TPW 27 Pope Francis and His False Religion

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October 26, 2018

00:10: There was a time when Christians understood theological errors which could be tolerated over against theological errors which were fatal to human salvation.
00:20: There was a time when the true gospel of Jesus Christ was known, believed, and loved by those who claimed adherence to it.
00:28: And there was a time when Christians were willing to lose their lives, their friends, and their possessions in order to take a strong stand for that gospel.
00:37: In short, there was a time when Protestants protested.
01:33: And in the days leading up to the Reformation celebration that we all, hopefully all of us still love,
01:41: I know Hank Hanegraaff doesn't really have anything to celebrate anymore, but those of us who still think the
01:47: Reformation was a good thing and the gospel is not only the very lifeblood of our hearts and souls and of the church but is worth fighting for and dying for if necessary,
01:57: I'd like to celebrate those precious truths as they're vitally important to me and have always been at the heart and soul of my ministry.
02:05: I was thinking about my daughter. One of the things about my house, my house is a little bit like Noah's Ark, except we have more people in it than Noah's Ark did, but we have lots of pests.
02:18: My goodness, I was trying to think about the number of animals we've been through. One thing
02:23: I encourage parents to do is you always have to tell your kids no because most of what they want to do is dangerous or foolish or whatever, but when my kids have asked me for pets over and over and over again,
02:33: I usually have said yes. So we've been through, I mean, we've had, let's see, three dogs, we have two dogs right now.
02:40: I don't know how many bettas we've been through and then someone figured out that the cat was actually eating the bettas.
02:46: So we have, there's a new bowl for those little betta fish so the cat can actually get down in there with it to get it.
02:53: We've had, I don't know how many hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, we had two rabbits once, parakeets, birds, let's see,
03:02: I mean, I don't even know, lots of different animals. But I was looking at this bowl that my fourth child, my precious daughter
03:10: Maria, who is 14, she got a betta and got in this real big bowl and it just looks beautiful.
03:18: The bowl is just all, it's just perfect shiny glass and there's purified water in there.
03:23: And I was just thinking, wow, that's really beautiful. And as I was going to church, I was thinking, you know, that bowl with its crystal clear glass and the crystal clear water in it, that's kind of like the
03:34: Christian faith. It's the purity of the Christian faith. Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, Sola Christa, Sola Gratia, Sola Deo Gloria.
03:44: It's the pure Christian faith. But then things come along and you have all these ands, like I mentioned in the last podcast.
03:52: You have things being added. You have stuff tacked on to justification by faith alone and then it's destroyed.
03:57: You have things added to grace alone and it's destroyed. So you have the perfect purity of biblical truth.
04:04: God gives us Christ alone. We're justified by faith alone. We're saved by his grace alone, for his glory alone.
04:10: And the source of our authority and the source of the voice of God today is the scriptures alone.
04:16: But then things come along to add to all of that and end up ruining it. And I was thinking about how beautiful that new glass bowl for that new beta is and the perfectly clear, clean water.
04:28: And it seems like that glass bowl and the clean water can only get dirty. And so the church is constantly having to clean the bowl.
04:36: It's constantly having to refilter the water and clean off the inside and the outside of the fishbowl to keep things pure.
04:43: And it's always a call back to the great solas. How are we saved? We're saved by Christ. It's not
04:49: Christ plus works, Christ plus Mary, Christ plus purgatory, Christ plus penance, or anything else.
04:56: It's Christ alone. And I wanted to share some of my,
05:01: I guess I would call them my greatest hits, Reformation sermons. Over the years, this time of year,
05:07: I've always tried to preach one or two sermons on just the heart of the gospel. And of course, going through Romans, we did a lot of sermons on justification going through the book of Romans, especially
05:15: Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Those chapters hit that really, really, really, really hard.
05:22: But this particular sermon, I think this is the one I actually, I actually preached this at our
05:28: Presbytery's annual Reformation service, which is actually this coming Sunday evening.
05:33: I'm participating in that. I'm not preaching this year. I'll be reading a prayer, thanking God for our
05:38: Christian heritage. I'll have to make sure I don't make that too long. But there's so much to be thankful for with our Reformation heritage, for sure.
05:45: But this sermon, I called Pope Francis and His False Religion.
05:51: And I was kind of provoked to preach this one shortly after Francis, shortly after his pontificate got started, because Rick Warren had done that video where he was calling him our
06:03: Pope and talking about what a great Christian he was and blah, blah, blah. And it was just shocking. It was just absolutely shocking to listen to Rick Warren fawning all over Pope Francis.
06:13: And so, I preached this sermon and tried to give some historical information about who
06:18: Pope Francis is, who he claims to be, what Rome says about the papacy. That Rome is not saying that the papacy is something you might want to consider believing.
06:30: Rome is saying that this is something you must believe upon pain of the very anathema of God. And that hasn't changed.
06:36: And I don't know if Rick Warren is not aware of that, or if he is and doesn't care because he knows our postmodern society doesn't care about truth anyway, or what.
