And his love, I love to tell the story,
How wonderful it seems,
And all the golden dancing,
Of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story,
It did so much for me,
When man himself shall return,
I tell it now to thee.
I love to tell the story,
Tell me that we did glory,
To tell the old, old story,
Of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story,
It's pleasant to meet me,
But since you've shown my talent,
Oh, how wonderful it seems,
I love to tell the story,
For some have never heard,
A message of salvation,
From God's old glory born.
I love to tell the story,
Tell me that we did glory,
To tell the old, old story,
Of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story,
For those who go with grace,
See fathering and mercy,
To hear and find the best,
In many scenes of glory,
I sing a new, new song,
To hear the old, old story,
That I have lost so far,
I love to tell the story,
Tell me that we did glory,
To tell the old, old story,
Of Jesus and his love.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcement.
We do not have a new bulletin this week,
but of course our service times are every Sunday morning at 10.30,
Sunday nights at 6.30, Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in 1 Chronicles, chapter number 25,
and then also the big announcement is this Wednesday night,
before the evening service,
we're going to have our chili potluck fellowship,
that's at 5 o'clock,
so we're going to be having our church services as usual on Wednesday night at 7,
but if you come two hours early,
you can have a time of food and fellowship,
and so I know a lot of people are bringing chili for that.
If you want to bring chili,
the best way to bring it is in a slow cooker,
no matter how you cook it.
You don't have to cook it in a slow cooker,
but if you bring it in a slow cooker,
then we can just plug them in and keep them warm,
and that's a great way to serve it.
But if you can't do that, no problem.
Just bring it however you want to bring it.
And then we're going to be providing the side dishes.
We're going to provide cornbread, chips, bean dip,
and the bean dip is the famous bean dip.
And then we've also got the apple cider that we always have, the spiced cider.
So it's really going to be a lot of great food, good time,
and it's a good way to avoid all the little demons and goblins
and ghosts and ghouls coming to your door on Halloween.
Of course, I touched on that a little bit in my sermon this morning.
Yes?
I don't know, because I don't have the bullets.
You know what? There is.
I'm going to be out of town.
That's why I wasn't really on my radar.
But there is the big Arizona field trip.
Thank you for reminding me.
That's like three hours away, so don't forget about that.
Make sure you allow plenty of drive time.
Who's planning on going to that? Put up your hand.
All right, lots of people. Very good.
So, yeah, Arizona. Is it Thursday?
Yeah.
Okay, yeah, this Thursday, so don't forget about that.
And then that's pretty much it for announcements,
unless you have anything else.
Salvation.
All right, salvation.
Somebody help me up here.
All right, let's go through the soul winning from the past few days,
going back to Thursday.
Anything from Thursday?
We've got one right here from Jake.
All right, anything else from Thursday?
How about Friday?
Seven.
All right, we've got a Jake seven.
We've got one over here.
Okay, anything else from Friday?
We've got one and two.
Okay, anything else from Friday?
And then how about Saturday?
Who fails? Four.
All right, any other groups from Saturday?
We've got three with Brother Segura.
Anything else for Saturday?
All right, and then how about today?
Let's go through, starting with our main groups.
Brother Scott?
Twenty.
Twenty for the main team with Brother Scott.
And then what other teams have we got?
One for Gilbert.
One for the Gilbert team, all right.
Three for 430.
Okay, how about anything from Gila River?
We've got five for Chandler.
One from North Phoenix.
One from North Phoenix, all right.
Anything from Gila River?
Any other groups?
All right, and then what about just outside the groups?
Any other soul winning outside the groups?
We've got one here.
Lone Wolf, Commando, Soul Winning.
Anything else for the...
The soul winning team.
Great job, everybody.
We so want to keep up the great work.
We'll finish out the year strong.
And with that, let's go ahead and sing our song of the week.
If you don't have one of these green sheets,
put up your hand nice and hot.
We'll get these out to you.
And make sure everybody has one of these green sheets
so that we can sing Psalm 117,
the shortest chapter in the Bible.
Psalm 117.
If you ever wanted to memorize a whole chapter,
this is the one to start with, for sure.
Nice confidence builder for you.
All right, Psalm 117.
Let's sing it out on that first verse.
O praise the Lord, all ye nations!
Praise Him, all ye people!
For His merciful kindness is great for us,
In the truth of the Lord, and nigh forever.
Praise He, O Lord!
Praise the Lord, all ye nations!
Praise Him, all ye people!
For His merciful kindness is great for us,
In the truth of the Lord, and nigh forever.
Praise He, O Lord!
All right, and then we've got one more hymn to sing tonight.
Song number 99, Come Ye Disconsolate.
Let's sing it out on that first verse.
Song number 99.
Come ye disconsolate!
Lord of the place of heaven,
Lord of the strange,
Lord of the guilty,
Make us at home,
In the streets of poverty,
Where ever we stay,
Where earth has no soul,
And never home.
We'll see the river,
And see the water flowing,
Lord of the poor and poor,
Where earth has no soul,
And never home.
Where earth has no soul,
And never home.
All right, at this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's take our Bibles to Luke chapter 11.
Luke chapter number 11, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter,
starting in verse number 1.
Fall on silent with Brother Nick as he reads Luke chapter 11,
starting in verse number 1.
Luke chapter 11.
And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place,
when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,
Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us,
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend,
and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend,
lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me,
and I have nothing to set before him.
And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not,
the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
I cannot rise and give thee, I say unto you,
though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend,
yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you,
See, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
If his son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he pour a fish, give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb,
and it came to pass, when the devil was gone out,
the dumb space and the people wondered.
But some of them said, He casteth out devils through bills above the chief of the devils,
and others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven.
But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them,
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation,
and a house divided against a house fallen.
If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?
Because ye say that I cast out devils through bills above,
and if I by bills above cast out devils, by whom your sons cast them out,
therefore shall they be your judges.
But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.
For when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him,
he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divided his spoils.
He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.
When the unclean spirit's gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places,
seeking rest, and finding none, he sayeth, I will return unto my house once I came out.
And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished, and then goeth he,
and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in, and dwelled it.
