Good morning, everybody, and welcome to
Steadfast Baptist Church.
We can all find our seats.
We will go ahead and get started this morning
with our first song.
So great to see everybody here this morning.
Once we've all found a seat, let's go and grab a hymnal.
And for our first song this morning,
we're gonna go to song number 43.
Song number 43, we're marching to Zion.
Song number 43.
Song number 43, let's all sing that out together.
We love you so much and we thank you so much for this wonderful Sunday morning
We thank you so much for this church, and we thank you so much for the awesome songs
We get to sing unto you this morning
We just ask that you fill this room with your spirit and
Help us lift up our voices unto you, and it's in Jesus name. We pray amen
All right for our next song. We're gonna go to our special
binders
Yours will be black, but it's a special bind binder with laminated sheets
For our next song, we're going to go to How Great That
and nice and high, and one of our ushers can come by
and get you guys a bulletin.
And we have, Jude, one is our Bible memory passage.
So if you can quote the entire chapter,
you can receive a special prize
when we're done with the verses.
If you can quote the verse of the week
and you're 18 and under, we have an ice cream treat
that we give out on our Wednesday night services.
On the inside, we have our service and soul winning times.
Also our church stats, and we've been doing
a really good job on the soul winning.
on the right we have a list of expecting ladies we have several ladies you can be in prayer for
upcoming events we have this august ninth is a joint baby shower and then there's also our
our final teen event for the summer there is a sign-up sheet for the teen event please make
sure to indicate uh uh or fill that out and sign up and make sure to fill out all the details on
in between and we just want to make sure we are accommodating everybody appropriately.
Men's retreat is going to be August 14th to the 16th.
If anybody still needs to sign up or do that, please fill out our sign-up sheet.
It's going to be August 27th to the 31st and I'm really looking forward to our conference.
We've got a lot of cool stuff.
I got a sample of the shirts in this week and they look really great.
So I'm really excited.
We're going to be giving out free shirts.
Free other kinds of merch stickers and all kinds of fun stuff. We're gonna do we're gonna have a cool photo op area
Where you can take a picture with
Kind of some of our logos and backdrop stuff and we've got all kinds of events
We've got our kids spelling bee on Saturday
We have men's football that we're gonna be doing on Saturday. We have a men's event. That's kind of like a special
I've never done this before.
So I don't know what's what it's called broom ball.
I've never done this before, but we have like a men's broom
ball thing that we're doing one night.
There's a late late night pickleball tournament.
If you want to sign up for that, we
have basically an opportunity for men's, mixed, women's,
and youth.
I think not a lot of people have signed up
in some of those other categories.
And we'll take sign up all the way until.
that Wednesday night of the conference.
So we're gonna be making some brackets
and just having fun with that.
We've got some cool prizes for that event as well.
And we've got soul winning, family activities.
We've got preaching every night.
So I mean, honestly, it's gonna be packed.
One thing we are gonna do is in addition,
just because parking is pretty limited at our property,
is we're gonna try and offer some valet parking.
And I guess I would just encourage any of the families here
that feel comfortable doing that to try that
just so that way we free up as much parking here
for our guests or visitors.
But essentially, all you're gonna do
is just gonna roll right up.
and that kind of front platform will have several of our ushermen there and they're just going to
take cars kind of over there's a there's a library really close with a large parking
overflow so we're just going to be parking over there and we can help bring your cars
back and forth and we'll give you a ticket so we keep your keys safe and everything like that but
if you're if you're willing to do that that would be a great help so you can just roll up
walk down the red carpet and come into the Fire Breathing Baddest Fellowship.
I mean, it sounds great to me, so.
And we're really excited about our conference.
We're really excited about the planning and the work.
There's also a cleaning sign-up volunteer sheet that we have out there,
so if you can help out one of those times, that would be a great blessing.
We have a lot of people that help clean our church, and they do an amazing job.
I think we pretty much have everything planned and scheduled out, so if you have any questions
just let us know, but I know that Ms. Milstead was helping with doing some decorations and
some people had expressed interest in helping, you could talk with her if you want to help
with that kind of stuff too, so I'm really looking forward to that event at the end of
uh... missions trip mexico city september eight to the twelfth
and brother diego is leading that for us if you'd like to go down there
tyler texas so many marathons september twenty seven and so that's going to be
uh... a great opportunity to go out soul winning with us if you haven't gone on a
soul winning marathon it's great opportunity to do an extra soul winning
baby shower details are listed below and then on the back is our prayer list
This is from our evangelist in the Philippines,
evangelist Duncan Urbanic.
And I'm telling you, he's coming for us
with these salvations.
He had 898 salvations for the month of July.
So wow, that is really impressive.
And a number like that is big, but.
It's also still a lot of work.
I mean, that's a lot of work.
It's a lot of people.
And I think he's had some help.
I think he knows he has to get some recruits in there.
And so he's been getting some assistance and some people
that have been out there helping him.
But that's great that we're provoking him to do more
and he's provoking us to do more.
That says that his total is 3,873,
which is higher than our total.
So that's kind of a.
that's interesting but I don't know that we're going to beat him for the year or not but
hey we can still try right we can put some pressure on him
and they've been having a lot of opportunities to partner with Verdi Baptist Church, Pastor Matthew
Stuckey and the Manila part of the Philippines and
They've been going to a lot of schools,
getting to preach with a lot of people.
He preaches sometimes still for Pastor Stuckey.
Also, they've been holding church services,
and he kind of details everything here.
I'm not gonna read the entire newsletter,
but he said in their last service, July 27th,
they had 51 in attendance.
So...
That's really, really great.
They are meeting in a Jollibee, so that might be the reason.
I don't know.
I hear Jollibee is like the rage of the Philippines.
So I guess if we meet somewhere where there's not food just
right next to you, I don't know if that
would affect attendance or not yet.
Maybe we have to cater Jollibee or something.
I don't know.
But honestly, that's great.
That's really encouraging.
But just pray for them. They're trying to make an adjustment because Jollibee's are so busy
that you can't use them or their overflow areas during their busy season of the year.
And so we're actually having to find another location.
So we're looking at trying to get something more permanent for them.
to where they can actually have services more regularly.
And so just pray that Avengers or Bannock would find
the right space and that we could continue with this work
that they're doing out there.
And so this is a great, I mean, honestly it's a,
his newsletters have been really great.
You can also pray for them to have more soul winners.
Also pray for her, his wife's family,
specifically his mother-in-law who has kidney disease.
and then his wife is pregnant and due in November.
So if you continue to pray for her pregnancy,
but as far as I know, everything's going well over there
and we try and stay in constant contact with them,
but we really appreciate our evangelists
and the work that they're doing out there.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We're gonna go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week.
It's Psalm 126.
It's in our special Psalm hymns and binders, Psalm 126.
All right, that was Psalm 126 in your Special Binders.
Psalm 126.
Let's all sing it out together.
Psalm 126.
When the Lord turned again, the captivity as I am,
we were like them that dream.
and our tongue with singing.
Then survey among many them, the Lord and thine great things
for them, the Lord and thine great things for us,
whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as they scream in the sound.
May that soul which hears shall reap and joy.
Who made us all in tears shall reap in joy
Then said they among the even,
The Lord had done great things for them,
The Lord had done great things for us,
Whereof we are blessed.
He that go before beneath it,
Bear in precious seed,
Shall doubtless come again,
Shall doubtless come again.
Wraining his sheaves with hair.
Then said they among the heathen,
The Lord hath done great things for them.
The Lord hath done great things for us.
Where out we are at hand.
Praise singing, everybody.
Now, as the offering plates are being passed around,
go ahead and open your Bibles to Mark chapter number seven.
That's the book of Mark chapter number seven.
Chapter 7, the Bible reads,
And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not.
And many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups
and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables.
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him,
Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders,
but eat bread with unwashed hands?
He answered and sent it to them.
Well, hath the psalm prophesied of you hypocrites,
as it is written,
This people honoreth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
How be it in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many others such like things ye do.
And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother, and whoso cursed father or mother, let him die the death.