06:45: I don't know. I don't know if he's ignorant or what the deal is. But I thought I'd go ahead and post a few podcasts here as we approach
06:54: Reformation Day there on October 31st, celebrating the day Luther... He either mailed them or nailed them to the door there at the church in Wittenberg.
07:03: Either way, they got there. And to this day, we still don't know who it was that got the theses and then translated them from Latin into German and then printed them and had them distributed all over the place.
07:13: But it certainly was the match that was dropped on a powder keg that had been building for a long time that really got the ball rolling.
07:22: And of course, the invention of printing and the rediscovery of classical languages in the Renaissance and lots of things precipitated the
07:28: Reformation. But today in our country, there's not a whole lot of celebration of that.
07:34: I'm so thankful. I'm part of a presbytery that does an annual Reformation celebration. And it's a privilege.
07:40: I've gotten to speak at it once. I hope they'll ask me to do it again sometime. I don't know. Maybe I offended somebody.
07:48: I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so. We have a really good presbytery. But I wanted to post this message on Pope Francis and his false religion.
07:57: I hope that you find it edifying. It's a vitally important topic. And so I hope you enjoy it.
08:04: Let's pray the Lord's blessing on our time together in his word. Dear Heavenly Father, we are in need of your help.
08:13: So we would ask that your spirit would be our teacher, that you would enlighten our minds and help us to understand these very important issues we're going to talk about this morning, as there has been an incredible amount of deception, an incredible amount of unprecedented compromise and selling down of the truth.
08:34: We pray you'd bless us and help us this day to understand these issues better. In Christ's name.
08:40: Amen. Please turn your Bible to Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 through 18.
08:48: Colossians 1, 13 through 18. And as you're turning there, this morning's message is going to be about Pope Francis.
08:59: And so it's not really going to be an exposition of this passage I'm reading to you. We're going to look at a number of passages this morning, but seeing all the media, hearing all the pundits talking,
09:09: I felt like a response was necessary to the phenomenon of the
09:14: Pope of Rome being in America back in late September. Colossians 1, 13 through 18.
09:22: This is God's word. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
09:34: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
09:46: All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in him, all things consist.
09:52: And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in all things, he may have the preeminence.
10:04: May God bless the reading of his infallible word. I've given you this morning, a four point outline.
10:10: If you'd like to look at that and follow along that way, the first point in that outline
10:16: I've titled introduction, the ecumenical train wreck. Now, unless you have purposefully cut yourself off from all streams of news and media, you're well aware that Pope Francis, the
10:29: Bishop of Rome, the so -called vicar of Christ on earth and the head of the
10:34: Roman Catholic Church, visited the United States of America from September 22nd through September the 27th.
10:41: The media coverage of his movements and activities has been astounding, and he addressed a joint session of our
10:49: Congress. It's been remarkable to see just how much press this man has gotten.
10:55: The ostensibly and I use that word very emphatically, the ostensibly Protestant pastor,
11:02: Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in California, and the author of the best selling book,
11:08: The Purpose Driven Life, has said of Pope Francis, quote, Authenticity and humility.
11:14: Pope Francis is the perfect example of this. He is doing everything right. You see, people will listen to what we say if they like what we see.
11:24: As our new Pope, he was very symbolic in his first mass with people with AIDS.
11:31: His love for children, his care for the poor. This is what the whole world expects us as Christians to do.
11:39: And there was a headline in the news that said, if you love Pope Francis, you'll love
11:44: Jesus, end quote. And so Rick Warren calls Pope Francis our
11:51: Pope. There was a time when true biblical
11:56: Christians stood lovingly yet firmly against the purveyors of false gospels who derogated from the perfection and glory of Christ's crosswork for the salvation of sinners.
12:09: There was a time when Christians understood theological errors which could be tolerated over against theological errors which were fatal to human salvation.
12:20: There was a time when the true gospel of Jesus Christ was known, believed and loved by those who claimed adherence to it.
12:27: And there was a time when Christians were willing to lose their lives, their friends and their possessions in order to take a strong stand for that gospel.
12:37: In short, there was a time when Protestants protested. Those days are very sadly, by and large, a part of the past.
12:47: True Christians in America have watched with broken hearts as Protestant leaders.
12:53: And I use that phrase with a great deal of reservation, have betrayed the gospel of Jesus Christ and trampled underfoot his precious blood and all in the name of joining common cause with Roman Catholicism.
13:08: What Rick Warren has done is nothing new. It's been going on for quite some time now. In 1994, a document was released called
13:14: Evangelicals and Catholics Together, the Christian mission in the third millennium, which was signed by such high profile
13:21: Protestant leaders as J .I. Packer, Bill Bright, Pat Robertson and Oz Guinness.
13:27: There were in all 20 Protestants and 20 Roman Catholics who signed this document. It contains such statements as the following, quote,
13:35: As Christ is one, so the Christian mission is one. That one mission can and should be advanced in diverse ways.