And the last state of that man is worse than the first.
And it came to pass that he spake these things.
A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him,
Blessed is the womb that bear thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.
And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say,
This is an evil generation. They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
For as Jonas was a sign under the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation.
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them,
for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it,
for they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
No man when he hath lighted a candle put of it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye.
Therefore, when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light.
For when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
Take heed, therefore, that the light which is indeed be not darkness.
If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light,
as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.
And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to meet.
And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner.
And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter,
but your inward part is full of rambling and wickedness.
Ye fools, did not ye that make that which is without make that which is within also?
But rather give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you.
But woe unto you Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and ruin all mantle of herbs,
and pass on with judgment and the love of God.
These are ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Woe unto you Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not,
and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying, Thou reproaches us all also.
And he said, What wonder you also ye lawyers, for ye made men with burdens grievous to be born,
and ye yourselves touched not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Woe unto you, for ye built the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them,
and ye built their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles,
and some of them they shall slay and persecute.
That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world,
may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
which perished between the author and the temple.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
Woe unto you lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge.
Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently,
and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying weight for him,
and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him.
Brother Angel, will you pray for us?
Lord, thank you for allowing us all to be here tonight.
I pray that you will feel faster as a Holy Spirit, and I pray that your sermon will be as my sermon.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
Man, the title of my sermon tonight is, Worshipping Mary is a Sin.
Worshipping Mary is a sin.
Look down at your Bible in Luke 11 there.
You can see the first ever Roman Catholic in history in Luke 11, verse 27.
And it came to pass as he spayed these things, a certain woman of the company.
So apparently Roman Catholicism was started by a woman.
A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said to him,
Blessed is the womb that beareth thee, and the pouts which thou hast sucked.
But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
So the one time in the Bible that we see someone trying to praise, and lift up, and exalt,
and worship Mary during Christ's earthly ministry, Jesus corrects it right away.
He rebukes it right away.
He gives a gentle rebuke by saying, No, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
That's why it says but at the beginning of verse 28.
So this woman starts venerating Mary.
Blessed is the womb that beareth thee, and the pouts which thou hast sucked.
But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
What's he saying?
Other people can be more blessed than Mary.
Rather means instead of rather the one than the other.
So instead of Mary being the most blessed, he says rather blessed is the one who hears the word of God and keeps it.
So it's possible for us mortals to actually be more blessed than Mary.
Because guess what?
Mary is just a normal human being as well.
She is a mere mortal as well.
Mary is not sinless as the Roman Catholic Church teaches.
That's not found anywhere in the Bible.
Go to John chapter 2.
So first thing we see in Luke chapter 11 is that when people try to praise, or venerate, or worship Mary during Jesus' earthly ministry,
he nipped it in the bud.
He corrected it and said, Rather blessed is the one who hears the word of God and keeps it.
Look at John chapter 2 in verse number 1.
It says, In the third day there was a marriage in Heena of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there,
and both Jesus was called, and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
Jesus saith unto her, Hail Mary.
No, he saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come.
His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
So again, here the adult Jesus Christ, 30 years old, when his mother comes to him and says,
They have no wine, he says to her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come.
He tells her, basically, that she needs to know her place.
And then she backs off and says, Whatever he says unto you, do it.
And you know, Roman Catholics would do well to heed Mary's advice, since they love Mary so much.
Why don't they do whatever Jesus says?
Because Mary said, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
Okay, here are some things that Jesus said.
Call no man your father upon earth, but one is your father which is in heaven.
All right, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
So quit calling the priest father.
Quit calling the pope pope, because pope means papa, which means father.
And we have one father which is in heaven.
And so here we see that Jesus Christ is the boss, and that she is not one who intercedes to Jesus for other people.
She's not this mediatrix as they teach, but rather Christ is the boss, and he tells her how things are going to be.
And she acknowledged that and said, Well, do whatever he says.
Okay, now go to Matthew chapter 12.
Matthew 12 chapter 12 has a lot of evidence in the Bible about what a proper attitude toward Mary is,
not this Roman Catholic attitude of worshiping her, saying that she's sinless,
saying that she mediates between us and the Lord.
Look what the Bible says in Matthew chapter 12, verse 46.
While he, that's Jesus, yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without,
desiring to speak with them.
Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother?
Now look, so far we've already seen, Woman, what am I to do with thee?
Now we see the statement, Who is my mother? Who are my brethren?
And previously, when someone said, Blessed is the womb that bear thee, and the pass which thou hast sought,
he said, Yea, rather are blessed they that hear the word of God and keep it.
So it doesn't look like Jesus is worshiping Mary.
It certainly doesn't look like he's pointing his followers to Mary as any kind of a leader,
or anyone that they should be going to, praying to, venerating.
You don't see anything like that.
When Christ is on this earth, you see the reverse of that.
Now, in this story, it appears, you know, obviously the Bible's giving us limited information here,
but it appears that she and his brother are interrupting his preaching.
Because it says, while he yet talked to the people, so he's not done talking,
he's not done teaching, and they're saying, Jesus, we're here to talk to you.
And he's basically saying, wait, I'm not done preaching.
I'm not going to interrupt the service for mom and brethren.
Now, he said, who is my mother and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold my mother and my brethren,
for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother.
You say, well, Mary's special because she's the mother of Jesus.
Yeah, but did you know that there are other women that were the mother of Jesus?
Did you know that Jesus had more than one mother?
You say, what in the world? Yeah, because what did he say?
Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother.
Now, look, that's what the Bible says. Is that not what it says?
I mean, look down at your Bible. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Jesus said, anybody whosoever doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my mother, my sister, my brother. Notice he didn't say my father.
Only one is his father, God the Father.
But we see here that we, if we follow God's will, if we obey the will of the Father which is in heaven,
we are his brethren. You ladies are his sisters, or if you're older, his mothers.
That's what the Bible actually says.
So we don't see this teaching of venerating Mary, worshipping Mary.
It's totally contrary to what the Bible teaches.
Go to Mark chapter 12. We're in Matthew 12. Look over to Mark 12.
Mark chapter 12.
He stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said,
Behold, which behold means look at, behold my mother and my brethren.
They're here listening to me in the service right now, he said.
They're not out there interrupting the service.
They're the ones who are in here listening to the preaching of God's word.
That's my mother. That's my brother.
The Bible says in Mark chapter 12 verse 35, you know, for somebody who's totally sinless,
she seems to be put in her place a few times by Jesus.
You know, the Catholics have a doctrine called the Immaculate Conception.
And a lot of people, when they hear that term Immaculate Conception, myself included,
I thought that that's the virgin birth.
Who thought that the Immaculate Conception is the virgin birth?
No. Wrong.
The Immaculate Conception is not the conception of Jesus.
That's what we think because we're actually Bible-believing Christians.
So we think, oh, that must be about Jesus being conceived in the womb of Mary.
No, the Immaculate Conception is talking about when Mary was conceived.
When Mary was conceived in her mother's womb, that's the Immaculate Conception.
Look it up. It's true.
The Immaculate Conception is when Mary was conceived in her mother's womb totally without sin.
That's known as the Immaculate Conception.
And this is a doctrine that Roman Catholics invented.
It was a pronouncement made by a pope in the 1800s codifying this as official church doctrine.
And not just that it's an official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church,
but that you have to believe in it in order to be a faithful member of the Roman Catholic Church.
You have to believe in the Immaculate Conception.
It's a belief that's required to be a Roman Catholic.
You have to believe in the fact that Mary was conceived perfect and sinless in her mother's womb.
That's the Immaculate Conception.
They have another doctrine that they rolled out in the mid-20th century
where the pope made a pronouncement about it which is the Assumption of Mary
where they said that Mary did not die a physical death and remain on this earth.
Basically they give you two options.
Because remember these are doctrines that you have to believe as a Roman Catholic.
To be one of the faithful, these doctrines are required by Roman Catholics.
You have to believe in the Assumption of Mary.
And there's two different options you can believe.
You can either believe that Mary just never died and just ascended up to heaven.
Or you can believe that she died but was bodily resurrected up to heaven.
But to be a Roman Catholic you have to believe that Mary is bodily up in heaven right now.
Just like Jesus is bodily up in heaven right now.
This is what they believe. Look at Mark chapter 12.
It says in Mark chapter 12 and Jesus, verse 35,
And Jesus answered and said, while he taught at the temple,
How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?
For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my lord,
Sit thou on my right hand, so I make thine enemies thy footstool.
David therefore himself calleth him Lord, and Wednesday then his son.
And the common people heard him gladly. What's this saying?
This made sense what Jesus said here in these three verses.
To the common man, it made sense. Jesus made these statements and then it follows it up with,
you know, the common people heard him gladly. This made sense to them.
You know, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, they choked on the stuff that Jesus taught.
But when Christ taught this doctrine, the common man embraced it and it made sense to him.
Now, why did I read these three verses? What do these have to do with Mary?
Because we know that the Bible tells us that Jesus is the son of David.
But apparently, in another sense, he's not the son of David. Why?
Because Jesus says here, well, if David himself said by the Holy Ghost,
The Lord said to my lord, Sit thou on my right hand, so I make thine enemies thy footstool.
David therefore itself calleth him Lord, and Wednesday then his son.
He's saying, look, if David is calling Christ Lord, then how can David be his father?
Because, you know, you don't call your son Lord, is what he's saying. That doesn't make any sense.
What do we see here? Because the Jews had this idea of a Messiah that's not the Lord.
You know, they just wanted a political son of David, some great king that's going to restore their kingdom physically to greatness.
That's what they were looking for. And today, if you talk to Jews and figure out what they're looking for in a Messiah,
they believe that the Messiah is going to be a man who lives and dies, and he's just a normal, mortal man.
They're not looking for the son of God. They're not looking for God in the flesh. They're not looking for anything like that.
They're looking for a human being who's going to do what they want politically, and then die and go to the grave, and they can be done with them.
That's what they're looking for. So what Christ is trying to teach here is his own deity, his own divinity,
sort of like when he said, before Abraham was, I am. So he's saying, I'm before Abraham. I was before John the Baptist.
I was before David. So even though physically he's the son of David in the sense that he physically descended from David according to the flesh,
in another sense, he's not the son of David, he's the creator of David. That's why he's the root and offspring of David.
He's the root of David, meaning the source of David, creator of David, progenitor of David, and he's the offspring of David.
So why bring that up? Well, because it's the same way with Mary. Because just as Jesus was physically descended from David,
he's also physically descended from Mary. And so it says here, well if David calls him Lord, then whence is he then his son?
Okay, well then how about this? Well if Mary calls him Lord, whence is she then his mother? Whence is he then her son?
So just as in one sense Jesus is the son of David and in another sense he's not, according to Jesus, it's the same way with Mary.
In one sense he's the son of Mary, physically he was brought in this world and carried in this world by Mary, but in another sense he's the creator of Mary.
This is why this statement, mother of God, is a dumb statement. It's not a biblical statement.
Okay, you're not going to find in the Bible that term mother of God. That's a man-made term. Man's philosophy came up with that idea by saying,
well if Mary's the mother of Jesus and Jesus is God, then Mary's the mother of God. Hey, why don't we just call Mary Mary?
Why don't we just call her the Virgin Mary instead of coming up with this weird unbiblical term that's misleading?
Because you can say, well technically it's correct because Jesus is God, he's the mother of Mary.
But it's a misleading term because it makes it sound like Mary is senior to God or that she predates God when you start calling her the mother of God.
Or at the very least you'd be making her equal with God. I mean think about it, we've got the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and don't we consider the Father and Son equal?
The Father and Son are equal. Well if the Father and the Son are equally divine, equally deity, equally God, well then what happens if you throw in the mother of God?
You know, if making yourself the son of God makes yourself equal with God, well what about the mother of God?
You see how this could be a dangerous doctrine that puts Mary on par with deity.
At best on par with deity, at worst a step up from deity as the mother of God.
That's a dumb term, I don't care what anybody says, that's a wicked term to use. I think it's stupid.
