The Sure Ground of Sola Scriptura - [1 Timothy 2:5-6]

We're going to do this a little bit more. I'll take some questions tonight, but please not before I start

Take a few questions as we go along This is going to be a little bit more of a Sunday school type format

I thought about some of the things that dr. White spoke about last week, and I thought I might develop a few

More of them in one message and make a big mess out of it, but that's what I'm going to do anyway And I have a few questions, and I hope to answer some of them at least partially this evening my questions are

What is Christianity? It's a pretty broad question.

Who is a Christian? What is God's truth and who decides?

What is God's truth? Now as James White when he was here as he was Teaching us and as the

Bible teaches it is scripture alone That must determine these issues And this is not a very popular issue or not a very popular doctrine for a lot of reasons

Let me give you a couple of them This is out of the Boston Globe after all if it wasn't

I couldn't do this so Boston Globe April 13th this year

Elizabeth Koch koke grew up in a Catholic Church, and it meant everything to her as A teenager though koke took a spiritual detour rejecting her faith and attending

Wiccan rituals Of course Wiccan rituals being witchcraft

She was looking for alternatives now that she's 20 Catholicism is once again of central importance in her life

But even in embrace embracing her faith again as a Smith College student koch is a believer on her own terms

Nobody's gonna dictate to her what she will and won't believe and she'll still be a Catholic. Thank you very much

She avoids gender -specific references to God in other words who's to say that God is male and She still participates in Wiccan circles once in a while she contends that her

Catholic beliefs are at the root of her activism on behalf of feminist causes and her support of gay rights

She sees no contradictions in any of this it all just kind of flows together for her

The truth this is her speaking. She says the truth of Catholicism is not the politics of the church

It's something much deeper than that Now there's a major study that was just released here and includes 112 ,000 students let me say that again 112 ,000 students at 1236 universities and this is what it's going to report

That most students consider themselves to be on a spiritual quest that frequent prayer and attendance at religious services are a part of that quest and that many find spiritual expression by drawing from the practices and beliefs of several faiths

In other words religion is a smorgasbord You go in with your tray you pick a little of this a little of that and you move on So my question tonight is what is it about Christianity that makes it unique?

There are many answers to this but primarily it is this That Christianity is based on scripture alone or the

Bible alone Sola Scriptura is what separates us from the Roman Catholic Church Indeed it is what separates us from every false religion and every cult on the face of the planet

Tonight we're going to look at several false teachings that can be refuted by scripture You can reason all you want but without the scriptures as the heart of your argument your statements have no more validity than anyone else's

What do you hear if you start reasoning with someone if they tell you this is what I believe and you say well

This is what I believe. What do they say? That's good for you, or if they're really offended by what you say they say

That's your opinion. You guys have played this game. You know how it goes but we're going to see that there is a link between a

Deficient view of scripture and bad doctrine if not downright damning heresy

You can get all that just by having a low view of scripture Amazingly these other churches and religions all deviate from one basic truth.

Jesus Christ is a mediator between God and men There is no other By proclaiming this truth as presented in scripture.

You will be able to refute those who? Contradict sound doctrine let's look at first Timothy 2

First Timothy 2 and I'm going to read so that we'll have some context. I'm going to read the whole book

No, I'm going to read verses 1 to 6 First of all then

I urge that in treaties and prayers petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men for kings and all who are in authority in Order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?

For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men the man

Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony born at the proper time and That born is not physically born.

It is given at the proper time now You might wonder who would argue against Jesus being the only mediator

It's right there in black and white. I just read it But what's the catch to believe that you have to believe?

The Bible you have to believe what the Bible says Increasingly Roman Catholic laypersons are being equipped to argue against sola scriptura

This I just took off the Catholic answers website They asked the question what's your authority?

