sacrifice of the mass in Rome in Hebrews 10 we see that Jesus died once for all sin for all time there are no more offerings for sin but every Sunday Roman Catholics go to the Mass and the priest will offer the sacrifice of the mass to take care of the sins they committed in the previous week I was invited up to Emporia Kansas to equip the church up there and after equipping them all day Saturday we went out to the Roman Catholic Mass on Saturday evening when I tried to reach the priest before I went he was too busy to see me but as we walked into the church the red light over the confessional was on that told me that the priest was inside hearing confession so I looked to the Elder of the church and my wife and said pray for me I'm going to go talk to the priest I'm going to confession so I walked in and there he was there was no screen like there was in the old days and I said I don't even know where to begin it's been over 30 years since my last confession he said well don't you worry when you leave here I'll forgive all of your sins and then he said well why has it been 30 years I said well I've been reading the Bible he said well how has that kept either from the confessional I said well what I've been reading in the Bible goes against what I was taught as a Catholic he said give me an example I said well in John 19 30 Jesus cried out on Victory it is finished so why do you continue on an altar when Jesus finished on the cross he said give me another example I said well in first John 1 7 it says the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin so why do we need purgatory he said I can see this is going to take longer than I thought why don't you call me on Monday and we'll continue the conversation so I flew back to Dallas and I called him and by then he knew that we were there proselytizing his people as he said he said why why were you wasting your time don't you know we're all Christians I said no as I shared with you in the confessional the Catholic church has a different way of salvation and then I started sharing the gospel with them in about five minutes in he said you know what you're really wasting your time nothing you can say is going to change my mind I was born a Catholic and I'm going to die a Catholic I said no not according to the Bible you were born a sinner and you're going to die a sinner unless you repent and believe the gospel and then he hung up on me but you know what I was successful I sowed the seed of God's word and who knows I prayed afterwards that God would not bring peace to him until he came to the Prince of Peace the Lord Jesus has accomplished everything necessary to save Sinners and then he cried out in Victory it is finished well how does Catholicism deny the sufficiency of Jesus to his finished work they had the sacrifice of the mass you can see the priest at the altar there lifting up the Eucharist to his word they add their tradition to his headship they had another head called the Pope to his unique role as sinless mediator they have another one her name is Mary to his high Priestly office they had the confessional box by the way if Catholics would only look at their first pope Peter when Simon the Sorcerer was trying to buy the gift of God with his money what did Peter say go directly to God and confess that perhaps God will forgive you Peter didn't say I hear I need to hear your confession to his infinite Merit they have their own Merit to his purifying blood they had purgatory into his righteousness they add their own filthy rags of righteousness this is why Catholicism is often called the plus religion they believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ please be ready for that Catholics will tell you they believe they're saved by grace through faith in Christ alone is the key word they have added much to Grace much to Faith and they've added other mediators to the Lord Jesus Christ well if you get my newsletter you saw the article in last month's newsletter a Blasphemous rejection of Christ's efficiency how does the Catholic Church do that with three very deceptive lies we've looked at venial sins they also have a place called purgatory and in order to get out of purgatory you need indulgences so the first lie in the garden led to venial sins and then Catholics had to create a place because if venial sins don't cause death and hell we need another place so let's create Purgatory that's where you go for temporal punishment they have the fires Purge away your sin and while you're in purgatory we need something to get you out so they created another lie and that was indulgences indulgences as the remission of temporal punishment for sin so this satanic doctrine of venial sins has produced other lies within the Roman Catholic religion and I must tell you you're probably wondering how could anybody believe this it's from indoctrination I believed everything that I'm sharing with you for 35 years and so the the very nature of deception is people do not know they're deceived until they are confronted with the truth you and I are truth-bearers that's the only hope Catholics have as if we lovingly confront them with the truth of God's word so as you can see this deception makes Catholics utterly dependent upon their priest even after death because in order to get out of purgatory the family members need to go to the priest and purchase indulgences in the most common Indulgence is the Mass card where you pay the priest any amount of money from 50 to 300 depending on type of mass you write the name of your loved one on the mass card the priest lays it on the Altar and the sacrifice of the mass is supposed to be a propitiatory sacrifice that will remove the loved one from purgatory more expeditiously here's the key no priest will tell you how many masses must be said before your loved one is released from the fires of purgatory and so Catholics are held in religious bondage not only in this life but even in the next life because they're still dependent upon their priests and their family members to get them out of this fictitious place we know of Catholic people who have willed their entire Estates to the Catholic church so that when they die Perpetual masses will be offered to get them out of this place called Purgatory if you study church history you know that Saint Peter's Basilica was built on the selling of God's forgiveness through indulgences this was one of the Sparks of the Reformation listen to this from Vatican Council to the Catholic Church commands the usage of indulgences most beneficial to Christians should be kept in the church and it condemns with anathema those who say indulgences are useless or the church does not have the power to grant them you and I are condemned by the Roman Catholic church because we do not believe in indulgences and yet today we have Evangelical leaders signing Unity Accords with the Catholic religion saying we share a common faith in the gospel over 640 000 evangelicals have signed The Manhattan Declaration stating that we share a common Faith oh how I wished I could give this message to those 640 000 signers the third biblical principle for witnessing we need to get the gospel right before the Lord saved me I was a rocket scientist down at Cape Kennedy Florida one of the first things I learned was that the astronauts need to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere with precise with a true angle of precision in order to get back in because if they come into light they will skip back off into outer space if they come into the Earth's atmosphere too heavy they'll burn up in the Earth's atmosphere well it's the same way for those who want to enter into heaven they need to get the gospel precisely correct because if a person believes a gospel that has been added to they will burn up in the Eternal Lake of Fire if they believe a gospel that's been stripped of its Essentials they'll skip out into outer space outer Darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth and so we need to get the gospel right and when we get the gospel right we need to look at the characteristics of the Gospel the gospel is eternal it was first announced in the garden right after man fell into sin the same gospel will go throughout the world and then the end will come as we see in Revelation 14 6 everybody in heaven will be there because they believe the one and only Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Old Testament Saints look back to the Messiah dying on calvary's cross the New Testament Saints look forward to the cross knowing that Jesus died as a substitute same gospel one savior the gospel is exclusive it dares to say all of their face and all other religions are false this is one of the offenses of the Gospel it's exclusive because of the Lord Jesus Christ he said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me he is the way for those who are lost he's the truth for those who are deceived and he's the life of those who are dead in their sin there is no other way the gospel is according to scripture alone as we've already looked at the gospel has divine power to save those who believe it and the gospel is purely of Grace those who add anything to it stand condemned we see that in Galatians 1 6-9 now I want you to pay close attention to this because the judaizers came into town they believed as