Reaching Catholics for Christ by Mike Gendron

Reaching Catholics for Christ

Well, good evening. My name is Mike Gendron, and I am the Director of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministry. And I just thank the Lord for the opportunity to share this evening a burden that I've had on my heart since I left the Catholic Church at age 35.

I was a very devout Roman Catholic for those 35 years. My uncle was a Catholic priest, and I was an altar boy and taught high school Catholic Christian doctrine. And when the Lord saved me, it was because I was opening the Bible for the first time and reading what was in the Bible.

And I had never opened it before because I was told it was too difficult to understand. And so out of curiosity, I opened it and I began having a crisis of faith because what I read in the Bible was diametrically opposed to the plan of salvation.

I was taught as a Roman Catholic. And so during this crisis of faith, I called my uncle to priest and he would pacify me, but I'd go back and there was just no way to reconcile God's word with what the Catholic Church taught me regarding what I believe is the most critical issue we all face in this life, and that is what must I do to be saved.

And so when I realized that it was impossible to believe the Catholic plan of salvation, I repented and put my trust in an all-sufficient Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and my life was literally turned upside down.

I wanted to read more of the Bible, to be a true disciple of Christ, to really shed myself of all the Roman Catholic dogmas that I had been taught so that I could be free in Christ. And shortly after that, I went to Dallas Theological Seminary.

I wanted to learn the Bible and also to de-indoctrinalize myself. And so the last semester at seminary, I was introduced to a video by Roman Catholic priests and nuns, and as I watched it, I shared it with my wife, and she's also a former Catholic, and we decided to start showing it in our home every Tuesday night.

Well, within three months, we saw 17 Roman Catholics exchange their religion for a relationship with Christ, and what do you do with 17 new babes in Christ? We invited them back over on Wednesday night to help them grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, and that was really the genesis of the ministry that we've been doing now for 32 years.

The Lord has taken us all over the world, primarily in countries that are dominated by Roman Catholicism, and we have been equipping the body of Christ to be faithful witnesses to Roman Catholics. As many of you may know, that many evangelical leaders now are signing unity accords with Catholics saying that they don't need the gospel.

They're already our brothers and sisters in Christ, and so the average evangelical doesn't know if the Catholic church represents a mission field or if it's a Christian denomination. So this evening, I want to share with you how to witness effectively to Roman Catholics, and one of the first things we need to recognize when we witness to them is to expect a stubborn resistance, and that's because indoctrination is a captivating power that causes a strong resistance to God's word.

I was indoctrinated for 35 years, and from the time I could think, I was taught that the Catholic church is the one true church, and if I was faithful to the church, that the church would get me to heaven.

Another tool that Satan uses to blind the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ is its religious pride. I was very proud to belong to the one true church, and I used to feel sorry for those that couldn't be born Catholic, and so these two tools Satan uses to blind people from the light of the gospel.

There are some obstacles we need to overcome as we witness to Catholics. You need to know that they're utterly dependent upon their priests. What do I mean by that? Well, when a child is born into Catholic families, immediately they're baptized by the priest, and that sacrament is said to be the sacrament of regeneration and also justification, and then later on as they grow up, they need the priest to forgive their sins and to give them the Eucharist, which they believe is the body and blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, and even after a Catholic dies, they're still dependent upon their priest to get them out of a place called purgatory.

Catholics believe that heaven can be merited by what they do, and that's why they have no assurance because they're not trusting Christ alone. Catholics believe there's two different types of sin. Venial sins don't cause death.

They don't send them to hell, and so most Catholics believe that most of their sins are venial sins. Catholics believe they belong to the one true church, and there's great family pressure to remain Catholic, so these are some of the obstacles you need to be ready when you witness to Roman Catholics.

The Reformation, Catholic Authority, and the Need for God’s Word Alone

They do have traditions that distort the gospel. You know, we're celebrating the Reformation this weekend. It's the 505th anniversary when Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, and the reason the Reformation was necessary is because the Roman Catholic Church taught that salvation is by grace plus merit, faith plus works, Christ plus other mediators, and it was according to scripture plus tradition, so the Reformers said after reading the Bible, this is not true.

