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The title of my sermon tonight is To the Romans, To the Romans, and I hope everybody brought their Bible to church tonight. You should always bring your Bible to church so that you can follow along. If you don't have a Bible, we do have Bibles on the bookshelf back there and a big stack of black New Testaments, go ahead and grab one of those right now. Don't be shy or embarrassed. I want you to follow along in the Bible tonight. It's going to be very easy to follow along tonight. In fact, this is going to be the easiest sermon that you've ever followed along with in your life because the entire sermon is going to come from the book of Romans. That's the only place we're going to turn. So you don't have to be really adept at knowing where all 66 books are in order to follow this sermon. But the reason that the sermon tonight is called To the Romans is that this book of the Bible, the epistle to the Romans, was specifically originally sent to the Romans, literally. Obviously, we know that the whole New Testament is written to us as Bible-believing Christians and that any of the 27 books are geared toward each and every one of us. But it was specifically written to that geography in the beginning. Now flip over to chapter 1 of Romans in verse number 7, and I'll just show you where this epistle is specifically made out to the Romans. It says in Romans 1, verse 7, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I want to basically preach about tonight is all of the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church and how all of it can pretty much be defeated just with this one book, the book of Romans. And I believe that it's not a coincidence that God knew that the biggest false Christian so-called church in the world would be the Roman Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Rome, that would basically lead the way for false doctrine and lead the way in heresy and work salvation and all kinds of other bad doctrine that he actually put in the book of Romans the most verses that would prove Catholicism to be false. And most of us that have been in church for a long time have even heard people talk about the Romans road as being the plan of salvation just because there are so many verses in the book of Romans that have to do with salvation. So I'm going to preach against some of the biggest false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church tonight and I'm only going to use the book of Romans to do it. Only the book that's geared toward the Romans. Now you say, well why preach about this? Because 20% of America is Catholic? Because all over the world this is a huge religion that has people in darkness today. They do not teach the true gospel. Point number one tonight is that salvation is by faith alone, not of works. That is not what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that you have to do other things to be saved other than just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They teach that you have to perform various works and sacraments in order to make it into heaven but that's not what the Bible teaches. Look at Romans 1 verse 16. The Bible reads, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, watch this, to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Flip over to chapter 3. So right there in chapter 1 the Bible has already told us that salvation is to everyone that believeth. Look at Romans chapter 3 verse 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that is the righteousness of Jesus that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works nay but by the law of faith therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Isn't that clear? He doesn't say well you're justified by faith but you also have to have works. No he said you're justified by faith without works. Faith without the deeds of the law. Sins and works are used interchangeably in the Bible. He said in verse 22 it's upon all them that believe it's the faith of Jesus Christ why because we've all sinned and the only way that any of us could be justified or declared righteous in the sight of God is not through our own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith but whoops I'm accidentally quoting something other than Romans. I don't need anything other than Romans it's all right here in Romans. Flip over to chapter 4 verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertained to the flesh hath found for if Abraham were justified by works he hath were of the glory but not before God for what sayeth the scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness. How are we justified? How are we saved? How are we declared righteous in the sight of God? It's not through our own righteousness there's none righteous no not one. It's his righteousness. It's the righteousness of Jesus that is imputed unto those who believe. It's through faith that we're saved not of works it's without works it's to him that worketh not. The Bible says in verse 6 even as David also describe it the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Jump down to verse 11 about Abraham who was again justified by faith and he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the father of all them that believe. So Abraham's the father of all them that believe not all those who are baptized not all those who join a church or do good deeds or perform the sacraments. He's the father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Flip over to chapter 5 we've seen it in chapter 1 we've seen it in chapter 3 we've seen it repeatedly in chapter 4 look at chapter 5 verse 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Flip over to chapter 6 verse 23 for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and by very definition a gift is something that you don't work for it's