Roman Catholics believe today they believed in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ they believe that Jesus was the Eternal God the son of man they believed that Jesus would come back to judge the living and the dead but they said if you're a gentile you not only need to believe that but you also need to be circumcised what was Paul's response let's have Unity with all these professing Christians no he issued a Divine condemnation let them be anathema let them be turned over for to God for Destruction because they dared to add One requirement to the gospel of grace when you look at the Roman Catholic Gospel today and we're going to look at it in a moment they've had so many requirements to it we need to recognize that Roman Catholic Popes Bishops Cardinals and Priests clergy nuns they're all under the same Divine condemnation as the judaizers that's why Roman Catholics need to be rescued out from a religion that is under Divine condemnation I hope you see that Paul didn't mince any words the only other time he used anathema was in First Corinthians 16 Verse 22 those who do not love God are anathema so he's elevating the purity of the Gospel on the same level as loving God here's the false Gospel of the Roman Catholic religion you have to have faith and I put that in quotation marks because everybody has faith the key is What is the object of your faith by the way when Catholics are baptized the infant can't believe in anything but it's said to be the faith of the parents or the grandparents of the godparents that saves them so Catholics have to have faith plus baptism these numbers are paragraph numbers of the catechism they also need to receive the sacraments they were required for salvation they have to participate in the mass under the penalty of mortal sin they have to have their sins purged in purgatory they must do good works in order to be justified they have to keep the law paragraph 2068. they have to receive indulgences as the remission of temporal punishment remember the words of Paul If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received let him be accursed black and white I hope all of you leave here with a greater compassion for Catholics you know the devil wants to paint everything gray that God painted black and white there's no middle ground here you're either believing the one and only Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ or you're believing another gospel and you're under Divine condemnation we have to talk about the timing of good works prior to Salvation the prophet Isaiah said all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags so we must come to the Cross of Christ with empty hands of Faith the only thing we can bring is our sin after salvation we are now created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared for us to walk in Ephesians 2 10. so right after Paul says we're saved by grace apart from Works once we're born again we're new creatures in Christ then we do the works the motivation here is so important Roman Catholics do their Works in order to be justified we do our works because we have been Justified out of love and Thanksgiving to our Lord and savior hmm justification is the heart of the Gospel it declares the inflexible righteousness of God as the judge who must punish every sin that has ever been committed by everyone who has ever lived we have a righteous and holy judge that cannot let the guilty go unpunished the only way condemned Sinners can be justified is through faith and the sin bearing substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ Alone who satisfy Divine Justice Martin Luther said the doctrine of justification is the very hinge upon which the Gates of Heaven open and close if you get justification wrong you get the gospel wrong if you get justification wrong you cannot be right with God so it's a very important Doctrine and I just want to share with you quickly how diametrically opposed Roman Catholicism is to the biblical doctrine of justification the Bible teaches that justification is the change of one's legal status before God we're by a condemned sinner has been acquitted and declared righteous that's why you see a gavel on the screen it's a legal declaration but Rome says no it's not it changes the inner man not his legal status the Bible says justification is instantaneous when that gavel comes down The Condemned Center is now declared righteous not because he is but because of Christ Rome says justification is a process it's the ongoing renewal of the Interior man sounds a lot like sanctification doesn't it they're mixing justification and sanctification now Rome says initial justification is by the sacrament of water baptism paragraph 1992 but the Bible says justification is by faith in what God has accomplished in Christ Romans 5 1 the Bible defines justification as permanent it's never ever lost by sin the legal status of a Justified man is this unchangeable as the righteousness of Christ and yet Rome says no justification is temporal it can be lost by sin and regained through the sacrament of penance and good works that's why you see two arrows on the screen with men on each one as Roman Catholics receive sacraments their right standing before God increases when they commit sin they're standing before God decreases and when they commit a mortal sin they're now de-justified and they need to be re-justified can you find anywhere in the New Testament where centers need to be re-justified the Bible says God justifies the ungodly Romans 4 5 Rome teaches that final justification is for those who become righteous thus they reject Philippians 3 9. by the way a great passage to take Catholics to share the resume of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 verses 3 to 9. if anyone had reason to boast in his religion it was the Apostle Paul if anyone had reason to boast in his righteousness it was Paul but what did he do he exchanged his righteousness for the righteousness of God he exchanged his religion for relationship with Christ the Bible teaches justification is the imputation or the crediting of Christ's completed righteousness to the Justified believer my favorite verse in all the Bible is second Corinthians 5 21 maybe because I never heard it as a Catholic The Great Exchange he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him by faith Christ takes all of my sin all of my guilt all of my punishment and what does he give me in return this perfect righteousness doesn't get any better than that does it but yet Rome says justification is the infusion of righteousness which once again renews the interior man a couple of more the Bible teaches justification is by Grace apart from works Christ's righteousness is given as a gift as we see in Romans 5 17. Paul writes in Titus 3 he saved us not because of righteous things we have done but because of his Mercy have you seen Romans 4 8 blessed is the man whose sin God does not take into account they were all placed on Christ but Rome says no justification must include good works red justification must be merited by making satisfaction for sins through tenants Works of Mercy Council of Trent Canon 24 if anyone says that the center is justified by faith alone let him be anathema once again how can evangelicals call for Unity with Catholics that condemn us because we believe justification is by faith apart from works also from the Council of Trent if anyone says that Justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works let him be anathema after justification all sins are no longer taken into account or punished we see the good news in second Corinthians 5 19 to 21 where God is reconciling the world to himself through Jesus Christ listen to this not counting men's sins against them Rome says all sins committed after justification may be punished either in purgatory or in hell by the way when I share that good news with Catholics that once were Justified God no longer takes our sins into account you know the response oh so all you have to do is believe in Jesus and then you get to keep on sinning I've taken the Titus 2 11. the grace that brought us salvation teaches us to say no to one godliness know the worldly passions and deliver self-controlled upright life now I want to avoid sin because of the sinless Savior that died in my place I want to live a life pleasing to him Romans 8 1 God promises to glorify everyone he justifies Romans 8 30 because those Justified can never be condemned that great promise in Romans 8 1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ but Rome says no God will condemn to hail everyone who is Justified but who dies in mortal sin I was teaching on a cruise to Israel and there was a Roman Catholic priest on board and he was easily identifiable he was wearing his collar so I engaged him with the gospel and we got to this point where I said do you believe a Catholic justified by water baptism who dies in mortal sin will go to hell He suggests that's what we teach I said how do you explain Romans 8 30. those God justifies he glorifies he scratched his head and said you know we just don't have an answer for that rather than submitting to the authority of God's inspired word we just don't have an answer for that well Grayson works are mutually exclusive in justification you can do nothing to save