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Amen, all right, we are in 2 Corinthians chapter number 6, look down at your Bibles at verse number 14, it says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And the title of the sermon this morning is, Why Catholics are not Christian. Why Catholics are not Christian, okay? Now in the above passage, we see a very famous verse that we often quote to talk about marriage, for example, that we're not supposed to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And this is a true saying, this is a true statement that we as Christians should never marry someone who is not saved, someone who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And obviously, even after that, there should be a level of standard that we look for in a spouse. We can actually apply this to just generally who we have fellowship with, right? Because it says there in verse 14, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, and that word yoke simply means to be united together to work, right? A yoke is a device that's used to place, you know, beast, oxen together for a specific purpose. And the Bible tells us here not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So here we see that God is making a distinction between two categories, believers and everyone else, believers and Catholics, believers and Mormons, or believers and people who just don't believe in anything at all, just an unbeliever. And then he goes into the categories, the different levels, so to speak, of these unbelievers, and he really just covers a lot of ground just to leave no stone unturned. He says, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? We say, well, you know, isn't that kind of Amish, you know, that you just don't, you know, have fellowship with anybody, and we shouldn't be like the Amish? Well, you know what? We are of the world, but we're in the world, but we're not of the world. And the Bible tells us, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. So we don't want to go to the extreme of the Amish where you just go off, you know, the radar, and you just go into the mountain somewhere, and you basically keep it in the family physically, and you just have all these inbred Amish people because you just don't want to have any contact whatsoever with the outside world. That's wrong because the Bible tells us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That requires us, you know, having some form of contact with people who are unbelievers, right? Here it says not to have fellowship with them. What does that mean? We shouldn't have a good relationship with people who are just not saved, right? Because eventually they're going to influence you, they're going to cause you to stumble, etc. He says, in what communion hath light with darkness? We're children of the light, the Bible tells us. What concord hath Christ with Belial? You know, what agreement, what concord, what fellowship hath Jesus Christ with the devil? There is no fellowship there, right? So in like manner, guess what? The children of God should not have fellowship with the children of the devil. That's another sermon in and of itself. He says, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Verse 16 says, excuse me, and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? So the temple of God in this passage of scripture, obviously, we understand that in the New Testament, our bodies are referred to as the temple of God. This is the temple, this is the body in which the Holy Spirit dwells after we get saved. The Bible tells us that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption. And the Bible tells us here that there is no agreement with idols. Now, verse 17 tells us, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate. There needs to be a clear distinction. Now, there was a time where a clear and distinct line was drawn between those who claim to be Christians and those who claim to be Catholics. I mean, I could tell you when I first got saved, when I would go sowing, I remember talking to people, and I would ask them if they were Christians, and they would reply ardently, no, I'm Catholic. And by the way, today that still exists amongst the old school Catholics, you know? We're just like, I'm not Christian, I'm Catholic. And you know what? Thank God that they would say that. Because it would leave no doubt within the mind of the listener to know, okay, this person believes in Catholic doctrine, they have a different God, they have a different view of salvation, this person is not saved, this person is not a believer, right? But today we're beginning to see the opposite trend, where when you ask Catholics what they are, they'll say, well, I'm a Christian. Or they'll put the prefix, I'm a Catholic Christian. How many of you ever heard that when you go out sowing? I'm Catholic Christian. And they'll say, it's all the same, right? It's all the same, okay? Now, is this an honest assessment of Catholicism though? Is this, can we honestly say that Catholics are Christian? Can they really say that about themselves? No, because of the fact that their belief system is polar opposite to what the