Heaven, Hell and Everything In Between (part 4)

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Heaven, Hell and Everything In Between (part 5)

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Father, we thank you for this beautiful morning, for this opportunity we have this morning, even as we came here to see creation and all of its beauty and all that you have provided for us.
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Father, as we gather together to talk about doctrines that ought not to be difficult, but have deceived so many people,
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I pray that you would just hold us to a biblical standard and enlighten our minds that we might understand better how deceived so many people are.
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Father, would you give us not any amount of scorn or pride or any such thing as we look at this, but instead give us real hearts of compassion, hearts that would long to see many of our
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Catholic friends and neighbors come to faith in Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Well, first,
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I got this in my mailbox, and Janet, if you would close that back door, please. If nothing else, it's distracting to me, and I'm easily distracted.
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Okay. Got this in my mailbox. Thank you, Tracy, very much. And the good news is it's free.
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Absolutely free. A one -day prophecy conference. The bad news is we already missed it. So, but an actual photograph here of John on the
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Isle of Patmos. They must have gone for it. But don't miss this conference. Health care reform, swine flu shots, and your future.
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Will the economy collapse? I mean, there's just a real lack of, let's see, commas, semicolons, what do you call it?
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Oh, punctuation. How about this? The book of Revelation, false doctrine, prosperity gospel. I mean, it's just like all rambling, you know, together.
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But anyway, flip it over. This is the part I really like. This is a Bible -based conference. Prophecy is history written in advance.
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Okay. The answer is not money, success, entertainment. Okay. Elections.
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All right. Astrology. Suicide or running from your problems. Prophecy conference.
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I don't know. Just kind of weird stuff. Sponsored by Alive and Remain Ministries.
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For more information, 1 -877 -6. End time. I mean, this is just,
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I don't know. It just struck me as kind of weird. Okay. Last time we were talking about annihilationism.
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Pastor Dave, at the end, brought up a great point about us being image -bearers.
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And I thought that was an excellent point, because if we're image -bearers of God, then how could we ever be annihilated?
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How could God create us in such a way that we reflect certain of his attributes and then absolutely destroy us forever?
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And as we talked about last time, there's nothing in the Bible that would teach that we are, in fact, annihilated.
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And this morning, I've entitled this morning's message or lesson An Hour in Purgatory, because I thought that was really all
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I could stand. But we might be in purgatory longer now. We'll see how it goes. We're on the top of page 17.
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Heaven. We're talking about heaven. And here's our third option.
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As a reward for those who die in faith, then are purified. I think the
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Catholic Church would define it slightly differently than I did. There is those who die in faith, but then are purified.
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There is that purification. But I think they kind of phrase it like die in good standing. Well, let's see what they say.
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From the Second Vatican Council, a .k
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.a. Vatican II or Vatican, whichever. The truth has been divinely revealed that sins are followed by punishments.
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God's holiness and justice inflict them. Sins must be expiated.
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This may be done on this earth through the sorrows, miseries, and trials of this life, and above all, through death.
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Otherwise, the expiation must be made in the next life through fire and torments or purifying punishments.
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What does that sound like? Sounds like gold or silver.
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You burn it until all the impurities come out. What else? Sounds like you pay for your own sins, doesn't it?
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And just going back there, it says sins must be expiated. This may be done on earth through the sorrows, miseries, and trials of this life.
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So if your life is miserable, it's one trial after another, it's one difficulty after another, it's poverty, it's heartbreak, it's heartache, it's disease, it's calamity, are you paying for sins?
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Sounds like it according to this. Sorrows, miseries, and trials of this life, and above all, through death.
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Salvation by death. Must sin be expiated?
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What does it mean to expiate? I mean, there's a word we don't use every day. It means to atone for, to make amends for, or reparation for, to pay someone what is owed them.
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So do sins have to be expiated? God's holy law is violated.
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Must that be expiated? And the answer, of course, as Becky said, is yes. Now, does the
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Bible say that our sorrows, miseries, and trials or death will pay for them?
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No. Number two, will we expiate our sins or has
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Jesus done this? Let's open our Bibles and look at Romans 3, verses 23 to 26.
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And again, as we look at this this morning, understanding that so many Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion of this region.
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And when we see what the church teaches, and I want to be very clear here.
