James White: Purgatory Is Fiction

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

02:36

If you'll turn your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1

02:44

Corinthians chapter 3. We will start here, and then

02:54

I do not want to spend an extensive amount of time discussing

03:02

Roman Catholic theology. I need to do enough of it to be able to substantiate the title of the sermon anyways.

03:08

But I very much want to have our time especially focused on why purgatory is a fiction and how it is that we can have peace with God and how we can know that.

03:23

And so that's our plan for today. Now as Brother Jeff mentioned, on the trip that I just did, one of the debates, one of the five debates that I did was with Trent Horne of Catholic Answers on the subject of purgatory.

03:39

And what's fascinating is I've done a few debates on purgatory, did one in 2001 with Father Peter Stravinskas, and it would be very educational,

03:52

I think, if you are working in reaching out to Roman Catholics, to compare those two debates because I was taken aback by the fact that Trent Horne not only was willing to say things like, well, purgatory might be instantaneous at the point of death, there might not be any time that is involved with the subject of purgatory, but the interpretation of 1

04:26

Corinthians chapter 3 that he offered, he admitted he took from a minority

04:32

Protestant interpretation that included the necessity of having to say that the

04:40

Apostle Paul was wrong about the day of the Lord in this text.

04:45

Now I don't know about you, I'm old enough to remember my parents, my mom especially, coming back from having gone to a

04:55

Roman Catholic funeral when I was a kid, and I remember her just talking about the complete lack of peace and assurance that she had just experienced in the words that she had heard spoken at this funeral.

05:14

The fear of purgatory. And many people in this room,

05:20

I think, could testify in regards to your parents, your grandparents that were part of the

05:25

Roman Catholic system, a similar experience. And it's not just that Vatican II changed everything,

05:33

Vatican II really didn't change anything in regards to the doctrine of purgatory, but Rome is changing. Francis is changing

05:40

Roman Catholicism. And when Rome's defenders, who are normally as conservative as a day is long, are starting to use this kind of argumentation, that's when you really start seeing it.

05:53

So let me start off by just reminding you, or telling you for the first time, what the doctrine of purgatory was up through about 1950, okay?

06:04

So pretty much all Roman Catholics around the world would have agreed, and there's still many who do, the catechism hasn't been changed, but the breadth of belief that is now acceptable within Roman Catholicism has become so much wider than it was for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, especially since the

06:31

Council of Trent, the Counter -Reformation Council of Trent, that responded to the

06:36

Reformation. And so things are changing, and so you have to find out from the individual you're talking to what they believe.

06:45

You can't just assume that they hold to a historically Orthodox Roman Catholic understanding of the subject of purgatory.

06:52

They may, they may not, they may be confused about it. You have to find out. It has to be something that you specifically inquire about.

06:59

But the historic doctrine of purgatory developed over literally 1 ,400 years.

07:10

You can find, especially starting in people like Origen and Clement of Alexandria, mentions of the need of a cleansing before entering into the presence of God.

07:25

Not a doctrine of purgatory, but a concept of cleansing.

07:31

And Augustine has some of this, but depending on who you're looking at,

07:37

John Chrysostom and Augustine and the Cappadocian Fathers, whatever, you get all sorts of different perspectives about the afterlife, and you'll get that today amongst

07:50

Protestants, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, you'll get general ideas, but all sorts of differences as to how things work out.

07:59

Even amongst Protestants, you'll have a, you know, I hear people saying all the time that the enemies of God when they die go directly into the lake of fire.

08:08

I don't believe that. I believe they're under punishment, but the book of Revelation says that death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire at the

08:19

Great Judgment. And so you've got Luke chapter 16, you've got the discussion there of the fact that you've got the rich man and the poor man who laid at his gate, and there's a gulf fixed between them.

08:35

One is comforted, one is under punishment. This is Hades, that's not Gehenna.

08:40

There's all sorts of things we could talk about, biblically speaking, in regards to the afterlife.

08:46

But what happened in church history is the doctrine of purgatory was finally dogmatically defined in the 15th century, in the 1400s.

08:57

And so up until that time, you have development taking place, and it happens unevenly.

09:05

It doesn't happen as, you know, there's certain parts of the Roman Empire where it's farther than in other parts, and that's how church history works.

09:14

And the farther the church got away from the Sola Scriptura and the farther it got into tradition, the less there was an understanding of the substitutionary atonement of Christ and the imputation of his righteousness to us as our own standing before God.

09:33

And so you end up, over time, with this concept, that when you die, the only way that you'll ever go to heaven is if you are perfect in the sight of God.