Bible actually teaches. You say, why would they, why is it that we see that trend now? Why is it that back in the day they would just say they're Catholics, but now they're saying that they're Catholic Christian? Well, what's the deal with that? What's the agenda behind that? Well, number one, obviously we understand that Catholic means universal. And really, this is just the push by Satan himself to really unite all religions, one with another. It's called the ecumenical movement, excuse me, where let's just all get along. You know, we all, all roads lead to God. It doesn't matter if you're Catholic or Muslim or Mormon or Jehovah's Witness. You know, it doesn't matter what you are. Hey, all these roads lead to God. Doesn't matter, as long as you just believe in Jesus, doesn't matter what kind of Jesus it is, as long as you just believe in him, it's a-okay. But here's the thing, that's the agenda that they're pushing. So this is why we hear that term a lot, but not just because of that. This is a result of compromising non-denom churches, evangelical churches that don't want to offend anybody. So when they refer to Catholics, oh yeah, they're Christians too. I mean, they believe in Jesus. They believe in the Bible, you know, and most of those non-denom people are not even saved either, right? But it's an agenda to not offend. It's an agenda to propagate and to cause all religions to unite. You know, obviously we see that in the end times. And let me just start off by saying that I don't hate Catholics at all. I don't. You know, obviously I hate Catholicism. I hate the Catholic religion. I really do love Catholics. In fact, they're my favorite people to win to the Lord. I'll be honest with you, more than Pentecostals. You know, I have a hard time winning Pentecostals to the Lord. Yeah, yeah, why, because they know their stuff? No, because they're so stubborn and prideful, self-righteous, holier than now people. Now look, that's not to say I haven't won Pentecostals to the Lord. I've won them to the Lord, but very far, few and in between. For the most part, the vast majority of people that I've won to the Lord in the Los Angeles area or in Long Beach have been Catholics. Now, why is that? Because they do have a good predisposition to help them to get saved, which is they say they believe the Bible. And when someone says they believe the Bible, that means we can use the Bible to get them saved, which is exactly what they need. You know, they believe that Jesus is the son of God. They believe he died, was buried and resurrected. They believe in the Trinity. These things in and of themselves are not the reason why they're saved, because they're not, but they are things that we can use in order to help them to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, okay? To help them to understand that it's by faith alone. So I see this trend a lot. And in fact, I heard it yesterday. This is one of the reasons I'm preaching this is because, you know, I talked to someone, they're just like, well, we're Catholic Christians. You know, it's all the same thing. We believe in God. We believe in Jesus. We believe in the Bible. And it's all the same thing. It's not the same thing, okay? And the Bible tells us that we shouldn't have fellowship, communion, concord, no par, and there is no agreement with the temple of God with idols. The Bible tells us in Amos 3.3, can two walk together, except they be agreed. You see, the only way you can walk with a Catholic in agreement is if both of you just don't say anything at all. Right? That's the only agreement you'll have is just complete silence. Because the reality is, if you're to share your beliefs one with another, you'll see that you do not agree on vastly everything. Specific, of course, salvation. Now, go with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter number nine. We're gonna give a clear-cut distinction between Catholics and Christians today, okay? Now look, again, I love Catholics. I wanna win Catholics to the Lord. I was a former Catholic, okay? I've known people who were Catholics. They got saved. And you know, I think the vast majority of people who are in Los Angeles are predominantly Catholics, especially amongst those who are Hispanic, right? A lot of Hispanics everywhere. And you know, they need the Lord. They need to get saved. But we wanna make sure that we never blend the lines between the two. You know, and just compromise and say, well yeah, they're kinda like, you know, Christians. No, they're not. Now obviously, when people, like even if you study history, or even you watch certain documentaries, they'll often talk about Christians in ancient history, but then really when you dig deep, you actually realize they're actually referring to Catholics. It's like, whoa, whoa, these guys are Christian, but they're not even, they're not even Christians, they're Catholics. And then if you go further than that, they'll say Protestants. And they'll refer to us as Protestants. Well, we're not Protestants. Protestants are those who protested the Catholic Church. They came out of the Catholic Church. We do not come from the Catholic Church. You say, where do