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Can there be, and I think I've said this before, can there be Christians within the Roman Catholic Church?
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I think so. Can there be Roman Catholic people who don't understand
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Roman Catholic doctrine or don't believe Roman Catholic doctrine? Yes. But if you believe what the
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Roman Catholic Church teaches, I have a very difficult time believing that you are what we would consider a
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Christian, that you are saved. And I don't say that with any joy or glee because it's not a joy or gleeful thing.
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Would somebody read Romans 3, verses 23 to 26? Who has that?
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Bruce. As we read that, we understand that we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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But listen, being justified, past tense, as a gift through the redemption.
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I mean, all this implies that this has already taken place, the redemption in Christ, whom
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God displayed publicly. What is a propitiation? What does it mean to propitiate something?
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Bruce. Okay, to bear the wrath that we deserved.
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Anybody else? Okay, atonement. I'm sorry, who else?
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Appease. Yeah, appease the wrath. You know, a satisfaction of the wrath of God, that sense.
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But the language here is all very, it's not, we don't see anything in here that would indicate that somehow we are responsible for suffering for our sins.
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That we somehow contribute to being declared righteous, to being justified, which is declared righteous.
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We don't see that any of these things are on us.
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It is, even in verse 26, so that he would be just, talking about God, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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God looks at us, those who believe in Christ, those who are in Christ, and sees the perfect work of Christ, and therefore declares us just.
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Not because we are just, but because we're positionally just. We are in Christ.
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Look what kiss -democracy is. When used here, as Romans 3, 24, in the dominant forensic sense, to justify means to declare righteous.
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And justification may be defined as that gracious act of God, whereby on the basis solely of Christ's accomplished mediatorial work, that means he accomplished something on our behalf, he declares the sinner just, and the latter, us, accepts this benefit with a believing heart.
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In defense of this definition, see not only this present context, but also, and then he gives a list of other verses, justification stands over against condemnation.
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It wipes out condemnation. Justification is a matter of imputation, and this becomes a very important term.
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The sinner's guilt is imputed to Christ, the latter's righteousness is imputed to the sinner.
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In other words, we've talked about this before, justification is a great transaction. It is actually two, two, two transactions in one.
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Because God declares us just, he sees us as if we did exactly what
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Jesus did, and he sees Jesus on the cross as if he did exactly what we did.
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He put all of our sin on Christ on the cross, and because of that, he gives us all of Christ's righteousness, the fact that he never sinned, and the fact that he did everything perfectly.
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In other words, his passive obedience and his active obedience, both credited due to our accounts, and all of our sin credited to Jesus' account.
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Questions or comments about that? Talking about expiating or atoning for our sins, making amends for them, the idea that we could do it, that doesn't seem to be what the
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Bible teaches. John 19 .30,
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we're not going to turn there, but just thinking about what Jesus said as he hung there on the cross, and he said, it is finished.
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What was he referring to? My suffering? Was he happy that he could finally just quit suffering?
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Look what MacArthur says, the verb here carries the idea of fulfilling one's task, and in religious context, has the idea of fulfilling one's religious obligations.
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The entire work of redemption had been brought to completion. The single
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Greek word here translated, it is finished, has been found in the papyri, being placed on receipts for taxes, meaning paid in full.
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It is finished, his obligation. The work that the
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Father sent him here to do, that is to go and seek that which was lost, to save them, to reclaim them, to redeem them.
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Jesus had an enormous debt to pay, and it wasn't his, it was ours.
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And when he died, he said, it is finished, it is paid in full. And we're going to be reading some
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Roman Catholic sources, and I apologize for that this morning, but we have to understand what it is that they're arguing, so that we can deal with it biblically.
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From the bottom of page 17, from Catholic Apologetics Network, let us start with a few biblical truths.
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That's always so refreshing. The first of which is Revelation 21 -27.
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Nothing unclean can enter heaven. True? True. By this we understand, for us to see
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God face to face, which is what we will do in heaven, we must be perfect as your heavenly
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Father is perfect. Would we agree so far? Yes. But how, you may ask, can this happen to we sinful human beings?
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We believe this is because God does not merely impute Christ's righteousness to us.
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But wait, that's what we just talked about. Not merely impute
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Christ's righteousness to us, but actually infuses his life into our soul, making us pleasing to God.