just given to you for free unlike wages which are earned. Look at chapter 10 verse 1 brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. So the question is what are you trusting in tonight to get you to heaven? Is it your righteousness or is it the righteousness of Jesus? Because the Bible says the only thing that can save us is his righteousness because we don't have any righteousness to speak of there's none righteous no not one. See the Jews in Romans 10 were going about to establish their own righteousness by doing good deeds doing good works performing religious ritual but the Bible says that it's not by works or deeds and he says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone to believe it. It's not through the law that we are righteous in the sight of God it's only through the faith of Christ there are many people today even Baptists who would say well you don't have to do good works to be saved but you do have to stop sinning. You do have to turn from your sin but turning from your sin would be obedience to the law because what is sin by very definition? I mean sin is when you break God's law and so you know we're not saved by the law it's not the law that justifies us it's not the law of works the only law that can save you is the law of faith the law that says if you believe you'll be saved. It's not by adherence to the law. The Bible says that that's not the case look at look at verse nine in Romans 10 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. What could be simpler than that verse? So what if there's one person on this planet who confesses with their mouth the Lord Jesus and truly believes in their heart that God has raised him from the dead and that person's not saved wouldn't that make this a lie? I mean if the Bible says it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth and then there's somebody who truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ in their heart and that person's not saved because they didn't do works this would all be a lie or you didn't get baptized well wait a minute everyone that believeth shall be saved according to these verses. Verse 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved it didn't say whosoever that joins the church lives a good life is baptized no no it's just whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him on whom they've not heard or whom they've not believed obviously you have to believe in order to call upon him by faith and be saved you have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth not just saying words to get into heaven but it has to be the faith that saves the Bible says in verse 10 there for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation what comes out of the mouth is nothing more than just a reflection of the faith in your heart it's the faith that saves you it's believing that saves you that is expressed through words with your mouth that's all that is just an outward expression of that which is present in your heart the Bible says in verse 14 how then shall they call on him and whom they've not believed how should they believe in him of whom they've not heard and how should they hear without a preacher that's all it takes to be saved some preacher and it doesn't say pastor you know just some preacher which could be man woman boy or girl preaches you the gospel and thereby you hear God's word and believe and say I believe that and if you truly mean it from your heart the Bible says you shall be saved look at chapter 11 verse 5 people will say well I still think works plays a role I think it's faith and works this is often what Roman Catholics will tell you but the Bible says in verse 5 of chapter 11 even so then at this present time only also there is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work you can't have it both ways folks either salvation is by grace through faith or salvation is by works you can't mix the two as soon as you mix in that's the smallest amount of works as a requirement for salvation grace is gone at that point the question is how cheap would something have to be in order for it to be free it would have to cost zero and if it costs one cent it's not free that's how it is with works now should we do works of course of course we should do works but wait a minute what saves us works do we have to do works no you can do no works the Bible says to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law but let's move on to the second point we just saw a lot of verses just from one book of the Bible just from Romans alone that destroy the Catholic doctrine of salvation being by works well they believe also it's faith and it's faith and works no no well now it's not grace anymore now it's just all works now and your trust is not in Christ to save you your trust is in yourself at that point and the deeds that you perform or your faith is in a church or your faith is in a priest or your faith is in someone else who you think has the power to get you into heaven it's all through what Christ did on the cross when he died and buried and rose again and it's unto all those that believe but number two flip over to Romans chapter six and we'll see that a second doctrine of the Catholic Church is destroyed by the book of Romans you know you'd think since this book is specifically addressed to them they would pay special attention to it I mean I don't know about you but if there were a book of the Bible that said to the church at Arizona the church of Phoenix to the Phoenicians you know turn in your Bible to Phoenicians chapter one you know I would say I would pay special attention to that book wouldn't you think like oh well we live in Phoenix this is especially applicable unto us we should take extra heed well to the Romans tonight the Roman Catholics they need to take special heed to the book that's made