13:43: Legitimate diversity, however, should not be confused with existing divisions between Christians that obscure the one
13:50: Christ and hinder the one mission. Another quote, We together,
13:55: Evangelicals and Catholics, confessed our sins against the unity that Christ intends for all of his disciples.
14:05: Another quote, In view of the large number of non -Christians in the world and the enormous challenge of our common evangelistic task, it is neither theologically legitimate nor a prudent use of resources for one
14:17: Christian community to proselytize among active adherents of another Christian community.
14:24: And listen to this quote, Those converted, whether understood as having received the birth for the first time or as having experienced the reawakening of the new birth originally bestowed in the sacrament of baptism, must be given full freedom and respect as they discern and decide the community in which they will live their new life in Christ.
14:46: End quote. Clearly implied in these statements is that there is a unity of faith between Protestants and Roman Catholics, so much so that they're even calling upon Christians to stop evangelizing
14:59: Roman Catholics. ECT, the Evangelicals and Catholics Together document also states, quote,
15:06: We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ.
15:11: End quote. Noticeably absent from this statement is that all important word alone.
15:20: What R .C. Sproul and many other theologians pointed out to the other Protestant signatories was this, Every delegate to the
15:27: Roman Catholic Council of Trent, which is the counter -reformation response to the Protestants, every delegate to the
15:34: Council of Trent would have happily signed that statement because it's not clear enough and it leaves off the greatest biblical accomplishments of the entire reformation itself.
15:45: If you modify that statement to say we are justified by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone, no
15:54: Roman Catholic person worth their salt is going to sign it. In 2009, another document was released called the
16:02: Manhattan Declaration, a call of Christian conscience. It was put together by Protestants, by Roman Catholics and by Eastern Orthodox believers.
16:12: It contains the following statements, quote, Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the gospel of costly grace and to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good.
16:27: Quote, It is our duty to proclaim the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season.
16:36: May God help us not to fail in that duty. Quote, As Christians, we take seriously the biblical admonition to respect and obey those of an authority, implying we're all
16:47: Christians together. Quote, Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise the proclamation of the gospel.
16:57: Quote, We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage.
17:07: And so far as we have to easily embrace the culture of divorce and remain silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage, we repent and call upon all
17:16: Christians to do the same. And then one more. And so it is out of love and prudent concern for the common good that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture.
17:32: How could we as Christians do otherwise? End quote. The clear implication in these statements is that Roman Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox believers are fellow
17:44: Christians who preach a common gospel of costly grace to the watching world.
17:51: We as Christians, me, Reverend Patrick Hines of a PCA church and Father so -and -so from such -and -such a
17:58: Catholic church and Father so -and -so from Eastern Orthodox Church, we proclaim the gospel of costly grace.
18:08: The implication, of course, is that we have a common gospel, that we're fellow Christians. I'd like you to listen to some of the names of men who signed this document.
18:16: Dr. Robert Canada, CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary, my alma mater. Dr. Brian Chappell, President of Covenant Theological Seminary.
18:25: Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Ligon Duncan, Tim Keller, Dr. Albert Moller, Chuck Colson, J .I.
18:32: Packer, John Stonestreet, Chuck Swindoll, Johnny Erickson Tada and Ravi Zacharias signed that statement.
18:40: Once again, Dr. R .C. Sproul, I don't know why they keep asking him to sign these documents, was asked to sign it for reasons
18:49: I can't even begin to understand. He wrote this following statement as to why he wouldn't sign it. Listen to this wise and godly man whose love for the gospel is greater than his love for his friends and for approval.
19:04: On November 20th, 2009, a document called the Manhattan Declaration was presented to the public by a coalition of co -belligerents.
19:11: The document is concerned primarily with three very important biblical cultural issues, the sanctity of life, the meaning of marriage, and the nature of religious liberty.
19:19: Without question, these issues are up for grabs in our nation. As anyone familiar with my ministry will know,
19:25: I share the document's concern for defending the unborn, defining heterosexual marriage biblically, and preserving a proper relationship between church and state.
19:34: However, when the document was sent to me and my signature was requested a few weeks ago,
19:40: I declined to sign it. In answer to the question, R .C., why didn't you sign the Manhattan Declaration?
19:46: I offered the following answer. The Manhattan Declaration confuses common grace and special grace by combining them.
19:53: While I would march with the Bishop of Rome and an Orthodox prelate to resist the slaughter of unborn innocents in the womb, so would
19:59: I, I could never ground that co -belligerency on the assumption that we share a common faith and a unified understanding of the gospel.
20:08: The framers of the Manhattan Declaration seem to have calculated this objection into the language of the document itself.
20:15: Likewise, some signers have stated that this is not a theological document. However, to make that statement accurate requires a redefinition of theology and serious equivocation on the meaning of the gospel.