09:52

There's two different kinds of sin, according to Roman Catholicism. There's mortal sin and there's venial sin.

09:59

Mortal sin destroys the grace of justification and makes you an enemy of God. You have to be re -justified if you commit a mortal sin.

10:06

If you die in the state of mortal sin, you go to hell. You don't go to purgatory. Purgatory is not a second -chance place.

10:14

It's not where everybody goes and you're given a second shot post -mortem. Doesn't work that way.

10:21

The idea is, if you die justified, which in Roman Catholic idea is, you have been infused with grace so that you are objectively pleasing to God, you will eventually go to heaven.

10:37

But, when you commit mortal sin, there are what are called temporal punishments.

10:45

Temporal punishments that you must undergo. That's why the priest gives you certain penances. You have to do a certain number of Hail Marys, you can go to Rome and literally climb up stairways that allegedly are the stairs that Jesus went up to stand before Pilate.

10:59

How they got to Rome, we don't know. But there's lots of stuff like that in Roman Catholicism.

11:05

But you can climb up those stairs and you can work off some of the penalties that you have accrued by your commission of mortal sins that you've been re -justified for and your commission of venial sins.

11:18

Venial sins do not destroy the grace of justification, but you accrue these temporal punishments.

11:23

And so, you can't enter into the presence of God with any of those temporal punishments still on your soul.

11:29

So, what are you going to do? Well, you go to purgatory. You go to a place of cleansing.

11:36

And so, in purgatory, you undergo something called satispassio.

11:43

Satispassio, the suffering of atonement. Your suffering in purgatory cleanses you of the punishments that were not cleansed in your life on earth so that you eventually are pure and then can enter into the presence of God.

12:03

Now, you can die as a saint. And a saint is an individual who has more merit than they have temporal punishments.

12:15

And so, when you die, you don't have to go to purgatory and your excess merit is collected.

12:26

And the theology developed around the same time of what's called the thesaurus meritorium, the treasury of merit.

12:36

And so, the treasury of merit, one of the popes taught that Jesus only needed to shed a single drop of blood to atone for the whole world.

12:49

And so, since he shed a great deal of blood, this is all excess merit.

12:57

And so, that excess merit is placed into the treasury of merit. And then you've got

13:02

Mary. And Mary never sins. And Mary does all sorts of wonderful things.

13:08

And so, Mary has all sorts of excess merit. It's put in the treasury of merit. And every saint that dies that has more merit than they need, their excess merit is put into the treasury of merit.

13:22

Now, if you're looking in your concordance, treasury of merit, you're not going to find it.

13:28

Okay? It's not apostolic. It's not something the early church believed. It's something that develops much later on, on the authority of tradition.

13:39

That's why we spent five weeks or so on Sola Scriptura. So, what ended up happening, and most of you who know the story of Martin Luther and the

13:55

Reformation and everything that goes along with that, understand that the doctrine of indulgences developed.

14:02

And an indulgence is basically a withdrawal from the treasury of merit. So, if you buy an indulgence, you can't buy them anymore.

14:13

You have to do things to get them. If you get an indulgence, a certain amount of merit is withdrawn from the treasury of merit and given to your accounts.

14:25

So, you can get it in this life, or you can get indulgences for people who have died.

14:32

And that's what was going on that helped spark the Reformation. Rome built

14:39

St. Peter's Basilica with the money that it took from people who were buying indulgences for their dead relatives because they didn't want them suffering in purgatory.

14:52

And it was literally a buying and selling of God's grace, and that's what made

14:57

Luther and a lot of other people go, that just can't be right. And that's where the 95 Theses came from, so on and so forth.

15:04

So, the idea was, very plainly, you would not get people, you would not get poor people who are barely able to eat to give money to buy indulgences if they did not believe that their loved ones were suffering in purgatory in time.

15:27

It was plainly and inarguably the belief of everybody, popes and bishops and everybody else, that people spent time in purgatory, and we're not talking about a small amount of time.

15:43

You can buy a book called Purgatory by F. X. Shoup, it's published by Tan Books, and it is just filled with the visions that people had of the sufferings of purgatory.

15:58

I was reading some of it prior to the debate that we did, and I happened to just open it up, and it was discussing this one particular very pious nun who suddenly died.

16:16

And a few weeks, just two weeks later, one of her fellow nuns in the convent heard moaning and smelled smoke.

16:27

And she comes into the chapel, and she sees a vision of this sister who has died, a very godly woman, and she is suffering in flames.

16:44

And she says, this is a gift of grace from God.