out specifically to them at church at Rome number two baptism is by immersion not by sprinkling or pouring so number one we saw salvation by faith according to the book of Romans number two baptisms by immersion it's by being dunked underwater it's this in baptism you know sprinkling or pouring or this little you know I heard Roman Catholics say repeatedly that all it takes is just one drop of water one drop of holy water is all you need to baptize then why did John well I can't use books other than Romans just look at Romans chapter six verse four watch this therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection notice the language regarding baptism buried with him by baptism it is now when you get buried do they just sprinkle a little dirt on you or just pour a little dirt on your head just touch your forehead with some dirt no being buried means you're completely submerged you're completely immersed you're completely covered in earth the Bible says we're buried with them by baptism and it says if we've been planted together what about when you plant something you sprinkle dirt on it or do you put it under the earth just like when you're baptized you go under the water so the Bible uses the words buried in regard to baptism planted what because baptism according to this is a likeness or a picture or an image of the death burial and resurrection of Christ that's what's being symbolized when you come up out of the water it's a picture of Christ coming up out of the grave arising from the dead and so just sprinkling water on you or pouring water on you doesn't do that and so this verse wouldn't make any sense if that were biblical baptism and of course there are many many scriptures outside of the book of Romans that teach that but we're limiting ourselves to the book of Romans flip back just one chapter to chapter five and we'll get to the third thing and this ties in with this whole sprinkling pouring baptism because not only do the Roman Catholics sprinkle but they also perform baptism on babies they perform infant baptism and this doctrine is also defeated by the book of Romans you see the reason why Roman Catholics baptize babies is because they have a false doctrine called original sin now a lot of people that are Bible believing Christians Baptists evangelicals would say well original sin is a true doctrine that's a biblical doctrine but that's just because you don't really understand what the Catholics mean when they say original sin what the Bible teaches is that because Adam sinned we all inherited the sin nature meaning that because Adam was a sinner and we descend from Adam we have the tendency to sin we all sin naturally we sin that's what we would often mean and some people use the term original sin to mean that but you shouldn't use the term original sin that's a Catholic term and that's not what it means it means something else okay so of course we know that Adam sinned and because of that we're all sinners of course that's the truth but that is not what the doctrine of original sin teaches now look if you would at the Bible here in Romans chapter 5 it says in verse 12 wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world talking about Adam and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned and that is the key phrase for that all have sinned now for means because so the Bible is saying by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men now if we just stop there you'd have the Catholic doctrine of original sin what they teach is that we are responsible for the sin that Adam committed we're punished that sin is held against us now that is false God does not hold Adam sin against me I'm not punished for Adam's sin and so here it makes it clear that the reason that death passed upon all men is not simply just because Adam sinned but it's because all have sinned you see that death passed upon all men because all have sinned and just because we inherited our sin nature from Adam we became sinners but that doesn't mean we're being punished for what he did we would only ever be punished by God for what we ourselves have done not for what Adam did thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden now the reason that this is so important is that the Roman Catholics this is the reason why they feel that they have to baptize babies because Catholics will admit the common sense that a newborn baby is not really capable of sinning because you know can a newborn baby commit adultery or murder or steal or take the name of God in vain or make a graven image obviously a newborn baby is incapable of committing sin but the Catholic Church teaches well baptism washes away your sins they don't believe in justification by faith alone they believe that baptism washes away your sins so you'd think to yourself well then why baptize a baby then they say well even though this baby has not sinned on its own we have to wash away the original sin everybody see where they're going with this because Adam sinned we have to wash away that original sin and they say that if that baby dies without being baptized it's gonna go to hell now this is a false doctrine there are many scriptures in the Bible that teach that a baby will go to heaven when it dies no matter what it's not it it's a newborn baby and it doesn't even understand and it doesn't even have sin in its life it will go to heaven that's another sermon there's plenty of scripture to teach that that before a certain age obviously a child is not held responsible for you know receiving Christ as Savior before it can even understand any of these concepts or even commit sin but listen to what they say on I've got some stuff from the Vatican's website and I've got some stuff from Catholic.com so this is out of the horse's mouth okay here's from Catholic.com the Catholic Church has always understood