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1 Peter tells us, we become partakers of the divine nature. Yes, Christ comes and dwells within us, perfecting us in this life, thus preparing us for the next life.
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Yet we fail in many aspects of our walk with the Lord, and these failures, refusal of the grace
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God has given us, put up barriers or roadblocks on our way to perfection.
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So we're made perfect and then we become unperfect as we sin. That's what he says.
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These failures come because we love ourselves more than we love God. Our goal as Christians is to die totally detached from creatures and this world, thus totally in love with God.
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I think that's a fine goal, to love God more than you love anything in this world.
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That's what the Bible teaches. Unfortunately, when most of us die, we still have this inordinate attachment to creatures and not the
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Creator. Is that a sin?
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Is it a sin to love creation more than the Creator? It's idolatry, so absolutely a sin.
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Do we do that? I think sometimes we do. But by the grace and power of the cross, God has provided what
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Catholics call purgatory, as a place where the love of God will burn away all those affections for creatures so that we can come to see the beatific vision.
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That is God face to face. Were it not for this cleansing, most of us would not be able to handle the grandeur and majesty of the
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Father. Becky says, how do you know when you're done?
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Well, I think the idea is that you don't decide. It's not like, well,
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I think I'll set the timer for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Yeah, 350, there you go.
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And see how I feel after the 20 minutes. It's not like that. I think there is the idea that God decides how long you need to spend and it's probably higher than 350 degrees.
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But I digress. What does it mean that the life of it, let's just look at a few questions here.
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What does it mean that the life of Christ is infused into us? That's what he says happens.
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What does it mean that it's infused into us? What's that, John? Yeah, I mean, it all has to do with the sacramental system where you go to church, you take the wafer, you drink the wine and the real body of Christ is in you.
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You participate in the sacrament of marriage. You get baptized. All these things infuse the life of Christ into you, as John was saying.
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It's no longer imputed, which is the biblical language, but infused, kind of transfused with an in, different.
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Richard D. Phillips, speaking at 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia, said this. All of this deals with the doctrine of justification.
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And he says that because Roman Catholics have a very different view of justification. Our view is exactly what
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I just said, that it's a grand transaction involving all of our sins being transferred to Christ and his righteousness to us so that when
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God looks at us, when he declares us righteous, which is what justification means, he is upholding his holiness, too, because Christ has already paid for those sins.
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So it's not in any way unholy or unjust of God to look on us that way.
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But the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification is that justification is not a one -time forensic declaration by God that that person is now innocent of the sins because Christ paid for them.
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It's not a one -time thing. It is an ongoing process. In the
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Roman Catholic system, justification is like sanctification. We would say that sanctification is the process by which we are conformed into the image of Christ.
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They would say justification is the process by which we are made more righteous.
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Well, I mean, yeah, you could certainly say that. Charlie says they combine justification and glorification.
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Because, right, yeah, he says that justification really is only completed for them at glorification when they've been made perfect.
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So they've got, and I don't care how you slice it, we're going to see that this is very much, as we said earlier, a works -based system, that you have to earn your way to heaven.
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I mean, they say that anyone, Council of Trent, if you say that justification by faith alone is enough to get you to heaven, you are condemned.
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They very much have a works -based system. Anyway, back to Phillips. All this deals with the doctrine of justification, which answers the question, what is it that allows me, a sinner, we are all sinners, to be accepted by a holy
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God? That is the ultimate question that a Christian must be able to answer. You know, why should
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I let you into my heaven? We ask that question sometimes in evangelism. Roman Catholicism answers that you will be accepted by God, you will be justified by Him, not when you have received
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Christ's righteousness by faith, but when you have your own righteousness, having attained spiritual and moral perfection.
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I have to tell you, right there, I'm going to stop there for a second, you know what that reminds me of? It just reminds me of Mormonism.
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It reminds me of being 18, or 17, sitting on the hood of my Mustang with my buddy
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Mark, and saying, you know what, Mark, I don't know about this whole idea of being perfect. I don't think
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I'm going to make it. And him kind of, you know, giving me the old tut -tut, you'll be okay.
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And I go, I don't know, I can't seem to go through, you know, a day or an hour without sinning. Ah, you know, we'll make it.
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We'll have our own planets. And he said it in kind of a sinister voice, you know.
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Yeah, he was a good friend. Having attained spiritual and moral perfection.