20:30: The drafters of the document, Charles Colson, Robert George, and Timothy George, use deliberate language that is on par with the ecumenical language of the
20:37: Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement that began in the 1990s. The Manhattan Declaration states
20:43: Christians are heirs of a 2000 year tradition of proclaiming God's word, and it identifies
20:49: Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelicals as Christians. The document calls
20:54: Christians to unite in the gospel, the gospel of costly grace and the gospel of our
21:00: Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness. Moreover, the document says it is our duty to proclaim the gospel of our
21:08: Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his fullness, both in season and out of season. Without question, biblical truth must be proclaimed and the gospel preached prophetically to our nation.
21:18: But how could I sign something that confuses the gospel and obscures the very definition of who is and who is not a
21:27: Christian? I have made this point again and again since the days of E .C
21:34: .T. End quote. I do not understand and I pray
21:40: I will never understand how anyone could sign a document like this, which so obviously and blatantly betrays the gospel of Jesus Christ.
21:50: If we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if the New Testament gospel is to be our message and our blessed hope, if the cross of Christ and Christ's righteousness is the very foundation of our hope of heaven, how could we ever make common cause with the
22:04: Roman Catholic Church? And how can Protestants like Rick Warren call Francis our
22:10: Pope? I'd like to give you several doctrinal divides. There are many, many more.
22:16: I'd like to give you several serious doctrinal divides, which have historically always separated
22:22: Christians from Roman Catholicism until now, until now. But I want you to know
22:29: I'm committed to continuing to protest. I'm committed to it.
22:35: Like Charles Spurgeon said, our Protestantism must continually protest against what he called, and I agree with him, the masterpiece of Satan.
22:44: Number one, the papacy. Look at your outline there, just the papacy. Who does Pope Francis claim to be?
22:51: Who does he claim to be? From the first Vatican Council in 1870, the following statements are considered to be official
22:57: Roman Catholic teaching concerning the Pope. They are considered to be infallible. They are irreformable.
23:03: Listen closely. Who is Pope Francis? Who does he think he is? This is from chapter 3 .2 of the first Vatican Council.
23:10: Wherefore, we teach and declare that by divine ordinance, the Roman Church possesses a preeminence of ordinary power over every other church, and that this jurisdictional power of the
23:21: Roman pontiff is both Episcopal and immediate, both clergy and faithful or of whatever right and dignity, both singly and collectively are bound to submit to this power.
23:34: Chapter 3 .4 of Vatican I says, this is the teaching of Catholic truth, and no one can depart from it without endangering his faith and his salvation.
23:45: Chapter 3 .8, since the Roman pontiff, by the divine right of the apostolic primacy, governs the whole church, we likewise teach and declare that he is the supreme judge of the faithful, and that in all cases which fall under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, recourse may be had to his judgment.
24:03: The sentence of the apostolic see than which there is no higher authority is not subject to revision by anyone, nor may anyone lawfully pass judgment thereupon.
24:15: Isn't it amazing to think that what I just read to you is supposed to be the way that Christians look at the
24:20: Bible. In all cases which fall under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, recourse may be had to the
24:28: Pope's judgment. No recourse may be had to the Holy Spirit speaking in his word.
24:34: The sentence of the apostolic see is not subject to revision by anyone, nor may anyone lawfully pass judgment thereupon.
24:42: Friends, those are statements that Christians believe about God's word, about the scriptures. Chapter 4 .9
24:50: of Vatican I, again I want to emphasize to you, these are irreformable statements. These are statements that they would hold to be on the same par in authority as the
24:58: Bible itself. Listen closely. Therefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the
25:04: Christian faith, to the glory of God our Savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the
25:10: Christian people, with the approval of the sacred counsel, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the
25:17: Roman pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that means, that's Latin for, from the chair of Peter, that is, when in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all
25:26: Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed
25:37: Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals.
25:47: Listen closely. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not by the consent of the church irreformable.
25:59: This is why all of the joint statements, ECT, the gifts of salvation, the
26:05: Manhattan Declaration, my friends, when Protestants sit down at the table and dialogue with Rome, Protestants lose.
26:13: Why? They're not reformable. They have exempted themselves from the possibility of error.
26:22: The Roman Catholic Church has exempted itself from the possibility of error. She says about herself that the infallible definitions of the pope are of themselves irreformable.
26:32: Now think about the very historical movement of which we are part. We call ourselves part of the Protestant what?
26:38: Reformation. Meaning what? The church needed to be reformed by the word of God, corrected by the word of God.
26:48: The church needs to always be reforming itself. In fact, Paul told Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3 .16
26:54: that one of scripture's functions is correction. Years ago,
27:00: I went out on a Roman Catholic web forum and posted the question, quoted 2nd Timothy 3 .16, and I asked the question, how does scripture correct the
27:10: Roman Catholic church? I got no answer to that question because scripture can't do that for them.
27:18: That's why when Protestants sit down and try to do dialogue, we lose. Now, in case you're wondering, in case you're wondering, are these just recommendations that the
27:27: Roman church is making that we probably should believe these things? I'd like to read to you some of the anathemas from the
27:33: First Vatican Council. The word anathema is borrowed from Galatians chapter one. The word means damned and sent to hell.