This is nothing fancy just a little script you might want to learn from in Catholic answers seminars

We try to emphasize the point that you should always demand that a missionary who comes to your door

First establish his authority for what he is going to tell you and only then proceed to discuss the particular issues

He has in mind By authority, we don't mean his personal or academic credentials

We mean his authority to claim he can rightly interpret the Bible the missionary This is what this is you folks in case you don't know that if you're talking about Catholic You are the missionary the missionary unless he is a

Mormon, of course in which case his authority is the Book of Mormon Will always claim to fall back on the authority of Scripture Scripture says this or Scripture proves that he will tell you

But don't be deceived dear Roman Catholic So before you turned turn to the verses he brings up and thus to the topic he brings up Demand that he demonstrate a few things first ask him to prove from the

Bible that the Bible is the only rule of faith if He's an evangelical or a fundamentalist

Protestant. He holds to the Reformation theory of sola scriptura the Bible alone

Second have him tell you how he thinks How he knows which books belong in the

Bible in the first place in other words how did the Canon come to be and can you prove that the

Bible that we have is actually what we should have and Third require that he proved to you both that he has the authority to interpret the

Bible for you Remember that his doctrines will almost always be drawn from Interpretations of the sacred text rather than the words themselves and that his interpretations will always be accurate

So what about you? Are you equipped to prove this doctrine? Are you equipped to show somebody from Scripture that sola scriptura is in fact a?

biblical doctrine and if you can't what are the possible ramifications, what are the consequences of of This well for first of all

I guess you won't have a dialogue with this person But what are some answers to these questions?

What are their answers what a Roman Catholics teach they teach that It's not just scripture alone, but also church teaching or the magisterium.

That's what church teaching is magisterium and church tradition That's their other those are their other authorities now

How did they get or how did the Bible get to be in the exact form it is what books?

Were chosen to be in the Bible the church Infallibly chose them according to the Catholic Church and third

How do you know that your interpretation of Scripture is accurate? Well, you only can know according to the

Roman Catholic Church if you go by what the Catholic Church says infallibly says

Is the correct meaning of Scripture and we're going to see tonight. I think that some of their scripture

Interpretations are pretty interesting to say the least The magisterium as I said is the teaching of the church, and it is determinative.

It is authoritative when interpreting Scripture The primary rule of Roman Catholic hermeneutics is what the church teaches about a topic or even a book of the

Bible for example the book of Jonah What are the possible anybody have any idea what the possible interpretations of the book of Jonah are as a whole?

What are the viewpoints that you could have on the book of Jonah? Anybody okay?

It's a myth with a purpose, okay, the other one is

That it's an actual historical event now

Do you think it's important to decide between the two of those? Okay, why would it be important to decide between the two of those

I? Can give you one really good reason? Frank Okay and Stephanie that's right.

I mean, how do you do that? How do you divvy up? What's true? What's not true, but you know an even bigger reason? because Jesus referred to Jonah as an actual story as an actual event he compared

Himself going into the earth to Jonah be in the belly of the whale for three days So if it's just a myth then why is

Jesus referred to it? Why does he do that, but here's here's the Catholic position? Catholics are perfectly free to take this view this myth view or a more literal view

Because the church has never taken an official position on the matter So there's no right or wrong answer if you're a

Roman Catholic you can believe whatever you want to believe about Jonah and that's just one example of the church teaching and how it is

How it's incomplete and basically the hermeneutic isn't like for us. What are we what are the first three rules of hermeneutics?

Context context context for the Roman Catholic the first three rules of hermeneutics are whatever the church teaches whatever the church teaches whatever the church teaches

So you don't necessarily have to view things in their proper context or understand them in that church tradition

The necessity of church tradition to interpret scripture is verified according to Catholic apologist

Dave Armstrong It's verified because of the lack of doctrinal uniformity in Protestant churches and the history of Protestant sectarianism in other words because Protestants have a number of denominations that proves that the

Roman Catholic view is absolutely right and that tradition traditional teaching by the

Catholic Church Is absolutely vital in fact Vatican 2 says this hence there exists a connection between and communication connection and communication between sacred tradition and sacred scripture for both of them flowing from the same

Divine wellspring in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end

Therefore both sacred tradition and sacred scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence

But you know what if you don't remember anything else tonight. I want you to remember this What what happens ultimately if I say you know what there's some other authority besides scripture that something else has to be compared with scripture what

I wind up it with and When there is a contradiction which one wins in other words if the

Roman Catholic Church is infallible Cannot make a mistake, and it says our traditions are infallible our teaching is infallible

So if our teachings or our traditions contradict scripture which one loses scripture

So what is the ultimate authority for Rome? That's right, it's the

Roman Catholic Church is their infallible teaching And Yep, and we're gonna see that over and over and over again tonight and ultimately the hermeneutics the hermeneutical system the means for Interpreting the

Bible we're gonna see really is no different for the Roman Catholics or the Mormons or anybody else

That doesn't hold to sola scriptura because they do whatever they want with it So I'm answering my own question here

Why is the Catholic Church so hostile to sola scriptura because their whole system falls apart if they actually elevated scripture above?

The church teaching and the church tradition they would have nothing They'd be where we are and they're not so At one

Catholic apologist Albert Albert Nevins has written this few Protestants stopped to realize that it was the

Catholic Church Which defined the Bible listen to this listen to the the gall of this?

Few Protestants stopped to realize that it was the Catholic Church which defined the Bible Selected the books found in the

New Testament canon and kept this Word of God free from error The Catholic Church did that what was

God doing Karl Keating? one of the most popular

Catholic theologians Says this we know the church is correct Because Christ promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church the church would be

Indefectible in its official teaching or it's in its official teaching would be infallible

To the church through Peter Christ gave his own teaching authority

So in Matthew and they're referring to Matthew 16 18 when Jesus said you know

Peter makes his statement and Peter says You know I'm giving you

The authority as it were and so they take that and they run with it and ultimately they say well when the church now speaks it's the same as Christ speaking and And I'm telling you what you know having spent 28 years in a cult that is exactly what the

Mormons would say the same thing We have a prophet today who speaks for God same thing in order to raise tradition and the

Magisterium on a prar With Scripture the Roman Catholic Church could not hold to it being all sufficient

And it does not in fact the church reduces the position of Scripture in two ways first proposing that the

Bible itself never claims its sufficiency and Second degrading the meaning of inspiration the very word of inspiration gets downgraded

First the Bible never claims to be sufficient Scripture is important.

They'll say but it does not contain all of God's Word Catholics point out that John 20 30 says many other signs therefore

Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book and There are other similar passages that they'll turn to which show that not everything

Jesus and the Apostles said or did was recorded Well, duh, you know his ministry was what three and a half years long, and if we went through the

Gospels I think we'd pretty much gather the fact that they didn't talk about every snack that they took and Every break that they took and maybe some you know retreats that they went on there.

They're not there Therefore the argument goes

Scripture alone cannot fully contain all the truth about God Well, who is ever who's ever made that claim?

That everything there is to know about God everything there is to know not everything we can know

But everything there is to know about God can be found in the scripture anybody think of a scripture that might

Support that idea that we can't know everything about God Okay Yeah, all those

Deuteronomy 29 29 my ways are higher than your ways absolutely So they they say something that and this is a

Typical argument you set up a standard that nobody else is put forth, and then you tear it down, and that's what they do

Sufficiency of scripture doesn't mean that everything that can be known about well back up It does mean that everything that can be known about God is in the

Bible But it doesn't mean that everything that exists about God is in the Bible because we don't know everything about God.

That's right That's right, and we'll be learning for a long time ever about God But they also have to degrade

Inspiration listen to this they have to downgrade it downplay it Keating writes in fact again, it's just amazing the the

The wackiness of all this Keating writes in fact no New Testament writer seemed to be aware that he was writing under the impulse

Of the Holy Spirit with the exception of the author of Revelation Anybody have a response to that yep, that's 2nd

Peter 3 15 and 16. I have that and also in that same book None of them seem to know that they were writing under the impulse of the

Holy Spirit That's just beyond me Peter writes this in 2nd Peter 1 20 and 21 But know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own

Interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the

Holy Spirit spoke from God and then he goes on that same letter and describes in 2nd

Peter 3 15 and 16 and Regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation Just as also our beloved

Peter or brother Paul According to the wisdom given him wrote to you as also in all his letters

Speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand

Which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction

Paul's letters he says were scripture It's just amazing that he would even say that about the

Holy Spirit. I mean it literally if you read through 1st Corinthians 2 on and on the idea that none of them knew that the

Holy Spirit was working in them in any kind of way shape or Form is I think a pretty unusual view

MacArthur says this this is going to be in his 2nd Peter commentary that's coming out shortly.

I stole this off the web But the Church of Jesus Christ ignores this epistle talking about 2nd

Peter at its peril After all Peter wrote it to help believers face a world filled with subtle spiritual deception

Knowing that his death was imminent the Apostle wanted to remind his readers of the truths

He had already taught them so that those truths would continue to safeguard them after he was gone

Peter also knew that the deadly threat of false teachers loomed large He wanted to expose the apostates and expel their demon doctrines from the church and that pretty well

Describes Roman Catholicism as it's subtle deception. I Believe in the

Trinity they have a lot of Christian verbiage But when you get past it and they start, you know, really knocking the scriptures down knocking down the whole idea of inspiration

There are a lot of concerns further even more about Inspiration to downplay the idea of the

Bible being inspired Keating asserts that the Quran The Book of Mormon and other cultic scriptures all claim to be inspired.

What's the big deal? The Bible says maybe it's inspired or you want to say it's inspired

Well, the Quran says it's inspired the Book of Mormon says it's inspired. So what? He says the mere claim of inspiration is insufficient to establish a books bona fides

What's a fancy way of saying big deal? Our particular book was established as scripture not because of its divine authorship but because the church tells us the

Bible is inspired and we can take the church's word for it because it is infallible the church is infallible and infallible by the way means incapable of error

Take it further and capable of error in defining doctrines touching faith or morals really infallible

Perfect never making a mistake Let's look at a few examples of infallible doctrines from the

Roman Catholic Church Immaculate conception I Had that on a quiz here at a

Bible study here not too long ago immaculate conception means that Mary Whose conception was brought about in the normal way was conceived without original sin or at stain

That's what immaculate means without stain the essence of original sin this is a

Catholic definition the original sin or the essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of Sanctifying grace and its stain is a corrupt nature

Mary was preserved from these defects by God's grace from the instant of her existence

She was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings

Based on what okay based on a declaration in 1854 by Pope Pius the 9th

Who declared infallibly? That Mary was by a singular privilege and grace granted by God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ Exempted from all the effects of original sin

Okay, she from all existence she was the fourth person of the

Trinity but A look at if you would look at Luke 1 And I think this is a good passage to look at here for a moment because it really is this is stupefying this is just amazing

Apparently not Luke 1 26 through 28 now in the sixth month

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth To a virgin engaged to a man whose name was

Joseph of the descendants of David and the Virgin's name was Mary and Coming in he said to her

Hail favored one the Lord is with you and there you have it right there.

Mary was born conceived without sin It's there in black and white Did anybody miss it?

That's it. That's the whole deal that word That you see favored.

That's the one You know that word or that root only occurs one other time in the

New Testament. That's in Ephesians 1 6 I'll read that you don't have to go there It's good to just kind of mull over that amazing statement in Luke 1

Ephesians 1 6 talking about all believers says this that we are saved to the praise of the glory of his grace

Which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved The phrase they're freely bestowed is the same verb different tense

Same verb which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved So if that necessarily if that verb necessarily contains that idea that from the very beginning

God Preserved Mary from original sin, then I have to wonder what all the hoo -ha is Seems to me like we all should have been preserved from original sin, yeah well, and they say they say

She I I've been reading up on this and what they say is that she was saved in anticipation in other words that God saved her before She was even basically born and so when she came to fully realize what had been done for her that she exclaimed

You know my my my Savior, you know that sort of thing What's that?