we come from? We come from the Bible. We find our foundation, our beliefs, grounded in the word of God. Now, let's talk about its origins, okay? Because people will say, well, you know, we are the true church. The Catholics will say, we're the true church. We come from Jesus and the apostles. Well, that's funny, first and foremost, because of the fact that they don't call themselves originally a Christian church. They call themselves a Catholic Church. And the word Catholic is not found in the Bible. Now let's go a little deeper into that. They call themselves the what? Roman Catholic Church. Why don't you call yourself the Antioch Catholic Church? You know, where they were first called Christians? Or how about just Jesus Christ Catholic Church? Why do they have to call themselves Roman Catholic Church? Well, let me tell you why, because that's where it comes from. Right, yep. You know, we're Faithful Word Baptist Church of El Mani. This is where we come from, right? Well, there's a reason why they put Roman in front of Catholic Church. That's where they originate from. You say, oh, how do you know that? You know, I think they came from, you know, the New Testament, the Gospels, with Jesus Christ and the apostles. Well, here's the thing. This religion had its inception, its beginning in A.D. 313. With who? With Roman Emperor Constantine. Not with Jesus, with Constantine. Now, Emperor Constantine, with the Edict of Milan, merged, not this Milan, is all your fault, merged Christianity with Romanism in an attempt to basically rescue the Roman Empire and to unite it once again. He wanted to use Christianity to unite the Roman Empire while it was in its decline, okay? And unfortunately, it became a mixture of apostate Christians and Romanism. Now, it doesn't take much to see the similarities between Roman paganism and Catholicism. Just a bird's eye view, just a brief overview, you can see they have more in common with Roman paganism than with Christianity. You say, well, where do you think you started? Well, I don't think that's a proper question, where we started. Because of the fact that salvation has always been by faith throughout the entire Bible, throughout all ages, right? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. I don't think that's even the right question to ask. The right question would be when did the New Testament start, okay? Look what the Bible says in Hebrews 9, verse 15. It says, for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgression that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance, for where a testament is, there must also be of necessity the death of a testator, for a testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. So what is this teaching us? It's teaching us that the New Testament began at the death of Christ. Now, the doctrine did not begin at the death of Christ. The doctrine of salvation did not begin at the death of Christ. What happened at the death of Christ? The New Testament, which replaced the Old Testament, okay? The meats, drinks, divers, washings, the priesthood, right? The, all these observance of days, holy days, Sabbaths, these things were replaced, but the doctrine was not. So salvation has always been the same. Jesus Christ has always been the same. Well, what about, when did the church start though? Well, if you really wanna go that deep, there is a church in the wilderness in the Old Testament. There is a church in Matthew 16. There's a church in Matthew 18. And then Ephesians chapter four tells us that glory shall be in the church throughout all ages. So the question is now, when did the church start? Because there's no such thing as a universal church, which is exactly what the Catholics believe. They believe that there is a universal, we're all part of the church, right? There's a universal church. Whereas the Bible does not talk about a universal church, it talks about local New Testament, visible churches. And that can be proven up and down, left to right, because of the fact you have even the New Testament church discipline, where you actually excommunicate someone out of a church. Well, you can't do that if there's a universal church. You know what I find interesting is that the actual Protestants, you know, Calvinists, these reformed Baptists, their doctrine actually is closer to the Catholics than ours. You know, dispensationalists believe in a universal church. You know, the Catholics believe in what's called a purgatory, right? Well, guess what? The dispensationalists believe in the same thing. They just took that label off and put Abraham's bosom. It's the same thing. Now look, let me give you an example here, okay? The Calvinists are so hypocritical, they're hypocrites, because of the fact that Catholics, if you ask a Catholic who knows their Bible, they know what they believe, you know, what they believe about grace is virtually the same exact definition of what a Calvinist believes about grace. They believe that God has to draw them and that, you know, God gives grace to help you to believe in him. This is Calvinism. But they got it from the Catholics, though, okay? So we see here that at its inception did not