And you say, well I don't think there's any danger in that term. Okay, well then explain to me a billion Catholics bowing down and worshipping Mary right now.
If there's no danger in that term, mother of God, if that's not a bad term, then explain to me why when I drive through the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation I saw a bunch of little shrines with idols to marry.
Explain to me how when I drive through Sonora, Mexico I see shrine after shrine after shrine, it looks exactly like a Hindu shrine to the Hindu false gods that predate Christianity.
It's identical, a pagan shrine to Mary where they burn incense on the queen of heaven and bow down to that idolatry.
Explain to me why I would drive two miles from here to Guadalupe and see shrine after shrine after shrine, statue after statue after statue, worshipping and idolizing Mary if that term mother of God is a correct term.
No, that term has been misleading and that term has created a cult of worshipping Mary, Mariolatry, idolatry surrounding Mary. Mariolatry is what it should be called.
So why is worshipping Mary a sin? Sin is the transgression of the law, right? Well let's look at the law of God. Flip back if you would to Exodus chapter 20.
We'll go to Exodus 20 and we'll go to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Sin is the transgression of the law. What does transgress mean? Trans means cross, across, right?
Transcontinental would mean we're going across the continent, okay? Transgress, what does grass mean? Grass means go, right?
Progress, pro means forward. Progress, we're going forward, moving forward. Regress would be you're going backward, right?
Okay, so we've got, what did I get off of? Transgression! Transgression is when you're going across God's laws.
So God's laws are these lines in the sand, right? They are what? Boundaries. So God has set up laws as boundaries.
And when you transgress God's law, what are you doing? You're crossing a line. You're going outside of the boundary. You're trans, cross, right?
Grasp going across a line. Where you are not doing what God told you to do, you have violated God's law. That's what the Bible means when it says sin is the transgression of the law.
So when we talk about sin, we would point to one of God's laws, right? If you're going to say this is a sin, then you'd point to a law of God. You know, it might be a little expanded, amen?
But anyway, look at Exodus chapter 20 verse 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything.
Now, God is so redundant, almost to the point of ridiculousness, and people still don't get it. I mean, how redundant is this? Don't make any graven image, any likeness of anything.
I mean, he could have just said, don't make any graven image. But he's like, look, I want to make this really apparent. Any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
For I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them in heaven.
Again, notice the redundancy of saying, don't bow down to them, don't serve them. And this is a neither-nor statement here. He said, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
He said, well, I'm not really serving it. Why are you bowing down to it? Well, I'm not really bowing down. Are you serving it? Are you worshipping it? Well, I'm just venerating it, and I just kind of happen to be on my knees.
And I know this looks like incense I'm burning, but I'm not really serving it. Well, you know, if you go back to the Greek, there's two different words for serve, and I'm doing the other word. That's what they literally say.
They say, well, you know, in Greek, serve is either dulevo or le trevo. You know, this is dulevo. This is a le trevo. Don't worry.
But then what's funny is that then the Catholics, in their zeal to worship Mary, they're like, well, I don't know, because we sure do levo a lot of saints, too.
And Mary's kind of up, so they do this hyper-dulevo. But it's not le trevo. Never fear. See, isn't this just a semantic word game? Isn't that stupid? I mean, what's God saying here?
He's saying, don't bow down. Don't bow down to them. Don't serve them. Don't worship them. No images. No graven images. Do not make these statues.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 8, parallel passage of the Ten Commandments.
But are you bowing down to it? Then you're in violation of scripture. You are in sin. You've already transgressed. You've already crossed a line.
The moment that you get on your knees in front of any statue for any reason, you have violated this law. Any time you just get down on your knees in front of a statue, I don't care what the reason.
You just violated this law. You just bowed down yourself in front of an image. The Bible says no. Well, it's an image of the Lord. Idolatry. Well, it's the saints. It's Mary. Even worse. It's total idolatry.
God's a jealous God. And he tells them, look, you didn't see any image when I appeared to you in Mount Sinai. All you did was heard a voice speaking the word of God to you.
You saw no similitude in the day that God spoke to you in Mount Sinai. So don't corrupt yourselves and make a graven image. Go to Jeremiah chapter number 7.
Jeremiah chapter 7. Another interesting thing that we find in the Old Testament is the worship of the queen of heaven. This is a pagan idolatrous practice of the Old Testament.
Worshipping the queen of heaven. We're going to look at chapter 7 and chapter 44 of Jeremiah if you want to get your finger in both places.
Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 18. The children gather wood. That's the little altar boys. And the fathers kindle the fire. And the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven.
And to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger. The Roman Catholics today with their wafer and their wine, you know, they're worshipping a female deity.
The Virgin Mary. They are worshipping Mary and they're worshipping the queen of heaven. They call her the queen of heaven. That's their term and I'm going to get to that in a little bit.
Look at Jeremiah 44 16. As for the word that thou has spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing going forth out of our own mouth.
Listen to these obnoxious women. We're not going to hearken to you Jeremiah. We're going to do whatever comes out of our own mouth.
This isn't the type of woman that you want to bring home to mama. Obnoxious loudmouth idolatrous women.
To burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done. We and our fathers, our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.
For then we had plenty of vittles and were well and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we've wanted all things and been consumed by the sword of my family.
And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make cakes to worship her and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?
I mean, right honey? Right Oswald? Didn't we? Did we? Yes, dear. Yes, I was listening to that. Yes, you're right.
I mean, look, to be a Roman Catholic, do you have to be a little bit feminized when you're worshiping a feminine deity?
Last time I checked, Catholic priests weren't exactly bad dudes. They're not exactly the manliest men that you'll run across.
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, look, this is a weird religion when you think that deity is female. There's something wrong with that religion right away.
And you say, well, that's not a deity. Really? That's funny? Because that's who you haven't tried. You'll see way more images of Mary than you'll see of Jesus.
Go take a trip to Guadalupe. Go take a trip to Sonora. Go take a trip to all these different places. You'll see Mary everywhere.
And every once in a while, you're lucky to see baby Jesus sucking on her breast or something if you're lucky. It's mainly Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary everywhere.