yourself any attempt to do so nullifies justifying Grace and it's an insult to the all-sufficient work of our Lord Jesus Christ what Jesus has done to save Sinners gives all the glory to God and His Saving Grace all boasting is in Jesus Christ and his righteousness we need to take Catholics to Romans 11 6. Paul says if it is by Grace it is not of Works otherwise Grace is not Grace do you realize that every religion in the world teaches a Works righteousness salvation because every religion in the world is under the influence of the devil he knows the only way God Will Save sinners is by grace alone so what does he do he creates a variety of religions saying that you must do things to appease your God Christianity stands apart we have an all-sufficient savior that did everything and that's why we are saved by grace apart from works we need to define the substitutionary atonement of Christ he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous what a glorious savior we have to Proclaim in the Lord Jesus Christ so if we really love Catholics we must tell them that they must read God's word I like to take in the second Timothy 2 24-26 that Paul says we are to pray for those in opposition of the Gospel that God would grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth so they can escape the snare of the devil that holds them captive to do his will every unbeliever is held captive by the devil to do his will and Jesus said the only way to be set free is to abide in his word then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free Romans 8 31-32 that proves you're a true disciple of Christ when you abide in his word and set free from religious deception we must tell Catholics they have broken God's law they are condemned by God's justice they deserve God's Wrath they need God's mercy and their only hope is the substitutionary atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ God provided his son as a sin bearing substitute so that he could do for us what we could never do for ourselves the fifth biblical principle we need to teach antithetically as you go through the New Testament look how many times the apostles contrasted the consequences of believing Satan's lie rather than God's truth I think a classic example is Ephesians 2 8 9 listen to Paul teaching antithetically for it is by Grace you have been saved through faith it's not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works so that no man May boast we have to show what opposes the gospel so that Catholics can repent of what they're doing to save themselves the nature of deception is that people do not know they're deceived until they're confronted with the truth we must lovingly confront them with the truth of God's word we must tell them that God does not impute his righteousness until Sinners are first stripped of Their Own that was Paul's resume he exchanged his filthy rags of righteousness for the righteousness of Christ we must tell them that God does not take make Sinners alive in Christ until they know they are dead in their sins all sins are mortal Romans 6 23 we also have Ezekiel 18 4 don't we the soul that sins will surely die the six biblical principle we need to pray when we are studying the book of Romans the Dallas Theological Seminary I think this is when God really placed a burden on me for Roman Catholics because here you see Paul is praying for the Salvation of the Israelites he said they have a Zeal for God but it's not based on knowledge not knowing the righteousness of God they seek their own righteousness as I read those verses I thought I know so many Roman Catholics that have the same Zeal for God but they too are ignorant of the Bible they don't know that God's righteousness requires perfect righteousness one of the first things that the Lord impressed upon me was even though you're zealous for God if you don't have the truth you're not going to be saved until you abide in his word know the gospel and repent of any false way we need to pray for words to be given to fearlessly make known the gospel this is Paul praying in Ephesians 6 19. again a man who wrote half the New Testament he's asking God for the words to give to those he's witnessing to pray for God to open doors and hearts as he opened Lydia's Hearts we we're praying to a sovereign Lord that controls all things he will open doors for you he will Open Hearts for you we need to pray that God would help us to Proclaim Christ clearly Colossians 4 2-4 and then we want to pray for wisdom to make the most of opportunity my wife and I pray for divine appointments at the beginning of each week we pray knowing that the fields are white for Harvest and the laborers are few we pray that God would lead his lost sheep across our path well how do you know when you have a Divine appointment you have to engage people wherever you go even if we only have a couple of minutes with somebody tonight at the restaurant I asked our server are you a Christian no I'm a Catholic well immediately I know what I need to do in order to share the gospel with them so we left in some gospel tracks but ask questions find out where they are if they say they're a Christian it really doesn't mean they're saved does it there's so many false converts in our churches today in fact our churches are mission fields because of the unbiblical methods of evangelism and so we follow up that question with where do you go to church how does your church teach you have any hope of going to heaven listen to their response and then you'll know where to go with the gospel to share with them I love how John MacArthur has been fighting the good fight of Faith especially when it comes to remaining Sanctified by the truth and not being unequally yoked with unbelievers in an open mic at KCBI radio someone from the audience asked him a question John what do you think of Christian radio stations that promote Roman Catholic events during Holy Week and Easter Sunday this was John's response Catholicism is a false system it is not the Church of Christ it is the Church of antichrist if you follow Catholic theology you'll go to hell I'm not saying this to be unkind but to be truthful being truthful is the only way to be kind people need to come out of that system it is a system that exalts Mary in a system of paganism mingled with pseudo-christianity we need more voices like John MacArthur the gospel is under attack like never before many pastors today many Evangelical leaders want to water it down compromise it so that we can have Unity with unbelievers more than ever we need to contend earnestly for the faith so the last principle then is we need to point them to the narrow way when my uncle the Roman Catholic priest would come visiting us in Dallas we'd always open the Bible with the hope of pointing him to the narrow way I'll never forget one night he threw up his hands out of frustration he said Mike how can one billion Catholics be wrong I said can we Let Jesus answer that for you I'm going to turn to Matthew 7 I said read verse 13. enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are a few who find it beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves can you see the context here there's two gates a narrow gate and a broad gate and in front of a narrow gate you've got wolves and sheep's clothing they're saying it's not here it's there it's no wonder Jesus said you must diligently search you must strive to enter the narrow gate which means you must diligently search the scriptures to find out who's telling you the truth because there will be false teachers misdirecting you my last semester at Seminary I looked at this narrow way in the broad way and it's really interesting why so many people are on the broad way there are many attractions Proverbs 14 12 it seems right to man but its end is the way of death the reason there's so many people on the broad way is because there's no opposition they are all walking with the God of this world Satan who has blinded their eyes from the light of the Gospel it's the easy way because they were following others who love darkness and are blind to the truth and they are deceived and don't know it because they have a high view of self and a low view of God and his Justice no wonder there are so many on the broad way so I put together these two paths to Eternity and this is available in Our Gospel track it's a red one entitled Roman Catholicism scripture versus tradition and I can tell you my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ that every time I have shared this with a Roman Catholic 100 of the Catholics tell me that is the path they're on the Roman Catholic path to Eternity they are taught they're born destined for hell but water baptism puts them on the road to heaven when they commit those venial sins they lose some of their right standing before God when they commit a mortal sin they're now de-justified and they're headed to hell they have to be re-justified by doing good works receiving the sacraments hopefully producing enough Merit to qualify them for heaven Catholics go through this cycle hundreds of times never knowing where they stand before a holy and righteous God you can see there's a treasury up there it's it's actually invisible in the Vatican but it contains get this the inexhaustible merits of our Lord Jesus Christ commingled with the