I'm from original sin, so she never you know, she was a perpetual virgin born without sin.

She's an amazing woman Now now let me give you the what the

Catholics say here that this is by a special intervention of God Undertaking undertaken at the instant she was conceived

She was preserved from the stain of original sin and its consequences She was therefore redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special way by anticipation but what about Romans 3 23 all have sinned and They say well have all people committed actual sins

What about babies? What about those who aren't even? Old enough to recognize the difference between good and evil

Have those people committed sins Well, yes, they have but not according to Catholic theology and they take it a step further

We also know of a very prominent exception to the rule Who's the very prominent exception to the rule of all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?

Yeah, God himself, right? So if Paul's statement in Romans 3 includes an exception for the new

Adam Jesus this again This is the Roman Catholics talking one may argue that an exception for the new

Eve Mary can also be made the new

Eve We don't ever see that in Scripture, but you know Luckily for us we have church teaching church tradition.

Otherwise, we would never see all that in Luke 1 We just couldn't get there from Luke 1 26 and 20 through 28

Now let's talk for a moment about and this is what I mean They take verses and they just blow them all up and I'm like we used to do the same thing

Only we were called the cults and the Roman Catholic Church is called the church Perpetual virgin I say we

Mormons Perpetual virgin the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary most

Protestants again. This is the Catholics talking most Protestants claim that Mary bore children other than Jesus Now, why would we claim that?

Because the Bible says it. Yeah to support their claim these Protestants That's us

Referred to the biblical passages which mentioned the brethren of the Lord Neither the gospel accounts nor the early

Christians attest to the notion that Mary bore other children besides Jesus the faithful knew through the witness of Scripture and tradition that Jesus was

Mary's only child and that she remained a lifelong virgin an Important historical document which supports the teaching of Mary's perpetual virginity is that is the proto -evangelium or the early gospel of James Which was written probably less than 60 years after the conclusion of Mary's earthly life around 120

AD When memories of her life were still vivid in the minds of many now, let's just think about that for a minute

I think there's some irony involved because of the Catholic Church infallibly chose the books that were to be included in the canon of Scripture if the

Catholic Church did that and if this doctrine of The perpetual virginity of Mary is so central to the

Christian faith Then why didn't they include the proto -evangelium of James in the canon of Scripture if they didn't?

No, I you know, I think I'm pretty confident I didn't actually read the proto -evangelium of James, but I'm pretty confident if I did that I'd find out it was some kind of Gnostic heresy that that there's one section of it.

They agree with so they want to quote it and say it's an important historical document But you would think that if it was so important that they would have included that, you know, the only

Apparently the only historical document they have that supports that now, let me read again.

Let's go back to terra firma Matthew 13 verses 53 to 56.

And yes, I will get to first Timothy 2 It will happen it will come about And it came about that when

Jesus had finished these parables he departed from there and Coming to his hometown. He began teaching them in their synagogue

So they became astonished and said where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

Is not this the carpenter's son is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James? Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters.

Are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? Yeah, I Don't know, you know,

I It's hard to read that and just I go Again again, though the magisterium

Church teaching and church tradition have done what the Bible could not and does not do it's turned

Mary into a perpetual Virgin James White writes this as Paul taught in 1st

Corinthians 7 There is a marital debt involved that would preclude the idea of a married virgin

The man's body is not his own but it's his wife's and vice versa if a person wishes to be a virgin

She should remain unmarried John MacArthur takes it a step further

The Prohibition in 1st Corinthians 7 is inclusive stop depriving one another it is an emphatic command

Sexual relations between a husband and his wife are God ordained and commanded For Mary to get married without the intention of fulfilling the role as a wife and to have her husband fulfill the role as a husband would be

Sinful be a violation of Scripture That was that's the whole created order if we went back to Genesis.