The Bible says we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to scripture alone, so this is important as we witness to Roman Catholics. The word alone is so important because Catholics must repent of anything they're doing to save themselves and put all of their trust in Christ alone.

Catholics reject eternal life, which is the promise of the gospel. Roman Catholics have conditional life. Whether or not they get to heaven depends on what they do. In Roman Catholicism, the Jesus of the Catholic Church merely opened the gates of heaven.

Excuse me, Mike, are you sharing your screen? Yes. Okay, we don't see it. I'm sorry. I should have stopped sooner. Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, what do we need to do? Down in the middle is the green share screen again, and then just locate your PowerPoint.

And click? There we go. Yes, there we go, and then up at the top, you have to do your play.

Okay, can you see it now? Yes, so sorry about that. All right, well, I'm glad you caught me. So Catholics reject the promise of the gospel. They only have conditional life, and part of the reason is they continue the work of redemption on an altar that Jesus finished on the cross.

That's why the Roman Catholic Mass is necessary for Catholics. It takes care of the sins they committed in the previous week, but we know when Jesus finished his work of redemption on the cross, he died once for all sin, for all time.

There are no more offerings for sin. We see that in Hebrews chapter 10. And Roman Catholics deny that all sins are mortal. We need to show them that Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is death. Ezekiel 18 .4, the soul that sins will surely die.

Seven Keys for Witnessing to Catholics

So here's seven keys for witnessing to Catholics. I'll go through these quickly, and then we'll look at each one with more detail. The first, most important, establish the supreme authority of God's word.

I'll explain why that's important. 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. The reason being is the penal substitution of Christ is never taught in the Catholic church.

We need to teach antithetically. Of course, we need to pray and then point them to the narrow way that leads to eternal life. So why do we need to establish God's word as a supreme authority? It's because Roman Catholics have three different authorities, but all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

The word reproof means to expose and refute error. So we use scripture to expose the errors of the Catholic church, and then we can also use scripture to correct the error that scripture has exposed. That's how we reprove them.

Of course, then we use scripture for training and righteousness. We know that God has exalted his name and his word above all things. So there's no higher authority than Almighty God, and he's revealed himself through his infallible inspired authoritative word.

When you look at Catholic authority, I mentioned they have three. They have their scripture as well as tradition, but it's the bishops of the church called the magisterium that actually sit above scripture and tradition.

And the magisterium does an amazing job of twisting and distorting scripture so that harmonizes with their ungodly tradition. And Peter made a statement about those who twist and distort scripture be to their own destruction.

So when we establish God's word as the supreme authority, it has authority over the teachings of men. And I think a great verse to use to show that is Acts 17 11. There the apostle Paul is preaching in the synagogues of Berea, and he notices that while he's teaching, they're searching the scriptures every day to find out if he's teaching the truth.

And so this shows that every man, even an apostle, needs to be tested by the authority of scripture. So every Roman Catholic priest, bishop, and pope needs to come under the same scrutiny as an apostle Paul.

We also know that scripture has authority over tradition. In Mark chapter 7, we see that Jesus was rebuking the apostate Jewish leaders because they nullified the word of God for the sake of their tradition.

So this is why we need to establish God's word as our supreme authority. And these are verses we can use to establish that. Hebrews 4 12 is a great verse to share as well. We see in Hebrews 4 12 that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, and we can use it as an offensive and defensive weapon.

We can use it to slay all the devil's lies. We can use it to correct and rebuke anyone that goes against God's word. The word of God pierces, it penetrates, and cuts to the depths of the soul, and it never returns void.

And that simply means when we share the word of God, it brings salvation to those who believe it, but it brings further condemnation for those who reject it. The word of God judges. Before anyone can be saved, their sin must be judged by the word of God.

The word of God is living and active. No other words can bring life to a soul that's dead in sin. The word of God has divine power and authority. Romans 1 16. This is so important to share because so often I think well-meaning evangelists will use their words instead of God's word.

Our words have no power. Our words have no authority. So we need to share the word of God, and one of the best things we can do is point Roman Catholics to their Bible and ask them to read the verse out loud and say, what is God teaching you in that verse?

Roman Catholics will want us to trust the early church fathers because they say the early church fathers will prove that the second and third century church was Roman Catholic. So how do you answer this?