baptism differently meaning differently than people who actually believe the Bible teaching that it is a sacrament which accomplishes several things the first of which is the remission of sin both original sin and actual sin only original sin in the case of infants and young children since they are incapable of actual sin and both original and actual sin in the case of older persons so they're coming right out and saying well the baby hasn't sinned but yet it needs to be baptized so we can wash away the original sin Adam's sin which is a totally made up false doctrine here's from their catechism on the Vatican website point twelve hundred and fifty says born with a fallen human nature I agree with that and tainted by original sin that's their false idea that they put on here children also have need of the new birth in baptism so they teach that born again oh that's being baptized false he says they also have need of the new birth in baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God to which all men are called the sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant baptism no it's actually particularly manifest when you teach that salvation is by believing by faith then you see how free it is when you just confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him in it thou shalt be saved so they're saying oh well we believe baptism we believe salvation is free just look at our teaching on infant baptism right but they teach that you have to continue and do all the other works also that not even that's enough the church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer baptism shortly after birth do you see that according to the Catholics if you don't baptize your baby which is taught nowhere in the Bible you're denying them being a child of God you're stopping them from being a child of God they can't be a child of God they don't have access to the grace of God it's from the Vatican's own website so according to them salvation is putting water on a baby's head according to the Bible in what twenty or thirty verses that we just read it's based on whether or not a person believes on Christ and parents don't have any control over that the church doesn't have any control that's a personal decision made in your own heart here's what they say in point twelve hundred sixty three by baptism all sins are forgiven original sin and all personal sins as well as all punishment for sin in those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the kingdom of God neither Adam sin nor personal sin nor the consequences of sin the gravest of which is separation from God so we see very clearly that when they say original sin they don't mean what you thought that they meant if you say well that's a biblical doctrine no no they're not saying that you have a sin nature they're saying you are held responsible for Adam's sin and we gotta get rid of that through baby baptism it's garbage let's look at it in Romans five and see how it falls apart this doctrine of original sin it's a false doctrine look at verse twelve wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men why for that all have sinned that's why that's the part they're not getting verse thirteen for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law nevertheless death rained from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come now verse fourteen is often misunderstood saying well these people didn't sin it wasn't imputed unto them but death still rained no no it says they didn't sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression they still sinned they committed other sins they just didn't sin in the same way that Adam sinned verse fifteen but not as the offense so also as the free gift for if through the offense of one Adam many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ had the bounded unto many and not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification for if by one man's offense death rained by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men at the justification of life you say well no it was just by one man's offense you know the death came upon all men but keep reading look at verse nineteen for as by one man's disobedience watch this this is the key many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous so clearly the reason why death comes upon us based on Adam's sin is that we were made sinners for that all have sinned that's why death passed upon all men not death upon us because of what Adam did even if we don't sin even if we're a newborn baby I mean it's a weird doctrine but I'll prove it to you further from the book of Romans go to chapter seven look what Romans seven teaches beginning verse number seven what shall we say then is the law sin God forbid nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law it said thou shalt not covet but sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence watch this for without the law sin was dead for I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me now notice what he clearly says in verse nine here I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came sin revived and I died is he saying I was born into this world completely dead in trespasses and sins is that what he's saying no before he was old enough to know what lust even was before he was old enough to even know thou shalt not covet to even know what sin was when he was born into this world he was alive spiritually then once he sinned then once he understood the law of God and that he was breaking God's law and sinning then the Bible says that's when he died spiritually and then obviously when he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ he was quickened and made alive in Christ you see Adam was told in the Garden of Eden that in the day he ate of that forbidden fruit that he would surely die and if