16:53

And she reaches up, and she puts her hand on the doorframe, and burns her handprint into the doorframe, because she's bathed in fire.

17:12

And you can Google – I've forgotten the name off the top of my head, but you can Google this, I Googled the name – and you can find multiple pictures on the internet today of the chapel, and a handprint allegedly burned there hundreds of years ago by someone suffering in purgatory.

17:35

The universal belief was that – and in fact, Thomas Aquinas had a discussion – where is purgatory?

17:45

And most of the people believed that it was in the depths of the earth right next to hell.

17:52

So it's the same fire that burns in hell is the fire that cleanses in purgatory.

18:01

And there were saints who had visions of popes, some of the greatest, most powerful popes in the history of the

18:10

Roman Catholic Church, saw visions of them in purgatory centuries after they died.

18:21

Centuries after they died. In the days of Martin Luther, you could go to Rome, and if you visited all the shrines, and you paid all the fees, and you climbed the stairs on your knees, and did all the pilgrimages, you could get hundreds of years of indulgences.

18:44

Why would you need hundreds of years of indulgences? If purgatory might be done instantly, or in a day, no one believed that.

18:57

But if you go listen to my debate with Trent Horne, you'll discover they've really sanitized the doctrine of purgatory.

19:07

It might be done instantaneously now. And it's like, that's not what was defined, that's not what indulgences meant, that makes no sense at all.

19:19

But there you are. There's the situation we're in. Now what's interesting is, when you ask them for biblical foundations, you will get some amazing statements.

19:31

You'll have, you know, Jesus said, he's giving a parable, and he's saying if you're not forgiving to others, you know, you can end up in a situation where you'll be put in debtor's prison, and you won't get out until you've paid the last farthing, and that's purgatory.

19:51

It has nothing to do with purgatory, but when you're making stuff up, you can grab anything in the

19:56

Bible and try to make it fit into your situation. Now we don't have time to discuss this, but one of the key texts that they use is from the

20:05

Apocrypha, and in fact, they like to say that Martin Luther removed the Apocryphal books from the canon of Scripture because he rejected the doctrine of purgatory.

20:16

The reality is the story recorded in Maccabees is about Jewish soldiers who were idolaters, and they had idols hidden under their clothing when they died in battle.

20:29

And it says that they said prayers for them in the temple. In Roman Catholicism, idolatry is a mortal sin.

20:39

Saying prayers for them wouldn't make any difference because they couldn't go to purgatory. They're idolaters. It doesn't make any sense, and it's not canon

20:47

Scripture, and it's really the only thing in the Apocrypha that they care about, to be perfectly honest with you, as far as having any doctrinal content to it at all.

20:57

The main text they use is 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And so I want to walk through this with you and help you to understand what it specifically is referring to, and then

21:09

I want to provide, briefly, a biblical response to why it is that you should desire to have the opportunity to speak to a

21:24

Roman Catholic on the subject of purgatory. You should want to be able to say to them,

21:32

I have a message of hope for you. I have a message of peace for you.

21:38

And we should be the people ready to give them that message. So 1 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning of verse 10, 1

21:44

Corinthians chapter 3, and really all of 1 Corinthians, is dealing with a troubled church.

21:53

And part of the reason it's a troubled church is there are divisions amongst them.

21:59

There are some super -apostles that are questioning Paul's authority and questioning Paul's teaching and all the rest of that kind of stuff.

22:07

And so some of that's going on. But there's also some real immaturity taking place and some questions that really need to be dealt with.

22:18

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul is talking about the various leaders,

22:25

Apollos, Paul, the people who have been important in laying the foundation at the church of Corinth.

22:34

And he says in verse 10, according to the grace of God given to me as a wise architect, that's the actual

22:44

Greek term, we just borrow the term straight from Greek, an architect, as a wise master builder, an architect,

22:53

I have laid a foundation, but others are now building upon that foundation.

23:06

Let each one look to how he builds on that foundation. In other words, Paul's saying, look,

23:12

I'm the one that came and brought the message to you. I'm the one that taught you about how the church should be formed and how it should be understood and how we should practice the faith.

23:24

But now as other people have to come and build on that foundation, they need to look carefully about how they build upon the one foundation.

23:34

For no other foundation, there can be no other foundation laid except one.

23:45

There's only one true foundation. If someone comes along, gives something else, be very, very careful.

23:53

No other foundation can be laid that other than that one that has been laid, which is

24:00

Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of the church. He says, now if anyone, if a certain one, he's not naming a particular individual, but if a certain one builds upon the foundation, and notice the six things, gold with gold, with silver, precious stones, which would be diamonds, rubies, pearls, sapphires, whatever you happen to like, precious stones, and then you have three others, wood, hay, and straw.