Well, with scripture at the end of the Apostle Paul's ministry, he stood before the Ephesian elders and he warned them. He said, I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing a flock.

And from your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things for the purpose of drawing away disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears.

Can you just sense the emotion? Paul knows this is going to happen. And so when Roman Catholics want us to read the early church fathers, we need to share this passage with them because how do we know that the early church fathers you want us to read and believe are not the ones Paul warned us about?

The most important thing we can share with anyone is that we need to build our theology on the inspired word of God, not on the uninspired words of men, such as the early church fathers. Let's build our theology on the word of God.

I want to share with you something that's very troubling. It should be very troubling to Roman Catholics. The apostle Paul said in 1st Timothy 4 .1, in latter times, some will depart from the faith and follow doctrines of demons.

And one of the doctrines of demons that the Roman Catholic church follows is the first lie of the devil in the garden. Remember, Satan told Eve, you surely shall not die if you disobey God. Well, the Roman Catholic church carries that lie, perpetuates that lie through its doctrine of venial sins.

They say, you surely shall not die when you commit venial sins. They do not cause death, only temporal punishment in a place called purgatory. This is clearly a doctrine of the devil. And in 1st Timothy 4, Paul gives another doctrine of demons.

It's forbidding people to marry. We know the Catholic church does that as well. So the next principle for witnessing the Catholics, we need to declare the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, because the Jesus of the Catholic church is not sufficient to save Catholics completely and forever.

In 1st Corinthians 1 .30, we see that Jesus has become to every believer, wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. He died once for all sin. There are no more offerings for sin.

And also he accomplished everything necessary to save sinners. And then he cried out in victory, it is finished. Some of the last words Jesus spoke before he gave up his spirit. Well, Catholicism denies the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

They do it in so many ways. To his finished work, they add the sacrifice of the mass. To his word, they add their sacred tradition. To his headship, they add a Pope. And by the way, the Pope not only steals the title, head of the church, he also steals the title given to the Holy Father.

There's only one Holy Father in Scripture, and that is the Father of all Christians. The Pope is not a Holy Father. He's also stolen the title, Vicar of Christ, a title given to the Holy Spirit. The Catholic church denies the sufficiency of Jesus to his high priestly office, they add the confessional box.

Whenever I travel, I always look forward to talking with a priest and the cities that I visit. While I was in Emporia, Kansas, and the priest was too busy to see me, but as we went down to witness at the church on a Saturday afternoon, I noticed the red light over the confessional was on, which told me the priest was inside hearing confessions.

So I told my wife and the elder of the church to pray for me, I was going to confession. And I walked in, and I said, don't even know where to start. It's been over 30 years since my last confession. The priest said, don't worry, when you leave here, I'll forgive all of your sins.

Then he said, why has it been 30 years since your last confession? I said, well, I've been reading the Bible. He said, well, how's that kept you from the confessional? I said, well, in John 19 .30, Jesus said it is finished.

Why do you continue on an altar? What Jesus said is finished. He said, give me another example. I said, well, in 1 John 1 .7, it says the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. So why do we need purgatory?

I said, there's so many ways that the opposes the Roman Catholic plan of salvation. He said, I can say this is going to take longer than I thought. Why don't you call me on Monday? So I flew back to Dallas and I called him and he knew that we were there to, he said, proselytize his people.

I said, no, we were there to give the gospel. And as I shared with you in the confessional, the Roman Catholic church does not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then I started to share it with him.

About five minutes into it, he said, you know what? I was born a Catholic and I'm going to die a Catholic. There's nothing you can say that's going to change my mind. I said, well, according to the Bible, you were born a sinner and you're going to die a sinner unless you repent and believe the gospel.

Well, then he hung up on me, but at least I had a chance to share the gospel. And I just prayed afterward that God would not give him any peace until he came to the prince of peace. Well, Catholicism also denies the sufficiency of Jesus to his infinite merit.

They had their own merit to his purifying blood. They had purgatory to his righteousness. They had their own filthy rags of righteousness and to his unique role as sinless mediator. They have another sinless mediator and her name is Mary.

So Catholics can choose to go through her instead of Christ. This is what the Roman Catholic church teaches about Mary from paragraph 494 of the catechism. Without a single sin to restrain her, she became the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race.