But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corbin that is to say a gift,
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free.
and he suffered him no more to do ought for his father or his mother,
making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered, and many such like things do ye.
And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them,
Hark, and unto me every one of you, and understand there is nothing from without a man
that entereth into him that can defile him,
but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable, and he saith unto them,
Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him?
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draft purging all meats.
And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileeth the man.
For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile the man.
and from thence he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon
and entered into a house and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid.
For a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him
and came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a scythe of Nishen by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs.
And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
And he said unto her, For this saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid
upon the bed.
And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Zion, he came under the sea of Galilee
through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, and they bring unto him one that was deaf
and had an impediment in his speech, and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue.
And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him,
F. Fatha, that is, be opened.
And straightway, his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
And he charged them that they should tell no man,
But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it, and were beyond measure astonished, saying he had done all things well, he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, I pray, Lord God, that...
You would give Pastor Shelley the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches to us.
I pray also, Lord, that this sermon would inspire people to change their hearts and minds
and that it would make an impact.
We pray, Lord God, for your protection over us as we go soul-winning later.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
And man, I want to look back at verse 6, the Bible says,
He answered and said unto them,
Well, the Zionist prophesied of you hypocrites,
as it is written, this people honoreth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
How be it in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines, the commandments,
of men. And in Mark chapter seven, the Lord Jesus Christ is dealing with the Pharisees.
He's dealing with the hypocrites here who are teaching things that are contrary to
the Bible. And we don't have Pharisees and Sadducees in a literal sense today, but we
have many religious groups that would apply in this situation that are similar to where
or doctrines that are coming from men that are not actually found in the Bible.
And probably the worst example of this is the Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic Church is one that teaches a lot of man's commandments, man's traditions,
and they don't actually adhere to the Bible. And so the title of my sermon this morning is
Catholic Tradition vs. the Bible. Catholic Tradition vs. the Bible. And as we keep reading
And he said in them,
full well you reject the commandment of God
that you may keep your own tradition.
And there's a lot of things that the Catholics do
that they keep their traditions
and they're rejecting the Bible.
They're rejecting the clear words of scripture
in an effort to keep their specific traditions today.
Verse 13 says this,
making the word of God of none effect
through your tradition
which you have delivered in many such like things, do you?
So there's certain things that the Bible says
that because of Catholic traditions,
they make the Bible of none effect,
meaning that it doesn't apply to anyone,
that it has no effect in their practical life,
and they basically render the Bible useless
because they want to keep tradition.
And we should always evaluate everything that we do
everything we believe, everything that we say,
based on what the Bible says,
because the Bible is our final authority and all matters.
The Bible is where we understand what's true,
what's right, and what's wrong,
and we should always be willing to change
according to what the Bible says.
Now, to give you a little bit of a context here,
when we talk about the Roman Catholic Church.
If you ask a Catholic, they'll say, well, the Catholic Church was
formed with Jesus and disciples and Peter was the first pope.
And that's essentially just kind of how they label things
and they try to explain history this way.
But I want to think about what the Bible says
in context of history because at the end of the day
there's no such thing as a pope. We don't see Jesus
Nowhere does the Bible have Jesus Christ forming the Catholic Church.
He does form the Church, but I'm not going to give it any label other than it was just the Church.
When did Jesus Christ die?
Well, I believe that Jesus Christ died April 6th.
30 AD so if you kind of look throughout history is probably actually born a few years prior to
What we think of is the first year of the our Lord and he died at
April 6th pass over that Thursday evening at around three o'clock. He gave up the ghost then he rose again
April 6 30 or sorry. He rose again three days later on that Sunday
And he then, a few weeks later at the day of Pentecost,
ascended up into heaven.
So, at that point, he's leaving the disciples there,
Peter's there with the other disciples,
and Peter is that first leader.
I believe he is the one that kind of helps the church get
formed and started in Jerusalem.
But then we see churches being started and created
throughout all of Asia through the apostle Paul
and through the other disciples.
And so, churches are basically everywhere.
So, when did the Roman Catholic Church actually start, though?
When did they really get their formation?
Christianity was pretty much illegal in the Roman Empire, by and large, for large sections of time.
They're persecuted, killed for hundreds and hundreds of years.
And it wasn't until 313 A.D. that we have Constantine making the edict of Milan and legalizing Christianity.
So, 313 A.D. is almost...
300 years from when Christ had ascended.
So we're almost 300 years.
Christians are being persecuted, slaughtered,
Christianity is outlawed.
Churches are kind of on the down low
in a lot of ways throughout the world
because of all the heavy persecution.
A lot of it's being started with the Jews,
but also continued with the Romans.
Now, at this time,
You have kind of Christianity becoming
something that's more popularized.
A lot of people are coming together
and they form a council in 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea.
This is basically a large ecumenical meeting
of all kinds of leaders from all kinds of churches,
just all the different churches they're meeting together
and they're trying to agree on doctrine.
Now, if you understand today's world, if we gathered just leaders from every church in
our area to try and agree on doctrine, there wouldn't be much to agree on.
And in the same way, you know, when it comes to these certain councils and these certain
meetings, usually their doctrinal statements are very limited.
It's not a lot.
of doctrine, it's very limited, basic, just general facts about who God is and that Jesus
Christ died on the cross.
And for the most part, most Christian churches, they probably do agree to some level of, hey,
God exists, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Jesus Christ died on the cross, salvation
through Jesus.
I mean, pretty much every church would kind of just agree to these certain things.
But this isn't really where you find the true doctrine of the Bible is getting all of these
to try and quote agree on doctrine, but we have this council forming and this is where we kind of see
a localization of power where we see power starting to actually come together because it used to just
be in each church. Church is a lot more autonomous. There's not as much centralization of power
forming, but we have centralization of power forming with the legalization of Christianity in the
Christianity was actually declared the state religion through Emperor Theodosius.
So Emperor Theodosius actually is now combining the state with religion in 380 A.D.
So, you know, think about this as about 65, 70 years later from it being legalized.
Now, it's just so popular that it's basically becoming the state religion.
You also have leaders like St. Augustine who was born in 354 AD to 430 AD who was one of the
most prominent
philosophers and theologians of history and kind of just
getting everyone to agree about doctrine and just kind of ideas that some of these churches were all
you know agreeing upon in this centralization of power, but Christianity had spread throughout all kinds of different regions
It was in Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia essentially where the Roman Empire had spread
St. Augustine is actually from Northern Africa, so that's where he was born and that's where he's from.
And he is pretty much the Catholic Church. He's pretty much their ideas.
Yet the Catholic Church still isn't really in an exact form yet.
It's just the centralization of power and the collaboration of churches is just kind of slowly forming over time.
Uh, Gregory the Great, which is considered the first pope in 590 A.D.
That is when you basically kind of now have, it is a formal idea of the Catholic Church.
It's been formed.
Here's our first pope.
It's Pope Gregory.
This is 590 A.D.
Why, at that time, well, in 476 A.D., the Roman Empire had finally fallen.
The Catholic Church still standing has a lot of power has a lot of influence and because it had been the state religion
It kind of just stays there
It's like the quote deep state that you have in America the day where presidents come and go
But there's certain people that are in Washington all the time.
It doesn't matter what presidency is there.
And in a sense, the Catholic Church is just kind of always there as a political influencer,
even though the state is coming and going,
empires are coming and going.
And so by default, the Catholic Church kind of just became the most powerful,
if not the most powerful place in the world,
holding and wielding all kinds of authority in government.
political influence, and the Pope becomes one of the most powerful people in the world,
especially during this time.
Now this is in complete contrast to who the Apostle Peter was.
The Apostle Peter was not a political figure.
He was not the most powerful leader of the world.
He was hated.
The Bible says about the apostles that they were the outskouring of the world, that they
And of course, the Bible says,
yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
The Bible says,
woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.
So how is it that if you're the true leader,
the most godly figure on the planet,
if you're the greatest Christian,
that you've been elevated to the most powerful person
on the planet, that everyone loves you,
everyone's looking to you.
You know, this is the antithesis
of what the Bible teaches about Christian leaders.