24:36

Now just think immediately, what is he doing here? He's talking about very, very different substances.

24:48

Gold, silver, and precious stones have great value, and they're also tremendously lasting.

24:56

They can survive the heat of trial and tribulation. But wood, hay, straw, you bring the match nearby, and they go up in flames.

25:12

Very transient, very short term, and it doesn't take much work to get hold of those types of things.

25:23

It takes a lot of work to get hold of gold and silver and precious stones.

25:30

So there's different ways you can build upon the foundation. And he's saying those individuals who would take leadership in the church, there's different ways, there's different motivations, there's different qualities.

25:48

And we can't always tell in this life. We can't always tell in this life.

25:55

So many of those who will have the greatest rewards in heaven, we never heard their names, never saw them.

26:04

And so many who we knew the names so well were building with wood, hay, and straw.

26:10

How will we know? The day will demonstrate it. That's what it says. It says, each one's work will become manifest, clear, known, for the day will show it, because it will be revealed by fire.

26:36

The fire will reveal it. Now what is this day?

26:41

Well, the vast majority of interpreters have understood the day to be the day of the

26:49

Lord, the day of judgment, when not only are the books opened, but the one who knows the hearts and the motivations of everyone will be the judge on that day.

27:02

There'll be nothing hidden from his sight. And so that day will demonstrate the nature of the work.

27:13

Is it gold? Is it silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw? And it will be tested by fire.

27:24

There's the one connection if you're looking for it. The funny thing today is Rome's apologists will say, we've never defined that there's actual fire involved in purgatory.

27:40

It doesn't matter how many saints have had visions that have been accepted as valid visions of people suffering in fire, and it doesn't matter how many handprints have been burned into door jams by people visiting from purgatory, we've never actually dogmatically defined that fire is involved.

28:04

This is a major change. If you had talked to any Roman Catholic in 1950, almost anywhere, they all would have said the exact same thing.

28:13

We're being purged by the same fire that is found in hell itself. But I've literally now had

28:21

Roman Catholics say to me, purgatory is where God hugs the hell out of you.

28:31

That's what he said. That's where God hugs the hell out of you. In other words, he's getting rid of all the bad stuff by loving you.

28:41

That's not quite the same thing as what had been taught for hundreds and hundreds of years.

28:50

But here's the connection. But what is Paul talking about? Is he literally talking about people going into the fire?

28:57

Well, what's being tested? People or the work? It's the work. It's the work that they're done.

29:03

It's the nature of that work that is being revealed by fire. That's how you test something.

29:12

You know, you can make fake jewelry and you can sell it to somebody and say, this is 14 carat gold.

29:20

Well, there is one, at least in the ancient world, now I suppose we could use an electron microscope or something like that to determine exactly what's inside that thing.

29:29

But in the ancient world, the only way to really know is put it in the fire. You'll find out soon enough.

29:37

If it's some cheap material, it's just going to go up in flames. The gold may melt, but it ain't going anywhere.

29:44

It's still going to be there. So Paul says the fire is going to reveal, document what something is.

29:56

If a certain one's work, what they have done, remains, which they've built, they will receive a reward, a reward.

30:12

But if a certain one's work is destroyed, they shall suffer loss, yet they will be saved.

30:21

Yet so as through fire. And so what the Roman Catholic, well, what Roman Catholics used to say is, well, see, everybody that goes to purgatory will be saved.

30:34

But those who go into purgatory and get out of purgatory will be saved yet so as by fire.

30:42

They have to go through the fire to be perfected. Now, just point out a couple things here.

30:48

Nowhere does it here talk about punishment. To suffer loss, they'll say, oh, there's places where Zemi, oh, that's a term that's used there.

30:56

It refers to being punished. That's true. But you'll notice if you compare verses 14 and 15, one receives a reward.

31:06

The other suffers loss because their work is burned up. In neither case is the individual himself going through the fire.

31:18

It's his work that is being tested. Now, I'll just mention very quickly what

31:25

Trent Horne said. Again, this is not a Roman Catholic interpretation, but he's adopted it.

31:33

He's a Protestant who interprets the work as converts. So you get certain converts, and it's the converts, it's the quality of the converts that are being tested.

31:46

And so if your converts are shown not to be good converts, then he does take

31:53

Zemi, oh, suffer loss as to suffer as a result.