We'd see that again and again Any comments about that when

I just find you know, you think about how how they they list in that Matthew passage? How they list everybody

Joseph and Mary and then the boys and then they talk about the girls

No, those weren't his you know, weren't his brothers and sisters. How do you how do you do that? Adopted cousins could be all right

Enough on the perpetual virginity of Mary, how about praying to Saints? Praying to Saints The Catholics again the historic

Christian practice of asking our departed brothers and sisters in Christ the Saints For their intercession has come under attack in the last few hundred years

Okay, the practice dates to the earliest days of Christianity and is shared by Catholics Eastern Orthodox and other

Eastern Christians and even some Anglicans Meaning that all told that is shared by more than three quarters of the

Christians on the earth It still comes under heavy attack from many within the Protestant movement that started in the 16th century these upstarts

Now here's a question for you can the Saints hear us The Roman Catholics answer it this way one charge made against us is

That the Saints in heaven cannot even hear our prayers making it useless to ask for their intercession however, this is not true as Scripture indicates those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth.

This can be seen for example Anybody know where they're gonna go? Maccabees no purgatory for purgatory

Which we're not going to talk about tonight because I don't want to spend any more time there than I have to Okay, how about how about Revelation 5 8

Revelation 5 8 and I think when you read this you'll see clearly that the

Saints Can hear us and that they in fact are interceding on our behalf

Revelation 5 8 and when he had taken the book the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the

Lamb having each one a harp and Golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the

Saints There you have it Crystal clear to me But let's see if we can maybe

I mean if I had some artistic skills I'd draw this up on the board, but what do we see here? The the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the

Lamb Having each one a harp so each one of them has a harp and they also have golden bowls full of incense

Which are the prayers of the Saints Now if we were to do a study on the book or a study on the word

Saints What would we find out if we went through the entire New Testament looked at the word Saints? I'm sorry

They're believers Now does it say dead Saints there? Say the

Saints that were in heaven does this command or Encourage us to pray to dead believers does it indicate they can hear us no

MacArthur says this the incense in these bowls represents the prayers of believers through the ages that God prophesied and promised

Redemption of the earth might come I mean isn't it pretty obvious Wait if we're praying in the spirit if we're praying according to God's will it is a fragrant aroma to God It is in fact incense, and that's what it's talking about here

This is a collection of prayers through the ages that are in these bowls So again,

I I just think if you look at if you're looking for scripture to back up this idea of praying to Saints You're not going to find it now.

We come to the crux of the matter The idea that we would hold to that there is one mediator

Again, this is the Roman Catholic position another commonly or a charge commonly leveled against asking the

Saints for their intercession Is that this violates the soul meteors? Mediatorship, it's a mouthful of Christ which

Paul discusses in first Timothy 2 5 But asking one person to pray for you in no way violates

Christ mediatorship I can't even say that as can be seen from considering the way in which

Christ is a mediator First Christ is a unique mediator between man and God because he is the only person who is both

God and man He is the only bridge between the two the only God man That's true, but that role as mediator is not compromised in the least by the fact that others intercede for us also true the intercession of fellow

Christians Which is what the Saints in heaven are also clearly does not interfere with Christ unique mediatorship

I'm with them right until they slip in that part there about the Saints in heaven There is absolutely no indication that anyone can do that Now of course we have in the

Catholic Church the big push now is Mary as the mediatrix Again, this is the

Catholic speaking speaking specifically of Mary This is the way that we are to understand the role of Mary as our mediatrix

She is a mediator like us But because of the special role given her by God in his plan of salvation

Her mediation far exceeds our own Mary can intercede for us in ways that no one else can

How do we know that? because James 5 16 says the prayer prayers of a just man availeth much and the

Greek word for man here is gender inclusive so it could read prayers of a just person availeth much Then they go on to reason what creature was more just than Mary Her prayers are much more efficacious than ours for this reason

We ask her to pray to Jesus with us Thus giving us a prayer group of two when only one is praying

They go on after all who is the mediator who brought the God -man to earth who was the mediator who spoke and the baby leapt?

For joy was sanctified in Elizabeth's womb who was the mediator who presented Jesus to the world at the presentation of the temple?

Who was the mediator which is not the way I read that wedding at? Or the the presentation of the temple who was the mediator who caused the first miracle of Jesus to be performed?