Jesus is a little baby to them. Or he's dying on the cross. Why don't you get Jesus off the cross? He already died once. We don't need him to keep dying over and over again in your weekly sacrifice of the Mass or your daily sacrifice of the Mass.
Hey, how about an empty tomb? Why don't we emphasize that for a while? But look, you'll see more Mary pictures than you'll see crucifixes. Right? I mean, it's just Mary everywhere.
Why? That's their god. That's their deity. I mean, look, there are people out there where you would say sports is his god. His work is his god. Money is his god. His god is mammon. Why? Because that's what he spends his time on. That's what he has in shrine. That's what everything in his house is decorated to point toward.
Okay, when you see Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary and chanting Hail Mary, that tells you who their god is. Okay? It's a deity unto them. Now, I googled queen of heaven. Okay? I just typed into Google queen of heaven.
Result number one, queen of heaven Catholic cemetery and funeral home in Mesa, Arizona. That was result number one for queen of heaven. Queen of heaven Catholic cemetery in Mesa. Right? Just less than a half hour from here.
Result number two, Wikipedia. Queen of heaven parentheses antiquity. Queen of heaven was a title given to a number of ancient sky goddesses worshiped throughout the ancient Mediterranean and Near East during ancient times. That's result number two.
Google result number three, Wikipedia. Queen of heaven without the ancient after it. Queen of heaven is a title given to Mary, the mother of Jesus by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic church, to some extent in Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
And make no mistake about it, the Eastern Orthodox church worships Mary every bit as much as the Roman Catholic church. Every bit. They kiss a Mary icon every single time they go to church. Every time they go to church, they walk into the Orthodox church and they kiss the Jesus icon, they kiss the Mary icon, and then they start kissing all the saints. They start kissing a bunch of pictures of random dudes. This is what they do every single time they go to church. It's required.
Now, this tradition comes from controversies about the idolatrous nature of these icons. For a while, the icons were destroyed in churches. It was called the iconoclast, meaning destruction or breaking of icons. And then they got a new Byzantine emperor that said, we're bringing back the icons.
And when they brought them back, they want to make sure that everybody's on board with the icons so that they never have any more iconoclast. So basically, they want to make sure you're one of them when you go to their church. So to prove that you're one of them and that you're not sneaking in or infiltrating, you have to walk in and kiss all those icons to show I am truly Orthodox.
Because being Orthodox is all about idolatry. It's all about kissing pictures of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. In fact, they have a holiday called the triumph of Orthodoxy. And it's the day that they brought back the icons. That's what their religion is all wrapped up in.
So it's the Anglicans or Church of England. It's the Eastern Orthodox. And of course, most famously, it's the Roman Catholic Church that have the Queen of Heaven.
The title is a consequence of the First Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, that's the 400s AD, in the fifth century in which Mary was proclaimed Theotokos, a title rendered in Latin as Mater Dei, in English, Mother of God.
So this Mother of God doctrine goes back to the fifth century AD, and they worship Mary. She's the Queen of Heaven, Mother of God, Hail Mary, on and on.
Okay, so result number one was Catholic Cemetery, Queen of Heaven, Mesa. Result number two, Wikipedia article, Queen of Heaven antiquity, oh, pagan goddess.
Result number three, Wikipedia, Queen of Heaven now, Roman Catholic named for Mary. Result number four was an article pointing out that the Queen of Heaven is a pagan deity found in the Book of Jeremiah, and saying that Roman Catholics are worshipping a pagan deity.
That's result number four. Now look, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental, and there's four mentions of the Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah as being an idolatrous pagan deity.
So let's pick that name for Jesus' mom. It's crazy. Makes no sense. Okay, so what's result number five?
Result number five is from the Roman Catholics explaining why they're right to call Mary the Queen of Heaven.
So it only takes the first five results to kind of get the whole breadth of this whole subject.
You got a Catholic cemetery, you got a Wikipedia article telling you it's a pagan goddess, you got a Wikipedia article telling you it's married to the Roman Catholics, you got an article saying, hey, they're worshipping a pagan goddess, and an article saying, no, we're not.
Now let me read to you an excerpt from the Catholic article defending this. So it's this big long article defending it. I can't go through and debunk the whole thing because it would take a long time.
But this part just blew me away. One of their three justifications for calling her Queen of Heaven is Mary's cooperation in Jesus' work.
And basically, this whole section is about how Mary had a part in our salvation, our redemption, basically. She was part of that. Okay, listen to this.
Moreover, it can likewise be stated that this glorious lady had been chosen Mother of Christ in order that she might become a partner in the redemption of the human race.
So here's Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, and then he's got a partner, I guess, helping out from the foot of the cross.
Mary was not a partner in our redemption. That's ridiculous. But they're just so obsessed with Mary and worshipping Mary, now they want to make her like co-savior.
Well, Jesus saved us, but he couldn't have done it without the cooperation of Mary. It gets worse. But she might become a partner in the redemption of the human race.
It was she who, free of the actual sin, meaning she didn't inherit any sin from Adam and she didn't have any actual sin of her own,
and ever most closely bowed to her son, on Golgotha, offered that son to the eternal father, together with the complete sacrifice of her maternal rights and maternal love, like a new eve for all the sons of Adam, stained as they were by his lamentable fall. Did you get that?
Mary offered up Jesus Christ as a sacrifice to the father. She's the one who basically offered him on the cross as a sacrifice. Oh, she's just always just bound so close to her son, sort of like when she's outside, he's saying, make her wait.
I'm not done preaching. In fact, random old lady in the crowd, you're my mother.
Is anybody home? I mean, isn't this so blasphemous, though? Mary is this co-savior, partner in our redemption. Well, she's the one who offered Jesus on the cross in the first place.
Hey, the father sent the son to be the savior. And Mary was just a person who was chosen to physically give birth to him and raise him in the home. But you know what? She is not this co-savior. I mean, it's weird. It's crazy that they believe in this.
It must be legitimately included that as Christ, the new Adam must be called a king, not merely because he is son of God, but also because he is our redeemer. So, analogously, the most blessed virgin is queen, not only because she is mother of God, but also because as the new Eve, she was associated with the new Adam.