merits of Mary in all the saints that died with more than enough Merit to get them to heaven why would you co-mingle the merits of Mary and the faith with the inexhaustible merits of Christ robbing Christ once again of his glory the pope has had said to have the power to transfer these merits to those suffering in purgatory but he refuses to do so unless they're purchased well at the end of a catholic's life if he's never heard the gospel or if he's heard it and rejected it he will hear the most terrifying words anyone could ever hear when Jesus says depart from me I never knew you and they're cast into the Eternal Lake of Fire it's for this reason I have such a compassion for Catholics I traveled this road for 35 years we must Point Roman Catholics to the biblical path to Eternity it is not water baptism it's faith in Christ and at that very moment we are Justified we begin the process of sanctification through the power of the Holy Spirit putting to death the evil Deeds of the Flesh in conforming our life to the Life of Christ that great promise no fear of hell no condemnation Romans 8 1. at the end of a believer's life or at the rapture hopefully we'll all hear the words well done my good and faithful servant and then we'll sing his Praises throughout all eternity amen so faith is the Assurance of things hoped for the conviction of Things Not Seen that's the definition given in Hebrews 11 1 the Assurance of things hoped for Catholics have no assurance because they're trusting in what they do Assurance can only be realized when the object of faith is Christ Alone so I want to share with you just a couple of ways that you can shift the conversation from everyday conversations to spiritual issues as I do evangelism training this is probably the biggest stumbling block people have how do I get the conversation on spiritual issues people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care one of the best ways to show them is to ask questions ask them what is the most important decision you face in this life follow it up with is there anything more important than settling your Eternal destiny what is the greatest gift you've ever received we go out to Roman Catholic churches on Resurrection Sunday and Christmas Eve when Catholics have the mindset of giving and receiving gifts we ask them as they come out of the mass what's the greatest gift you've ever received they'll point to their children or their watch or their cell phone or their jewelry you simply say there's a greater gift than that it's the gift of Eternal everlasting life with the savior Catholics don't have that one particular Christmas Eve we were sharing with Catholics and the guy came up to me and said why are you here don't you know we're all Christians I said no I know Catholicism very well I lived it for 35 years so as I talked to him a little bit more he said you know I'm the producer of Catholic radio here in the Dallas Fort Worth area would you mind coming on my radio show on Monday and explaining to our audience while you're at the Catholic Church on Christmas Eve I said I'd love to so I had a lot of people praying for me because I figured it was probably a setup and so he said we're going to ask you questions I'm going to ask you questions for 15 minutes we'll go to a commercial break and then we'll open up the lines all over Dallas Fort Worth well every question he asked me in the first 15 minutes I answered with the power and authority of God's word that the commercial break he said we're not going to come back after the commercial break we're not going to open up our lines because he knew that I was just giving the word of God and he didn't want his listeners hearing the word of God but I share that with you because if you're faithful to go out and witness there's no telling what God will do here I thought I might talk to 10 15 20 Catholics that night God said no I want all the Catholics in Dallas Fort Worth to hear this where will you spend eternity great question we just came out with a new gospel track with that title you can simply walk up to people and say is there anything more important than answering this question where will you spend eternity what is your Authority for knowing truth can you see how important that is there's only one Authority on this Earth that will never mislead us and never deceive us that's the inspired infallible inherent word of God why did Jesus have to die oh I love asking this question do you realize how many Christians don't know the answer to this some will say because he loved us well that was his motivation but why did he have to die some will say because of our sins well why did he have to die for our sins some will say because he had to forgive us why did he have to die to forgive us the answer is he had to satisfy Divine Justice someone hath has to die because the wages of sin is death the soul that sins will surely die Jesus died as a substitute to satisfy Divine Justice for those who would repent and put their trust in him the only other place Divine Justice will be satisfied is that the great white Throne judgment Now's the Time to trust Jesus what is the greatest news you've ever heard are you ready to meet your creator great question if you could ask God what question what would it be these are open-ended questions to to get the conversation on spiritual issues do you know the only way God will forgive your sin at the end of the Lord's Ministry in Luke 24 47 he said repentance shall be preached in my name for the Forgiveness of sins by the way Catholicism transliterated the word repentance Independence so Catholics have to do Penance rather than repent in order to be saved what are you trusting to get to heaven when and how were you born again Catholics don't understand that term and they'll tell you well I don't know I haven't heard that well Jesus said you must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven it sounds pretty important are you trusting what Christ has done or what you must do is Purgatory necessary to purge your sins why do priests continue on an altar what Jesus finished on the cross can you see how these questions can really get you focused on Christ and him crucified what does your church teach about salvation Jane asked a couple in front of the Catholic Church one morning the response was I don't think our church teaches anything about salvation Jane said don't you think that's important for a church to teach what is the object of your faith everybody's got faith the only saving object is the Lord Jesus Christ another thing we can do is discipline ourselves to be spiritual doctors what do I mean by that well Jesus said it's not those who are healthy you'll need a physician but those who are sick so as spiritual doctors we need to give people their true diagnosis we need to tell people that you were conceived with a fatal disease called sin and you were born a sinner and everyone who is conceived with this fatal disease called sin will die unless they take the Cure and then you have to tell them there's more bad news there is no human cure but praise God there's a Divine cure and it's available free for the asking because of a love story Written in Blood on a wooden cross two thousand years ago we must sow the imperishable seed Peter said in his first epistle chapter 1 verse 23 people are born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God that's why we believe in literature evangelism we believe in dispersing the seed of God through gospel tracks everywhere we go we're sowing the word of God because there's a great promise in First Corinthians 3 7. as we scatter the seed of God's Living Word he promises to bring forth life when it falls on fertile soil well we don't know where the fertile soil is but God does that's why we have to keep sowing it wherever we go keep engaging people with the gospel our most popular gospel track is all scripture it's a powerful gospel track because there's none of man's words in it and it gives you a great outline for taking people through the gospel we need to talk about God's Perfection he is a holy and righteous judge man's problem he is a sinner God's provision a savior man's part to repent and believe the gospel God's promise eternal life and man's privilege to serve the king this track is broken down into these six categories all with scripture to help you go through the gospel so when you witness address the primary problem man's sin avoid preaching and arguing Jane and I played a lot of tennis the tennis courts were a huge Mission field for us evangelism is very similar to that we volley a question we wait for the response we volley a scripture we wait for the reaction back and forth back and forth a balanced conversation unbelievers do not want to be preached at Define terms biblically Catholics believe they're saved by grace but yet paragraph 2027 of the catechism says You must Merit The Graces necessary for salvation how do you Merit the unmerited favor of God by the way faith is the transfer of trust from self to Christ some will reject the gospel because it would mean their ancestors are not in heaven how do you overcome this are you telling me that my grandfather who died as a devout Catholic is not in heaven well we use the word of God I take them to Luke 16 the rich man in Lazarus what did the rich man want