begin with Jesus Christ and with the apostles. It began with Constantine in AD 313. That's easily proven. Let's see if its origins match up with the Bible. Now, one thing that everyone knows that the Catholics believe in is the pope, Papacy, right? And they'll tell you, if you ask them, well, where's that in the Bible? Matthew 16, you know, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Where's pope in that? I completely miss pope. Was that in the Greek? Was that like somewhere in the Hebrew? Where was that? I didn't catch pope. Pope is not in the Bible. And in fact, pope means father. Matthew 23 tells us, call no man your father for one is your father which is in heaven. Clear violation of the Bible. To call someone the pope, El Papa, right, means the father. That's not biblical. And look, if Peter was the first pope, let me just humor you for a little bit, okay? If Peter was the first pope, do you see anybody in the New Testament kissing his feet, his ring, do you see him with the little skullcap, a white robe, sitting on the throne with the crucifix upside down? It doesn't match up. You don't have to try to make fun of it. You just say what they believe, know what the Bible says, and automatically you're gonna laugh. Because you see how vastly different they are from true Christianity, true Bible Christianity. How about just praying to the saints and worshiping Mary? That's not in the Bible. You know, the Romans, and they got that from the Roman paganism. Because Roman paganism believed in a myriad, a plethora of gods, which they obviously, you know, they got the idea from the Greeks. They had a plethora of all these deities where they would pray to, make offerings and sacrifices, and every single one of these deities had a designated realm of authority in this world, right? Fertility, finances, you know, health and protection. That's the Catholic church. The only difference is, they're not calling them gods, they're calling them saints. You understand what I'm saying? And they basically do the same exact thing that the Roman Empire was doing to their gods, they're doing to their saints. You say, well, you know, there's saints in the Bible though. Yeah, you're looking at one right now. You don't even have to go to the Bible. You can open your eyes right here. Because a saint is someone who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas their definition is, well, no, a saint is someone who does good deeds. A saint has to be deputized as a saint by the authorities of the Catholic church after the person has died, they review their good deeds resume, and if they've done enough good deeds and, you know, were a good Catholic, then we'll give them the title of saint. That's not what the Bible says. You know, they gave that title of sainthood to, what's that lady's name? Mother Teresa. Let me tell you a funny story about Mother Teresa. I remember one time, there was a guy who was trying to win to the Lord, and he was a staunch Catholic, and he didn't want to convert. Like, you know, he didn't want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he just felt like he just, or he wanted to believe, but he's like, but I'm gonna stay a Catholic. And look, if they stay a Catholic, even if they say they believe on the Lord, they didn't get saved. Because they're adhering to Catholic doctrine, which is contrary to just believing on the Lord, and only the Lord, for salvation, right? So I was talking to this guy, and he said, he said, all right, I gotta tell you a funny story, he said. He goes, my friend was like one of the bodyguards for Mother Teresa. Okay, you know Mother Teresa, the one they made the movie about, and, you know, she's just this like godly saint who everyone looks towards as the example. You have like these liberal Christians who read her books and quote her, you know. And he basically said this, he goes, he said my friend was her bodyguard, and he told me that after she would do her good deeds or whatever, she'd go around the corner and light up a cigarette and start smoking. He said Mother Teresa was a chain smoker. That's something that the Catholic church didn't take into consideration now, did they? He's like, she was a chain smoker. Now look, a Christian can be a chain smoker and still be saved, right? Your salvation's not determined by what sins you do or don't do. But even according to their standard, right? According to their standard, their rules and their doctrine, this saint, because she fed a bunch of poor people, you know. But she was a major chain smoker. Shows you how hypocritical they are even when it comes to their own beliefs. It reminds me of like, what, the Pharisees, right? So each deity has this designated realm of authority and they bow down to these people, to these saints. Go to Exodus chapter 20. Whereas in the New Testament, anytime you've seen people bow down or give some sort of reverence or worship to the apostles or to the disciples, immediately they were corrected, immediately they were rebuked, immediately they said, hey, I'm not God, worship God. Not me. Now this is the way to kind of get around this whole worshiping Mary, okay? The mediatrix or whatever you call that. They'll say, well, we're not worshiping Mary, we're venerating her. It's a veneration. You look at veneration, it means like respect or reverence or whatever. I don't care what you call it. Okay, let's do this. You know, they both mean completely different things. Okay, let's just say for a second that veneration and worship mean two different things. Let's say we were just, ignore the title. Let's just look how you do it. How do you venerate? And if how you do it matches up with worship, doesn't matter if you put venerate, it's worship. Look at Exodus 20, verse three. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image. Strike one, Catholic Church. What are you talking about? These morbid Caesar Borgia paintings of this white blonde, you know, Jesus with this Pantene Pro-V hair just flowing down, right? The protruding heart out of the chest with the crown around it. This is weird stuff here. The blood is just dripping and for some reason he's like this. That's an image. You ask the average person, what does Jesus look like? They're gonna point to that person, okay? Or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is an earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shall not bow down thyself to them. Call it venerate if you want. It's still bowing down because that's exactly what Catholics do to Mary. You go to these, you know, these Catholic institutions, these churches or even cities that are predominantly Catholic, they'll have shrines of Mary there. And what do they do? They get on their knees and they bow to her. Oh, we're just venerating, it's worship. Because according to the Bible, bowing down, whether you call it venerate or not, it's still worship. Since thou shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. The Bible says, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Now, here's the thing is, this is one subject and one topic with the Catholics that's very offensive to them if you attack it, is Mary. I have no idea why. They see Mary, they see like their mom or something like that. It's just like, it's weird, you know? And to the point, I remember years ago, probably about 10 years ago, I was out sowing on my bus route with my bus captain and we're preaching the gospel to this guy. He was a Catholic. This is in the city of Wilmington. And I remember my bus captain was preaching the gospel to this guy and he was staunch Catholic. And he's just showing him from the scriptures that Catholicism is wrong. And that kept bringing up Mary. He's like, well, you know, we believe in Mary. We believe in Mary. He's like, well, we believe in Mary too. She was a real person. We're not saying she's fake. He goes, yeah, but you know, you guys don't think that she's the mother of God. Well, she's not. And then my friend showed him the story of how Jesus rebuked Mary, right? He shows her the story in John chapter two how he rebukes Mary. And then also when, you know, his parents left him and then he says, I must be about my father's business. He just shows her all these scriptures and he says, do you think Jesus was wrong for doing that? And he says, yes. He said, absolutely. He should have not done that. At that point, my bus captain said, all right, well, see you later. I mean, what else is there to say? Because he's basically saying that Jesus sinned. That he was wrong. He, oh, but that's veneration. That's worship. When you're willing even to say that Jesus Christ sinned by rebuking his own mother, that's wicked. That's blasphemy is what that is. Blasphemy, okay? So this is not something that is in accordance to the Bible. So we're just a couple teachings down and already they've already shown themselves not to be biblical Christians. This is why Catholicism is not Christianity. This is why Catholics are not Christian because of these. And look, these aren't just like casual beliefs. This is like strong. These are things that the Catholics hold strongly to. Okay? Ask any former Catholic in here, they'll tell you the same exact thing. And of course we have the Orthodox Church, which is just like a, it's like Catholicism times 10, especially when it comes to the idols, right? How about this? Confession of sins to priests. Confession of sins to priests. This is not a biblical practice. This is not, this is found nowhere in scripture where you go to a man and tell him all of your sins and he has the ability to forgive you. Who could forgive sins but God? That's what the Bible tells us. The Bible says, who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure for my sin. You know, and look, nowhere in the Bible is there a Catholic priest. Right, well, you know, there's all kinds of Old Testament. The Old Testament priests did not look like these priests. With their little band-aid, collar, you know. In fact, go to First Timothy, chapter four. In fact, the priests of the Old Testament, you know what they had that the priests of the Catholic Church don't have? It's something beautiful called a wife. They had wives because they had to have children because of the fact that the priesthood was designated to the tribe of Levi and more specifically, the house of Aaron. So the predecessors would take over that priesthood. Who took over for Aaron, Eleazar, his son? Well, in order for him to have a son, he would have to have been married, right? Look at what the Bible says in First Timothy, chapter four, verse one. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. So right now, he's gonna tell us what these specific doctrines or teachings are. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry. What does the Catholic Church teach about the priesthood in Catholicism? You're not allowed to marry, okay? Forbidding to marry, whereas God institutionalized the union of marriage. So they're telling you to do, don't do something what God told you, make sure you do. Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, okay? Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from me. It's Good Friday, right? Look, anytime someone tells me to abstain from meats, mark it down, that's a doctrine of devils. I'm not talking about someone who has that standard for themselves, I'm talking about someone who is trying to impose that doctrine upon someone else. When they say you can't eat meat, you can't do any of that, this is Good Friday, hey, every Friday's a Good Friday for me. And guess what I do on Good Friday? It's not a Good Friday if I don't eat meat, amen? That's what makes it a Good Friday is when I eat meat. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth is what the Bible's telling us there. But what do we see with Roman Catholicism? And look, yes, I'm gonna talk about the pedophilia. You know why? They're trying to get people to abstain, these priests to abstain because they go both ways. They're wicked, reprobate pedophiles. And look, not just the priests, the nuns too. No, the nuns. Reprobates come, females, males, black, white, Hispanic. Reprobation is not racist. Anybody can become a reprobate if they reject the Lord. And look, there's history, there are documents out there showing that nuns have also been given over to this pedophilia, okay? It permeates Catholicism. So confession of sins to a priest, that's why they instituted this practice. Because who wants to listen to someone just spewing out their sins? Well, wicked reprobates, you know? Or it's just like tell me what you did. In this box where there's like a screen. It's filthy, it's disgusting. It is a shame to speak of those things which are done to them in secret, the Bible says. That's what the Bible teaches us. Well, who am I supposed to confess it to? Well, the Bible tells us that in the New Testament that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. So who's the priesthood of the New Testament? Is it the hierarchy of the church leadership? No, it's all believers. All believers are the priesthood, and what does that mean? That means we can go to God, right? In the Old Testament, there was the practice of going before a physical priest, and you lay your sins upon the calf or the lamb. That was a practice that they had then. But today, guess what? We're all the priesthood. We can all go before God. That's what the Bible tells us here. We have a high priest, which is Jesus Christ, who has allowed that, okay? So confession of sins to a priest is not biblical. And look, the guy that I talked to yesterday, he's like, yeah, well, you know, what you get forgiven for your sins when you trust Christ is just past sins, just past sins. Not what the Bible says. The Bible says, blessed is he who the Lord will not impute sin, will not is a future tense, right? And to say that God will not forgive us of future sins is to limit his atonement. Oh, that sounds familiar. Calvinism, limited atonement, right? It's to limit his atonement and say, well, it's only for past sins. It's not for future sins. The Bible tells us in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, okay? Now look, they'll tell you, well, then why do you confess your sins daily then? You know, are you saying you don't sin? And this is where the mind of a natural man will not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Because this concept takes a saved person to understand it. Makes sense to me, you know, where we've received the forgiveness of sins for the penalty of hell, we will never suffer that, but that does not mean that when we sin here on this earth, we're not gonna suffer the consequences of it. We just won't suffer for them in hell, right? So we need to confess our sins daily for the sins of the flesh on a daily basis, right? So that God will not judge us. He can have mercy on us. We will not suffer the consequences of our actions. We need to make sure that we have fellowship with God. And the way we do that is by cleaning our hearts on a daily basis. No, that doesn't make sense. Yeah, I know it doesn't make sense because you're not saved. I got you, you know, I understand that, you know? How about purgatory? Is that a biblical concept? What they believe about, and this is the main thing, right? This is what the guy was saying yesterday. He's saying, look, and I thought he was like on the ball at first when I was talking to this guy. He's like, wait. He says, I believe that hell is eternal fire and once you go to