Let's say let me read that again Who is a mediator who caused the first miracle of Jesus to be performed right after Jesus himself said my hour has not come in?

John 2 and Who is our mediator today proclaiming do whatever he tells you the last recorded words of Mary in the

Bible? And I would just say do not confuse these people with Scripture look at John 2 verses 1 to 5

This is a great passage for your Mormon friends to believe me Because I just look at this and I go

Hey, first of all they had wine at the wedding. That's a problem for the Mormons secondly the wedding didn't take place at a temple That's a problem too

John 2 verses 1 to 5 and on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there

And Jesus also was invited and his disciples to the wedding and when the wine gave out the mother of Jesus said to him

They have no wine Now that by that statement there she apparently caused this first miracle and Jesus said to her woman

What have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come His mother said to the servants whatever he says to you do it and that they say right there

And Who is our mediator today? She is still proclaiming this do whatever he tells you now that instruction that she gave to these servants at the wedding is

Allegedly according to the Roman Catholics still enforced today for all of us The Roman Catholics also frequently put out the idea

Which we saw in Mel Gibson's passion of the Christ that Mary contributed to our redemption

By virtue of her suffering and watching her son die James White says this

There is not a single bit of evidence that this suffering this emotional suffering this trauma that she suffered is

Related to redemption itself. There's nothing in Scripture to back that up It is only possible to arrive at that conclusion

That she had anything to do with salvation by reading Catholic tradition and Catholic teaching

There's nothing in the Bible that would even suggest such a role So now it's time to just stop the madness like John Lennon once said give me some truth let's turn to 1st

Timothy 2 Verse 5. I think we should

I mean you could go on and we We won't but we could go on for weeks just talking about What the

Roman Catholic Church teaches and what Scripture says and how they just draw amazing things out of the

Scripture And that's something I think it's a good rule for all of us. We need to be On guard that we're not drawing amazing things out of Scripture.

They just aren't justified by what's there 1st Timothy 2 5 for there is one

God Kiss the mocker says there is one God who cares for all his people

Gathered from all over the world and that's the point That's the point of the passage if we walk through it step by step for kings and all who are in authority

He desires all men who to be saved He paid a ransom for all the idea is that there is one

God over all Over all kinds of people whether they're rulers or paupers whether they're

Jews or Gentiles There is one God who will draw people from all over the world to himself there is one

God and one mediator also between God and men a Person who is a mediator, of course as someone who is sent or someone who stands between two parties that are in dispute

And I don't think there's any doubt about who the two parties are There are men

Mankind and there's God and they're in dispute. Why because man is fallen is sinful and Is without hope of being reconciled to a holy

God so Jesus Christ as both man and God is the only one qualified to act in such a capacity to be that mediator to stand as it were in the breach between God and man

Who else could possibly reconcile sinful mankind to Holy God? Again Kistamacher Christ is the one who has voluntarily taken his stand between the offended

God and the offending sinner in Order to take upon himself the wrath of God which the sinner has deserved

Thereby delivering the latter of the sinner Look at verse 6

Talking about Jesus. It says who gave himself as a ransom for all the idea of ransom

Doesn't really give us the full measure of the word Paul as he often does goes to extraordinary lengths and putting together cobbling together this

Greek phrase he combines a preposition That would indicate that Jesus is our substitute that he died on our behalf

With a prefix that indicates that an exchange has taken place

Jesus Christ in other words just by these two Greek words It tells us that he voluntarily took the wrath

We deserved and by doing so he delivered us from that wrath moving on a verse 6

Jesus Christ Provided the testimony born at the proper time What greater testimony of the love of God is there in all of Scripture than Jesus Christ substitutionary death on our behalf?