other than a drop of water to quench his thirst he wanted missionaries to go back to his brothers to tell him the truth so they wouldn't end up in this place of Torment so no matter where your grandfather is he would want you to know the truth don't let this be a stumbling block and then I give them hope look at the two thieves that died next to Christ they were both mocking him and then all of a sudden one Thief quit mocking him and put his trust in Jesus maybe your grandfather did the same thing the thief lived a life of total rejection of Christ he was a sinner all of his life but at the last moment I believe what happened to that one Thief is the same thing that happened to Peter remember in Matthew 16 18 Jesus said who do men say that I am Peter said you were the Christ the son of the Living God Jesus said this wasn't revealed to you by man but my my Father in Heaven I think the same thing happened to the thief he was mocking Jesus the Father in Heaven revealed to him who was dying next to him he repented and put his trust in Jesus so no matter where your grandfather is don't let this be a stumbling block come to Jesus evangelism is a discipline pray for divine appointments have you made a list of unsaved family members friends and neighbors and co-workers what a joy it is when you can cross their name off and they've come to faith in Christ so the seed of God's word keep them in your purse and pocket your gospel tracks I don't know if you do this but it's a great way to get the gospel out male tracks along with your payments of your bills place them in strategic locations we go in the Catholic church as we we place our tracks in their hymnals they don't have Bibles but they have hymnals and so we just go in there give them Our Gospel tracks we go into the sanctuary we put a few tracks in the donation box we go into Catholic bookstores and put them in their books on the shelves so that they can read the good news when they buy a book engage solicitors in spiritual conversations before they make their pitch I don't know about you but we get 10 12 solicitors a week on the phone just simply say I'll answer all of your questions if you'll answer a couple of mine first do you know where you're going to spend eternity click laughs I mean one of two things is going to happen they're either going to think you're weird and hang up on you or they're going to be genuinely interested but a great way to share the gospel bottom line develop a lifestyle of evangelism the importance of witnessing to unbelievers look at the contrast Believers are alive in Christ unbelievers are spiritually dead Believers are under God's grace unbelievers are under God's Wrath Believers are destined for heaven unbelievers are destined for hell Believers stand forgiven and Justified unbelievers guilty and condemned Believers are empowered by the Holy Spirit unbelievers are controlled by the flesh Believers are children of God unbelievers are children of the devil plus enemies of God Believers have been set free by Christ unbelievers are in bondage to sin Believers are reconciled to God unbelievers are separated from God when you show this list to an unbeliever why would anyone want to remain an unbeliever we need to share the bad news so that the good news will have an impact on their heart exhort Catholics to read God's word oh have you heard the testimony of the Bible listen to everything the Bible says about itself scripture is perfect and true it's inherent and infallible it is eternal forever settled in heaven it saves us frees us guides us it reproves trains and corrects it converts the soul it sanctifies and equips us for every good work it brings conviction gives wisdom produces Faith refutes there and we can use it as a sword to slay the devil's Lies We want to get people into the word of God therein is the truth that will set them free from religious deception so let me close with two important contrasts the Bible is What God Says Catholicism is what man says God says the problem with Catholics is they're listening to what man says instead of going directly to the source for truth Christianity is a relationship with God through his son the one and only mediator Catholicism is a religion that offers a false hope of becoming right with God I want to share a couple of resources with you and then we'll open it up for some questions I wrote this book out of my love and compassion for Roman Catholics preparing for eternity should we trust God's word or religious traditions this book has set so many Roman Catholics free from the bondage of religious deception I wrote it with a two-fold purpose to equip evangelicals to know the scriptures they can use to share with Catholics but also as a book that Catholics can read and they compare in contrast the word of God right alongside their catechism and it forces them to do what I was forced to do trust Christ in his word for the teachings and traditions of their religion by the way we have the book also available in Spanish and because of the great expense to mail it to Spanish-speaking countries we make this available free to anybody who has an email we send it out in PDF form so it's a great way if you have Spanish friends just to broadcast the word of God eight different gospel tracks three of them are dedicated to reaching Catholics the red one there has the two paths to Eternity this shows 13 major differences between Catholicism in the Bible where will you spend eternity or new one the one that deals with Works righteousness you can never do what Christ has done the one on the far end I wrote because of all the false converts in the church today do you have true Faith or false hope and then which Jesus do you trust I contrast the Jesus that's gloriously revealed in Scripture with the Eucharistic Christ of the Catholic Church boy what an eye-opener for Catholics the last resource I want to share with you is one that will really help you go deeper into the gospel I put together the 12 most important words of the Gospel and they're all the size of a set of cards you start with God who is perfectly holy and created man but man fell into sin and now he needs Jesus Christ and his work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead and it's only by grace through faith and repentance that you can receive salvation in the gift of righteousness by believing the truth so the back of each one of these cards there's four bullet points defining and explaining what each word means so you can not only go deeper into the gospel so that you know it more fluidly but you can also use it as an Evangelistic tool we brought them out at the State Fair of Texas we had a booth as people walked by we said which of these words would you like to know more about since your Eternal Destiny hangs in the balance the card they picked up more often than not thin it's like they knew there were centers they were looking for a loophole but it's a great way to share the gospel we have a monthly newsletter that's available three all we need is your e-newsletter and we send it out to encourage you to equip you each month to reach out to this huge Mission field so again I want to thank the Elders of the church for the great privilege to come to equip you tonight and encourage you if we've got some time I'd like to open it up for questions Nancy's going to bring the mic around thanks Mike for coming um I've got a question on the Apocrypha could you just explain a little bit of the Apocrypha sure yeah the Apocrypha is a set of inter-testament books you know the Old Testament was closed 400 years before Christ and you had the silent 400 years and then Christ in the New Testament well what the Roman Catholic Church did they recognized in second Maccabees that during the maccabean Revolt some of the soldiers died with Pagan amulets around their neck and so they sent alms back to Jerusalem for the dead soldiers so the Catholic Church grabbed onto that and said see there is an intermediate place there is such a thing as indulgences so they took second Maccabees along with the rest of the apocryphal books and they added it to their Canon at the Council of Trent prior to that they were considered uninspired but because of the reformation and the importance of Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis they added this to their to their Bibles so the Catholic Bible is just like ours they've just added the apocryphal books so how do you answer a Catholic that says second Maccabees said that we can send alms back for the Dead well number one we don't do things just because the Jews did them after all the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah and so that's a weak argument to do things just because the Jews did something ungodly the Bible says it's destined for man to die once and then face judgment there's no intermediate place and so we need to share with Catholics that the Apocrypha is uninspired it's got historical geographical areas so God would obviously not include those errors and anything that he inspired so hopefully that'll help you thanks Mike for being here I'm curious and you mentioned it this this evening when you had dinner isn't it fascinating that you engage and they say I'm not a Christian I'm a Catholic right I'm curious if you ever follow that Rabbit Trail and and talk to them about the very