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Moral perfection. The key difference in between imputed, which is the
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Protestant, Biblical, Reformed view, and infused righteousness.
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That's the difference. Evangelicals believe Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer by grace, and through faith,
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Roman Catholicism teaches that God infuses Christ's righteousness into the Christian. In this life, mainly through, as Becky said, participation in the sacraments of the church, and then purgatory comes along, because there's a problem inherent in the
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Roman system. We're accepted by God, they say, only when we are actually perfect, according to his standards of holiness.
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Hey, you have to be perfect to get into heaven. Roman Catholicism invents a way to make you perfect.
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Phillips goes on, but of course, none of us have achieved that at the end of our lives, and so purgatory becomes a necessary evil.
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Since we die, not having achieved our own righteousness, purgatory is a way of envisioning this after our deaths.
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From a Biblical perspective, the problem then is not purgatory, but the doctrine of infused righteousness.
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This idea that you gain righteousness, and that you have to hit a certain level. Like most erroneous schemes of salvation, especially those that deny the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work, and underline that, because we're going to see over and over again that that's what this is all about.
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It is denying the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work. Roman Catholicism requires something extra to balance the books.
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It's Christ plus, in this case, purgatory. It's a doctrine that has no real basis except the futility of the
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Roman Catholic scheme of infused righteousness that mandates its inclusion. Well, is there
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Biblical support for purgatory? I mean, they have a whole list of scriptures. I have a few that I've selected as some of their best.
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Sorry. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 3 .15. And would somebody read that, please?
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KC? Okay. What do we think, purgatory?
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Okay, Sister Pam says no. Why not?
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Why doesn't this mean purgatory? Because the context.
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I mean, the main issue always in hermeneutics, that is, how do we understand the
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Bible is context. Again, let's just kind of, well, let's look at the context.
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That would be a nice thing to do. Let's see.
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Verse 11. For no man can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evidence.
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In other words, if it's on a foundation of Christ, his works will remain.
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For the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
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If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
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If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
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So, again, the idea that this is purgatory. Purgatory being a place that after you die, you have remaining sin, and then you go to purgatory to have it purged, thus purgatory, a place of purging, and that's just not what it is.
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In fact, I go on to speculate a little bit, going on to have your reward escaping purgatory.
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There's nothing that would indicate that. How about contributing to the treasury of merit, a concept that we're going to get to later, and I'll just briefly explain it.
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How about this, that some people, and we're going to see some of them a little bit down the road here, some people do so well in this life that they meet and exceed all of God's expectations, and that once they get over that threshold, then everything over and above goes into a treasury.
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Think of it as like, you know, kind of a gigantic universal bank of goodness, and that goodness can then be dispensed to various people in need of, you know, that merit.
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It's kind of like the Wall Street of merit. You know, you can kind of buy and sell and all that kind of stuff.
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Okay, MacArthur says, many humanly impressive and seemingly beautiful and worthwhile works that Christians do in the name of the
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Lord will not stand the test in that day, the day of judgment. It will become evident, verse 13, that the materials used were wood, hay, and straw.
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Why? Because they're going to be consumed by fire. The workmen will not lose their salvation, but they will lose a portion of any reward they might be expecting.
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They shall be saved, yet so as through fire. The thought here is of a person who runs through the flames without being burned, but who has the smell of smoke on him, barely escaping.
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In the day of rewards, the useless and evil things will be burned away, but salvation will not be forfeited.
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It is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that anything we do in the Lord's name is in His service just as long as we are sincere, hardworking, and well -meaning.
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But what looks to us like gold may turn out to be straw because we have not judged our materials by the standards of God's Word, pure motives, holy conduct, and selfless service.
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I'll give you a brief illustration. My wife, I don't use her very often as an illustration, but she has this thing where, let's say
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I do something occasionally worthwhile, and then something will happen, and I'll say, well, don't you remember
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I did whatever it was? She'll go, well, that just burned up. And that's it. And that's the idea.
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You know, that my motivation wasn't right. You know, when I did it so, ultimately, it doesn't count.
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You know, it was for my, you know, it was so that I could, whatever, curry favor or look good or whatever, and not, ultimately, it wasn't selfless.