Well, that's not all. Paragraph 969, as mediatrix, she did not lay aside the saving office, but by her manifold intercession, continues to bring us the gifts of salvation. This robs Christ of his unique position as the only savior, the only sinless mediator.

Catholics rob Christ of his glory and share it with Mary. The apostle Paul warned in 2 Corinthians 11 for that some will come and preach another Jesus and the Catholic church preaches another Jesus. Catholics believe they receive their Jesus physically, frequently in the stomach.

That's because the body and blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained in the Eucharist. Catholics really believe they're eating Jesus when they consume the Eucharist.

If only they would read their scriptures. Christians receive Jesus once, spiritually, in the heart. The apostle Paul said, so Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Ephesians 3 .17. Well, Roman Catholic Church teaches indulgences can remove temporal punishment for sin.

And remember, 505 years ago, this was the spark of the Reformation, the selling of God's forgiveness through indulgences. You see a picture of a mass card on the screen, and this is what Roman Catholics go and purchase from the priest.

You can see this one cost $30, and it's 30 days of novenas and masses that will be said on behalf of the loved one who died and is now suffering in this fictitious place called Purgatory. The Catholic Church deals with indulgences as a non-negotiable.

Listen to what Vatican Council 2 says. The Roman Catholic Church commands that 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, for the church does not have the power to grant them.

This is the selling of God's forgiveness through indulgences. It's the remission of temporal punishment for sin, denying again the all-sufficient work on Calvary's cross. But we need to get the gospel right.

Before the Lord saved me, I worked as a space man at Cape Kennedy, Florida, a rocket scientist, and when astronauts re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, they must get the true angle of re-entry precisely correct.

Well, you might be wondering, what's this got to do with the gospel? Well, we have to get the gospel right if anyone wants to enter into heaven. If an astronaut came into the Earth's atmosphere too light, he would skip off into outer space again.

If he came in too heavy, he would burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. And so it is if we distort the gospel by adding something to it, and people believe that, they will burn up in the eternal fire of hell, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And if they take anything away from the gospel, any of the essentials, they will skip off into outer darkness. And so we must get the gospel precisely correct. Some of the principles of the gospel, it is eternal.

It's the same message for every generation. It can never change. We see that in Revelation 14, 6. The Old Testament saints, they look forward to the cross when a suffering Messiah would die in their place.

New Testament saints look back to the cross for trusting in Jesus Christ as the full payment for their sins. Everybody in heaven will be there because they believe the one and only eternal gospel. The gospel is also exclusive.

This is where the offense of the gospel comes in. It dares to say that all other faiths and all other religions are false, and that's because it speaks 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 for those who are dead in their sin. The gospel is according to Scripture alone.

This is so important as we witness to Catholics. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 4, Paul defines the gospel. It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ according to Scripture. The Bible doesn't point us to any other book, to any other authority.

Anyone who wants to know how to be saved, it's fully contained in Scripture. The gospel has divine power to save, to save anyone who believes it, and it also is of grace alone. Those who add anything to God's gospel stand condemned.

We see that in Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 to 9. Now the Galatians, the Judaizers came into the Galatian church, and they said, we believe in Jesus, but if you're a Gentile, you not only need to believe in Jesus, but you also need to be circumcised.

What was Paul's response? Let's have unity with all these professing Christians. No, he said, let them be anathema, because they dared to add one requirement to the gospel of grace. I want to share with you all the requirements that the Catholic church has added to the gospel.

First, they say the gospel is by faith. I have it in quotation marks because when a seven-day-old infant is baptized, it's not the infant's faith that saves them, it's the parent's faith or the grandparent's faith, because a baby can't believe in anything.

So that faith is not their own. Then they have to be baptized to receive the sacrament of justification and the sacrament of regeneration. The sacraments are necessary for Catholics to be saved. Paragraph 1129 of the Catechism.

They must participate in the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass, paragraph 1405. They must have their venial sins purged in purgatory. They must do good works in order to be justified. They have to keep the law to be saved.

Now, Roman Catholics need to read their Bible because in James 2 .10, it says if you keep the whole law perfectly and yet stumble at one part, you're guilty of breaking the entire law. It's impossible to be saved by keeping the law.