There isn't a greater testimony God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son and Jesus Christ so loved the world that he died

That he voluntarily gave up his life. He gave up his life at exactly the right moment and place in history

Think about all the things that came together from the type of death he suffered

Which was common back then wouldn't be common now if Jesus came now would he be crucified? No, he had to come then why to fulfill the idea or the prophecy of him being killed on a tree

Also, just the fact how could the gospel spread so quickly the Jewish? religion the

Jewish faith The Diaspora all played a part in that because they all came back in for the

Pentecost for the the Feast of Pentecost and then As they would go back out after they had been converted they would go back out and the gospel went with them those who believed on the day of Pentecost So though all and there are myriad of other things all these factors coming together

Jesus Christ died at exactly the right time in history the right place in history Everything was exactly right.

I have some other stuff here about other so -called mediators, I mean I was gonna

I Won't do this, but we could go through Joseph Smith and Muhammad and others, but what's the point?

What's the bottom line? Simply this there are maybe two or three billion people if you add up the

Mormons the Catholics the Muslims that are lost in their various systems of religion

Some of those billions of people Live next door to you Some of those billions of people work with you they go to school with you

Beloved as our good brother taught last week. We must evangelize our Roman Catholic friends neighbors and family members

The teachings of the Catholic Church are woefully unbiblical and even I would say sub -christian one cannot hold to the doctrines of the

Roman Catholic Church, which are reliant upon church teaching and church tradition and Belong to him who said that he would build his church upon this rock

What is Christianity? What is Christianity? It's what the

Bible says it is It's not what we want it to be There are you know if you go by Surveys there are what 70 80 percent of Americans who call themselves

Christians on what basis? Because they don't want to not be Christians That's the only reason but if they looked at what the

Bible said They would discover that they're not Christianity is what the Bible says it is to use any other source is to suggest that the truth can be

Changed or redefined and that's what we see even now There is there are numerous places.

You can go on the web numerous books. You can read about Further anticipated developments of Marian doctrines.

They're not done with Mary yet You know I joke about her being the fourth person of the Trinity, it's not far down the road

It's not far down the road, and it's just like Have to go back to the

Mormon Church because that's what I know the best but you can have a situation like in the Mormon Church where they say hey the blacks cannot hold the priesthood and Then the

IRS starts closing and they go well. You know what the blacks can have the priesthood They you can have multiple wives

And then they want to join the Union the United States won't let him in unless the Prophet has a vision guess what? He has a vision no more multiple wives and the same kind of thing when when the

Bible is just pliable and malleable and you can make it do or say whatever you want when you have a higher authority whether it's a

Prophet so -called prophet or whether it's church teaching or church tradition you are going to see truth

Change and The truth does not change So who is a

Christian? those whom scripture says are Christians those who follow the risen

Savior and Believe in him when he says in Matthew 5 18 until heaven and earth pass away

Not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accomplished

What is God's truth? God's truth is a Bible. That's what he's given us

Who decides what is truth the one who gave us his word? The Word of God the one who preserved it the one who infallibly put it together through fallible men not tradition not church teaching and not some supposed collection of infallible

Men, let's pray Lord what a blessing it is to have your truth and to believe it

Father I just praise you for Giving us your word for preserving it even against the biggest false religious system and so -called

Christendom Father how they have Tried to keep it from the people how they have persecuted those who translated it

How they twist and distort the scriptures to their own destruction Father I pray that you would give us

Hearts that would long not to learn about Catholicism but hearts that would long to reach out to those who are trapped in a system of works trapped in a system of tradition

Trapped in a system of church teaching that cannot possibly lead them to you Father I pray that you would even use those in this room

To break down the walls that have been erected over the many years That have rendered some impervious even to your word.

It would seem father if that were possible Lord how they just reject the truth because they have been

Inoculated as it were against it They believe that they're going to heaven and it doesn't matter what they believe or what they do they think

Father for those in this room that may not yet know you I pray that you would open their eyes to the truth

That is contained in your word There's no other source for it Men seek other sources because they do not want to bow the knee to your son

Jesus Christ Father again, I just praise you for your grace

In drawing us here and allowing us this evening and father just this Time around your word

Lord bless us all that we might be ambassadors for you that we might not shrink from Proclaiming the whole counsel of God to those that we meet