32:00

What this has to do with a place called purgatory, temporal punishments of sins, treasuries of merit,

32:08

I don't have a clue, and neither does anybody else. But this is the text they've looked at.

32:14

This is the text they've talked about. And the reality is that what

32:20

Paul is saying is there will be a day of judgment, and I am very thankful that there will be.

32:27

I'm very thankful that there will be. When I see the

32:33

Benny Hinns and the Kenneth Copelands of our day bragging about bringing in not hundreds of millions, but billions of dollars from people and flying around in their fancy jets,

32:49

I am glad there's going to be a day of judgment. Now I'll be perfectly honest with you.

32:55

I don't think there'll be at this judgment. I don't believe for a second

33:00

Kenneth Copeland is actually a believer in Jesus Christ. He's a charlatan. He's a false teacher.

33:07

These aren't false teachers. These are people in the church, and their motivations will be demonstrated.

33:15

And I'm glad that that testing is going to take place.

33:21

And it should be for anyone who considers involvement in ministry a sobering thing to recognize that the work that we do will be tested.

33:34

It will be tested. And everything that is of wood, hay, and straw will be burned up, as it properly should be, as it properly should be.

33:46

But this text has nothing to do with a place called Purgatory. And what's the best reason for believing that it has absolutely nothing to do with a place called

33:58

Purgatory? Well, it's Paul's own teaching. Turn with me to 2

34:04

Corinthians, the second letter that Paul writes, chapter 5. Chapter 5.

34:13

You know the text. You know 2

34:21

Corinthians 5, 17. Now if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

34:32

The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. What does it mean to be a

34:41

Christian? Roman Catholicism.

34:47

And this came out very, very plainly in the debates. And it came out, interestingly enough, in both debates.

34:53

The one in 2001, which was right before I finally gave up on the hair.

35:01

Should have done it before then, but 2001, Roman Catholic priest, two

35:07

Ph .D.'s. 2024, Trent Horn, lead apologist for Catholic Answers.

35:14

Gave very different arguments. But what came out so clearly in both was the reality that Roman Catholicism does not believe in the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us as our standing before God.

35:42

You see, look down at verse 21 in chapter 5.

35:51

He made him who knew no sin to be sin, who per haemon, in our place, substitution, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

36:13

This is called the great exchange. The great exchange. The one who knew no sin is treated as if he is guilty of all the sin of his people.

36:32

So that we might be made the righteousness of God as we are in him.

36:42

Our sins imputed to Christ. His righteousness imputed to us.

36:51

The great exchange. Rome does not believe it. They don't have it.

37:00

You can ask. Listen to the debate. They do not have a concept of non -imputation of sin.

37:08

And the result is that they cannot understand the text such as the one that we're memorizing in our

37:20

Catechism question, Romans 5 .1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, what? We have peace with God through our

37:26

Lord Jesus Christ. Peace. I remember asking

37:34

Father Mitchell Pacwa, a wonderful man, a nice man, the five debates

37:42

I've done with him over the years on Roman Catholicism, I think are the best we've done. Because he doesn't do cheap debating tricks.

37:49

He answers honestly. And in one of our first two debates,

37:57

I forget which one was first, whether it was a mass or justification, but in one of our first two debates,

38:03

I had this back and forth with him about what peace means. Because he's a smart guy.

38:09

He has studied 12 languages. And so he knows that the word peace, the

38:18

Greek term eirene, represents the Hebrew term, and we all know the

38:24

Hebrew term for peace, right? Shalom. Shalom. Which in Arabic is salam.

38:32

So you hear the Islamic greeting, salaam alaikum.

38:39

Shalom, the Hebrew. And so he knows that, for example, right now there is no peace in Israel.

38:50

There's no peace in Israel. There may not have been any missiles fired today.

38:58

Israel may not have been going into the tunnels or using artillery. Maybe it was a day without any warfare.

39:06

That wouldn't matter. That's not shalom. Shalom does not take place as long as the

39:12

Iron Dome missile defense system is activated. Shalom is a wellness of relationship.

39:21

Shalom is having peace with your neighbors, not constantly on a war footing. And so within Roman Catholicism, you can commit a mortal sin any day and lose your relationship with God.

39:35

Become the enemy of God. You can commit a venial sin and now you're going to have to spend longer time in purgatory.

39:43

How is that shalom? How is that peace? It's not.

39:52

And when you say that to most Roman Catholics, that's a sin of presumption. You're presuming something. Keep in mind the great exchange from 2

40:01

Corinthians chapter 5, and turn with me to Romans chapter 4. And I know that we've talked about this before in various contexts, but – and again, it's sort of neat.