27:40: I'd like you to listen to this. And remember, when Pope Francis, the nice grandfatherly guy who talks about how much
27:47: God loves everybody and accepts everybody, he affirms these anathemas. Listen carefully. Therefore, if anyone says that blessed
27:55: Peter, the apostle was not appointed by Christ, the Lord and Prince of all the apostles and the visible head of the whole church militants, let him be anathema.
28:06: So maybe Rick Warren calls him our Pope because he doesn't want to go to hell. That's what they're saying.
28:12: If you don't believe that, you're going to hell. If anyone says that the Roman pontiff has merely an office of supervision and guidance and not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole church, let him be anathema.
28:29: I'd like to make a biblical response to these claims of Vatican one. We just read one of them right there in Colossians chapter one, verse 18.
28:37: If you still got your Bible open, look at verse 18, speaking of Jesus Christ. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.
28:49: Who is the head of the church? Who is the head of the Christian church? Christ alone. Ephesians 1, 22, and he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church.
29:04: The Westminster confession in chapter 25 .6 says there is no other head of the church, but the
29:10: Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof.
29:17: Now, how does Christ exercise his kingship and his headship over the church? How does Jesus rule over his church?
29:24: He does it by his word and spirit through officers that he gives to his church.
29:29: Listen to Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
29:45: Another passage, 1 Corinthians 12, 28. And God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues, et cetera.
29:58: And while we understand that the miraculous gifts, the office of apostle and prophet, that those have expired with the death of the apostles.
30:06: I want you to notice what's missing from this list. What's missing from these lists? Popes, cardinals, priests.
30:16: Where are they in the Bible? They are nowhere to be found. Christ gives these officers to his church, to shepherd his church.
30:28: There is no one mega bishop over the whole church. It is simply not found in scripture.
30:33: Who is the head of the church? Christ alone. And he shares that with no one.
30:41: Jesus rules his church through the word of God, through the scriptures. When Jesus was confronted with error, he very matter of factly quotes the
30:48: Bible back to the people. As if all the Bible is able to be read and understood by all, that it's clear enough for us to get it.
30:56: Listen to the word of God. Matthew 22, 29. Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
31:05: In verse 31 of that same chapter, but concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, and then
31:12: Jesus quotes from scripture. What's his assumption is that you and I can understand the Bible. You don't need a
31:19: Pope. Do you need teachers? Do you need elders? Do you need people to guide and help you? Of course. That's why
31:24: Jesus gives those officers to the church. Are they infallible? No. Should you obey everything they say?
31:31: No. Unless it's provable from the word of God is, is anything
31:36: I say or anything, the PCA general assembly says irreformable. Of course not.
31:43: Of course not. There is but one and only one infallible voice on earth.
31:49: And it is the Holy spirit of God speaking in scripture. I'd like you to turn with me to this passage.
31:56: Turn to acts chapter 20 versus 29 to 32 acts chapter 20, verse 39 or verse 29 to 32 acts 20 versus 29 to 32.
32:07: As you're turning there to acts 20 verse 29, here you have the apostle Paul getting ready to go to Jerusalem, not knowing for sure what's going to happen there.
32:16: He knows he's going to be persecuted. He knows his life's going to be in danger. He knows his life may come to an abrupt end in Jerusalem.
32:24: And listen to what he says to the men who were weeping, who didn't want him to go. Listen to verse 29 through 32.
32:31: Paul says, for, I know this that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
32:37: Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.
32:44: Therefore watch and remember that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now brethren,
32:50: I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
33:00: Okay. Stop right there. My friends, if ever there was a time when
33:06: Paul, if he believed in the papacy would have directed them to it, this would be that spot.
33:13: This man knows his life may very well be coming to a swift end. Why didn't he tell them? Yes, savage wolves are coming, but know this brethren, you need to be in line with Peter and his successors in the city of Rome until the end of time, just stick with them and all will be well.
33:30: We find no such pronouncements anywhere in scripture. What about Timothy?
33:36: Remember the last things that Paul said to Timothy before his death in second Timothy chapter four,
33:42: Paul said, my life has already been poured out as a drink offering. He knows he's going to be martyred soon. He knows the end is coming.
33:48: Turn to second Timothy three, 15 through 17, second Timothy three, 15 through 17.
33:57: Second Timothy chapter three verses 15 to 17. Here you have Paul's final written words before his death.
34:05: Listen to what he directs young Timothy to verse 15 and that from childhood you have known the
34:13: Holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
34:31: Why is there no instruction about Peter's successors in Rome here? Because Paul did not believe in the papacy, my friends, he did not believe this.
34:41: The claims were not, were not even being made. It took hundreds of years later before the claims were even being made.
34:47: And so that's the papacy. Secondly, the mass. Secondly, the mass. I'd like to read to you a description of the mass taken from a popular
34:56: Roman Catholic writer named John O 'Brien in a book that he wrote about Catholicism called the faith of millions.
