Contending for the Purity and Exclusivity of the Gospel

Redeeming Grace Church

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Well good morning Saints. It is a joy to join you in the praise of your worship to our exalted head the

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Lord Jesus Christ together on this Lord's Day to open his word and to be equipped and encouraged to be faithful to the

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Great Commission but also to earnestly contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the

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Saints and that's going to be the message this morning contending for the purity and the exclusivity of the gospel

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I believe the greatest attack on the Christian faith today is an attack on the purity and exclusivity of the gospel you have pastors on one hand compromising the gospel so they can gain a larger following removing some of the essentials and then on the other hand you have pastors that are signing unity accords with Roman Catholics denying the exclusivity of the gospel so this message this is important today as it was 2 ,000 years ago when

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Jude first wrote it and Paul penned the words that we will look at this morning so if you open

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God's word to Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 to 9 we will read

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I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel which is really not another only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be accursed as we have said before so I say again now if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received he is to be accursed this is

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Paul's only epistle where he does not begin with a commendation that is because the

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Galatian churches have drifted away from Christ in his gospel he gets right to the point with a vigorous defense of the gospel of grace and the gospel of justification by faith alone so let's make three observations as we look into these verses in verse 6 we see

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Paul's amazement at the Galatians deserting Christ Paul is driving a stake in the ground because the purity of the gospel is under attack we also see

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Paul's awareness of the Galatians unwillingness to contend for the gospel in verse 7 and then we see

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Paul's anathema on anyone who distorts the gospel the Judaizers had arose from within the church speaking perverse things for the purpose of drawing away disciples after them remember

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Paul spent his entire ministry proclaiming defending contending for the gospel of grace

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Paul is direct and confrontational because he knows so much is at stake his divine curse on those who distort the gospel is absolutely necessary because it is the only message of salvation so looking then at verses 6 and 7

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Paul writes I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel

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Paul is amazed the Greek word means to wonder to marvel to be struck with astonishment we find it most often used when people were amazed at the miracles of Christ in Matthew 8 27 after Jesus commanded the storm to cease we read the men were amazed and said what kind of a man is this that even the winds in the sea obey him so here

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Paul was astonished and in deep distress that the Galatians were deserting

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God the one who called them by the grace of Christ for a different gospel and the word deserting here means the transfer of allegiance they were literally turning against God to follow false teachers and the verb is in the present tense indicating that their defection was still in progress any unconverted people in the

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Galatian churches were at risk of departing from the church to follow the Judaizers if they had followed the

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Judaizers they would have been like the apostates we see in 1st John 2 verse 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 but the fact that they went out showed that they were never of us so we're seeing the same thing happening today as many

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Protestants are now leaving their churches to join the Roman Catholic religion what's the attraction well there's three basic attractions number one they say they've studied church history and they believe as the

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Catholic Church teaches that the Catholic Church was the one true church they don't recognize the

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Catholic Church went into apostasy number two they're starting to read the early church fathers and building their theology on that rather than building their theology on the inspired

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Word of God and number three they're drawn to the Eucharist the

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Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the physical body and blood soul and divinity of Christ so again many

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Protestants are joining the Catholic Church because of three these three principles in our 33 years of ministry we have witnessed this troubling trend when a

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Roman Catholic marries a Protestant four out of five times the

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Protestant leaves their church to join the Roman Catholic Church Protestants who are told to stand on the truth of God's word and never compromise they're the first ones to compromise

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Catholics who stand on the air of a false and fatal gospel never compromise it's very troubling but we see this happening more and more and it really shouldn't surprise us right because the

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Lord said in the end times there would be a great apostasy of falling away from the faith of the

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Apostles so let's look at what Paul said about the true believers in Galatia he reprimanded them for tolerating a false gospel that replaces grace truth and freedom with rules rituals and religion they were not resisting the

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Judaizers but instead were tolerating their false teaching Paul was not concerned that these true believers would lose their salvation but he was upset that they were tolerating an attack on the gospel so have you ever asked the question why only one gospel well

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God's gospel is the only way his perfect and unchanging attributes of holiness righteousness and justice can work in harmony with his love mercy and grace in order to redeem sinners from the punishment the power and the presence of sin this amazing gospel could never have been devised by man but only by an almighty