If that was true, then they would have elevated Jesus.
But they didn't elevate Jesus, they crucified Jesus.
And by historical tradition, they crucified many of the apostles, including the Apostle Peter.
Yet, we have popes today that are lifted up and considered, you know, great and wonderful
and they're the most rich individuals.
They live in luxury, lavish lifestyles, political influencers.
Everybody loves them and praises them from a big picture of the world they're loved.
And so it's just really the antithesis of what Peter was really like.
But we see this Catholic Church being formed and throughout several hundred years and throughout the dark ages
Which is really the Catholic Church?
Then essentially they wield all of this power the Catholic Church wields all kinds of inordinate powder in fact and many cases many kings are
crowned
by popes. It was actually a major event in history that Napoleon took the crown away
from the pope and crowned himself because it was kind of seen in the past that, hey,
the Catholic Church is the one who's ordaining kings and is in a position and authority above
the kings and the states and the empires and all the different things that exist in this
world. And so the Catholic Church dominated in power and influence for several hundred
And Pope Gregory the first is kind of where we see this first Roman Catholic church.
Now...
By 800 AD, the church was Europe's unifying force.
And in fact, Charlemagne's coronation, 800 C by Pope Leo III,
marked the Holy Roman Empire start,
where just the blend of just church
and just kind of this empire is just one and the same almost.
And the Catholic Church has wielded so much power and influence.
And we have...
essentially the Pope's coordinating or putting the crown upon many of the kings.
By 1054 AD though, there was a split.
So there used to be the entire Catholic Church was kind of just one.
In 1054 it's split and you have the Eastern Orthodox and then you have the Roman Catholics.
Eastern Orthodox, we also call Greek Orthodox.
And this is kind of the Eastern part of Europe.
This is why you see in Russia,
and eastern parts of Europe today and even Asia and Turkey minor.
A lot of that area is eastern orthodox or Greek orthodox
or in Russia it's Russian orthodox but they're kind of all
of the same brand maybe a little bit of schisms in between them.
But that's the whole orthodoxy side of the world whereas the western portion
when we talk about Germany and France and your Great Britain this is going to be
The Roman Catholic Church is heavily influencing those particulars in Spain, of course, as well.
Now, in 1095 AD, the church started launching crusades to reclaim the Holy Land.
So the Roman Catholic Church went throughout the Middle East. They're trying to take over
the sites of Jerusalem, take back the Temple Mount that the Islamists had had, control of the
An 1198 AD, according to history, it says that
PayPal authority peaked under Innocent the Third.
So essentially, the kind of like one of the peaks
of the Catholic Church is supposedly going to be
basically 1200 AD and around 20 years of that time.
So around 1200 AD is the peak of the Roman Catholic
authority and power and influence under Innocent the Third.
Interesting name that these popes give themselves, right?
But there was another Western schism in 1378 and then in 1453 is a major event because the Byzantine Empire falls.
The Ottoman Empire is captured and essentially this is where you have that Eastern Orthodox church that is Greek speaking using a Greek Bible.
And as a result of that people fleeing from this area come and intermingle with the Western portion of Europe.
where we have the Roman Catholic Church.
Well, as a result of these Greek manuscripts
flooding the western portion of Europe,
people like Decedarius Erasmus end up realizing,
hey, this Greek Bible is different than our Latin Vulgate.
And he ends up wanting to make a translation
to compare the Latin Vulgate with the Greek text
and show how these are not the same
and that there's actually differences
because most people understood
that the Greek is more authoritative
whereas the Latin was a translation.
And so the idea is that the Catholic Church
somewhere in their lineage has corrupted the Bible.
Now, Jerome around the fourth century
had translated the Greek text into Latin.
There's no way to know if Jerome's translation
was really spot on.
And then from the fourth century,
fast forward a thousand years,
it kind of got corrupted along the way.
or if it was just kind of bad and had some problems and they just stuck with them.
I kind of venture to believe it's probably pretty close,
or probably a lot better when Jerome had translated it,
and that it was more corrupt over time.
And by the time we have the 14, 15, 1600s,
this is when there's a major conflict in Europe over Bible translation.
And there's a lot of persecution of the Catholic Church,
not wanting people to have Bibles.
Why? Well...
Before this, we have the status quo of the Dark Ages,
where you went to church and they just read the Bible in Latin.
Well, a lot of people don't necessarily speak Latin,
they don't even know what's going on,
so they can teach all of their traditions...
and they're not challenged with the Bible.
Think about it.
If I don't have to read the Bible and you're not allowed to read the Bible
and you can't read the Bible,
how would you ever question the authority of the pastor,
of the bishop, of the church, just whatever they say goes
and that's why crazy things were happening
in the world, especially in Catholic Churches,
including the selling of indulgences.
Where, you know, essentially you commit a sin
that's grievous and in order to come back into the church instead of
repenting and getting right with God, you could just kind of just pay money
according to these Catholic priests and bishops. You could pay money and then you could come back to the church
even if you weren't really sorry or repentant or gonna fix that particular issue. And so basically it became known,
hey, if you want to commit fornication, you want to get drunk, you want to commit this sin,
well, pay the Catholic Church money and you can do that.
And so there are selling indulgences, and it was just an egregious time in history,
all kinds of evils happening, literacy is very low at this time,
disease and plague is rampant throughout Europe, and parts of the Dark Ages.
It's just a bad time in history.
Why? Because the Catholic Church is concealing knowledge,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
There's not liberty and freedom when the Roman Catholic Church is oppressing the people.
without giving them knowledge, without giving them wisdom.
And because they were in such control of the government,
because they had supreme authority,
other churches can't just form their again, underground,
and it's not really legalized.
So what's interesting is like,
oh, when Christianity got legalized,
we then just gave it to the Catholics,
who then made real Christianity illegal again.
Because that's the real history of Christianity.
It's always illegal, persecuted, looked down upon, hated,
ridiculed, attacked, evicted, sued,
protested, you name it, that's what real Christianity is going to look like.
Not becoming the most powerful influence in the entire world
and becoming the leader of the
of the entire world, you know what, that's what the Antichrist is going to do one day.
Not what true Christianity really looks like.
So just to give a couple of anecdotes of this timeline and 384 AD John Wycliffe who was from England, he was an Englishman
This is a quote from John Wycliffe, okay?
Now John Wycliffe had like, I believe it's,
I'm confused about the numbers because I saw a lot more than this,
but the Catholic Church made a list of like 45 statements
that John Wycliffe had said that they were saying this is heresy.
You can't believe anything that John Wycliffe said.
And they were like, here's all the things that John Wycliffe said.
Okay, so I was just reading and I was like here's one of the statements that John Wycliffe made about the Roman Catholic Church and 1384 AD.
Just to give you a sample of what people thought about it.
The Pope is anti-Christ made manifest.
Not only this particular person.
but also the multitude of popes from the time of the endowment of the church of cardinals of bishops and of their other accomplices made up the composite
monstrous person of antichrist.
So according to John Wickliffe, he was saying, hey, the pope is the antichrist and not just him, all of them.
All of them just combined and one conglomerate and not just the Pope all of his leaders
All of his archbishops all of his cardinals all the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is just this monstrous
Antichrist spirit and that's the guy that first translated the Bible in full in English
John Wycliffe the Wycliffe Bible. He wanted to give people the Bible. Why was he trying to give people the Bible in English?
so they could read it and
come out from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church,
the oppression of the Roman Catholic Church,
which was teaching traditions that were contrary to the Bible.
He wanted to use the Bible to combat the false doctrine
and the heresy of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1415 AD, John Hus, who is German,
he was, he's in Germany, he was a German man.
He ended up being killed by the Roman Catholic Church for opposing them in lots of different positions.
One of his accusations was believing a lot of stuff that John Wickliffe had said.
So Wickliffe was, you know, had a movement of a lot of people that were believing things that he had said.
This is what John Hus said.
St. Peter neither was nor is the head of the Holy Catholic Church.
You know it's kind of funny to me. It's like they say like oh you guys are always trying to rewrite history and and say
Oh, no Peter wasn't the first book. I didn't come over that John Husted
Not only John Huss John Wick. I mean these guys apparently there's something about the name John. Okay. I'm named John too, right?