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It had a motivation other than selfless service. So even if we do great things around the church, if our motivation isn't right, if it's not just to please the
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Lord, then it's going to burn up. If it's not Christ -motivated, it is of no value.
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Yes. Right, and so let's address a couple of different issues there.
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One is, you know, what is this day of judgment? Well, this is what we would call the white throne judgment.
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God is going to judge believers, not according to whether they're going to heaven or hell, but judge them according to what rewards they're going to gain based on the works they've done in faith that were rightly motivated, and that's what we're talking about here.
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And the other issue that you raise is, you know, in the overall context, he's saying, you know, some of the
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Corinthians talking about, I am of Apollos, I am of, you know, Charlie, I am of Steve. And he goes, listen, the foundation of the church is not
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Steve or Apollos or whoever. I can't even think of their names right now. It is
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Christ. Christ is the foundation, and everything is built upon that. So anything that doesn't have as its foundation,
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Christ is going to be burned up. And you know what? If the motivation for whatever you did was not to please the
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Lord, it's going to burn. And again and again, when I think of 1
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Peter 3, and he's talking about, you know, if you're a Christian, you have a bad master.
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You're the wife of an unbeliever. You're the husband of an unbeliever. Ultimately, your motivation all goes back to pleasing the
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Lord, pleasing Christ. You do the right thing, not because it is going to be easy, not because it's going to be fun, but because your ultimate motivation is to please the
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Lord. And this is the issue here. It doesn't matter. You know, you could look.
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In other words, let's put it another way. We like to look good. We like to present ourselves well, but it doesn't really matter what's going on on the outside.
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It is always a matter of the heart. Pastor Mike and I have been talking about legalism. Well, this is the burning off of all legalistic efforts.
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Everything that you think matters. Everything you think, you know, is your religious duty.
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Those things are all going to go out the window. What matters is ultimately, was your heart right when you did it?
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That's what's going to remain. And Paul, throughout 1
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Corinthians, is dealing with the heart of the Corinthian church, their motivations. I mean, this whole idea, you know, again,
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I am of so and so, I am of so and so. You go, what is that? You know, why don't you just say, we're not even one church, because that's what you're basically,
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I follow this guy, and I follow that guy, and I listen to him, and I'm a disciple of so and so. Well, good for you.
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Paul's point is, we're all disciples of Christ, we're all followers of him, and that is our foundation.
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Grimacki, excellent commentator, says this, the believer will suffer the loss of reward, but not of salvation.
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His practice will be tested, not his position. Again, this isn't a matter of judgment of heaven or hell, it is a matter of reward.
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His practice, his reward will be tested, not his position. His spiritual standing is secure because he wasted his life, is secure because his wasted life still rested upon the foundation of Christ's redemptive work.
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So it's really a matter of, did you actually believe, and the things that you did that were of no spiritual value will be burned off, and the things that you did that were of spiritual value will remain.
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What of 1 Peter 1, verse 7? This is another verse they use in support of purgatory.
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I mean, they really, I think I even provide at some point the list, and you're welcome to go through all of them and see what you think, but I just don't think you're going to convince yourself in a purgatory.
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1 Peter 1, verse 7. And it's kind of interesting, too, you know, another thing, if you really want to make a point,
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I mean, sometimes we do this, we kind of take one verse and we throw it out there, but you better make sure that your one verse, in context, supports the idea that you're suggesting, because if you don't, you're really doing nothing better than the people who come and knock at your door, because the
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Mormons can't convince you. Anybody, let's put it this way, the Bible can be made to say whatever you want it to say, if you're willing to take one verse out of context, and then another verse out of context, and another verse out of context, you can do amazing things, as evidenced by all the religions that say they follow the
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Bible. Who has 1 Peter 1, verse 7? Becky. Okay, there it is.
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Proof of purgatory. Let's close in prayer. The proof of your faith.
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Well, you know what, let's just suppose for a moment that the doctrine of purgatory is correct. Who deserves the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ?
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Presuming that purgatory is correct. I would argue that it's the person who's there.
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He says, again, read it. So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at, you know, maybe the time, the revelation when he's revealed.
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I mean, it really doesn't sound very much like it's about honoring God there, which is exactly wrong.
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Let's read what Kistemacher says. He says, Peter seems to anticipate the question about why a believer has to experience trials in his life.
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He replies, these trials have come so that your faith may be proved genuine, not so that your sins may be burned off.