denial of what they obviously think they're a Christian but they use that Catholicism term it's just always struck me how fascinating it is that they're condemning themselves by their own words yeah thanks for that question Matt because it really goes back to Catholics are indoctrinated that there's only one true church it was founded by the Lord Jesus Christ Matthew 16 18 and they will say that where did Johnny come lately our church started in the 15th 16th century little do they know that Jesus Promised in the same chapter that the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against his church there's been two streams of Christianity running side by side for two thousand years you have the Apostolic Church which Jesus founded which the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against then you also have the apostate Church it started also in the first century remember John said in first John 2 19 they went out from us because they were never part of us had they been part of us they would have remained with us they went out from us because they were never born again had they been born again they would have remained with us so there was apostasy 2000 years ago the Roman Catholic religion went apostate in the fourth century when Constantine made it the official religion of the Roman Empire remember the Roman Empire was imploding Constantine said let's make Christianity the glue that keeps the empire together he was named pontificus Maximus and so all the pagans could enter into the new church with all their Pagan Traditions they didn't have to repent they didn't even have to believe just go through the baptismal font and they were considered part of Constantine's church so a lot of people will point to that as the Genesis of the Roman Catholic religion as it appears today because many of those Pagan Traditions came in but back to your question Catholics believe that there's only one true church it's the Catholic Church which is why they say they're Catholic and not the Johnny come lately Christians that started 500 years ago so they make that distinction and so you know when a Catholic tells me they can trace their church back to the first century and say yes but have you ever read the Bible about apostasy Paul said in first Timothy 4 in latter times some will depart from the faith and follow doctrines of demons Matt I don't know if you remember the Labor's Chapel we had a couple of nuns come to visit our service one day and they were easily identifiable they were wearing their habits so I went up and engaged him I said what brings you to our church today and they said we're taking a course in junior college and our assignment is to go out and investigate other religions so they began asking questions about what we did during the service each time they asked a question I opened my Bible and showed them the answer this went on for about 15 minutes and one of the nuns finally said why is it you know where all the answers are every time we ask you a question you turn and give me the answer right from your Bible I said well I was once a Catholic just like you and I never read the Bible and so I was easily deceived and I never want to be deceived again so I study my Bible well now they were ready to leave I said before you leave can I ask you a question is it true that you've taken the vow of celibacy yes yes we're not allowed to marry I said that you happen to know that that's a doctrine of the devil yes I turned to First Timothy chapter four and I let him read it in latter times stumbled apart from the faith and followed doctrines of demons and Paul goes on to describe one of the doctrines forbidding people to marry so one of the nuns said wow we're going to have to talk with our priest about this foreign I said well when you talk to your priest make sure he gives you the answers from the Bible just like I did for you I gave him a couple of Our Gospel tracks and prayed for them yes Mike thank you um can one um claim to be a born-again believer genuinely and still go to a Catholic Church okay let's let's define terms here Roman Catholics are those who believe in the teachings and traditions of their Church it is impossible for a Roman Catholic to be saved unless they repent and believe the gospel at that point they're no longer Catholic now they're born again Christians now can a born-again Christian stay in the Catholic Church no the Great Commission is to go and make disciples teaching them to observe everything Christ has commanded including John 4 24 God seeks worshipers in spirit and in truth they must come out and not participate in the Sin of idolatry when the priest lifts up that Eucharist and says Body of Christ that's not Christ and so what they're doing is they're committing the same sin as the Israelites who worship the true God as the golden calf worshiping the Eucharist as the true Christ is the same sin of idolatry and so Catholics that are born again must come out but it's the process of discipleship the Holy Spirit and the word of God will eventually remove them in First Corinthians that says that you cannot participate in the doctors of the events at the same time when you are now a Believer I cannot just point the uh the address of that verse but I think there is a verse that says that you cannot Believe In Christ and participate in the doctrines of demons I think First Corinthians 3. well first Timothy 4 1 um let's see in Revelation 18 4 it says You must come out of her and not participate in her sins any longer you know that's the apostate world religion in the end times I don't know if that's the one you're referring to well John 4 24 Jesus said my father seeks worshipers in spirit and in truth so if you're a born-again Christian you can't continue in a church that this saves its people about life's most critical issue and commits the sin of idolatry Mike I heard you say that you and Jane pray before each week for opportunities to share the gospel and I was wondering if you could share with us uh how you know how we can be encouraged to have more confidence in sharing our faith and um and how maybe just some examples of how you start a conversation of of an individual you don't even know which which you go right into it and and figure out a way how you want to to share the gospel with them sure you know our conversations with people really depend on several factors how much time do you have you know most of the people we engage through the week unless we carve out time and go specifically for the purpose of evangelism by the way we're doing that tomorrow there's a cobra Fest in South Lake Square so we're going to go out and engage people on park benches and then you have more time but if you're for example at the post office you're standing in line you know you only have a couple of minutes Jane likes to in the grocery line she'll come up to the cashier and say is anybody giving you any good news yet today and they'll always say no Jane will say well this is the greatest news you'll ever read because it speaks of the greatest gift you could ever receive and so even if it's just a few moments as you saw tonight I just asked the server are you a Christian I mean we get right to the gospel that way we know where they stand what they're believing and we know the verses that we can use to hopefully call them to repentance and faith but when we go to restaurants we like to go either before they get busy or after they're busy so we have more time to engage people but if you have time to sit down with people you know that's ideal you know then you can go through the four major elements of the the gospel God is holy man is a sinner Jesus is the savior man's response is repent and believes the gospel and the more you do it you know the easier it becomes the more you use the word of God the more you remember it yeah so on um on the opposite side of that and thank you for coming we're really grateful for for your teaching on the opposite side of that if since you were a Catholic for 35 years how did you go about talking to your friends and family about the gospel um would you do a long form session a couple of short form sessions and how were the responses towards that I did it all the wrong way I wished I'd have had something like this before I went home to my family because I really thought that they were going to receive the good news with gladness and joy the same way I did but I I did it the wrong way I backed up the theological dump truck and I let him have it all in one Fell Swoop they were reeling backwards the walls were going up and they finally said Mike if we ever want to know anything else about your new found religion we'll ask you but we don't want to hear anymore so I should have seen the walls going up I should have Maybe backed off a little bit and given them a chance to register or take in what I'd shared with them but the best way to do it is to sit down with an Open Bible and and share the scriptures with them you know Catholics believe the Bible is the word of God so you're starting off with something that we both agree on and just take them through the the Romans road or you know answer their questions what the authority of God's word there was a a young man and um Modesto California who came to hear me preach and after the message you came up and invited Jane and Idol