you remember when Adam took that fruit in the Garden of Eden did he die physically that day no but spiritually he died his spirit died and it's the same thing with us when we commit sin personally ourselves our spirit dies when we get to the age where we're capable of understanding that and willfully you know committing a sin and doing something against God's law at that point our spirit dies then when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that spirit is quickened that spirit is made alive in Christ we who were dead in trespasses and sins this makes perfect sense when you understand the biblical doctrine that's taught in many other places that those who die in their mother's womb go straight to heaven and those who are a young child newborn baby go to heaven as well it makes sense because they're alive spiritually it makes sense that their names in the book of life it makes sense that they are one who is under grace and really they haven't done anything wrong at that point they're a baby they're a newborn they're an infant but not according to the Roman Catholic Church they teach this doctrine of original sin that hey you better baptize that baby in our pagan shrine or else that baby is in danger of eternal damnation because you didn't sprinkle holy water on its head from the priest where does the New Testament tell us about priests and monks and nuns and monasteries and cathedrals and archbishops and cardinals and the pope and holy water none of these things are mentioned anywhere in the New Testament they're all made up it's all just completely made up junk that's not even in the Bible if you don't participate in their made up weird ritual of sprinkling a baby's head with their so-called holy water you're supposedly can't even be a child of God we look the first ten minutes of the sermon was just a litany of verse after verse saying that it's through believing that we're safe not through getting water put on your head and how do they make this holy water anyway what makes it so holy where is that concept the best definition I've ever heard of how they make holy water with someone said they boil the hell out of it you know okay I mean all right I guess that's how you make holy water but anyway let's move on to the fourth point number four Mary was not sinless that's another false doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that can be defeated by the book of Romans alone look at Romans 3 23 I mean this isn't really tough Romans 3 23 says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God everyone has sinned the only person who is without sin is Jesus Christ because he was God in the flesh and the Bible of course tells us in many places that Christ was sinless but to sit there and say well Mary was also sinless there's not a verse in the Bible that even comes close to saying that show me one verse in the Bible that says hey Mary was without sin Mary didn't commit sin but in their idolatry of Mary and their graven image worship of Mary they say Mary was sinless no there's none righteous no not one all have sinned and come short glory of God and here's the key being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Mary had to be saved if you again this is from Catholic.com here's what they say about Mary being sinless she was given the grace to be saved completely from sin so that she never committed even the slightest transgression did you hear that according to Catholic.com and this is their official doctrine of course they say Mary did not even commit the slightest transgression Protestants tend to emphasize God's salvation almost exclusively to the forgiveness of sins actually committed I mean where did we get that crazy idea that you know that salvation means we're saved from our sins that we actually committed well I don't know because the Bible says over and over again that we're saved from our sins our sins I mean what does he mean to be saved what is saved even saved from our sins our sins that's what the Bible says and it's our sins that are condemning us and it's our sins that need to be forgiven through Jesus but they say well she was yeah she was saved because you know they have to admit that the Bible teaches that Mary was saved so they just say well she wasn't saved from her sins she was saved so that she never even committed a sin but where are they getting that from nowhere there's no verse that says anything like that in the Bible it's a false doctrine look at Romans chapter 5 verse 8 the Bible says but God commanded his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him verse 12 wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned now when the Bible says all men we understand of course that all men is referring to both men and women if the Bible says all men are sinners it's not saying well women aren't obviously it's understood that we're talking about man in the sense of mankind and when the Bible says here that death passed upon all men through Adam let me ask you something didn't Mary descend from just a human mother and father and isn't she a child of Adam wasn't she born of flesh and blood the only reason why Christ did not inherit that sin nature is because he did not have an earthly father he's the son of God is Mary the the daughter of God I mean I guess you'd have to say well you know Mary was born of a virgin I mean I'm surprised they haven't come up with that yet that'll be the next papal bull that comes out hey Mary was born of a virgin and and oh her mother was a virgin turns out it was thousands of years of virgins I mean how else can you get around the fact that Mary was an ordinary human being flesh and blood she was chosen to perform an important function but don't make too much of it folks she's a human being not only that go to Romans 13 I'm almost done but just a few other things and