They also have to receive those indulgences as remission of temporal punishment. Remember what Paul said, if any man is preaching to you a gospel, contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. That means every Roman Catholic priest, every Roman Catholic nun, bishop, and pope is under divine condemnation.

They are accursed because they have distorted the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Roman Catholics need to be rescued out from a religion that's under divine anathema. On the screen, you have what I call a trilogy of deception.

Remember, venial sins is the lie of the devil in the garden. It only incurs temporal punishment. So if it only incurs temporal punishment, you need a place to go. So one lie led to another lie that created purgatory whereby venial sins are purged by fire.

Well, now that you have a place where Catholics go, now you need a means of getting them out. So another lie led to indulgences. Indulgences are the remission of temporal punishment whereby their time in purgatory is reduced.

This is spiritual deception. This is the trilogy of deception. And all those that are listening, I just pray that you would recognize that the nature of deception is that people do not know they are deceived until they are confronted with the truth.

You and I are truth bearers. The only way Catholics will know they're deceived is to lovingly share the truth of God's word, the truth of his gospel. May we all be more motivated to do that. Well, John MacArthur has always had a clarion voice on Roman Catholicism.

He said, and I quote, in the long war on the truth, the most formidable, relentless, and deceptive enemy has been Roman Catholicism. It is an apostate, corrupt, heretical, false Christianity. It is a front for the kingdom of Satan.

MacArthur said this not to be mean, but to be truthful. The only way to love people is to confront them with the truth and let them know that they have been deceived for the false and fatal gospel. We need to share with Catholics that grace and works are mutually exclusive and justification.

You can do nothing to save yourself. Any attempt to do so nullifies justifying grace. Plus, it insults Jesus and his all-sufficient work. What Jesus has done to save sinners gives all the glory to God and his saving grace.

All boasting in heaven will be in Jesus Christ and his righteousness. When you boil all the faiths and religions in the world, you can really narrow it down to two. There's biblical Christianity that says you are saved by grace because of what Christ has done to save sinners, and every religion in the world teaches you must do things to appease your God.

There is a works righteousness religion where you have to do things, and then there's divine accomplishment where Jesus has done it all. Trust in him and you will be saved. Well, since we're talking about works, it's good to show the timing and the motivation of works.

Prior to justification, the Bible describes all of our righteous acts as filthy rags, Isaiah 64, 6. So we must come to the cross of Christ with empty hands of faith. The only thing we can bring is our sin, and then after we have been justified, then we are created in Christ Jesus for good works prepared by God for us to walk in, Ephesians 2.

So Roman Catholics are doing their good works in order to be justified. Christians do works out of love and gratitude for having been justified. So the motivation for Catholics is in order to be justified.

We do good works out of love and thanksgiving for having been justified. The timing and the motivation is so important as we communicate the gospel. Well, the next principle we need to define the substitutionary atonement of Christ.

Second Corinthians 5 .21, my favorite verse, he that is Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I consider that the greatest exchange any human being could ever experience.

By faith, Christ takes all of our sin, all of our guilt, all of our punishment, and what does he give us in return? His perfect righteousness. What a glorious Savior we have in Christ. He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. The penal substitution of Christ. Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous.

You know, as a Roman Catholic, I knew Jesus died for the sins of the world. That's history, but when I found out this, that Jesus died as a substitute for me, that was salvation. He took all of my sin and gave me his righteousness.

So we need to tell Catholics they must read God's word to find out they are broken God's law and 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 God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must give them the bad news first. We must tell them all of their sins are mortal. They are condemned by God's justice. They need God's mercy. So the fifth principle we need to teach antithetically.

The apostles contrasted the impact of believing God's truth instead of God's lies, and there's many examples I can give, but two verses that have set so many Roman Catholics free. Ephesians 2 .8 .9. Listen to Paul teach antithetically, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no man can boast. Paul is presenting how you are saved and what you must forsake in order to be saved. Another good example, I think, is Titus 3 .5. He saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy.

So remember the nature of deception. People do not know they're deceived until they're confronted with the truth. Christians are truth bearers. We need to lovingly confront Catholics and their deception, and I often tell Catholics, I do not want you to believe what I believe.