40:16

You can go right now – well, not right now. You can go when you get home to YouTube and listen to a debate that took place barely a month ago with one of the leading representatives of Catholic answers in the

40:35

United States today. In fact, before we did the debate in Houston, a few days before that, he and I spent 2 hours and 15 minutes on the

40:47

Allie Beth Stuckey show, and it came up in both contexts. Now I haven't heard anybody saying anything whether that show – those shows have aired yet or not.

40:56

I don't know. But we did. They'll air eventually. And here's – here's the issue.

41:05

Romans chapter 4, verse 4. To the one working, the reward or the wage – misthos is the

41:15

Greek term, and it's the standard term used in ancient Greek for when you get your paycheck, your salary is your misthos.

41:24

That's what you receive. To the one working, the misthos is not credited or imputed as a gift, literally according to grace, but according to debt, as what is owed.

41:42

As what is owed. Now notice verse 5 is meant to be the – is meant to be put in parallel with verse 4.

41:53

But to the not working one. So verse 4, the one working to receive something from God, what you receive is what you're simply owed.

42:07

Just like in a work situation. Verse 5 says, but to the not working one.

42:16

To the not working one. But what? But believing upon the one justifying the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

42:35

If you're doing something to get something, you're fulfilling certain commands and sacraments and ceremonies and worthiness or whatever else it might be.

42:49

If you're the working one, you don't get grace, you get what you're owed.

42:56

But to the not working, but believing one, the one believing upon what?

43:06

The one who justifies the ungodly. So you're looking away from yourself, you're looking to the one who justifies the ungodly.

43:21

You know you're the ungodly. You know you're the one in need.

43:28

You're not bringing anything to God and saying, hey, I did this, I did this, I did this. To the one not working, but believing upon the one justifying the ungodly, his faith is imputed, reckoned to him as righteousness.

43:54

That's not moral righteousness. That's the judge who takes the gavel and goes, not guilty.

44:04

Not guilty. That's how you can have peace with God. Such a radical message like that.

44:13

You know, we're talking about the Easter pageant, right? Check out the Joseph Smith translation sometime.

44:20

The Joseph Smith translation changes this verse. Now, there's not a single

44:26

Greek manuscript in the world, or a single Greek scholar in the world, that would say Joseph Smith had a clue what he was doing here.

44:33

He had no idea. But he couldn't understand it, so you know what he did? He couldn't understand the idea of God justifying the ungodly, so he says, does not justify the ungodly.

44:46

Which, of course, destroys Paul's entire argument, which he clearly didn't understand. And like I said, there's not a manuscript in the world that substantiates that.

44:57

That's what he had to do, because he did not believe in the biblical teaching of what justification is.

45:06

And then he gives us a biblical example. Verse six, just as David speaks the blessedness of the man to whom

45:14

God imputes righteousness apart from works.

45:22

How do you get righteousness? Oh, I work, and I work, and I work, and I work, and I show my willingness, and faithfulness, and merit.

45:29

No. Well, I go through the sacraments. No. Just as David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom

45:40

God imputes righteousness, not guilty, apart from works.

45:50

Want to know how it works? Well, look at Psalm 31, the Greek Septuagint, Psalm 32 in your

45:56

English translation. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered over.

46:08

Remember, verse eight, blessed is the man to whom the

46:14

Lord will not impute sin. Now, if you're following carefully, and I hope you all still are, because I'm barely through most of Jeff's introductions right now, and I'm actually trying to wrap up.

46:37

I don't know where Jeff went, but he didn't hear that. He'll catch it later, I guess. If you're following carefully, you're sitting here going, wait a minute.

46:48

Verse six, Paul speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom

46:55

God reckons righteousness apart from works. But then verse eight says, blessed is the man to whom the

47:07

Lord will not impute sin. How can they be the same thing? One is an imputation of righteousness apart from works.

47:17

The other is a non -imputation of sin. You need to understand this if you want to understand the gospel and be able to explain it to others.

47:28

But more importantly, so that you will understand how you have peace with God. The only people who can explain the peace of God to others are those who are experiencing themselves.

47:42

Paul's not contradicting himself. How can God impute righteousness apart from works?

47:53

He can only do so because we have the perfect sin bearer.

48:02

So you see, how could God be righteous to not impute my sin to me?

48:11

Isn't that just a legal fiction? And that's exactly what Rome says. Rome says that what we believe about this is a legal fiction.

48:22

No, it is biblical revelation. And in this biblical revelation, there is a man who is blessed because the

48:34

Lord does not impute his sin to him because he has imputed it to another.