honestly we we could take this thing into so many different directions if I showed you everything in the book of Romans that flies in the faith the face of Roman Catholic teaching we'd be here all night I'm just hitting some highlights with you okay how about this Roman Catholic doctrine that thou shalt covet is two commandments not one because they have to get rid of the graven image commandment they throw that out and then they're left with nine commandments it's like what are we gonna do we got a building full of graven images so we threw out that commandment against making idols so now we got to get from nine to 10 somehow somebody came up with the bright idea of splitting thou shalt covet into two and saying well thou shalt covet thy neighbor's wife and thou shalt covet thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife and thou shalt not covet everything else two commandments but reading the book of Romans shows that that's not how God looks at it God looks at it as one because God gives an abbreviated form of the last five commandments here you see Moses received two tablets of stone and there are ten commandments on these and if you look at the ten commandments it's interesting how the first half of the commandments have to do with our relationship with God the first five commandments have to do with our walk with God and the latter five commandments have to do with our relationship with man with our fellow man I mean think about it thou shalt not steal thou shalt not kill that's between us and man not having any other gods before him not making any graven image not taking God's name in vain remembering the Sabbath and you say well honor thy father mother but there's the father right there honoring the father would be under that but look at this scripture here beginning verse number eight oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another had fulfilled the law for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself so when God gives just an abbreviated form here of just thou shalt not bear false witness instead of against thy neighbor you know he's just shortening it and we do this all the time we just kind of shorten the ten commandments say hey no thou shalt have no other gods before me thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain remember the Sabbath keep it all there's more to those commandments but we're giving them in an abbreviated form just like the Bible is doing here so let me ask you this Roman Catholic which thou shalt not covet is this is this commandment nine or is it commandment ten and another thing if you would flip over to Romans chapter eight I'm gonna I'm gonna just get here for sake of time but we could go into other things like for example how to deal with heretics and I already preached a whole sermon on that last Sunday so I'm not gonna retread that ground but Romans 16 verse 17 says to avoid heretics stay away from them mark them avoid them whereas the Catholic Church had a doctrine of torturing and killing heretics forcing them to recant and arresting them punishing them torturing them murdering them I already went over that in my sermon on the Inquisition but Romans doesn't teach that you're not gonna find that in the letter of the Romans he said just avoid heretics just stay away from them you don't have to go kill them but here's a key point that the Roman Catholics are totally wrong on is that they teach that you can't know whether you're saved or not you don't know if you're saved and if you go soloing you'll know this is true because I've knocked on the doors of so many hundreds and hundreds of Catholics and you ask them the question do you know for sure if you died today that you'd go to heaven and often they'll say this no one can know that and in fact in the Catholic Church this is known as the sin of presumption to think that you know you're going to heaven to think you know you're saved and the reason why they don't know that they're saved is because they think salvation is based on all of these factors all these deeds all these works that they have to do all these sacraments of you know continually confessing their sins to the priest continually receiving communion continually doing the deeds paying the tithes going to church doing good works they don't believe that it's just a one-time thing of just believing in Christ and being saved and and so no they believe that you can't know that you're saved because anybody who believes in work salvation can't really know that they're saved well it's faith plus works well then how can you know you're saved because how do you know if you've done enough works well it's faith but you also have to repent of your sins but how can you know whether you've repented of enough sins because none of us has repented of all of our sins good night we'd be perfect we'd be Jesus we wouldn't be Mary because she was a sinner but look what Romans 8 16 says the spirit itself beareth the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God you see we know that we're saved because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us and that's why we even go out and knock on somebody's door and say do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven because that's a great indication on whether they're saved because the person who's saved is gonna know that they're saved because they have the Holy Spirit inside of them bearing witness with their spirit that they're the children of God we don't have to wonder if we're saved we don't have to hope so we know that if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we know that we're saved that's not a sin of presumption unless you're trusting in yourself to get to heaven and the very fact that they call it the sin of presumption just shows who they're trusting in themselves because oh that would be presumptuous