I want you to believe the infallible, inspired, authoritative word. Therein lies the power. Therein lies the authority. We're just signposts pointing people to the word of God. We must speak the truth in love.

God will never impute his righteousness until sinners are first stripped of their own. I think a classic example of this is the Apostle Paul. He listed his resume in chapter 3 of Philippians, verses 8 to 9.

If anyone had reason to boast in his religion and his righteousness, it was Paul, but he considered it all dumb. He exchanged his religion for a relationship with Christ. That's what every Catholic needs to do.

God does not make sinners alive in Christ until they know they are dead in their sins. All sins are mortal. The sixth biblical principle, we need to pray. Pray for the salvation of those who are blinded by religious deception.

When I was at Dallas Seminary, when we studied Romans 10, I think it was here that God really placed a burden on my heart for all the Roman Catholics that I left behind. Because here in Romans 10, Paul is praying for the salvation of the Israelites.

He said they had a zeal for God, but it wasn't based on knowledge, not knowing the righteousness of God. They sought to obtain their own righteousness. I thought to myself, I know so many Roman Catholics who also have a zeal for God, but they don't know the Bible.

And they don't know that God's righteousness requires perfect righteousness in order to enter into heaven. And so they too seek to obtain their own righteousness. We must tell Catholics, whatever God demands, as in this case, he demands perfect righteousness, whatever God demands, he always provides.

He provides the righteousness of his son to those who will trust in him. He gives that as a gift. We need to pray for words to be given to fearlessly make known the gospel. That's how Paul prayed. We need to pray for God to open doors and hearts so that we can proclaim Christ clearly.

We are serving a sovereign Lord. He can open doors of opportunity. He can open hearts as we are witnessing to people, just as he opened the hearts of Lydia. And we need to pray for wisdom to make the most of every opportunity.

And that's what Paul did in Colossians 4. My wife and I pray for divine appointments at the beginning of the week. Well, how do we know when God has set up a divine appointment? Well, we have to engage people as we meet them, as we go to and fro.

And we'll ask people, are you a Christian? Most people say yes. And then we say, where do you go to church? And how does your church teach you have any hope of salvation? When they don't give the biblical gospel, this is an open door for us to share the gospel.

And even if we only have a few minutes, we have some excellent gospel tracts that we can leave behind so that they can know the truth and repent and believe the gospel. Another quote by John MacArthur, he said, Catholicism is a false system.

It's not the Church of Christ, it's the Church of Antichrist. If you follow Catholic theology, you'll go to hell. I'm not saying that 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's a system that exalts Mary, and it's a system of paganism mingled with pseudo-Christianity. Well, John MacArthur loves Roman Catholics. He doesn't want to allow them to continue to march proudly toward hell's gate without lovingly confronting them with the truth of the gospel.

And I hope that we all leave this presentation with a greater compassion for Roman Catholics. I hope you see that they indeed have been taught a false and fatal gospel. But what I'd like to say here is that not everyone in the Catholic Church is lost.

There are people who have been born again and are no longer Roman Catholic, but the Spirit of God has not yet moved them out. That's why the Great Commission is to go and make disciples, teaching them to observe everything Christ has commanded.

And Christ commands that we worship God in spirit and in truth. We see that in John 4 .24. So the Spirit of God and the Word of God will bring born-again Christians out of the Catholic Church so that they can worship God in a Bible-believing church.

The Narrow Way, Assurance, and Asking the Right Evangelistic Questions

So the seventh point then, and we need to point them to the narrow way because they are on the broad way. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7, you need to 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 few who find it. Now listen to the context that Jesus is sharing this. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

The context here is that there's two gates, and in front of the narrow gate there are wolves in sheep's clothing. They're false prophets, and they're pointing people to the broad way. They're saying it's not the narrow way, it's the broad way.

They're false prophets. So in order to know the true way, you're going to have to diligently search the Scriptures to test every man's teaching to find out which gate is the narrow gate that leads to life.

I hope nobody misses this. The context of these two gates, the most critical issue every person faces in this life, which gate should I enter for eternal life? False prophets are going to lead you away from the true way, so you have to read your Bible to know the true way.