John just doesn't believe in the Roman Catholic Church for some reason neither is the John of the Bible. All right
But hey, he's saying hey Peter was never the Pope Peter was never the head of some Catholic Church
This is fiction. Okay in
1517 Martin Luther wrote 95 theses and put them in Germany
Wittenberg Germany on the door to protest the Catholic Church and a lot of the things that were going on in
1536 AD
William Tyndale was killed in Belgium
which Belgium is kind of situated in between Germany and Great Britain or the UK or England.
So you have Germany, and depending on which way you're looking, I don't know,
but you kind of have Germany, then you have a little tiny spot for Belgium,
and then you have the island of the UK or Great Britain that's up there,
so it's kind of in between these two places.
That's where he was put to death, and when he was killed,
They read some accusations against him and
This is the first accusation that they read against William Tyndale first. He maintains that faith alone justifies
So the first accusation against William Tyndale that was killed by the Roman Catholic Church is that he believes salvation is by faith
Why would he believe that?
Because that's what the Bible says go view it to Romans chapter number three
In fact, here's the attitude of William Tyndale.
Here's some quotes of him.
I defy the Pope and all his laws.
That's William Tyndale.
And William Tyndale is arguably, in my opinion,
one of the, or not the most, influential people
in why we have a King James Bible today.
Because the King's Bible has been estimated is 85% William Tendale's Bible, Tendale's Bible.
And when I say 85%, what we're meaning by that is like literally the words he pinned down are the exact words in here.
Now, the other 15% are basically the exact same...
just maybe slightly different like synonyms like the difference between everlasting and eternal
That would be where it's not exactly the 85 percent. So we're talking about the Bible being 85 percent tinda
We're talking about like 85 percent of the exact words you read in your King's Bible are what Tyndale wrote down in the Tyndale Bible
When you look at a bishops by this is what people don't understand when you look at a bishops Bible
It is 99 percent or 99 point something percent of what you're reading in your King James Bible
In fact if I just started reading John chapter 3 from the bishops Bible
You wouldn't even realize I wasn't reading the King James Bible
Okay, it's basically, hey, it was 85% of the way
and then through a couple other translations works
that gets closer, the Bishops Bible brings it
to about 99% and then the King James goes from 99
to 100% and basically dials it in.
Of course, even from there.
The the printing press kind of had to catch up too because the printing wasn't as doing a great job
And it had minor little imperfections along the way throughout history
And of course we have a little revisions trying to get the printing dialed in and of course
There's always attempts to subvert or undermine the word of God or to try and throw stones at it
but look we have the word of God today and
Mainly in my opinion one of the most influential people is William Tyndale
Here's another thing that he said,
if God spares my life before many years pass,
I will help the boy who drives the plow
to know more of the scriptures than you do.
And he was talking to the Catholic priests,
he was talking to the Catholic church at the time,
saying, hey, I'm gonna make it where just the most average.
blue-collar worker, peasant, farmer, just young boy,
just the child of the blue-collar worker.
The child on the farm is gonna know more of the Bible
than the Catholic priests.
Why?
Because they weren't preaching the Bible.
Cause they didn't know any of the Bible.
Cause they don't believe the Bible, they believe tradition.
Look, what I'm saying this morning is not just like,
hey,
My personal opinion, the Catholics are a little off with their tradition versus the Bible.
This is a historical position that has existed where many people were pointing out,
hey, the Catholic Church is elevating tradition over the Bible.
The Catholic Church doesn't believe the Bible.
The Catholic Church doesn't want you to have the Bible.
And in fact, throughout history, the Catholics would kill you if you had a Bible.
The Catholics were trying to hunt down William Tyndale
so that he couldn't make this translation and get it into the hands of the people.
This is the truth.
Maybe for you in modern context,
it's like if you had Epstein's client list,
the government would be hunting you down
because they don't want that to come out.
And the same way, the Catholic Church
didn't want the Bible to come out
because it would expose the fact
they don't believe the Bible.
They don't understand the Bible
and they're not doing what the Bible says.
And of course, the most important doctrine
is that of salvation.
And the Roman Catholic Church does not believe in salvation by faith.
That's why they killed William Tyndale for believing salvation was by faith.
Here was the second accusation against William Tyndale.
He maintains that to believe in the forgiveness of sins
and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel is enough for salvation.
To say, hey, as long as you believe that what Jesus did is enough to save you,
that saves you. And they said that's heresy.
They were against that.
Here's some other things he denied Purgatory.
He also denied saints praying for us,
and he said, number seven, that we shouldn't pray to them.
Guys, it doesn't like a lot of the Catholic stuff.
Now, in response to not just necessarily William Tyndale,
but just a movement of people.
totally, you know, exposed in the Catholic Church, saying how they're wrong.
Yeah, people like Martin Luther are also going against the Catholic Church.
There was a Council of Trent that was formed.
Council of Trent is in 1545 AD.
So if you think about it, William Tyndale was killed in 1536 AD.
Nine years later...
You have the Council of Trent in 1545 AD to 1563 AD,
so it actually spanned over a long period of time.
But the Council of Trent is kind of a response
to a lot of these people fighting the Catholic Church on doctrine.
Now, this is some of what they said.
I think they have, like, multiple sessions.
It's like session six that I'm going to be reading a couple excerpts from.
But this is what the Council of Trent of the Catholic Church said.
In Canon 12,
If anyone saith that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified, let him be anathema.
So according to the Council of Trent, if you believe that your justification is faith in Christ alone, then you're an anathema.
In Canon 14, it says if anyone sayeth that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified,
Because that he assuredly believed himself absolved or justified or that no one is truly justified, but he who believes himself justified
And that by this faith alone absolution and just affection are affected. Let him be anathema now again anathema is a curse
They're saying let this person be a cursed
They're saying this is an extreme false doctrine heresy and it's it's funny how they word cannon 14 in my opinion because
It's pretty much like what Romans 3 just says
explicitly because they're saying, hey, if anybody says that the only person who's justified is he who believes,
okay, well, what does it say in verse 26?
To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, meaning Jesus Christ's righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
You know how you get justified by believing in Jesus?
Because there's only one that we can declare righteous, and that's Jesus Christ.
You would say, okay, but where does our works fit in?
How does that work?
Well, what does it say in verse 27?
Where is boasting then?
It is excluded by what law works, nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
So the Bible's crystal clear salvation is by faith without the deeds of the law.
The Roman Catholic Church says, hey, that's extreme heresy.
Now you understand why Catholics aren't saved because Catholics don't believe
Romans chapter 3 and they're gonna elevate this tradition because here's another thing that Catholics believe that anything they say is always right
So now they've already said this they can't go back on it. They can't like go back and rewrite history
It's like once they say something stupid. It's stuck with them forever
They're stuck on stupid and they're stuck on work salvation
Now can in 20 years another thing they said
If anyone saith that the man who is justified, or how perfect so ever, is not bound to observe the commandments of God and of the church, but only to believe as if indeed the gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life without the condition of observing the commandments, let them be anathema.
So they're saying, hey, if you think that you can just believe and get eternal life without keeping the commandments, you're cursed.
But here's the thing, the Bible says in John 3.16 that whosoever believed in them should not perish but have everlasting life.
The Bible says as soon as you believe, you have everlasting life according to John 3.36.
He that believed in them, the Son, hath everlasting life. That's what the Bible teaches.
If we're here in Romans 3, what does it say in verse number 21?
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
What does the Bible say there is a righteousness that is without the law and then the Roman Catholic Church is saying hey
If anybody thinks that righteousness or eternal life is without the law let him be an ethma
Well now they're blaspheming the word of God again because the righteousness is without the law
You say like yeah, but don't our works like help out can't we just add a little bit of works and that's good no no no
Righteousness is without the law
It has nothing to do with your lifestyle.
It has nothing to do with keeping the commandments.
It has everything to do with your faith.
Verse 22, even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
unto all and upon all them that believe,
for there's no difference.