35:02: Listen to this quotation describing what is happening in the Roman Catholic mass. Quote, when the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings
35:16: Christ down from his throne and places him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man.
35:24: It is a power greater than that of saints and angels. The priest's power is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of seraphim and cherubim.
35:33: Indeed, it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the blessed Virgin was the human agency by which
35:40: Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven and renders him present on our altar as the eternal victim for the sins of man.
35:50: Not once, but a thousand times. The priest speaks and low
35:55: Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God bows his head in humble obedience to the priest's command of what sublime dignity is the office of the
36:08: Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and vice regent of Christ on earth.
36:13: He continues the essential ministry of Christ. He teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ. He pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ.
36:20: He offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement, which Christ offered on Calvary.
36:27: No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of alter
36:34: Christos for the priest is and should be another Christ.
36:40: End quote. They believe that their priests are alter
36:46: Christos, another Christ. That priest raises his hands to heaven and says in Latin, Hoc est corpus meum.
36:54: And as John O 'Brien says, he speaks and Christ humbly obeys him.
37:00: I'll tell you, it's hard to read things like this. This is blasphemy of the highest order of the highest order.
37:10: How could anyone who knows these things sign documents saying me and father so -and -so are fellow
37:17: Christians knowing that this is what they claim to believe and do as a corollary to the mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation and the
37:29: Catholic priest raises the bread and wine and utters the Latin words, Hoc est corpus meum, which means this is my body.
37:34: Sainted doctor of the church, Alphonsus de Liguri tells us, quote, the priest conceives with his hands the
37:40: Christ just as truly as Mary conceived him in her womb. End quote. We are told that Jesus Christ is rendered present body, soul, blood and divinity upon that Roman altar and then is immolated in an unbloody manner for the sins of the living and for the dead suffering and purgatory right now.
38:01: They believe that a true miracle takes place at every mass. That's what the word transubstantiation refers to.
38:09: That term is what was used by the fourth Lateran council in 1215 when the dogma of transubstantiation was formally defined.
38:17: That term transubstantiation assumes the pagan worldview of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle taught that everything that exists is made up of two things.
38:26: It's outward accidents like this, that what it feels like, smells like, it's what it looks like.
38:34: That's the accidents, the outward appearance of something. But underneath it is the invisible substance.
38:40: It's essence that's invisible. You can't see it. You can't have any contact with it at all. But there's this underlying substance.
38:47: It's a total pagan worldview. There's nothing Christian about that way of looking at anything. But they use that terminology to describe the miracle of the mass, because when the priest says those words, something happens to the bread and the wine.
38:59: It becomes Jesus, but it still looks, tastes, feels, smells like bread and wine.
39:06: And so it's a miracle, but it's completely unverifiable. The invisible, non -material essence or substance changes so that now it's
39:16: Jesus. That's why if you attend a mass and you watch the priest say, hoc est corpus meum, they ring a bell.
39:22: What does everyone in that church do? They all bow down. Why? Because they think he's actually there now.
39:28: That's why you can't throw the bread away. That's why you can't throw the wine away. It's got to be put up in little tabernacles so people can come in and worship it.
39:37: Now, what does the mass actually do? I'd like to read to you from their own documents from session 22, chapter two of the council of Trent.
39:46: This section says that the sacrifice of the mass is propitiatory both for the living and the dead.
39:53: And for as much as in the divine sacrifice, which is celebrated in the mass, the same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner who once offered himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross.
40:04: The Holy Synod teaches that this sacrifice is truly propitiatory and that by means thereof, this is effected that we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.
40:15: If we draw nigh unto God, contrite and penitent with the sincere heart and upright faith with fear and reverence, they believe it's actually the very same sacrifice of the cross in the mass that is propitiatory for the sins of the living that are present and for the dead and purgatory.
40:35: Now, there are many other doctrines that we could talk about. We could talk about purgatory.
40:42: We could talk about the five additional sacraments of the Roman Catholic religion. We could talk about indulgences, which are still taught today.
40:50: We could talk about the Marian dogmas. We could talk about the imprisoning, torturing, and murdering of Christian people that took place for 667 years in the inquisitions.
41:03: We could discuss the fact that St. Peter's Basilica was built with money that was taken by the sale of indulgences all throughout
41:10: Europe in the 16th century. But I'd like to close focusing upon the primary reason that we should not look at Francis as our
41:18: Pope or consider believing Roman Catholics to be Christians at all. The reason that we do not have a unity of faith with the
41:25: Roman Catholic Church is quite simply this. We don't agree on the gospel. You know, when a person first comes to see the depths of their sin against the thrice holy
41:38: God, but is then lifted from the dust of death to the glorious cross of Christ, our souls can only cry out in praise and adoration to Him for being so kind, so loving, so gloriously gracious to us.
41:56: My goodness, without the gospel, where would we be? Without Jesus, what are we other than desperately lost in our sins?