hell, you can never come back. I was like, amen. You just did like half the work for me right there. I was like, yeah, that's it. He said, I believe that hell, once you go to hell, you never come back. You stay there forever. I'm like, preach on, brother. That's right. And he even said, I believe that Jesus went to hell. I'm like, man, amen. He said, but wait. That's why I believe that there's a purgatory because the Catholic church teaches us that there is a purgatory where, you know, the sins that you've committed because nothing filthy will enter into heaven. Therefore, when you die, yeah, if you trusted Christ, you won't go to hell, but you will go to a place called purgatory to pay for the remainder of your sins. You know, these indulgences, right? You gotta do your time in this prison. And look, there's Christians out there that mock that. But yeah, they believe in Abraham's bosom. They're like, ha ha ha. These foolish Christians. What do you believe about Abraham's bosom? Well, Abraham's bosom on the other hand, yeah. But see, that was the Old Testament saints. So they put their little twist on it, don't they? Because they believe Abraham's bosom, you know, these dipsticks believe that Abraham's bosom is a place where the Old Testament saints went to. And then when Jesus Christ died, he descended into the lower parts of the earth. He went to a place called Abraham's bosom. He preached a sermon, and then they believed on him. And now it's vacant, right? Abraham's bosom is vacant, no vacancy, okay? That's what they believe. Well, here's the thing. Abraham's bosom is a chest, just like Bruce's bosom, right? And the word purgatory is not found in the Bible. Now, this is something that Catholics will do, and not just Catholics, but a lot of people, is that, you know, they have their little articles where they put their beliefs. And this is what they do, because they try to overwhelm you with a lot of information. Purgatory is in the Bible, Catholicism teaches because it's in the Bible, and then in parentheses, they just throw a bunch of scriptures on there. So it makes the person who is unlearned, be like, whoa, man, they got proof. Oh, that's, I wonder, you know. Just check it. And once you check it, you'll see, they're lying! So you just lied. Why didn't you put the scripture on there? It has nothing to do with what you just talked about. Perfect example, yesterday, this guy's talking about purgatory, and he showed me this article, he goes, look, 1 John 5.14, you know, talks about purgatory, and then he goes on, I was like, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. I said, let's go to John, 1 John 5.14. Can we read it? Let's go there. So he's like, proof, you know, it's in the Bible. I'm sorry, 1 John 5.16. He said, it's in the Bible, it's right there, and then he just wanted to move on from that. And I was just like, whoa, back up a little bit. Let's see if that's true. So let's read it. It says in verse 16, If any man see his brother's sin of sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto purgatory. No, unto death. There is a sin unto purgatory. No, unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is a sin, and there is a sin not unto death. And I said, I'm sorry, I didn't, where was the purgatory in that verse? He goes, well, let me get my Bible. Okay, all right, go for it. And of course he has his Doure, Doure, Doo-bop Bible, his Doo-wop Bible, and he pulls it out and he goes to 1 John, he goes to 1 John 5.16, and he reads it and he says, hmm. Maybe it's in John. He says it's in John, John 5. John 5.16. And he goes to John 5.16, and he's like, no, I think it was 1 John, but, you know. And I told him, yeah, it's not there, huh? It's not there. And he goes, well, you know, but this is what the Catholic Church believes. And by the way, I'm in agreement with him. It is what the Catholic Church believes. And it's what the Catholic Church teaches, but it's not what the Bible teaches. So before you get all, oh, man, these people know their stuff. No, they just put parentheses and put a bunch of scriptures on there that have nothing to do with what they're saying. And they're just trying to overwhelm you to make you think as though they know what they're talking about, but they don't know what they're talking about. Purgatory doesn't exist. How do we know that? Because the Bible tells us that someone who is saved to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When we die, the Bible tells us that we will be with the Lord, right? What if someone's not saved? Well, the Bible tells us that they will lift their eyes in hell being in torments. No purgatory, nothing in between, either heaven or hell. And here's one of the most damning things that they believe is that they hold, the Catholics believe that the church has equal authority with the Bible itself. So that's their scapegoat. Because if they find something in the Bible that doesn't match up with what they say, well, they say, well, this is what the Catholic Church believes though. And automatically that has authority over what God's word says. Well, you know what? All scripture is given by inspiration of God. We should