on she has some questions based on what I shared and his wife were devout Catholics and each time he asked a question I turned in his Catholic Bible and I let God answer the question for him the more questions God answered the more questions he had he was about ready to leave and I said Sergio before you go can I ask you a question I said remember this warning I I said imagine that there's set of monkey bars suspended over hell the Catholic Church teaches if you'll cling to your baptism and your sacraments and your good works and obeying the law that you will be saved from hell remember I said if you're imagine Jesus is suspended between you and Hell and he's looking up and saying if you'll let go of those things that cannot save you and put your trust in me I promise I will save you he said yeah I remember you sharing that I said you remember I said if you're still clinging to those rungs when you die you're going to lose your grip and you will fall into the Eternal Lake of Fire and I said Sergio are you ready to let go right now and put your trust in Jesus as your all-sufficient savior his wife hadn't said a word for three hours all of a sudden she blurts out I am and Sergio said well what do I need to do so I turned to mark 115. listen to Jesus repent and believe his gospel I turn to Romans 10 I said read verse 9 if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you shall be saved I said Sergio look at verse 13 whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved Sergio about his head and said Jesus saved me then he got up and wrapped his arms around me and praised God for bringing life to a dead Soul it wasn't but about eight months later I was doing a conference down in Southern California and getting ready to go up to the pulpit and I hear this voice Mike Mike do you remember me there was Sergio and he said I want you to meet my brother I shared all those verses with him and he's now exchanged his religion for a relationship with Christ so I mean we don't know on this side of Eternity where the seeds that we sow will find fertile soil but it's always encouraging when God gives us evidence of some of the fruit of our ministry so don't be discouraged there's a lot of rejection as you know Narrows the gate very few find it so keep on sowing the seed and God will encourage you with fruit thank you one of the things when I talked to Catholics and everybody comes up is the the point to uh the Miracles the uh Fatima or Our Lady of Guadalupe and it seems more the more fervently they believe in Catholicism the more they know about that and it's in its seems futile to point out how fraudulent it is is there is there a way you navigate that artifact of Catholicism and can you share that with us well the issue of Mary is very important to bring up and um when I come back again we can talk more about that but in the catechism it says that Mary did not lay aside her saving office but continues to bring us the gifts of salvation so a lot of Catholic women prefer to go through Mary because they Proclaim her as another sinless mediator they believe that she was immaculately conceived without sin and lived a sinless life and so Catholics who knew a little bit about the Bible said well wait a minute if Mary never sinned and sin is what causes death where's Mary and so they had to come up with uh infallible pronouncement in 1950 they said Mary's body was miraculously assumed into heaven so she now Reigns as an advocate in a sinless mediatrics All The Graces that come from God must flow through the hands of Mary into the priest hands into the sacraments and so we need to share First Timothy 2 5 there is one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and we need to explain to Catholics the reason there's only one mediator is because Jesus is God's perfect man and man's perfect God he's the only one qualified to come between two warring parties and to change their relationship from hostility to one of peace and harmony Jesus is the only one that can reconcile us to God so using the word of God is our best tool for opening the eyes of Catholics and bringing conviction to them let's see up here there's the mic sorry well again thank you for coming but my question was similar to his so it was my mom keeps talking about Mary showing up all over the world and sure I don't know how to respond to that yeah just um you know Paul in First Corinthians 2 2 I want to know nothing except Christ and him crucified keep pointing them to Christ he's their only hope hello good evening my name is Jonathan um I find myself sometimes at work when I'm evangelizing to have most of the guys that are Catholic they always try to go back to the experience of I saw my loved one and they came to me and said that have peace and you know I'm in a better place and I try to hit them with Hebrews 9 27 but it always seems to like Go a different way for them and so what's the best way to challenge them in that idea you need to stay focused again on Christ and him crucified and oftentimes when you're witnessing to a Catholic and you share a scripture verse that is so clear so objective that there's no wiggle room what Catholics will do is since they don't have an answer is they'll deflect and go on to another subject bring them back to where they initially asked and say let's not go any further until we settle this right now so Hebrews 9 27 is a good place and those that die without Christ there is no peace there is no joy we need to rescue them before it's too late good evening um I don't know if you've heard about reformed Catholicism um I vaguely know much about it but they're claiming to reject Roman Catholic systems and follow Protestant Doctrine and following Jesus as the way to Salvation I don't know if you've had any experience if you can share that and kind of enlighten me a little bit more about that if you have no I haven't heard of reformed Catholicism wow that's that's interesting I have heard that there's a what's called a tridentine Catholicism and they go back to the Latin Mass Mel Gibson was a big proponent of that and um it's really interesting because in the Latin Mass the Catholics that come can understand Latin and so they remain in the dark they're not hearing even a little bit of the Bible that is being shared during the service but I haven't heard of the reformed Catholicism maybe I'll find out Google it or maybe you can send me an email with that information we we had a neighbor who was reformed Catholic and they still reject Christ as the only savior yes it's it's basically just more traditional rejecting maybe at the Council of Trent but not not core Catholic doctrines so is that the same group as the tridentine I'm not sure but they were down the street from us a decade ago they don't believe this Pope is valid yeah by the way you're talking about a great time to share the truth with Catholics this Pope is the most bizarre Pope in recent history atheists will make it to Heaven as long as they're sincere according to Pope Francis he was on the cover of homosexual magazine and because he says homosexuals will go to heaven too he says there is no hell he's a Universalist everybody will go to heaven so you know the Conservative Catholics don't know what to do with this man but more than ever we need to share the truth of God's word because this guy's all over the map if you go on my website by the way I'd list the teachings of Peter right alongside the teachings of Pope Francis I do the contrast if only Catholics would believe who they thought was their first pope Peter is very clear on what the gospel is and Francis is not yes hey thanks for being here um so when Catholics use John 3 5 to support baptism as a means for salvation how would you properly like interpret that yeah um you must be Born Again baptism of water in the spirit you know it's really interesting because if you look at the use of water when it relates to the Holy Spirit you can take them to John 7 37 Jesus said streams of Living Water are flowing through you and that is the Holy Spirit and you take them back to Ezekiel and where the washing of the spirit and so the other place you can take them is acts 10 47 again where Peter says who's to keep these men from being water baptized they have already received the Holy Spirit so clearly water baptism is for believers only it doesn't cause the New Birth the Holy Spirit sovereignly works if they'll read the rest of John 3 the holy spirit is like the wind you don't know where it's coming or where it's going that's that's what brings regeneration to a dead soul howdy sir um I have been so upset to see my own family members very willfully willfully and ignorantly submit themselves to the authority of the religious um heads of their churches and the pope would you help me understand better the origin of the papacy and this hierarchical religious structure and how maybe they twist the word of God in order to defend that Authority structure um yeah uh Peter was not the first pope Peter didn't even make it to Rome the first pope was Gregory the first in 596 A.D prior to that you had individual Bishops that were reigning over by Providence in the Roman Empire so each province had a bishop when the Roman Empire imploded there was a power vacuum and so that's when the Bishops got together and said we need a bishop that rules