42:04: And what is that gospel? How does Rome define the way in which a person is saved? And what does
42:10: Rome think of the gospel of Christ that is taught in the Bible? I'd like you to listen to several of the anathemas, several of the damnations that were pronounced by the
42:19: Council of Trent. And as I read these to you, I'd like you to bear in mind that every priest, every bishop, every cardinal, every
42:26: Pope, including Francis, when they took their oath of office, had to affirm all of the canons and decrees of all of these councils.
42:36: These have never been modified, changed, altered, deleted in any way, shape, or form. Canon 9, if anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, let him be anathema.
42:50: Canon 11, if anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, let him be anathema.
43:00: Listen to this one, please. Listen closely to this. If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which forgives sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema.
43:19: Canon 24, if anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and not also increased before God through our good works, but that those works are only the fruits and signs of justification, let him be anathema.
43:34: If anyone says that after the grace, after the reception of the grace of justification, the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world through our own sufferings or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.
43:56: Do you hear what they're saying? If you believe that Jesus Christ is sufficient to save you from your sins, you are going to hell.
44:09: Canon 32, if anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified, or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ does not truly merit an increase of grace in eternal life, let him be anathema.
44:33: In a book called Dogmatic Theology for the Laity by Roman Catholic theologian Matthias Prem, he wrote these words, quote, it is a universally accepted dogma of the
44:42: Catholic church that man in union with the grace of the Holy Spirit must merit heaven by his good works.
44:48: We can actually merit heaven as our reward. Heaven must be fought for.
44:54: We have to earn heaven, end quote. I like clarity.
45:01: I'm tired of theologians who are like trying to nail jello to a wall. I like it when they just say it as clear as can be.
45:07: How do you get to heaven? You got to earn it by your good works. Got to earn it by your good works. Another Roman Catholic theologian,
45:14: Ludwig Ott, in his book, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, in the section on justification, wrote this, quote, the reason for the uncertainty of the state of grace lies in this, that without a special revelation, nobody can know with certainty of faith whether or not he has fulfilled all of the conditions that are necessary for achieving justification, end quote.
45:37: Because the Roman Catholic church teaches that sinners are justified by their works that they do with the help of God's grace, the doctrine of assurance is annihilated.
45:49: In fact, to be assured of your salvation in the Roman Catholic church is a sin.
45:56: It's called the sin of presumption. If you think you're going to heaven, you're sinning against God.
46:02: Think of it, to know, as 1 John 5, 13 tells us, these things have been written to you who believe in the name of the son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life and this life is in his son.
46:15: If you say in the Roman Catholic church that you know you have eternal life, you are engaging in the sin of presumption.
46:23: Justification in Roman Catholic theology is a process of moral transformation. It is initiated by baptism, which justifies the baptized person and infuses into their soul what they call sanctifying grace.
46:38: And as long as you don't commit a mortal sin, and they call it mortal because it kills the sanctifying grace that you have, as long as you don't commit a mortal sin, you'll probably have to spend some time in purgatory, but you will go to heaven.
46:51: But if you do commit a mortal sin, you have to go to a priest and get justified again. You have to get justified again through the sacrament of penance.
46:59: You must go to a duly ordained priest in the Roman religion, and he absolves you of the eternal guilt of your sins by his legislative authority as a priest.
47:07: And then he will assign to you to do works of penance. You have to go say 53 Hail Marys or 40
47:13: Our Fathers and give so much money to the poor, do other things in order to atone for the temporal punishments that are still remaining from your venial sins.
47:22: And the entire system of salvation in Roman Catholicism really has very little to do with Jesus Christ or the cross.
47:29: You get bits of grace by making use of sacraments. But the entire way of salvation depends in its entirety on how well you've done with the infused grace you've gotten through these sacraments.
47:41: And the chances are you haven't kept it going good enough. And you're going to purgatory to suffer what they call, what they, the
47:50: Latin term they use is satis passio. When you go to purgatory, you do satis passio. That Latin word means suffering of atonement for the sins that you committed, that you weren't able to do adequate penance to atone for them in this world.
48:05: In fact, in the Roman Catholic Church, you can still pay money to the church today to have the intentions of a mass applied to other people or applied to your dead loved ones in purgatory.
48:17: Did you know that? You know how I know that? Because someone mailed me a mass card once.
48:24: I got one in the mail and it said that my name was going to be remembered by some priest in some
48:29: Catholic parish somewhere, and that it would shorten the amount of time that I have to spend in purgatory.
48:36: And I did not appreciate that at all. I did not appreciate my Savior's blood being insulted like that.
48:45: My friends, we could go on and on here. I could give you more quotations. I could show you the books that I have by them, not
48:51: Protestants attacking them, books by Catholic theologians. I could show you the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent, the canons and decrees of Vatican I, Vatican II.
48:59: But when you look at this whole thing together, we're not talking about Christianity, are we?
49:05: When we talk about Roman Catholicism, we're not talking about Christianity. We're not talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ that's proclaimed by Christ and the apostles in the word of God.
49:14: When we talk about Rome's gospel, this process by which a person tries to earn heaven by their good works, which is made possible by the infusion of grace through Rome's sacraments.