48:44

But that's not all. Because his sin has been imputed to another, that one's righteousness is imputed to the believer.

48:59

That's how we have peace with God. The great exchange. He who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

49:08

I don't stand before God in my own righteousness. In Roman Catholicism, when you eventually stand before God, having gone through purgatory, maybe received indulgences, you stand before God clothed in a righteousness made up of the righteousness that you've gotten from the treasury of merit, which is a mixed righteousness from Jesus, Mary, and the saints, and your own saraspatio in purgatory.

49:40

It's a patchwork quilt. It's not perfect. In the

49:47

Bible, the only righteousness that will ever avail before the thrice holy

49:55

God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not only in his sacrificial death, which cleanses you from all of your sin.

50:06

But remember, Jesus lived for 33 years every day, loving the father perfectly.

50:15

What's the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Anybody done that perfectly? Yes, Jesus.

50:23

But I need that righteousness to stand before God. And so the righteousness that is imputed to the believer is the perfect righteousness of Christ, his fulfillment of the law in my place.

50:42

That is how you have peace with God. But Rome doesn't believe it.

50:51

And so you can ask any Roman Catholic, and you can go watch the Trent Horn debate. It came up.

50:57

You can see this happen. Ask any Roman Catholic, if you commit a mortal sin, is the sin imputed to you?

51:09

Yes. You lose the state of justification, you have to be re -justified, and you also receive the temporal punishments that need to be worked off as well.

51:17

If you commit a venial sin, is it imputed to you? Yep. And you then receive the temporal punishments that have to be worked off either in this life or in purgatory thereafter.

51:30

There is no non -imputation of sin. So who's the blessed man of Romans 4 .8?

51:37

Well, Trent Horn's a sharp guy. And I've been around a while.

51:43

I've been doing this for 40 years now. And some people, before they debate me, don't listen to anything

51:53

I said about the subject, and they get their heads handed to them on a platter. And then the smart people actually take advantage of the fact that all this stuff has been recorded, and I've written lots of books, and they can go look, and they're prepared.

52:07

And so Trent's prepared. He knows I'm going to ask him this question. And so what does he say?

52:13

Are you the blessed man? He says, yes, I am the blessed man right after I have received forgiveness of my sins.

52:28

So in other words, I'm the blessed man right after being baptized.

52:36

Baptism is an infant baptism in Roman Catholicism, cleanses from original sin.

52:42

As soon as you're baptized, you are pure. There's the blessed man up until the point where he commits his first sin.

52:48

Then it's imputed to him, and he's no longer the blessed man. And so when Trent Horn goes into the confessional and confesses his sins and receives absolution from a priest, and there is no priesthood in the

53:04

New Testament, there is the priesthood of Christ. You have all Christians as a holy priesthood, but there is no such thing as a celibate sacramental priesthood as you have in Roman Catholicism.

53:16

And there certainly isn't anything like the Aaronico Melchizedek priesthoods in the New Testament church.

53:21

Look it up for yourself. A Melchizedek priest can save anyone to the uttermost.

53:28

Keep that in mind. There is only one Melchizedek priest and it's Jesus. Look at Hebrews chapter seven. But he can say,

53:38

I confess my sins to the priest. I received my absolution from my sins and therefore

53:44

I am now the blessed man. Right up to the point where I commit my next sin.

53:51

So think about it. He can be coming out of the confessional, cleansed, and trip over a bag that the next person has left in the way, get unrighteously angered, and he's no longer the blessed man.

54:06

Again, that's not what Romans 4 is talking about. That's not what

54:12

Romans 4 is talking about. Read the rest of the chapter because Romans 4 leads you directly into the statement of five one, therefore having been justified by faith.

54:28

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

54:34

That's the only way of peace with God. There is no other way. None. Now, I'm fairly certain that Jeff mentioned after the passing of his mother that one of the subjects that had given him the opportunity to present the gospel to her before her death was her saying to Jeff, I am so afraid of purgatory.

55:11

And so he had that blessed opportunity to explain to her there is no purgatory and there is no reason to fear it if you understand how a person is made right before God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ and in him alone and receiving and resting upon his righteousness, not mine.

55:40

That's where peace comes from. And that's the message that you and I, first of all, must understand for ourselves.

55:52

If there is anyone here today, I'm about to wrap up and we're going to partake of the supper.

56:00

And down here we have little cups of wine and little pieces of unleavened bread.

56:09

And this table is for believers only. For those who are trusting in Jesus Christ and his finished work upon the cross alone.