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God and his infinite and profound wisdom this is why Paul said it was never revealed to him by man but by God look at Galatians 1 verses 11 and 12

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Paul said the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man for I never

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I neither received it from man nor was I taught it but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ so when you look at the cross you see

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God's glorious attributes on display and they're all working in perfect harmony we see his holiness and having eyes too pure to look at sin we see his righteousness and demanding perfect justice against sin we see his justice and condemning and punishing sin but we also see in perfect harmony his love in sending his son to die for guilty sinners we also see his mercy and rescuing sinners from eternal punishment and his grace and providing forgiveness and the gift of eternal life so all of God's attributes perfect harmony at the cross this demonstration of God's holiness and righteousness without compromising his love mercy and grace is what distinguishes biblical

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Christianity from all the religions in the world since righteousness and justice are the foundation of God's throne this is the only way

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God can be both the just and the justifier of the unjust divine justice had to be satisfied in his son for repenting sinners to be justified divine justice is only satisfied in one of two places either at Calvary's cross or at the great white throne judgment but because God is perfectly righteous and holy he can never ever let a sin go unpunished that means every sin that has ever been committed by every man and woman that's ever lived must be punished divine justice can only be satisfied either in the substitutionary death of Christ at Calvary's cross or at the great white throne judgment those who reject

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Christ will one day meet him at the great white throne and their divine justice will be satisfied

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God can never ever let a sin go unpunished this is why the gospel of God is the greatest news a condemned sinner on death row will ever hear that God provided a substitute for you this one this is why it must be guarded as the greatest of all treasures look at Paul's awareness of the

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Galatians unwillingness to contend for the gospel in verse 7 they were tolerating a different gospel which is really not another and there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ Paul declares dogmatically a different gospel is not another gospel

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God's gospel must remain pure nothing can ever be added to it remember the

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Judaizers were professing Christians they believed in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ but they said if you're a

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Gentile you not only need to believe that but you need to be circumcised in other words they were adding to the gospel they were disturbing the

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Galatians the word means to stir up or to agitate the same verb is used by Jesus speaking to his disciples in John 14 1 he said stop letting your hearts be troubled the disciples were agitated and confused because the

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Lord had told them he was going to die and leave them the Galatians were accused of tolerating a false gospel instead of resisting the

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Judaizers they were tolerating their false teaching the Judaizers were exchanging the truth of God for the lie of the devil they were distorting the gospel of grace by adding something to it they were saying salvation could not be obtained by what

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God has done but it must be obtained by what man must do they were insulting

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Christ by declaring that his perfect work of redemption was not enough this is why

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Paul had such strong words to the Galatians they were regarding the

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Jewish the Judaizers today are the modern the modern

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Judaizers of today as the Roman Catholic clergy they have done the same thing by adding requirements to the gospel of Christ we looked at that on the

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Sunday school hour well obviously Satan is the master deceiver behind every false teacher if you have your

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Bibles you can turn to 2nd Corinthians 11 verses 3 to 4 Paul wrote this to the

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Corinthian church he said I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and the purity of your devotion to Christ for if one comes and preaches another

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Jesus whom we have not preached or you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted you bear this beautifully another translation may read you put up with this rather than contending for the gospel they put up with another false gospel the

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Galatians were doing the same thing as the Corinthians they were not contending for the true gospel as a result they were being led astray from their pure devotion to Christ Paul questioned them later in this letter in Galatians 3 verses 1 to 2 he says oh foolish

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Galatians who has bewitched you well the application is so profound for all of us today the church cannot tolerate a false gospel

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Christians must guard against false doctrines and protect the gospel of God what hope does the next generation have if you and I don't protect the gospel the gospel of grace must be void of the works of the law as we can clearly see throughout the

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New Testament consider the contrast between law and grace this is so important this is what

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Paul is teaching in his letter to the Galatians because they were trying to put the

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Gentiles under the law the law says do as we see in Galatians 5 3 every man who receives circumcision is under obligation to keep the whole law but grace says done as we see in John 19 30

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Jesus cried out in victory it is finished the law reveals sin as we see in Romans 7 7

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Paul said I would not have come to know sin except through the law but grace forgives him listen to Ephesians 1 7 in him we have the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace the law condemns we see this clearly given in James 2 10 for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at one part has become guilty of breaking the entire law but great grace justifies