does everybody know what presumptuous means you know presumptuous comes from the word to presume and presumptuous is when someone presumes too much and this would be someone who is assuming or presuming that they are good enough to go to heaven that's very presumptuous to think that you're good enough to get into heaven I agree that is presumptuous but that's not why I know I'm going to heaven I know I'm going to heaven because of the blood of Jesus Christ because I've been justified freely by Christ being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus because he's the justifier of hidden the believer than Jesus why would it present be presumptuous to say that Jesus will keep his word why is it presumptuous to say that Jesus died for all my sins why is it presumptuous to say that he was buried and that he rose again from the dead why is it presumptuous to say that I'm a sinner who deserves to go to hell but that Jesus Christ saved me by his grace and why is it presumptuous to declare that his righteousness is my ticket into heaven it's not presumptuous at all in fact it's quite humble see a presumptuous person often lacks humility but in fact salvation is for the humble it's for those who are willing to admit they're a sinner and to believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior but the Roman Catholic Church teaches that you can't know that you're saved no one can know that well I know that and I have the Holy Spirit inside of me to bear witness with my spirit and it's not just the Holy Spirit that tells me I'm saved the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit I know I'm saved because I've believed on Jesus I mean you know tonight whether or not you've put your faith in Jesus now I can't look within your soul tonight and know whether you've put your faith in Jesus but you know look Judas he did not believe but he knew that all right now the people around him didn't know that but he knew that and you know tonight whether you have put all of your faith in Jesus there's nothing complicated about this well I don't know it's comp no it's simple what are you trusting in to get you to have a night are you trusting Jesus or are you trusting self are you trusting your repenting of sin or your being baptized or your church attendance or your tithing or your good deeds and good works or adherence to God's laws you know the answer to that question and the spirit itself the Holy Spirit along with your spirit should both be telling you you're a child of God why through faith in Christ Jesus it's that simple the Catholics don't have that assurance for two reasons number one because they don't have the Spirit of God living inside of them because they're not saved and the second reason why they don't have that assurance is that their spirit can't tell them that they're saved because they think salvation is through this unattainable goal of works and ritual and confession and all these other things and so of course they can't really know whether they've dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's and how lenient God's going to be in the final rundown so all that to say this there are 66 books in the Bible I could demolish Catholic doctrine from any of them we could have gone to the book of Matthew tonight and I could show you hey here's a sermon from the book of Matthew on why the Roman Catholic Church is a false religion I can do it don't test me I'll do it okay you know we could have gone to the book of John and had a field day with salvation verses we'd pulled more out of the book of John than we pulled out of Romans we could have gone to a number of books but I find it interesting that probably the best book probably the one-stop shop where we're going to be able to destroy the most Catholic doctrines in a single book just happens to be the book of Romans and they just happen to be the church of Rome and I don't believe that that's a coincidence I believe that God is trying to grab these people and shake them and say you're in a false religion I'm trying to warn you I'm trying to I mean I put your name on the book that that really will straighten you out more than anything but will you pay attention let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father thank you so much for the book of Romans Lord and and for the the great teachings in it Lord that it it teaches us Lord that salvation is by faith it teaches us that baptism is by immersion it teaches us that everyone's a sinner which would of course include the human being Mary it teaches us that we are responsible for our own sins because we've all sinned we don't we aren't held accountable for someone else's sins Lord it teaches us that the that the newborn baby is not condemned to hell unjustly when it hasn't even done anything wrong it teaches us how to deal with people who believe false doctrine it teaches us that the church at Rome's not infallible but that it would be broken off if they did not continue in the right doctrine according to Romans chapter 11 Lord it teaches us so many things and I pray that that those who are Roman Catholic which is a multitude tonight even in the United States of America it's a great multitude of people many tens of millions of people who've been deceived Lord I pray that that faithful soul winners from our church and from elsewhere Lord would knock on the doors of Roman Catholics and would open the book of Romans and show them down that Romans road how to be saved Lord I pray that and I know Lord many Catholics are being saved on a weekly basis through the ministry of this church Lord and especially through our door-to-door soul winning but Lord I pray that I pray that we would continue that and expand that Lord and that many Catholics would be reached as a result of being taken down that Romans road and in Jesus name we pray amen