56:26

It's not that I'm trusting in that 90 % and my work's 10%, no. It's his sacrifice or nothing.

56:37

If Christ will not save me, I will not be saved. Everyone coming down this aisle to partake of these elements is saying his broken body and his shed blood is my soul peace with God.

56:52

And we're saying it to everyone watching. That's what's so beautiful about the supper.

57:02

That's what's so beautiful about the gospel. If there's anyone in this room, if you are trusting in anything that you have done, if you're trusting in religious works, if you're trusting in traditions of men and religions that claim to be able to stand between you and God, this isn't for you.

57:32

This should say to you, this is the only way of peace. On the authority of God's word,

57:41

I say to you, faith in God, in what he has done in Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life.

57:59

Get anything else in the way, remember what Romans 4, 4 and 5 said, to the one working, you get what you deserve for your work.

58:10

But if you want the righteousness of God, it comes only by faith. If you're putting something in your hand,

58:17

I'll take my, I'll use my ring here. If you're coming to God and saying, I know I can't do it all, but I'm going to,

58:24

I'm going to give you a little something. Can I give you a little something? You see the only hand that can grasp the hand of grace is an empty hand that brings nothing in it.

58:43

Says I have nothing. I have nothing that will avail before a holy

58:48

God. I need his righteousness. Mine will never avail.

58:56

That's the Christian message. That's the message of the Bible. We need to understand it.

59:05

Each one of us in this room needs to understand it. Young people, kids. I remember, yeah, hi.

59:15

I remember as a young person at the age of nine, sneaking away from, my mom had taken me to her work.

59:26

She was a secretary at a printing, a place that did printing at. And I had wandered back into where the presses were because sitting next to my mom's desk was really boring.

59:39

And I don't know how I got into this, but I remember it clearly. And my mom remembered coming back and finding me.

59:48

I was talking with the men running the presses about the existence of God at age nine.

59:59

And I remember having conversations. I was sent to the principal's office for passing out tracks on the playground.

01:00:06

I was. You want to know the real irony? They were Jack Chick tracks.

01:00:13

You may not know what Jack Chick tracks are. They're the cartoon tracks. They were real popular when

01:00:18

I was a kid. The irony is, I loved those tracks. And about 35 years later,

01:00:28

Jack Chick, who published those tracks, identified me as the

01:00:34

Antichrist. That's, that's getting ahead in the world, let me tell you.

01:00:44

And you're sitting here going, why would he say that? Because I wrote the book, The King James Only Controversy.

01:00:50

And he was King James only all the way. And since my book had a major impact on that movement, then there you go.

01:00:57

There is an irony. Okay. The point is, even as a young person, kids,

01:01:03

I had opportunities to explain to others how they could have peace with God.

01:01:11

You need to know how you can have peace with God. And once you have made that commitment to Jesus Christ, and know it for yourself, then you can explain it to others as well.

01:01:25

And that's true of all of us. But it has to be real to us first. People can tell when you are saying something to them because you've been trained to do it or because you really believe it.

01:01:41

And when you really believe it, you will keep repeating that truth throughout your life, throughout all the opposition.

01:01:51

And God will bless that. God will bless that. That's what we're going to be doing at the

01:01:56

Easter pageant. The whole reason to be there. Who is God? Who is Christ? What is salvation?

01:02:04

When my wife and I first went to the Easter pageant in 1983, 1983, on the back of a

01:02:14

Kawasaki 440, the superstition didn't even go to country club. That's how long ago that was.

01:02:23

I had one reason for going out there, to tell Mormon people about how they can have peace with the one true

01:02:30

God, their creator, not one God amongst many gods, the one true

01:02:36

God through Jesus Christ, who's not the spirit brother of Lucifer, but how they can have peace with God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

01:02:45

That has not changed in all those years since then. In those, wow, 40 years plus since then.

01:02:55

That's the message we will have next week. That's the message we have all the time. That's the message that Apologia is known for presenting.

01:03:04

And by God's grace and mercy, we will never, ever compromise on that message.

01:03:12

Let's pray together. Our gracious heavenly father, we love your gospel.

01:03:19

We love your word. You've placed a love in our hearts for those around us to speak the truth to them, to use us merely as instruments in your hand, to bring your truth to bear, to glorify yourself in the salvation of your people.

01:03:38

But father, in this hour, may we rejoice in the beauty of the gospel that's summarized in these passages, summarized in the words of scripture.

01:03:54

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

01:04:05

We're undeserving. It's all of grace. It's all only to your glory. And we thank you for it.