If we were to evaluate your life with the commandments,
this is what we would conclude,
for all of sin to come short of the glory of God.
That's what you conclude when you understand commandments.
Our commandments don't save us, the commandments condemn us.
Our works don't save us, our works condemn us.
What does it say?
Well, that sounds free, yeah.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Now, obviously as Baptist, we don't believe that you should live however you want, but
the Bible does teach no matter how you live, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you are saved.
Salvation is by faith and the only one that was righteous, which is Jesus Christ.
It even goes so far as to say in Romans 4, verse 5, but to him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works.
Yes, God imputes righteousness without works.
And you can never lose this salvation.
The Bible made it clear it was a free gift.
You didn't deserve it when you got it
and you don't deserve to keep it.
We get it because of God's grace
and it's kept by God's grace.
Now in Romans five, it tells us that salvation
is a free gift.
Look what it says in verse 18.
Therefore, by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
So because of Adam, we're all going to be judged.
That's what the Bible is saying, it was through his offense.
Even so, meaning in the exact same way,
by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men under justification of life.
So because of Adam, we will all be judged.
And by the righteousness of one, meaning Jesus Christ,
the free gift is offered to every single person.
But notice what it is, it's a free gift.
The free gift to be justified.
So we're going to be judged and the only way to escape that judgment
is to get the free gift to where you'll be justified.
And why are you justified?
Because you believe in Jesus according to Romans chapter number three,
not because of your works, not because of the sacraments,
not because you confess your sins to a priest,
not because you did anything about the Catholic Church,
it's because you believe in Jesus Christ,
his death, burial and resurrection as the only payment for your sins.
That's what saves you.
That's why Catholics again are not saved and
they deny
salvation being a one-time event
Where you can't lose it go if you went to John chapter 5 go to John chapter number 5 and look at verse 24
John 5, 24, verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath heareth my word, and believeth on him, that send me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.
But is passed from death unto life. The Bible says the moment you believe, you can't come into future condemnation, because you've already been passed from death unto life, and you've been given everlasting life.
Now, of course, we will still be punished.
For our sins on earth, when we lie, steal, cheat, commit adultery, God will punish us on this earth.
He says that he's going to chasten and scourge every son in whom he receives.
Yet, when we die, our souls will go to heaven, no matter how we live their lives.
There is not a get out of jail free card in the sense that you do nothing.
You believe in Jesus Christ and you get out of hell.
But no matter what I do, I can't get back in.
The gates have already been opened.
The keys have been unlocked.
And I've already been set free.
I've already been passed from death under life.
So now I can't come into future condemnation.
I can't be put back into the status of going to hell.
My body hasn't been redeemed.
I haven't been saved physically,
but my soul and my spirit has been renewed,
and now I am saved,
and I can never lose that because I have everlasting life.
John 10, look what it says in verse 28,
And I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Jesus is stronger than us, and once we believe in Jesus Christ,
we're put in His hand, and we can never be plucked out,
we can never be taken out of it.
So again, people will say,
well, you're just saying you can just live however you want.
Well, I can live however I want and still go to heaven,
but I will still have a consequence.
My consequence will be disappointing God.
My consequence will be suffering on this earth for my sin.
But at the end of the day, because I believe in Jesus Christ,
I could never go to hell for any reason.
Go to Ephesians chapter 2. Go to Ephesians chapter 2.
And the Bible explicitly says salvation is not of works.
In Ephesians chapter number 2.
Look at verse number 8.
Ephesians 2-8, for by grace you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should both.
So according to the Bible, salvation is not faith and works,
it's not of works.
And what some people think is they think,
well, I can add works with my faith,
and that still saves me,
but the reality is that is not a saving faith.
If you have, if you mix these two,
then you don't actually believe in Jesus.
You're still believing in yourself.
You're still trusting in yourself.
And the Bible makes it clear
that you have to be saved without works
by putting all of your faith in Jesus Christ,
zero in yourself, zero in your future.
Walk with God, zero in being faithful.
No, just putting your faith in what Jesus already did
and he paid the full penalty.
Therefore, all the glory goes to him.
I can't boast, I can't say, well I know I'm going to heaven because I'm going to continue being faithful.
I'm going to go to heaven because I know I'm going to do right,
or I'm going to follow the commandments enough, or I'll persevere enough.
No, once you believe in Jesus Christ, you're saved,
and he gets all the glory for covering my past, present, and future sins.
And I go to heaven based on the finished work of the cross.
Govvih would to Psalm 12 for a second.
So, number one, the Roman Catholic Church elevates their tradition of salvation being by works
above what the Bible teaches, and the Bible teaches salvation is by faith alone.
Salvation is a free gift.
Salvation is receiving eternal life.
You become a child of God in a moment, and nothing can ever change that.
And unfortunately, Roman Catholics are not saved.
I don't hate Catholic people. I love Catholic people. I want Catholic people to be saved.
But I do hate the religion of Catholicism and I hate the Roman Catholic Church as an institution.
And I hate the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church because I don't want people to go to hell.
And if you loved people, you wouldn't want them to believe lies and to believe tradition
because tradition is sending people to hell.
And people are dying in the droves going to hell today because they don't believe in faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Faith alone saves, faith plus works, dams.
It does not save anybody.
And of course the Roman Catholics also in part have a big problem with salvation because they have their own Bible.
and they used the wrong Bible, and their Bibles included the Apocrypha,
and it's hard for them to get away from that Latin
Vulgate that they had. They have English translations.
The Dewey Reims was a very accurate translation
of the Latin Vulgate, but the
the Vulgate and Catholic translations
were not as clear as the Bible.
The King James Bible Psalm 12 6 says the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth
Purified seven times thou shalt keep them the Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever
Now here's the reality if the Bible is supposed to be preserved and
It was written in Greek in the New Testament
And we have the Greek manuscripts and the Latin is not saying what the Greek is saying and you believe the Bible
Well, they both can't be right
Because if you believe the Bible you believe there is a preserved word if the Greek is what it was written in and we have it
Well, sounds like we have it preserved
So if it's not saying what the Greek says it's wrong
If it's not saying what the Hebrew says in the Old Testament, it's wrong
The Hebrew is preserved the Greek is preserved and
Translations that accurately reflect the Hebrew and the Greek are still the preserved word of God
That's why we made a movie called the preserved Bible
Where to explain to you why we believe the King James Bible is not just an English translation. It's the preserved word of God and
Look, it's dialed in. I don't believe there's any air in it. I believe it's the perfect word of God
I believe it's completely trustworthy, and I believe we can put all of our faith in this text
Not only that I believe the word of God is God
I mean the Bible even says that in John chapter number one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God
This is the true God of the universe is the Bible and that's how you know who God is
that's how you understand who God is and
Catholics they devalue the importance of Scripture because they're devaluing the importance of God and
They have the wrong God in a sense because they have the wrong Bible
We need to make sure we have the right Bible go to Exodus 20 go to Exodus 20 now
I'm going to try and go through a laundry list of things that the Catholics are wrong on because here's the problem.
When you're wrong on salvation, you're wrong on everything.
And the Roman Catholic Church is no exception.
They have all these traditions and they're not what the Bible says whatsoever.
What's one of the worst things that the Roman Catholic Church does?
What's the thing that just bothers me so much is graven images.
The use of graven images and now they have graven images of all sorts sizes and shapes
Marys crucifixes
Saints all kinds of craziness if you go into a Roman Catholic Church today
You will see graven images of all kinds of people and angels and all kinds of things everywhere
Just they would come into our building and say like oh, it's so boring
You know, the walls are just beige or something.
You know, where's all the icons, where's all the idols, where's all the graven images?
But what does the Bible tell us in Exodus 20 verse 4?
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above
or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
How much clearer can God get?
Hey, don't make any graven images well. It's Mary. She's in heaven. Okay. What said anything in heaven? I
Mean and again pretty much most of the things they have are from things from heaven or earth Jesus being on a cross
Okay, still crucifix that was something that was on earth. He's saying not to do that
And additionally, it says,
Now, what's interesting is, if you get a Catholic list of the Ten Commandments,
this is what their Ten Commandments are, okay?