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A literal translation of the Greek has this reading, so that the testing of your faith may prove to be for praise and glory.
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God tests the believer to see if his faith is genuine. Thus he asks Abraham to go to Mount Moriah to sacrifice
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Isaac and does so to prove Abraham's faith. In the case of Job, God permitted Satan to attack the believer.
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Testing is a process that demands time. But after time has elapsed and the process of testing has ended, the result of the test becomes visible, namely a genuine faith.
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And again, I say, look at the context. Look at verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.
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Then the next verse, so that.
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Does this talk about purgatory? No, because you've got the word now. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, this life, right now, for a little while, you may suffer various trials.
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And then it shows what the words so that, that's a purpose statement. That shows the exact purpose of these trials, so that your faith can be shown to be genuine now.
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Not in purgatory. I mean, this has nothing to do with purgatory. You can't even stretch it out.
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This has to do with what Mike calls time and trials. You want to know if somebody's faith is genuine. You want to know if somebody is a genuine believer.
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They make that profession of faith. You know, here's the mistake, and I've mentioned this before, but here's the mistake we often make.
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We evangelize somebody, they make a profession, they pray the prayer, and we can't wait to welcome them into the family of God.
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We say, well, now you don't have to worry about anything. You know, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. You've just entered into the kingdom.
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Congratulations, you're a believer. I mean, I think one of the most exciting things
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I ever did was, you know, this friend of mine and I, who I won't name because he's somewhat famous now, we led this, we led, there was a guy we knew we worked with, and he got a brain tumor, and he was going to die.
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He's still alive. But, you know, we led him to Christ. We. Us. We did it.
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And he prayed the prayer, and we welcomed him into the family of God, and then he just went off and did all kinds of crazy things for the next five or six years.
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I still don't know if he's saved. Time and trials show whether we are believers or not, not the fact that we can repeat a prayer.
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Number three, bottom of page 20. Roman Catholic theologians appeal to 2
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Maccabees. Would anybody here like to read 2 Maccabees 1241?
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You're laughing. Does anybody have 2 Maccabees? Do you? Okay. Right.
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Oh, that's a good point. Yeah, it is ultimately, yeah, it's not for God. God isn't like holding this trial to see, excellent point,
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Pam, thank you. God isn't holding a trial to go, hey, you know what, I want to figure out if Steve's really a
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Christian or not, you know, so I'm going to give him some trials, and let's just see how it goes. They're for me.
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They're for you. We make the profession, and then things come up in our lives, and as we get knocked down, get back up, as we lean on other people and kind of wind our way through life, we figure out,
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I really am a Christian. I really do love the Lord. If there were no trials, if everything was easy, then we could still belong to him, but maybe we wouldn't have that great assurance.
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Nothing, you know, like I think the first time I really thought, wow, I'm pretty confident that I'm a
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Christian, even though I just got baptized. It was that I got baptized, and I thought, you know, I'm a believer or whatever, but then
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I got, we had the Northridge earthquake, and I got thrown up in the air. I was asleep, and I got thrown up in the air about, it seemed like a mile, but it was only a few feet, and I just thought, if this is the end,
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I mean, I'm up in the air, and I'm just kind of going, oh, I think I might die, and then I hit the mattress again, and I just thought, well, if this is the end,
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I just hope, you know, it goes quickly, and I thought, after all the rumbling, and falling, and shattering stopped,
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I thought, oh, that's pretty cool. You know, the only thing I was like, you know, God, if you could just make this relatively painless, that would be good, so I thought, oh, that's pretty cool.
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I like that. It's a good thing to just think about, you know, I'm not afraid to die.
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I'm not afraid of things anymore. I'm ready. 2
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Maccabees 12, verses 41 to 45. This might be the only time I've ever read Maccabees in a church setting.
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All men, therefore, praising the Lord, the righteous judge, who had opened the things that were hid, betook themselves under prayer, and besought him that the sin committed might be wholly put out of remembrance.
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Besides that noble Judas, exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, for so much as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those that were slain.
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And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of 2 ,000 drachmas,
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I guess, of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly in that he was mindful of the resurrection.
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For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.
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And also, in that he perceived that there was great favor laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought, whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead that they might be delivered from sin.