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Romans 3 24 sinners are justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus another contrast between the law and grace the law causes death

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Romans 3 23 I'm sorry

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Romans 6 23 the wages of sin is death but grace brings to life

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Ephesians 2 5 God made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and the law brings bondage as we see in Galatians 2 4 the false brethren sneaked in to spy on our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus for what purpose in order to bring us into bondage through the law and grace brings freedom

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Galatians 5 1 it was for freedom that Christ set us free therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery this is why

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Paul was so upset with the Galatians for not contending for the gospel of grace later in his epistle he wrote you have been severed from Christ you are seeking to be justified by the law you have fallen from grace please know that we cannot be saved by keeping the law but we cannot grow in sanctification unless we observe the law well let's look at the fatal difference between do and done keep in mind that every religion in the world teaches a works righteousness salvation every religion says you must do things to appease your

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God biblical Christianity is the only faith that says Christ has done it all and you're saved by grace whatever you do for God to merit salvation nullifies justifying grace and insults the finished and all -sufficient work of Christ what

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Christ has done for you is the glorious gospel of grace and God alone is glorified for his mercy there will be many in the lake of fire who lived life with good intentions gave generously to charity and prided themselves in their integrity and good works tragically they thought they could justify themselves before God by their own works of righteousness we must warn false converts who have been misled by distorted

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Gospels that the only means of salvation is by grace alone so let's look now at Paul's anathema on anyone who distorts the gospel and verses 8 and 9

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Paul writes but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be accursed as we have said before so I say again now if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received he is to be accursed

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Paul knows that he will never preach a false gospel but he's making a point it doesn't matter who you are anyone who perverts the gospel is to be accursed in verse 9 he repeats himself so that there will be no misunderstanding please note

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Paul didn't say let's have unity with all of these Judaizers after all they believe in Jesus Christ just as we do no instead he brought down a divine curse on them there are some other important applications for all of us today consider this can we discern the true gospel from a false gospel can we distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit are we tolerant of false

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Gospels circulating within the professing Church are we warning those who have been deceived by a false gospel remember the nature of deception is that people do not know they're deceived until they are confronted by the truth you and I are truth bearers we need to lovingly confront people with the truth that's the only way they'll ever know they're deceived when

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I opened the Bible for the first time at age 35 that was when I was confronted with the truth

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I thought I belonged to the one true Church I thought I was on my way to heaven albeit through a detour in purgatory it wasn't until I began reading the

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Word of God that I realized I was woefully deceived about life's most critical issue well in verses 8 and 9 the word accursed is the

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Greek word anathema it means to be turned over to God for destruction that's how serious it is to distort the gospel this is as harsh as God's Word ever gets pronouncing a damning curse on anyone who distorts or alters the gospel

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Paul holds nothing back if you add anything to the gospel or take anything away from the gospel you are to be turned over to God for destruction those who teach a way of salvation other than through the perfect finished all -sufficient work of Jesus Christ are to be a damn or to be damned did you know there's only one other place in the

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New Testament where this word anathema occurs you find it in 1st Corinthians 16 22 if anyone does not love the

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Lord he is to be accursed so what is Paul doing here he's elevating the purity of the gospel on the same level as loving

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God so what does it mean to be accursed let's look to the

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Lord Jesus in Matthew 25 41 he says depart from me you accursed into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angel to be cursed is to be put away from the presence of Christ and thrown into the eternal lake of fire prepared for the devil so what can we take away from Paul's strong defense of the gospel again looking at Galatians chapter 2 verse 5

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Paul writes but we did not yield in subjection to them the false brethren for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you

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I don't know about you but I often wonder why more

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Christian leaders and pastors are not exposing false teachers who distort the gospel today just a mile down the road from our church in South Lake Texas we go to countryside

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Bible Church pastored by Tom Pennington a mile down the road is a church called gateway you may have heard of the pastor

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Robert Morris a year ago on Resurrection Sunday he denied the deity of Jesus Christ why didn't everybody in that church get up and walk out well

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I named names just as the Apostle Paul did so I gave a message identifying him as a false teacher denying the deity of Christ and San Juan Capistrano there is a couple in that church that heard the message and San Juan called us up to find out where we go to church so that they could leave gateway and come to a church that preaches the truth you see that's the advantage of naming false teachers people don't want to sit under a false teacher if they truly have the