I mean, this is just totally made up garbage that's not in the Bible. And you know, she's supposedly the most blessed virgin, really? Because that's funny, because Jesus Christ, you know, don't want to confuse you with the words of Jesus, but Jesus said, yea, rather blessed is he that heareth the word God and does it. So, would it be possible for another virgin to be more blessed than Mary? Absolutely.
And if you don't believe that, then you're rejecting the words of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter number 11, verse 28. It's that simple. Do you believe Luke 11, 28? Or do you believe the Babylonian mother of Harlot's Roman Catholic church to tell you who your savior is? Okay? This is what it comes down to.
Now, let me move on here. Why is it a sin to worship Mary? Because Jesus corrected someone who tried to do it. Why is it a sin to worship Mary? Because it violates the commandment not to bow down before any graven image of anything, male or female.
Why is it a sin to worship Mary? Because the Bible says in Matthew 4, 10, Then saith Jesus unto them, Get thee hence, saying, For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Because it says in Luke 4, 8, And Jesus answered and said unto them, Get thee behind me, saying, For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Go to Luke chapter 1.
There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, not the woman Mary. The man Christ Jesus is the only mediator between God and men. Come to the Father through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done.
We don't need to go to Mary to get to Jesus. I mean, how many middlemen do we need here? Well, we got to talk to Mary, and then she'll talk to Jesus, and then he'll talk to the Father. I mean, good night. We can come boldly to the throne of grace. We can go directly to God the Father in the name of Jesus. In his name, we can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to hell in time of need.
Luke chapter 1. Go to Luke 1, verse 28. This is where Mary is greeted. This is where the Hail Mary nomenclature comes from. Luke chapter 1, verse 28. The angel came in under her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored.
This is the part that in their Bible says, full of grace, because that's basically what the favored means. What does grace mean? It means favor, right? And I did a sermon on grace a few months ago where we showed in the Bible that that's what it means to be favored by God.
And so in their Latin Bible, it's translated in a way that comes out in English as full of grace. The King James says, thou that art highly favored. Okay, so that's where they're getting that from, this Hail, Mary, full of grace that they start their chant with.
So, Hail, thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. Now, they make a big deal about this blessed art thou among women. I mean, they chant it over and over. Hail, Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women. You know, they go on and on about this.
But you know, this is not really the coolest thing that could be said about someone. Because if you actually go back to Judges, and we're not gonna do it for the same time, but back in Judges, there's a woman called Jael, who drives a tent spike through someone's head.
She puts a tent spike through Sisera's head, and it says in the Word of God, blessed is Jael above women. Okay, so it says Mary is blessed among women, Jael is blessed above women.
So, let's not get carried away about this blessed art thou among women. You know what, and yea, rather blessed, I'm gonna keep coming back to that, is he or she that hears the Word of God and does it, even more blessed.
So he says, blessed art thou among women, and when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. I guess she didn't notice that she'd never sinned before.
I guess she didn't notice that she was perfect in every way, and had never made a mistake. I don't know about you, but I am very aware of my sinful condition. How about you? Are you aware of your sinful condition?
Or do you sometimes wonder, like, do I sin? Am I perfect? No, look, we are aware of our sinful condition. We know that we're sinners. We know that every day. We know that all the time. If you don't know that, there's something wrong with you.
You must be prideful or arrogant or puffed up or blind or deceiving your own self, because a normal person is aware of the fact that they're a sinner. They're aware of their shortcomings. That's why Paul talked so much about the fact that he's achieved from sinners, and how he often does the wrong things, and how he's such a wretched man that he is, and so forth.
So apparently Mary's kind of blown away by this, because I guess she hadn't noticed how perfect she was. But it says that she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. That's grace, again. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and he shall be called son of Mary, and you're going to be the mother of God.
Now, he says, Shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, saying I know not a man?
You know, how am I going to conceive without being with a man physically? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God.
This is a verse that sometimes people misunderstand, and they somehow come away with the fact that somehow the Holy Spirit is the Father of Jesus or something. But they're just not reading this right, because it clearly says the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
So, yeah, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. Well, guess what? The Holy Ghost comes upon a lot of people.
But the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. So, obviously, God the Father is called God the Father, because he's the Father.
So, you know, when we're talking about the Trinity, we know it's God the Father who is the Father of Jesus. He's the one who is the Father.
Now, it says here, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. So why is Jesus called the Son of God? Because he has no earthly calling.
She's a virgin. The Holy Ghost comes upon her, the power of the highest overshadows her, and therefore the holy thing that's born of her shall be called the Son of God.
Now, the modalist will twist and say, oh, that's where he becomes the Son of God. You know what you'll never find in the Bible? A verse about Jesus becoming the Son of God.
You'll find verses about him being called the Son of God, being declared to be the Son of God, showing himself to be the Son of God. But you're not going to find a verse that says he became the Son of God. You know why? Because he's always been the Son of God.
He was the Son even in the Old Testament. He was in the beginning with God, and he was God, and the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
He didn't send a non-person, known as the Word, to become the Savior of the world. No, he sent the person, Jesus. He sent the Son of God. He sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
So Jesus Christ did not come into existence in Bethlehem's manger or in Mary's womb nine months previous. No, Jesus Christ has always been, and he's always been the same, and he was in the beginning with God, and he was God.
He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and he's the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And so God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Now there's a moment in time when he's brought into the world, but he's always existed there with God, and he's always been God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.
Verse 36, And behold thy cousin Elizabeth! She also hath conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, which is called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold, I'm the queen of heaven! Worship me! No, behold the handmaid of the Lord. The handmaid of the Lord. Mary saw herself as a humble servant. Mary said, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
Okay, Mary is not lifting herself up. No one is lifting up Mary in the New Testament except one lady who lifts her up, and Jesus shuts it down. He nips it in the bud. Again, what's the key verse? Luke 11, 27, and 28. Catholics don't like to look at that scripture.
Luke 11, 27, and 28. Case closed. We could have just read those two verses and gone away.
Look if you would at verse 41. Let's jump down. It says in verse 41, It came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.