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That's beautiful. Now, I would just ask, where's
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Purgatory on that? Yeah, I don't know what's in that either.
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It's really not all that great. You know, if you want to know the differences, by the way, this is the King James Apocrypha, so, but, by the way, what is the
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Apocrypha? I guess we should probably talk about that for a second. Non -canonical books that didn't pass the test of canonicity, didn't meet the level of scripture, the church did not put them into the
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Bible. And they're written in an era, basically, between the testaments, for the most part, between the ending of the
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Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. And, you know, you read something like this and you go, no wonder it didn't meet the level.
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They probably read that and go, holy spirit, it couldn't have inspired that. That's a mess.
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The Roman Catholics say that they're deuterocanonical, which means they're kind of, they're not really scripture, but they're not so bad either.
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I mean, you know, way above Huck Finn or something like that, but that they can have, that they can be helpful spiritually, but they're not necessarily, you know, inspired.
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So kind of a secondary source. Pat? Yes, and it took them about 1600 years to put them into the canon because it was only when they started getting challenged on nonsensical doctrines like purgatory that they then decided they needed to have this in the
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Bible. So excellent point. We'll probably close here in a moment, but here's what
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Catholic Answers says about this passage in 2 Maccabees. I mean, even they say, it's not direct evidence for purgatory.
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Well, thank you. It's direct evidence for prayers for the dead. Since this indicates prayers for the dead are said to be a good thing, this leads one to investigate how our prayers help the dead.
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So even in 2 Maccabees, which they, you know, put in, inserted into the Bible to help them with this doctrine, they still don't have direct evidence.
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It's still kind of a bank shot. Well, you know, it says praying for the dead are a good thing. Well, it would only matter if there was some kind of way station where they were.
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Right? You pray for the dead to get them out of purgatory. So they're saying, okay, well, it would only talk about praying for the dead if, in fact, it was going to have an impact on the dead.
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I think that's quite bad. Okay. One more.
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Father Vincent Serpa, may he rest in peace. Oh, no, he's still alive. Sorry. A Catholic answers apologist says, you will not find the word purgatory in scripture, but then you won't find the word trinity there either.
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But you will find plenty to support both. Here's a list of helpful passages, and I lay them all out for you.
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And feel free to research them all and decide for yourself whether purgatory is taught in the
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Bible. But as I note there on the last one, let's just turn and we'll close on this, because this is just too good for me to pass up.
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1 Corinthians 15, verses 29 and 30. And all
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I'm going to say, well, I'll say more, but I will say this, that if you, for anything, ever have to refer to 1
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Corinthians 15, 29, you've lost. It's just over for you. You have no argument whatsoever.
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Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
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Why are we also in danger every hour? That's verse 30, which is very helpful. If your primary argument for purgatory or a secondary argument for purgatory is a verse where Paul is talking about baptism for the dead, which you could probably get about 20, maybe 30 different explanations of what that means.
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Everything from sarcasm to an actual baptism of spiritually dead people to an actual baptism for physically dead people, as in Mormonism.
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There are a lot of understandings of that. But I don't think... How does that exactly advance the argument for purgatory?
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I don't know. We'd have to ask Father Serpa, and he's not here this morning. But sad times.
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Again, I just say, if you ever appeal to 1 Corinthians 15, 29 as anything other than a hard -to -understand passage, you've lost.
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You've just lost the argument. We're going to see next week that really what purgatory does is it undermines...
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It says Christ's death is not sufficient for your sin. Ultimately, what it teaches is that what you need to get into heaven is
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Christ's death plus your own sufferings. Christ plus.
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Christ plus. Christ plus. Salvation is by Christ alone.
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Not Christ plus anything. Let's pray. Our Father, again, we take no delight in this erroneous doctrine.
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We hate it. We hate anything that would seek to detract from the finished work of Christ, that would seek to detract from your glory, that would lead men astray, that would give men a false hope that they might live however they please in this life and still get into heaven.
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Father, I pray for anyone here who's still maybe clinging to some vestige of Roman Catholic thinking.
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For anyone here who's uncertain as to whether the day for salvation is now, is today, is this life, that there is no second chance as it were, that there is no purgatory by which we may be perfected.
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Lord, I pray that you would deliver them of such thinking. I pray that we would each again and again turn to the
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Bible for our answers, not to any kind of church tradition or church teaching.