Now, this is the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20 is the Ten Commandments.
Let's get commandment number one according to the Bible.
Thou sort of no other gods before me.
That's pretty clear, right?
This is the Catholic Ten Commandments.
I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
Again, this is a little bit different.
They're kind of like mixing verse 2 a little bit with verse 3.
Okay?
Here is number 2 according to the Bible.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Now I'm not going to read all of it.
That's how it starts.
Here's the Roman Catholic commandment number 2.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Sounds like they skipped something
Why? Because they have a tradition of graven images
coming from a Roman culture that had all kinds of
graven images, of all kinds of gods and goddesses and all their different
views of paganism, and of course in order to
get the entire state, get the entire empire
on board with their state religion, what do they have to have?
They have to incorporate graven images. So that's why the Roman Catholic Church
Commandment number two in the Ten Commandments.
They just totally skip over it,
which really, by doing that,
you're not even obeying the First Commandment,
because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians
that these graven images
are actually having fellowship and communion with devils,
and that they're false gods,
and so they are having other gods with them.
So you know where the Catholics
start believing the Ten Commandments?
Never, they never start.
They've totally forsaken in step number one and step number two and the Bible hammers
Hammers this point. Okay. Now, let's look at a lot more verses go to Leviticus chapter 26 go to Leviticus chapter 26
And I'm going to show you several different verses here that the Bible says about graven images because
it's not like a one-time mention and we like messed it up or something.
The Bible hammers this point.
Leviticus 26, look at verse 1.
You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image,
neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God.
How many Catholics have a standing image in their state, country, church, whatever and they're going and bowing down to it?
They're getting on their knees and they're praying to it. That's bowing down. They're bowing down to Mary.
They're bowing down to statues. They're bowing down to saints, all these different things.
They're just clearly in violation of this. Deuteronomy chapter 4. Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 4.
It's gonna hammer it again for us.
Deuteronomy chapter 4, look at verse 15.
Now that's really important.
What is God saying?
He's saying, when I came unto you guys, you did not see me.
Why? He says there's a really specific reason why I didn't want you to see me
Because if you saw me then you would try to make a graven image that looked like me to represent me
But I made clear that you didn't see me. So then you wouldn't make it and there's another thing
God and his wisdom had the Lord Jesus Christ come at a time when there's not cameras and social media and
Videos and all these things. So let me tell you something. You haven't seen Jesus
If you've seen Jesus, go to a mental hospital right now or a Pentecostal church.
It's the same place, okay?
And y'all can all see Jesus together.
But the reality is, no one's seen Jesus and then they have all these crucifixes up,
all these paintings and pictures.
Look, that's blasphemous, it's wrong, that's not what he looked like,
and we shouldn't walk into a building with all these graven images even if it's of Jesus.
Especially not Mary.
You know, we don't worship a female god or some goddess or something.
We're not going to kneel down and bow down and worship it.
This is, again, their tradition being elevated above the word of God.
Did you not see what it said in verse 16?
The likeness of male or female?
No Mary statues.
And we could keep reading in this passage.
Go to verse 23.
Take heed in yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God,
which he made with you, and make you a graven image.
What does he say? Hey, you know why you make graven images?
Because you forget the Bible.
Because you forget the Bible, you make the graven image.
And that's what the Catholic Church has done.
It's taking their tradition for getting the Word of God
and then just doing whatever they want, making graven images.
Look at chapter 5 verse 8.
Thou shall not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth.
Thou shall not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the niquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
colonized by the Spanish and have all these graven images
and have all this idolatry, they're not the blessed nations of God.
They're not the most prosperous nations of God.
They're usually a subservient country, a subservient culture.
They're not the leaders of the free world. Why?
Because the blessing of God does not come through idolatry
or the Roman Catholic Church or their workspace salvation.
it's interesting that the people they persecuted for faith alone and their
English Bible came and settled in America and yeah they took over the
world buddy. Why? Because the Bible is the truth in the word of God and that's
where the power rests. You know why you want to be an American? Because of the
King James Bible. You know why no one cares to move to Mexico? Because you know
Look, Mexico is a wonderful area that's very rich in natural resources.
But you know what the problem is?
The Roman Catholic Church.
And it's false religion.
There's nothing wrong with the people, there's something wrong with the religion.
And you know what, there's nothing special about the people in America, there's something
special about the Word of God and the power of salvation by faith.
And you know what, we need to rid ourselves of these idols and these graven images in
our country.
If we want America to be great again, get rid of Mary statues.
Get rid of the crucifixes.
Get rid of the Catholic church.
And they always say, we don't worship Mary.
Okay, but the word worship means bow down.
Go to Genesis 24 and we could show you pictures all day long in videos of Catholics kneeling
and bowing down under Catholic, you know, Mary statues and shrines.
They have all kinds of them. I was looking up getting a list of some of the more popular ones. Our Lady Fatima is a super
Who's heard of this one? Our Lady Fatima. Yeah, this is a super popular one. St. Michael. There's the Francis statue
There's the Blessed Mary. There's the Sacred Heart Jesus
There's crucifixes. There's Our Lady Guadalupe
There's our lady of lords, there's all kinds of saints and angels.
I mean, they love the idolatry.
I've been to Mexico several times,
often when you're trying to cross the border,
there's just all of these vendors standing there on the side
trying to sell you some kind of statues,
some kind of graven image, some kind of icon.
And you know what, it's wicked.
The Bible says, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
That's New Testament.
New Testament also says,
but we write unto them that they abstain from
pollutions of idols
in the books of Acts.
And of course, the Bible says that the idols
not really anything, but what they're sacrificing,
they're sacrificing unto devils.
And I believe that these
Catholic statues
are having fellowship and communion
with demonic spirits,
satanic individuals,
and it's something we should stay
far, far away from. You should have no graven images.
I don't believe in it, I don't want it, and especially not bowing down to it.
Genesis 24, look at verse 52.
And it came to pass that when Abraham's servant heard their words,
he worshiped the Lord. Notice this, bowing himself to the earth.
Worship means to bow down.
And so they might say like,
oh, we're not worshiping Mary,
but they're bowing down on the Mary.
They're getting on their knees on the Mary.
And you know what, this is forbidden.
We only supposed to worship the Lord God,
meaning we're only gonna kneel and get on our knees
and give that kind of honor and reverence to God.
When people are even doing this to men and in heaven and the book of Revelation, they say, hey, stand up, you know
Yeah, you don't do that to me. We're only supposed to do that to God
The Bible says for thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God
We're only supposed to worship God. Stop worshiping Mary
It's wicked, it's evil, stand up like a man, quit kneeling for a woman, you feminist.
Stupid Catholics with their false religion bringing in all this feminism.
The Bible says to worship God only.
And that means to stand on your feet, quit kneeling for some stupid woman statue.
It's wicked and it's evil.
It's ungodly, it's satanic.
Oh, but Mary was a perpetual virgin.
No, she isn't.
The blessed mother is not a virgin.
Mary is still not a virgin.
And, you know, we could prove that pretty easily in the Bible.
The Bible says that Joseph did not know his wife till after Jesus had been born.
But here's another thing that just irks me is when they say that Mary never sinned.
Well, what Luke 18 look at verse 19 and Jesus said unto him why calls thou me good?
None is good save one that is God if Mary didn't sin she would be God
But she's not God because there's only one God and it's the father son and Holy Spirit
Yeah, and of course this was in context of understanding that Jesus is God not that Mary is God
Provide the sin offering after she had given birth unto Jesus for her to file. Look, it's it's ridiculous to think that Mary never sinned
Romans chapter number three. It's blasphemous
Go to 1 Timothy 2. That's where I want you to go Romans 3 says this they're all gone out of the way
They're together become unprofitable. There's none that do good. No, not one
The Bible says for all of sin and comes short of the glory of God that includes Mary
Mary sinned. She's no longer virgin. Yes. Was she a special unique Christian used by God?
Did she give birth to Jesus? Was she Jesus's mother in an earthly sense? Absolutely, but you know what?