over all the provinces and that's when Gregory the first became the first pope he's also the one that instituted the doctrine of purgatory but if you look at church history I actually did a message on Roman catholicisms drift into apostasy and you can see step by step how they drifted into apostasy by the way one of the first things that they did was they did away with the plurality of Elders which is a huge mistake because Satan can attack an individual a lot easier than he can attack a plurality of Elders and so they have these individual Bishops Reign and they were easily deceived by the devil and so that's how the whole system became corrupt and departed from the word of God so I would encourage you to um look at your how the early church history Nathan bus Nets from the master Seminary does a marvelous job on church history and if you just want a concise look at how the Roman Catholic Church drifted you can get our our DVD okay over here hi yes um are there anything is there anything from today's talk that would also be very relevant for sharing with uh members of Eastern Orthodox Churches I know that there was uh some of the schisms between what was the Catholicism in the west and the church in the East is on different issues than what we have in the Reformation but um you know they don't share some of the yeah they're very close cousins oh gotcha okay you can use a lot of what we shared tonight they don't have a pope but they have a patriarch yeah I thought it was the prince of the power of the year yeah they still have an altar they still have a priesthood offering sacrifices for sin yep oh you're fine does this happen on Sunday morning too hi um so I have a concern because we have family members that go to Assemblies of God Church and there are professing Christians but listening to what you were sharing with us tonight it's a bit scary um to see how you know Catholics depends only on the pope um and it's kind of what we're seeing with my husband's parents they're very dependent on the pastor and it's all the pastor's vision and wanting to do everything that the pastor says so my question is how can we come to them even though they believe they're Christians and they've basically grown up in a Christian household and they're very in their traditions and what the pastors have said but they don't go to the scripture and we've tried talking to them but they're just very stubborn and they always go to you know hearing the audible voice of God and speaking in tongues so how can we come to them um with the scripture in what way can we come to them as Justin Peter says if you want to hear the audible voice of God read your Bible out loud God doesn't speak to us other than through his word but I would encourage them to remember acts 17 11 they need to test their pastor's teaching with the authority of God's word and if it conforms to the word of God receive it as truth if it goes against God's word rejected as Heir I would also ask them if they believe they have eternal life because of many of those people don't and I hope you all realize that if a person Rejects the promise of the Gospel which is eternal life they're rejecting the gospel itself you cannot reject eternal life and not believe the gospel that's the promise of the Gospel well yes one more and then we'll be available at the resource table well Nancy's bringing the mic up I want to share with you the second greatest blessing in my life is the help may God bless me with my wife Jane she's the one that put together all the slides for the message tonight so thank my dear wife Jane I just had I don't know if you can hear me I just had a question because you said you were at the age of 35 when you realized so I have an aunt who's older than 35 but when I was trying to tell her about Jesus Christ and the gospel she kind of just she's like what religion are you I'm like well I'm a Christian but it's not a religion so how do you go about your age I mean is it something that over time you kind of default back to it or you just when you hear the gospel is it actually penetrating your heart because I don't think she's fully understanding sure and um like because they said regarding Mary she put her trust in Mary and she says when she talks to Mary Mary turns the head of Jesus because they have a connection between motherhood and that's how she builds her relationship they've given Mary a lot of the attributes of God um Mary cannot hear our prayers only God can hear our prayers and I know the Roman Catholic Church one of the indulgences they use is the rosary there's 53 prayers to Mary and a few prayers to the Trinity and to the father we need to share with them from Deuteronomy 18 that if you pray to anyone other than God it's an Abomination to God God's the only one that can hear and answer our prayers Mary cannot do that so again I would impress upon no matter what age they are that God doesn't promise anyone tomorrow today is this day of salvation I would share with them we can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive but if we're wrong about what we're trusting for eternity we will pay for that mistake forever and ever God has given us as inspired inerrant word that we can see how we can have our sins forgiven and be reconciled to God and have the promise of eternal life that should encourage her to read it and maybe you can even help her out take her through the Book of John here's a good test for your Catholic family members ask him to read the book of John the word believe occurs 95 times ask them to highlight it or underline it and read the context if you believe then this if you don't believe then this 98 times through the Gospel of John just to encourage them to read the Bible that's a great place to start the Gospel of John if they get through that take them to the Book of Romans okay okay sure one more I I also grow Catholic so uh although I was a very bad Catholic so um that's good in my time of being a Catholic I probably learned more about Catholicism sitting here in the last hour and a half and I did my whole Catholic career um but my question is uh revolving like indoctrination um can you touch on that like because I have nieces and nephews so how can we how can we help protect that next Generation from that indoctrination well I don't know if the Catholic church is still as aggressive as it was when I was young but my parents had me in catechism from the time I could think just being indoctrinated with Catholic teaching Catholic traditions and then when I was in high school I was still going to Catholic catechism by the way um I was responsible for bringing the first scripture study to a Dallas Catholic Church in 1981 it's called The Little Rock scripture study Catholics were the Catholic church was losing its people to Evangelical Bible studies like Bible Study Fellowship so they created a Bible study of Their Own but um albeit they they do these Bible studies through the lens of their tradition so they don't get the pure word of God but indoctrination um you know if we're parents with young children we need to be bringing them up and the love and admonition of the Lord going through his word abiding in the word teaching him the truth so that if someone else comes along and teaches them something opposed to the truth they'll be able to spot it and reject it great responsibility for parents well thanks again for the privilege to come tonight and please let let me just emphasize I hope this is just the beginning of our relationship we're only an email or a phone call away if there's anything we can ever do to encourage you to equip you please don't hesitate to call us that's what we're here for thanks thank you Mike what a what a wonderful study tonight thank you for spending your time here giving this this wonderful Truth uh just want to remind you before we let you go that Mike's got a table out here with a lot of resources that you might want to look at and acquire and uh regarding that verse you were looking for a second Corinthians 6 14 15 and 16 where it talks about not being unequally yoked with unbelievers and it goes on to talk about an equal yoke with light and darkness so and so forth so maybe that'll be helpful all right thank you for coming tonight and let me close this in prayer okay let's pray father we are so grateful for Mike and his ministry for the the truth that you've given him for bringing out of Darkness out of the Catholic uh faith and into true faith in Christ and how he's used the gospel Lord to spread it all over the world thank you for such a wonderful faithful servant we pray you bless him and continue to meet all of his needs and thank you for uh bringing him our way tonight we pray that you bless our time the rest of the evening and Lord for this weekend as We Gather to worship we're so grateful that we could come and worship you in spirit and in truth and that we could rely upon you were to inform our lives and to change us and to help us to grow and be more like our savior of the Lord Jesus Christ please bless everyone here give them safety in their travels home and we give you all the praise in Christ's name amen foreign

Channel: Trinity Bible

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Id: 1xbucMfbYcQ

Length: 124min 53sec (7493 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2022