49:25: That could not possibly be a more convoluted view of what is in the Bible, a once for all instantaneous act on the part of God, whereby through faith alone in Christ alone, the satisfaction of the cross is accepted by God as the full payment of all my sins, past, present and future.
49:45: And God places the righteousness of Christ upon us and pronounces us to be justified before him.
49:53: Paul said in Romans 321, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
50:16: God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood to demonstrate at the present time is righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus where then is boasting.
50:30: It is excluded. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
50:39: Amen. Praise God. We can be saved. We don't have to live our lives in uncertainty. It's not a sin to believe you're going to heaven.
50:47: In fact, if you're a Christian, it's a sin to doubt that you're going to heaven. Galatians 2 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified.
51:09: And that does not mean just ceremonial works. It means all of the law.
51:15: When Paul says that we're justified by faith apart from the works of the law, he's talking about adultery and stealing and idolatry and the 10 commandments in addition to circumcision and everything else.
51:29: In Ephesians 2, for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
51:37: I'm sorry, Mr. Prem, Matthias Prem, you're wrong. When you say we have to earn heaven by our good works, you are wrong, sir.
51:45: We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, not by works, lest anyone should boast.
51:53: Paul spelled out so clearly Romans 11, 6, and if by grace, it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace.
52:02: Paul rejoiced in the salvation that he had in Christ. He rejoiced in it. Listen to this from Philippians 3, 7, but what things were gained to me.
52:10: Remember what he just did in there? He says, hey, if anyone, if anyone ever had a reason to think they were going to heaven for their life and for who they were,
52:16: I am that person circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Israel. I was a Pharisee. As to the law,
52:22: I was blameless. And he says, but what was once gained to me, I have counted as loss for Christ.
52:28: Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom
52:34: I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness infused, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from law.
52:49: But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness, which is from God by faith. And so who is
52:58: Pope Francis? Is he our Pope? Is he a fellow
53:04: Christian with us? What about all these Protestant leaders who have affixed their names to these ecumenical documents?
53:14: I'd like to tell you who Pope Francis is. Pope Francis is a sinner who desperately needs to be confronted with his sin and his errors and called to repent and believe the true gospel.
53:27: And all those men who signed ECT and the gift of salvation and the Manhattan Declaration, they ought to be ashamed of themselves.
53:35: Now, they might object and say, hey, I don't mean the same thing by the phrase preach the gospel of costly grace as father so -and -so does.
53:42: I didn't mean the same thing that they do. I have my own understanding of that. And my response to that would be so you engaged in a purposeful equivocation.
53:51: You mean something by the word gospel, which you knew full well they didn't mean by that word. The documents to which we are confessionally bound, the
54:01: Westminster Larger Catechism, question 145. What are the sins forbidden in the ninth commandment?
54:06: What is the ninth commandment? You should not bear false witness. Listen carefully to what is forbidden, quote, speaking the truth unseasonably or maliciously to a wrong end or perverting it to a wrong meaning or in doubtful and equivocal expressions.
54:22: If you signed that document with this in your mind, well, I don't mean the same thing they do that you lied.
54:32: The Roman Catholic Church is not a Christian denomination. It is not a Christian church. And those who are believing members of it are not our brothers and sisters in Christ.
54:40: And my friends, that's not unloving or mean. There's nothing more loving than the truth. The Roman Catholic Church is our mission field.
54:49: And would to God that those who try to massage words enough to make them mean their opposite would recognize their obligation to proclaim the true gospel to those poor people who are trapped in a false system, which has chained their souls to a false gospel, which cannot give them peace with God.
55:07: And that's what the gospel does for those who know what it is and who truly understand and embrace it.
55:14: As it is taught in scripture, that's the problem. Rome's gospel has never, cannot, and will never give anyone peace with God.
55:25: Paul said in Romans 5, 1, in closing, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
55:35: Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we have that peace with God? Is it because we've worked hard enough through the use of sacramental grace and indulgences and doing works of penance?
55:51: It's because his shed blood is sufficient to save us and his righteousness covers all of our sins.
55:57: When we sing that hymn in Christ alone, the opening line is in Christ alone, my hope is found.
56:04: And I want to tell you, if that's not true of you, if it's yeah, Christ, you need Christ, but there's these other things in Christ alone.
56:13: My hope is found in Christ alone. My hope is found. Let's pray.
56:20: Our heavenly father, we pray that you would grant repentance to those who should know better than to endorse the
56:31: Pope of Rome as being a Christian or worse being our Pope. I pray you would open eyes and hearts to that great error.
56:42: Help us to have compassion on those who are trapped in false religious systems, which chain them to a never ending treadmill of good works and uncertainty.
56:54: Lord, you have blessed us so greatly by giving us the true gospel as we read in those passages that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, not by our works, but through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus by faith alone.
57:20: May that be where we take our stand. May we have the courage and the integrity to stand for that gospel, the only gospel that can save that we might see our lost friends in the