And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. What does magnify mean? Well, if we take a magnifying glass to something, it makes it what? Bigger. It makes it appear bigger.
So if we magnify something, we are giving a perception of it being bigger. So people's view of God is sometimes a little too small. We didn't magnify that, right?
Make their perception larger so that they can actually realize the greatness of God or at least get closer to realizing the true greatness of our God.
So we want to magnify the Lord. Magnify God. We want to put the emphasis on him, right? We want to make a big deal about him. We're going to magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Now, let me ask you this. Why did Mary need a Savior if she was never in danger of anything?
If she is sinless, then why would she need to be saved? You know what saved means? They should call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
He shall save his people from their sins. You know why Mary had a Savior? Because she was saved from her sins. There's no Immaculate Conception in the Bible. That's why they had to come up with it in the 1800s.
And I mean, they believed in it before that, but that's when they pronounced it to be an essential doctrine.
So Mary was a good person. She's full of grace. She's a wonderful person, but she's a human being. And you know what? There are lots of other wonderful people, too.
And there are even some people who are better than Mary. I'll promise you one thing. I'll promise you there have been women on this earth who have lived in the last 6,300 years that have been better than women than Mary.
I do not believe, and mark my words, I do not believe that Mary is the greatest woman who ever lived. I don't believe that.
Because look at what Jesus says. He's saying, look, she's outside. More blessed is the one who's hearing the word of God and doing it. That's implying that there are times when Mary's not hearing the word of God and not doing it at points in his mission.
Now he's respectful and honoring of his mother, but I don't think that she was the greatest Christian to ever walk the earth. I think she was a great person. I think she was a wonderful person.
She was highly favored. She was chosen by the Lord at that time to do that job, but I don't think that she was the best Christian that ever lived. I think that some of you ladies might even do a better job than her.
So the Catholics can put that in a pulpit's package. But anyway, as we go down through here, it says,
My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for he has regarded the lowest date of his handmaiden. For behold, for men's forth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty has done to me great things, and holy is his name.
So why is she blessed? Because God is doing great things for her. Without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. It's God that's blessing Mary, because God is the emphasis.
His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. Verse 51. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud of the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever.
Now, why do we make a big deal about the Lord? Why should we, verse 46, magnify the Lord? Well, maybe because the Lord is mentioned by name 7,000 times in the Old Testament. 7,000 times.
Okay, Jesus is mentioned hundreds and hundreds of times over and over and over again. It's just every page of the New Testament. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, over and over again.
How often is Mary mentioned? Mary is not a significant character in the New Testament as far as how much she's talked about. I mean, she played a role. She had an important job. She didn't. But she is not a focus of the New Testament at all.
I mean, read through the New Testament and count how many times she's mentioned. You know what? The Quran mentions Mary more than the Bible does. Did you know that? The Quran mentions Mary more than the Bible does.
Why? Because the Bible does not make a big deal out of Mary. The Bible makes a big deal out of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. That's our Trinity. We don't need a quadrennity. We don't need a fourth member of the Trinity here.
And de facto, that's what the Catholics have. And in fact, they're often de facto putting Mary a step above the Lord. It's idolatry. It's mariolatry. It's a wicked false doctrine. You know, we need to get Catholics saved, amen? Because they're not saved.
Say, well, I know a saved Catholic. No, you don't. Because they're either saved or they're a Catholic, but they can't be saved. Well, I know a saved Catholic. No, you don't.
Now, you might know a saved person who attends the Catholic Church under duress. I mean, look, I talked to somebody who said, yeah, I go to the Catholic Church because my parents make me. Or hey, I go to the Catholic Church because my wife demands I go to the Catholic Church.
Okay. It's an interesting relationship you have there. Or, you know, okay, I go to the Catholic Church because my husband forces me or whatever.
You know, okay, but anybody who is Catholic, you know that ik on the end of Catholic? That's a suffix that means that you believe in Catholicism. Catholicism, that ism is a belief. And the ik is the person who believes in it, okay?
So an ikolik is somebody who believes in Catholicism. And if somebody actually believes that Mary was conceived without sin and ascended up to heaven, and they're praying to Mary, that person is not saved.
That person is not trusting Christ alone as their savior. They got two saviors. Remember, Mary is the partner, the co-savior. You can't trust Jesus and Mary to get you to heaven as a team. You got to put all your faith in Jesus.
And by the way, the official Roman-Catholic doctrine is that you can lose your salvation. If you commit mortal sin, you'll go to hell, right?
The official Catholic doctrine is a works-based salvation. It's not salvation by faith alone. It's not sola fide. It's seven sacraments. It's salvation by going to the confessional booth, doing works, all the different things that they have to go through, the baptism, the communion, the confirmation, all these different steps that they do.
How can you say, oh, I know a person who believes in that stuff, but they're still saved? No. There's no such thing as a saved Mormon. There's no such thing as a saved Jehovah's Witness. There's no such thing as a saved Catholic. There's no such thing as a saved Orthodox Jew. There's no such thing as a saved Muslim. There's no such thing as a saved Hindu. Because when you get saved, you stop being those things.
If you're saved, you can't believe in Mohammed anymore. And you can't worship Mary and say, oh, I'm saved, salvation's by faith alone, but I still believe in the holy mother Catholic Church. No. Because everything that we believe is contrary. Everything about the gospel is contrary to what the Catholic Church uses.
And look, this is why, and I'll close on this, when I go soul-winning, and I run into Roman Catholics, which is very often, and let me tell you something, Roman Catholics are some of the best people to run into soul-winning, because they're some of the easiest people to get saved.
I mean, out of all the people I've seen saved in my life, probably three-quarters of them were Roman Catholics. Am I right? I mean, when you go out soul-winning, Roman Catholics are pretty easy to get saved.
We were down on that Tohono O'odham reservation a couple days ago. We wanted four people to Lord. I'm pretty sure all of them were Catholic. Okay? And you get there, and you ask them, do you know for sure if you die today, you go to heaven? They say no. They either say, I'm going to hell, or they say, I don't know. What do you think it takes to get to heaven? I don't know. That's the answer you get. Okay.