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Spirit of God well

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I think most people most pastors aren't naming names because they want to be man pleasers

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Paul addressed that in the very next verse Galatians 110 for am

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I now seeking the favor of men or of God or am I striving to please men if I were still trying to please men

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I would not be a bondservant of Christ so please don't miss this if we are compromising the gospel to please men then we are not pleasing

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God if we tolerate any false gospel we are not pleasing our Lord we found out the

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Roman Catholic Monsignor was invited to kick off a men's Bible study at Park City's Baptist Church in Dallas Jane and I got up at 530 in the morning when we found this out we went down to the church to stand there and pass out our gospel track

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Rome versus the Bible because we wanted those men to know that a wolf in sheep's clothing was about to lead them astray by teaching in the church it wasn't after 15 minutes of handing out our gospel tracks that the pastor of the church came out and asked us to leave

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I said wait a minute let me see if I have this right you're asking a brother and sister in Christ to leave the church and you've got a wolf in sheep's clothing about ready to teach your men yes that's what

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I'm doing I'm asking you to leave so we stepped off the church property and we continue to pass out our track you see we have a very compassionate heart for those who are being deceived

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I was deceived for most of my life I don't want anyone to go through this world deceived being believing they're on the way to heaven when they're on the wide road to destruction so the question for all of us do we know the gospel well enough to spot a counterfeit well let's take a close look at the purity and the exclusivity of the gospel it's about one person the eternal

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God incarnate his virgin birth and his perfect life and two events the atoning death of Jesus and his glorious resurrection from the dead

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Paul defines the gospel in 1st Corinthians 15 verses 1 to 4 no one has an excuse not to know the gospel but there are many distortions that we need to be aware of some reject salvation by faith alone in Christ alone by adding requirements for salvation and many of those requirements would include baptism as we saw in the first hour the

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Catholic Church says that's necessary good works are necessary in the Catholic Church to be justified you must have human merit you must receive the sacraments or religious rituals it's what we believe not what we do that gives us a right standing before God the gospel is also compromised and distorted by removing essentials the most common essentials that are removed from the gospel believe it or not the resurrection of Christ is removed

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Jane and I were visiting a church in the Dallas area large church 3 ,000 members we looked in the church bulletin as we sat down they had a two -step process to being saved believe you're a sinner and believe

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Jesus died on the cross for your sins the next week I called the pastor

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I said did you happen to know that you have presented a false gospel to your people this is a man who graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary he said what do you mean

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I distorted the gospel said you left out the resurrection of Christ Paul said if Christ has not been raised from the dead your faith is worthless well he had already printed 3 ,000 bulletins for the next week he had them destroyed he added the resurrection that's what you and I need to do we need to lovingly confront people when they're in error if they truly have the

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Spirit of God they will repent another essential it's often left out is repentance how can people miss this

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God commands all people to repent we see that in Acts 1730 another essential it's often removed is the righteousness of God it is revealed in the gospel and it's necessary in order to be right with God how many professing

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Christians have you talked to that believe they get to heaven by their own good works it's because we're not showing them

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Romans 10 the righteousness of God requires perfect righteousness for entrance into heaven as soon as people realize that they'll no longer try to achieve righteousness but they'll look to receive the gift of righteousness that Christ offers well

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Jesus warns of those who lay heavy burdens on men's shoulders the

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Catholic plan of salvation lays heavy burdens on Catholics listen to what you have to do to get to heaven if you're a

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Catholic you have to be baptized these numbers in parentheses are paragraph numbers of the

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Catechism you have to receive the sacraments they're necessary you have to do good works in order to be justified you have to attend the sacrifice of the mass to have your sins forgiven you have to do penance in order to have your sins forgiven you have to receive indulgences which is the remission of temporal punishment for sin and believe it or not

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Catholics have to obey the law in order to be saved what is

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James 10 to 10 say to keep the whole law perfectly and stumble at one part you're guilty of breaking the entire law as I shared in the first hour this means that every

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Roman Catholic clergy member is under a divine anathema every clergy member in the

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Catholic Church is accursed by God's word that's why we need to rescue Roman Catholics now from a religion that is under divine condemnation remember the

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Judaizers were condemned because they only added one requirement look at what the

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Catholic Church has added it's beyond comprehension that we have evangelicals signing unity accords with Roman Catholic clergy members the most recent unity accord was the

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Manhattan Declaration it was signed in 2009 you would be utterly shocked if you knew the evangelicals that have signed this this is what the statement in the opening of the

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Manhattan Declaration reads we are Christians Catholics Orthodox and evangelicals who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to proclaim the gospel of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and its fullness how can this be possible when you just saw the gospel the

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Roman Catholic Church teaches do you want to hear some of the names that have signed this unity accord

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Ravi Zacharias Al Mohler president of Southern Seminary J .I.