I don't really even like saying she's the mother of God because that's a misleading way to word things
because God doesn't have an origin. God doesn't have a birth. God of course used Mary as a chosen vessel
to bring Jesus Christ into this world.
And we do understand that she had the role of mother
in his life, but at the end of the day,
Jesus Christ is from eternity.
Jesus Christ created Mary,
not Mary creating Jesus Christ.
Now, first Timothy two also says in verse five,
for there's one God.
And one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus.
Stop praying to Mary.
If you want to pray to God the Father,
pray through Jesus Christ.
Go to Revelation chapter 20, go to Revelation chapter 20.
Now I'm gonna kind of speed up for some of these
because really we just need one verse
to prove a lot of these things wrong.
But here's one that Catholics do too
that's really annoying and really stupid
is they believe in this thing called purgatory.
And you say, what's purgatory?
I don't know because it's not in the Bible.
I mean, at that point, it should just be case closed.
It's just like, hey, this is just not in the Bible.
It's like, show me one verse on purgatory in the Bible and I'll believe it.
But there's not anything about this purgatory.
And I was trying to think like, how do you prove stuff that's not in the Bible?
Because it's kind of hard.
But at the same time, you could just see what the Bible says about certain subjects
and then it leaves no room for purgatory.
because the Bible talks about people being dead and being judged.
Let's see where they come from.
Revelation chapter 20, look at verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it.
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away,
and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead small and great,
stand before God, and the books were open,
and another book was open,
which is the book of life, and the dead
were judged out of those things
which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it,
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them,
and they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast in the lake of fire.
This is the second death, and is there is not found written in the book of life,
was cast in the lake of fire.
But the Bible says that there's hell and there's the lake of fire.
There's no purgatory.
All the dead are gathered before God.
No one came out of purgatory.
They came out of hell.
Or they were already with God in heaven.
But there's no there's no other option here. There's not like oh, and there is this other group of people coming from purgatory
Mind you no no their their bodies
Obviously are coming together in some kind of a resurrection of the dam
That's why it brings up the sea
But their soul is coming from hell because there's no souls in purgatory. It doesn't exist. It's a fiction
Just like the the Catholic religion. It's a fiction. You know what I know about Catholics
They're really good at making things up like their religion
Covered to Hebrews chapter number nine, here's another thing they believe is that when you have communion or the Lord's Supper
They believe that they're literally eating Jesus's body and drinking his literal blood
It's like their vampires
How is this Christianity?
It's like everything they believe is like spooky and creepy and weird and esoteric.
Esoteric means hidden knowledge, meaning it's not made obvious.
Purgatory is not made obvious because it's not in the Bible.
So you'd have to find some secret wisdom, some secret knowledge to find out about Purgatory.
Hebrews chapter 9, look what it says in verse 24.
For Christ has not entered in the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true, but in the heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet, that he should offer himself often...
as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others,
for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,
as is important unto men, once to die, but after this the judgment.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,
and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin and salvation.
Look, Jesus Christ is a once for all sacrifice, not an every Sunday morning when the Roman
Catholics have the Eucharist and they're saying we're literally going to consume his body
and blood again.
No, death has no more dominion over him is what the Bible says.
You can't crucify Jesus Christ ever again.
They're saying they're crucifying Christ every Sunday morning with their stupid Eucharist
ceremony.
And, in fact, the majority of their service is just the Eucharist, it's not even getting
up and preaching the Bible, because, again, it's just a tradition over the Bible.
Sometimes love homilies and I get it, but at the end of the day they're preaching sucks
anyways.
It's another thing they suck at.
If you want to turn there for a second, look at verse 16.
1 Corinthians chapter number 10, verse number 16.
When we talk about the Lord's Supper,
it gives us some instructions.
Now I think those interesting the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ
The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ the communion means sharing an intimate fellowship
Do we not share the Lord's supper together and have an intimate fellowship and is it not in the context of
Understanding the metaphor and relevance of the blood of Christ and the body of Christ, but notice what it says the bread
Which we break it doesn't say
The actual body of Jesus Christ will be break. We're breaking bread. It's literally bread
metaphorically the body of Jesus Christ
How do I know that we'll look at verse 17 for we being many are one bread. Are we literally bread?
When we show up do we transform into bread?
And one body are we now do we transform into one body for we are all partakers notice this of that one bread
So, if you're going to tell me that that bread is Jesus, then I'm the bread, too.
We're all the bread.
We all become bread and break ourselves and eat ourselves.
That's Catholic logic today, right?
Look, obviously, it's a metaphor.
Verse 28, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread.
and drink of that cup. Look, you're still eating bread.
It's literal bread that we're eating,
and it's just representative of Christ.
They baptized babies in Acts chapter number 8, verse 37.
The Bible is asking the question,
what does Henry do to be baptized?
And in a lot of Bibles, they just take it out.
But in the Bible, it says that you have to believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
If thou believe us, thou mayest.
And you know what? Catholics, they are bab- baptizing babies.
I've never heard a baby say, I believe in Jesus Christ.
They're like, ooh.
You know, here's another thing they do.
Go if you would to Matthew 6.
Is they celebrate this thing called Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday, where they put ash on their forehead.
They'll put like this little black mark on their forehead.
One of the biggest proponents I've seen of this
is Mark Wahlberg.
Who's seen this, Mark Wahlberg?
He just puts this big ash on his forehead.
What does the Bible say about this kind of stuff?
About fasting, because they're doing this
in preparation of what they call lint,
and they're like gonna be doing this fast
where they don't eat certain foods,
leading up to Easter Sunday.
What does the Bible say in verse 16?
Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance,
for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, they have their oar.
So the Bible is saying, look, some people, they make it clear outwardly that they're fasting
by doing something to their face to make it look like they're fasting.
Oh, like putting ash on their forehead?
And then it's like, what does the Bible say?
But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine, and wash thy face.
Hey, wash your stupid face, Mark Wahlberg, and get saved.
Become a Baptist.
And then eat some food.
Eat some steak, right?
Because not only that, then they say
you can't eat certain meats.
And on Fridays, leading up to this whole period of time,
they can't have warm, blooded meat on Fridays.
And I'm just like, it was so frustrating.
I grew up in an area that was near some Catholics
and there was this nice brisket barbecue restaurant
and I went there on a Friday night
and it's like, oh, we only serve catfish tonight.
I just left, you know?
And that's the right thing.
You show up at the Catholic church
and you find out where they live, you just leave.
He's like, well, that's dumb.
Hey, I'm not I'm not gonna celebrate this kind of stuff
You know the Bible warns about in the latter times, you know people giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines devils
One of them is commanding to abstain from meats Roman Catholic Church is telling them not to eat warm-blooded
Meats on these Fridays, you know what that's unbiblical
I want to make sure I understand where I need to turn.
You went to Matthew 6.
Go to Govee Woods who first, yeah, go to 1 Timothy 3.
Here's another thing they do.
Luke 20, the Bible says beware of the scribes
which desire to walk in long robes.
You look at a Catholic priest today,
they're walking around in a long robe.
In fact, this is what I feel like the Catholics do.
They read something the Bible says not to do
and they just do exactly that.
Don't have graven images. Have graven images. Don't bow down to them. They bow down to them. Hey, make sure to wash your face
Don't put anything on it when you fast. Oh, let's put something on her face and not wash it
Hey, beware of people that are in long robes. Those are the people that we listen to those are our leaders
Hey, don't don't abstain from certain meats. Let's abstain from certain meats
Now here's another one they do is they tell their priests not to get married
But the Bible says, first Timothy 3 verse 2,
a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife.
The Bible says, hey, the leaders should be married,
and then the Catholic priests are not married.
And look, I'm not mad at you if you're single or whatever,
but let me just say something.
Single people have a different mindset.
There's a special gift of being married
that gives you some self-awareness
that you did not have when you were single.
And the reality is, people that are single
are often a little bit more selfish,
they're often a little bit more immature,
they don't take care of themselves and others as well,
just because it's not been imposed upon them.