But when I run into a Roman Catholic, here's how I give them the gospel. I give them the gospel the same way I give everybody else the gospel. You know, I go through the normal plan. I don't just start out telling them, well, did you know that the queen of heaven is a pagan deity? I don't just come in and say, hey, did you know the Pope's a child bluster? You know, I'm not going to start out with that, because you don't want to just alienate people or burn people in the first five seconds. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, so you want to make sure you get the gospel out there.
And now just get the door slammed in your face before you have time to preach the gospel. So what I do is I start out gently and kindly, and I get into my normal plan of salvation, you know? I ask them, do you know for sure if you die today, you go to heaven? If they don't know, if they don't, then I say, hey, have you got five, 10 minutes? I'd just love to just show you out of the Bible real quick. I even know for sure. Is that all right? Sure. And a lot of times, they're willing to listen. And then I go through my normal plan of salvation. Romans 3.23, Romans 6.23, and on and on.
But I do something a little different at the end when they're Catholic. When I get to the very end, I do this. I say, now you mentioned you're Catholic. The Catholic Church actually teaches something completely different than what I just showed you. They actually teach that believing is not enough, that you have to go to church, that you have to go to confession, that you have to do all these other things, whereas what I just showed you in the Bible is that it's just only by faith alone. So which one do you believe? Do you believe that it's all by faith?
Or do you believe what the Catholic Church teaches? I do that at the end. Now, here's why I do that. Because a lot of Roman Catholics will just kind of go along with you and just kind of go along to be polite. And to them, they're just constantly trying to just earn more grace all the time. So to them, like listening to a 10 minute spiel about the Bible is just like timeout purgatory for good behavior.
Okay. Or if they pray a prayer with you, well, they love chanting prayers. I mean, that's what their priest tells them to do, right? Hey, say five Hail Marys and five Our Fathers. So to them, repeating a prayer or listening to a 10 minute gospel presentation, you know, they might have the wrong impression that this is somehow just adding a little icing to their cake. When we're trying to take their cake and throw it in the trash, we're trying to throw it in the trash.
And actually give them something nutritious. Okay, but they sometimes they think it's an adjunct or an add on. But we're not trying to put new wine into old bottles with the gospel. We're putting new wine into a new bottle. And so we want to make sure that they realize this isn't an adjunct to Catholicism. This isn't just, oh, you're still Catholic, but here's an extra little prayer, an extra little means of grace for you. Extra little sacrament into the bargain. You want to make sure they have said, well, you're still Catholic, but here's an extra little prayer, an extra little means of
So that's why I kindly just present that to them at the end and say, look, what the Catholic Church teaches is different. Which one do you believe? Now, the most of the time, if I've been thorough and go through it with them, and they are receptive, and they're believing what I'm saying, and they believe the gospel, then they'll say, well, I believe what the Bible says. By faith, that happens frequently. Yeah, well, I believe what the Bible says. Okay, hey, when I was down on the Indian Reservation this week, several times,
that's the answer I got. I believe what the Bible says. Yeah, it's only by faith. That's enough. Faith alone. Okay, then I'm going to lead them in prayer and win them to Christ, because now I realize, okay, they get it. But I had one Roman Catholic a couple days ago when I went through this that said to me, no, I believe, you know, what the Church teaches. Then you have to do these other things as well. Even though up to that point, he got along and nodded to everything. So that's why that's a good question to ask to present it to them as a choice.
And then if they say, well, I'm going to stick with what the Church teaches, then I just tell them, okay, well, thanks for talking with us. You know, here are the verses I showed you. You can review these later. Or here's a CD to listen to. Here's a DVD to watch. You know, have a great day. But, you know, they're not getting saved today. Well, just pray with me anyway. What? No. It's not praying a prayer that saves you. It's praying a prayer that you actually believe that saves you.
And you have to call upon the name of the Lord by faith, not just chant words. If nothing changed about what they believe, if they're still trusting the Roman Catholic Church, they're not saved no matter how many prayers they pray or no matter what you get them to repeat after you. So that's why if they say, well, I'm going to stick with what the Church believes, then I just say, hey, all right, well, let me leave you with some verses. Have a great day. See you later. Bye. And you know what, I can only hope that someone else is going to talk to them and water that seed.
And water that seed, right? But I walk away at that point and wish them a good day and leave. Because I have not accomplished, you know, I wasn't able to get them across the finish line. But, you know, it's not a waste because I still planted a seed or watered the seed. But if they say, well, I'm going to go with what the Bible teaches, okay, now I know I've actually accomplished the goal here of getting this person to believe the gospel. Now I'm going to assist them in calling upon the name of the Lord and save them.
Because it's actually going to mean something because their belief has changed. As far as I'm aware of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and the power of the gospel. Please help us be faithful soul owners, Lord. We love Catholics and want them to be saved. I know that this adorn is filled with former Catholics. Even my wife herself is a former Catholic and there are many, many others, Lord. We just pray that you would just open the eyes of these dear people and help them to realize that they are worshiping a pagan deity.
They're worshiping this demonic goddess spirit. They're not worshiping Mary. And Mary shouldn't be worshiped anyway. It's a sin to worship Mary. Lord, please just open their eyes. Help us be faithful to knock their doors and preach the truth in love. And I pray that if any Catholic happens to stumble upon this sermon, that it would wake them up and that they would actually realize that they have been lied to and deceived and that they would fully trust you for their salvation. And in Jesus' name we pray.
All right, we're going to sing now song number six, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. Song number six in our hymnal, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. Let's sing it out of that first verse. Song number six.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, my feet will take my stand. A shadow of the holy dark within a weary land.
The Lord within the wilderness, the rest upon the plain. The burning of a new tiny and the burning of the plain.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, my eyes I can see. The very dying form of God who suffered there for me.
And from my splintered heart with tears, new wonders I confess. The wonders of his glorious love can die of worthlessness.
I dig across my shell and through my abiding place. I ask no further sunshine than the sunshine of his face.
But since then the world go back to know the being of God. My sin goes at my only share, my glory all the cross.
All right, let's miss things better tonight.
Thank you.