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Packer K author Mark Bailey past president of Dallas Theological Seminary James Dobson Tim Keller Richard Land Josh McDowell and David Platt I just wish

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I could stand before these men and share the gospel of the Catholic Church and beg with them and plead with them to remove their names but today 600 ,000 evangelicals have signed this unity accord daring to say that we share a common faith in the gospel well by their actions they're implying the

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Reformation was a mistake if we have the same gospel as the Catholic Church why was the

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Reformation necessary why the five solos I believe this is why a message

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I gave in Southern California has gone viral it now has 1 .9

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million views on YouTube the name of the message is you will be shocked and all

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I did was identify the seven major differences between biblical

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Christianity and Roman Catholicism do you have Catholic friends

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I would encourage you to share the link with them because it's black and white I use their catechism and their

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Bible to show them that they have distorted the gospel of grace well consider how divided we are on the doctrine of justification the doctrine of justification declares the inflexible justice of God as the righteous judge you cannot let the guilty sinners go free the only way condemned sinners can be justified is through faith in the substitutionary death and resurrection of our

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Lord Jesus Christ who satisfied divine justice the Reformers recognized the very doctrine of justification is the hinge upon which the gates of heaven open and close they said if you get justification wrong you get the gospel wrong they said if you get justification wrong you cannot be right with God I want to share with you the amazing and astonishing contrast between Roman Catholic justification and biblical justification the

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Bible teaches that justification is the change of one's legal status it's a forensic declaration such as in the court of law it changes a person's legal status before God whereby a condemned sinner is acquitted and declared righteous we see that in Romans 5 verses 12 to 21

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Rome says justification changes the inner man not his legal status you're going to see that Rome confuses justification with sanctification the

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Bible declares that justification is instantaneous that's why you see a gavel on the screen when the judge brings the gavel down the legal status of a condemned person is instantly changed for righteousness but Rome says no it's not instantaneous it's a process as we see in paragraph 2019 of the

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Catechism of the Catholic Church consider this the

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Bible teaches justification is by faith and what God accomplished in Christ Romans 5 1 but once again

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Rome says no it's not by faith it's by the sacrament of water baptism on the screen you see a picture of an infant that's how most

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Roman Catholics are baptized and so when you ask them the

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Bible says justification is by faith well they say well it's not the infant's faith it's the faith of the parents or the faith of the church that justifies the infant we must tell them that God doesn't have any grandchildren the

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Bible teaches that justification is permanent it is never ever lost by sin the legal status of a justified man is unchangeable as the righteousness of Christ I love sharing

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Hebrews 1014 with Catholics by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified one offering 2 ,000 years ago not the daily offerings of the sacrifice of the mass for 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 on the screen you see two arrows one going up they believe that you're right standing before God is increased as you do good works and it's decreased when you sin again denying the very

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Word of God the Bible teaches God justifies the ungodly

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Romans 4 5 the Rome teaches final justification is attained after being conformed to the righteousness of God paragraph 2016 and 2020 of the catechism here's another very significant difference the

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Bible teaches justification is the imputation or the crediting of Christ righteous to the justified 2nd

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Corinthians 521 which I must share with you is my favorite verse and also all of Scripture because it really defines the gospel

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I consider it the greatest exchange in human history he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him by faith

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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 but once again

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Rome says no justification is not the imputation but the infusion of righteousness which renews the interior man and that's why the sacrifice of the mass is necessary Catholics are infused with more and more righteousness as they attend the sacrifice of the mass so infused righteousness shifts the focus from God's actions to man's actions and from divine grace to human effort it points to a salvation that is not a free gift but something to be earned or maintained the