It's just kind of the burden of marriage also makes you a stronger person typically,
makes you a more mature person typically, because you're just going to have another
person there to give you help, feedback, you have to think about other people, you have
to bear other burdens, and so just by being married, you're going to often, not always
but often, you're just going to become a better version of yourself.
Whereas the Bible is giving a, hey, the pastor needs to be a guy that's married and he needs to have kids.
Why? Because kids is another layer.
Someone that doesn't have kids is also not going to have the same level of maturity and character and being able to be patient.
Look, children will stretch your limits of your character.
They will have you, you know, work hard on being patient and bearing a lot of burdens and you have to put a lot of selfishness.
down in order to take care of your wife and your children whereas when you're single you can indulge
in every selfish desire you want all the time and there's not really anyone holding you accountable
for that because you don't even, it's not as necessary and so we have priests who are able
to just give in to all their selfish desires being the leaders of their cathedrals, the nuns and the
Look, people that are married with kids that are raising them are going to be the highest
caliber version of themselves, people that stay single are often going to struggle with
these things.
Now look, obviously we understand the Apostle Paul is the greatest Christian to ever live,
he wasn't married, he didn't have kids, but you know what?
He dedicated his entire life to starting churches
and like sacrificing for the brethren.
So all those lessons he could have learned
through marriage and through children,
he probably got to learn through his experiences
of dedicating himself to church and other people
and not being a very selfish person.
So yeah, it is possible to achieve
all of those same character attributes,
but you know what?
By getting married and having kids, it's forced upon you.
And most people are not having the self-discipline
to become that mature on their own when they are single.
And of course the Catholic priests are not mature whatsoever,
and many of them are wicked.
And because they're not married,
they're going to be given over to fornication.
And many of them are going after strange flesh as well.
That's why so many Catholic priests today are pedophiles.
And you know what?
Obviously that's because they have a false doctrine,
they have the false gospel,
but they're also committing all kinds of adultery.
Why? Because they don't have a wife.
The priest needs a wife and of course that's the solution to fornication not just becoming a Catholic
Matthew 23 they suppress all their natural desires and then they attack the children in their churches. I mean
Catholics being pedophiles is just almost
synonyms when it comes to our reality in our world today. The Catholic priests are buying large pedophiles.
Why because they're not saved. Do not, do not send your kids to a Catholic preschool, nursery,
daycare, elementary school, private school,
Montessori or whatever you call it,
Do not send them these institutions, because these places are harboring pedophiles,
they're not saved, they're suppressing all their natural desires,
and they prey on children and on weak people.
The Catholic Church is a wicked place. Of course, any church can have bad people,
but the Catholic Church is the epitome of having pedophiles and evil people amongst their ranks.
Now, of course, they call these priests their father, which is funny, they don't have any kids,
They have no kids spiritually because they're not saved. They've gotten no one saved and they're not a father physically
And then they steal the title that goes to God anyways
Matthew 23 verse 9 and call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father
Which is in heaven again another just clear commandment of the Bible that they make of none effect by their doctrine
Explain to me how Catholics apply this verse in their life
Because they call their dad father and they call their priest father and they call God the father
Who are they not calling father that has that title?
We don't call any Christian leader a father in a spiritual context because it's off-limits. We have one spiritual father
It's God the father. It's nothing wrong with saying mom and dad
But there is something wrong with calling a priest father or a pastor father. He is not your father
He's your brother if he saved if he's not he's a child of the devil
which is the Catholic priest today.
Their pope is definitely not infallible,
even though they claim he is, that he can't make a mistake.
That's ridiculous.
And go to Colossians 2 and I'll finish.
I have a lot more to say on the Catholics,
because of course when you're wrong on salvation,
you're wrong on everything.
But I'm going to spend more time this evening
talking about kind of just like one major subject matter
that they're wrong on.
And that's really the ideas of philosophy.
and just their ideas of the nature of God and the Trinity.
The word philosophy is kind of a weird word to me because
I hear it and then I'm thinking like, I don't even know what you're saying.
But philosophy is basically just explaining the big picture concepts of life.
Why we're here.
What's our purpose?
What is the meaning of life, and what is eternal life, and what's the afterlife, and how did we come to be,
and why do the things that exist exist, and what is logic?
It's just basically just, that's the study of philosophy, it's just answering the questions of,
why are we here?
What is our purpose?
Who are we?
What things exist?
But think about this.
How would you answer those questions today without this?
And let me explain something, philosophy is explaining all of that without this.
It's like, here is the answer and then they're trying to explain it.
That's why they're wrong on virtually everything.
Because all those answers of philosophy are understood in the Bible.
The Bible gives us the answer to why we're here and what our purpose is.
Look, you're here because God created you.
And your purpose is to believe on Jesus Christ to get saved.
And then beyond that purpose is to share the gospel with other people so that they can be saved too.
And we have to understand a few things. The Bible is God.
This is how you get close to God. This is how you know God.
This is how we understand everything about God.
But philosophers, great philosophers, and the Catholic influence, they want to tell you what God's like without the Bible.
And their ideas of God are not accurate according to the Bible.
They, they have all kinds of weird ideas like divine simplicity, divine impassibility, they have their one self-trinity,
they deny the eternal subordination of Jesus Christ, all kinds of things. And,
you know, to me it's really important because I love God and I want to defend the God of the Bible,
so I hate all this philosophy that they're bringing to the table.
Just, just on the surface divine simplicity just makes me angry.
Because do you really expect me to believe of all the things that exist in the universe?
God is simple
like
There's nothing even simple in this universe even just a bacteria is so complex. We are complex creation
The universe is a complex creation
Look, and the servant is not greater than his Lord.
Our universe can't be more complex than God himself.
And look, is there really a text?
Is there really a book that has more complexity
and depth in the Word of God?
This has the greatest depth of any book,
of any literature, of any understanding that ever exists.
To say that God is understood as divine simplicity
is illogical.
It's flat earth retarded, is what it is.
And what does the Bible say in Colossians 2 verse 8?
Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.
Notice this, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
Look, this is Christ. This is all we need.
Amen.
Right.
You know, the ideas of the Protestant Reformation, Sola fide, I still agree with, only the Bible.
or only faith, I'm sorry, solo fide,
solo scriptura, only the Bible.
We only need the Bible.
We don't need any of this philosophy.
We don't need the church fathers.
I tried to give you a little bit of church history stuff.
You don't even need that.
The Bible will tell you everything you need to know.
Everything you want to know about God is found in here.
You want to have the closest relationship
you could possibly have with God?
This is all you need.
You could read no other book ever
and have the closest relationship with God possible.
You can do everything you need to do. You can accomplish everything you need to do in this life with this text
This is all we need. This is everything we need and we need to make sure that we're never elevating some kind of a tradition
Over the Bible and look the Catholic Church has been influenced by philosophy and vain deceit and after the traditions of men and
We need to love the Catholic and tell them the truth and not say oh your Catholic
You're good. We say hey if you're Catholic you need to get saved
If you're Catholic you need to convert, you need to change your opinion, change your mind
and put your faith in Jesus, not faith bus works.
You need to stop praying to Mary.
You need to stop praying to this priest that's a pedophile that's not married
and calling him father that's wearing the long robe
and quit putting stupid ash on your forehead
and quit abstaining from meats which God has created to be received of men.
I mean, the Catholics are just doing everything wrong,
destroy your graven images, and you know what?
If you really want to know what God looks like,
it's right here, read the Bible.
But we need to make sure to love the Catholic
and give him the gospel and get him saved
so that he can be rescued from the traditions of men.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much
for giving us the word of God
so that we could understand what's true and what's right.
I pray that we would actually love Catholics and we would go out and preach them the Gospel and we would try to get them saved.
I pray that you would give us the power of the Bible to just defeat all of their man-made traditions.
that you would help us to mightily win many people to Christ and the Lord,
that they could see what the true God of the Bible is like,
they could see true faith in Jesus Christ,
that they could come out from that deep oppression.
I pray that you can continue to expose the Catholic Church
for the lies and the heresies that they have,
and that you would allow your Word to shine in such a dark world.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
For our last song, let's go to song number 27, song number 27, The Old Rugged Cross,