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Bible teaches that justification is by grace apart from works Christ righteousness is given as a gift as we see in Romans 517 but Rome says justification must include good works in fact rejustification which is necessary when you commit a mortal sin you're dejustified and now you need to be rejustified by meriting or making satisfaction for sins through penance works of mercy and on and on and on can you see how dependent

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Roman Catholics are on what they do instead of what Christ has done well the

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Bible teaches that after justification sins are no longer taken into account or punished this net good news listen to Paul in 2nd

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Corinthians 519 God is reconciling the world to himself through Jesus Christ not counting men's sins against them why aren't our sins counted against us anymore because they were all placed on Christ you know what when

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I share this good news with Catholics you know what they say oh so all you have to do is believe in Jesus and then you get to keep on sending no

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I take them to Titus 2 11 to 14 the grace that brought us salvation teaches us to say no to ungodliness no to worldly passions and to live a self -controlled upright life no once the

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Lord saved me I want to live my life pleasing to him for all he did on my behalf suffering in my place

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Rome says all sins committed after justification may be punished in purgatory or in hell again denying the words of Scripture the

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Bible teaches that God promises to glorify everyone he justifies that's because the promise of Romans 8 1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those are in Christ you know that justification and condemnation are opposite words everybody in this world stands before God either justified or condemned and the moment we are justified we will never ever be condemned again there's another promise in Romans 830 those

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God justifies he glorifies I was teaching on a cruise to Israel he was a

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Roman Catholic priest on board I spotted him by his collar and as I shared the gospel with him

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I asked him that question is it true you teach an infant is justified by water baptism and later if he commits a sin as an adult and dies in the state of mortal sin he goes to hell he said yes that's what we teach well how do you explain

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Romans 830 those God justifies he glorifies he scratched his head and said you know we just don't have an answer for that rather than submit to the supreme authority of God's inspired word and believe it we just don't have an answer for that Rome says

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God will condemn to hell everyone who was justified but who dies in mortal sin can you see there is absolutely no peace if you're a

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Roman Catholic there's no promise of eternal life Rome's apostasy was complete in 1545 that's when she deliberately and dogmatically departed from Christ and his gospel at the

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Council of Trent her apostasy includes dozens of infallible anathemas that condemn anyone including you and I who do not believe

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Rome's corruption of the gospel and yet we have evangelicals signing unity accords with the church that condemns us for Jesus said there's two ways to eternity 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 beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves every

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Roman Catholic clergy member is a wolf in sheep's clothing and I don't think they're deliberately deceiving people it's they've been indoctrinated from the time they can think they believe that what they teach is the truth they've never opened the

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Word of God to test the teaching of their church against what they believe the glorious gospel of Christ is what we should be shouting from the rooftops the

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Son of God became the Son of Man because he had prophecy to fulfill darkness to dispel truth to disclose air to expose justice to satisfy the law to fulfill sin to forgive righteousness to impute sinners to save people to sanctify redemption to purchase a church to build a bride to purify freedom to grant heaven to open life to give death to destroy

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Satan to conquer and God to reveal I'm always looking for opportunities to share the glorious gospel of grace we're invited up to teach at a church in Munster Texas it's a small

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German town with only one lighthouse there's a small Baptist Church there 90 % of the population is

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Catholic so after doing a seminar all day Saturday we woke up Sunday morning as I was preparing to give the message we're having breakfast in a cafe there in Munster about 50 people

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I did the math I figured 90 % are Catholic that means about 45 people in here are

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Catholic as we started to walk out something came over me and I I turned around and I picked up a fork and I started banging a glass the whole restaurant became silent

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I said now that I have your attention I want you to know I've come all the way up from Dallas to show you how you can have your sins completely forgiven and to be reconciled to God and I'm going to give that message across the street at the

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Baptist Church and all of you are welcome to attend well we walked out of the restaurant my wife looked at me and said if you ever do that again

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I will kill you she said if you ever do that in Dallas I will kill you well the fact that I'm still alive you know

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I've never done it in Dallas but I just something the Spirit of God came over me

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I just wanted these Catholics to know the truth the gospel's purity and exclusivity is what we need to contend for we must defend the purity of the gospel by proclaiming the sufficiency of Christ nothing can be added to his perfect finished work on the cross and we must also defend the exclusivity of the gospel by proclaiming the necessity of Christ no one can be saved except through the one mediator

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Jesus Christ what a glorious gospel we have to proclaim defend and protect we cannot be passive or indifferent toward false

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Gospels we must not worry about who might be offended by the truth instead we should worry about who will be misled deceived and destroyed if we don't contend for the truth well what must we do with a message like this well we need to enlist in the

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Lord's army to fight the good fight of faith there's a battle for the souls of men going on ultimately it's a battle between the

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Word of God and the teachings and traditions of false religions we need to contend earnestly for the faith and that doesn't mean passively that doesn't mean whenever we feel like it the battle for the souls of men is at stake it's a battle between the truth of God's Word and the lies of the devil we need to warn those who have been deceived by a distorted gospel there are many 1 .3

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billion Roman Catholics and who knows how many Protestants are deceived by compromised

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Gospels we need to proclaim the true gospel of grace to those who are perishing

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I hope all of you are moved to recognize there is a huge mission field outside those doors many people are perishing their only hope is the gospel of grace

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I was invited up to a church in Modesto California the pastor encouraged the congregation to invite all their

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Catholic friends because the former Catholic was going to come and do the morning service at the end of the service a young Catholic couple approached the pulpit and said

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Mike you've really brought a lot of conviction over us we'd like to buy you lunch and ask you some questions so we went to lunch and they began asking questions each time they asked a question

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I turned in his Catholic Bible and let God answer the question by the way if you're witnessing to a

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Catholic and they have their Bible I would encourage you to use it because they're told not to trust anything from a

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Protestant Church and they have the same 66 books that we do they've just added the

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Apocrypha so he kept asking questions and this went on for three hours every time he asked a question

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I pointed in the Bible his Bible to show him God's answer finally he was about ready to leave and I said

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Sergio before you leave can I ask you a question remember this morning I said imagine there's an illustration that there's a set of monkey bars suspended over hell and as a

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Catholic you're told as long as you're clinging to your baptism and your sacraments and your good works and obeying the law as long as you're clinging to all of these rungs you never have to fear hell you remember

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I said imagine Jesus is suspended between you and hell and he's saying if you'll let go of those things that cannot save you and trust me

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I promise I will said yeah I remember I said Sergio are you ready to let go and trust that Jesus will save you and his wife who hadn't said anything for three hours blurts out

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I am Sergio said well what do I need to do I said let's let

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God answer that question too so I turned to mark 115 the first command of Jesus repent and believe the gospel then

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I turned to Romans 10 I said read verses 9 and 10 if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

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Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you shall be saved

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I said look at verse 13 whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved

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Sergio batted his head cried out Lord save me he got up and wrapped his arms around me and we rejoice that God had brought salvation to him and his wife well about six months later

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I was about to teach at a conference in Southern California I hear this voice

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Mike Mike do you remember me there was Sergio he said I traveled all the way down from Modesto I wanted you to meet my brother

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I shared all of those verses you shared with me that afternoon my brother is also repented and believed the gospel well you're probably thinking young Mike you're an evangelist what about me well that's why

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I wrote the book preparing for eternity I took all the questions that Catholics ask and I answer them with the power and authority of God's Word so it's a great book to give to Catholics but it's also a great book to equip you on how to be a more effective witness to Roman Catholics the other book that I wrote contending for the gospel it's a book based on the ecumenical movement that's going on today evangelical signing unity accords we must contend for the gospel for the glory of Christ and the sanctity of his church as I shared in the first hour we really believe that when you give the gospel verbally you should also leave it in written form that's why we always carry gospel tracks with us wherever we go you can see we have a different gospel tracks we have them available in a vinyl envelope four of each so that you can carry them with you and depending on the conversation you'll know exactly which track to leave behind you can see three of them are devoted to reaching

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Catholics probably the easiest track to give away is where will you spend eternity everybody knows that one day they're going to spend eternity somewhere and this is a great gospel track to leave behind don't forget our website proclaimingthegospel .org

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a wealth of resources for you a lot of different articles videos audio messages our desire is to equip the body of Christ to reach out to those who are perishing and that should be everybody's main purpose in this life to honor the

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Lord Jesus Christ by carrying out the Great Commission you know why

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Jesus doesn't take us to heaven the very moment we're born again because he has given us all the privilege and the responsibility to be his ambassadors to reconcile the world to himself through Jesus Christ and I hope all of you take that seriously

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I'm not going to turn it over to the pastor for benediction