only adhere to what God says. And if there's a church out there that doesn't match up with what the Bible teaches, we reject that church. So let me go through some things here before I'm almost out of time. Now, how about their view on salvation? Because here's the thing, you'll talk to some Catholics and they'll say, yeah, just believe on Jesus Christ. How many of you have ever heard someone say that? Just believe on Jesus Christ. They'll even say we believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But you know what? They'll also say that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. How many of you have ever heard that before? They'll say there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. And we will respond by saying, well, there is no salvation in it either. Okay? In fact, the Bible says in Acts 4-12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. See, salvation is not found in a church, it's found in a name. And that name is Jesus. Amen? So, let me read this straight from Catholicscomehome.org. That's what it's called. The Catholic Church does not know, oh, excuse me, the Catholic Church does not know nor has it ever taught a doctrine of salvation by works. I don't believe in salvation by works. That we can work our way to heaven. Additionally, nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are saved by faith alone. So, they claim that the Bible doesn't teach that salvation is by faith alone. Okay? Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the needs of the law. You know what that's called? It's called faith alone. You don't have to have the phrase faith alone in the Bible to show you that it's by faith alone. Right? Does the Bible say Jesus alone? But we know that it's by Jesus alone. Right? The only place in all scripture where the phrase faith alone appears is in James chapter two, verse 24, where it says that we are not justified or saved. He says, he puts right there in parentheses, saved by faith alone. The Bible says very clearly that we are not saved by faith alone. Works do have something to do with our salvation. What in the world? Didn't you just got finished saying that we've never taught a doctrine of salvation by works? And then he says, works do have something to do with our salvation. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, the Bible says, right? So, go to James chapter two. Let's see if that's true. I find it interesting that a lot of these repenting your sins Baptists are basically parroting what the Catholics say about James chapter two. Now let me make something very clear. James two has zero, zilch, nada to do with salvation. Any time faith is mentioned in the Bible, it's not always about salvation. Any time the word saved is being used, it's not in reference to justification, salvation, going to heaven. In fact, the book of James is written to a very mature audience, and specifically James chapter two is admonishing brothers, Christians, believers, to exercise their faith, not to be saved, but to save others. Look at James 2.14. What does it profit my brethren, though a man may say he have faith and have not works? Can faith save him? Well, who's the him it's referring to? The people he's trying to help. Look at verse 15. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you saying to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? In other words, how is that gonna help someone if you say you have faith, but you don't put works to that faith? Is that gonna help someone who's destitute of food? Is that gonna help someone who is cold? Is that gonna help someone who is in need, is in hunger, has nowhere to live? How does your faith help that person? It doesn't help them unless you actually do something about it, right? Verse 17, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. So you have a dead faith if you're actually not putting it into practice to help someone else. So it profits us, right? Because the Bible, go to Hebrews chapter four. Hold your place there in James. Look at Hebrews chapter number four. I'll prove it that it profits us. Look what it says in James chapter, or excuse me, Hebrews chapter four verse one. Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. So why did it not profit those who heard the gospel? Because they chose not to place their faith in it. It wasn't mixed with faith. So does that mean, that means it profits us. Because when we hear, when we heard the gospel, we placed our faith in Christ and therefore we profited of it because now we're saved, right? Go back to James chapter two. Verse 18 says, yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believeth that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believeth and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. Not, doesn't say it doesn't exist. Just means it's dead. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? When he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar, seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called a friend of God. You see then how by works a man is justified and not by faith only. So what is the teaching that we see here in James chapter two? It's explaining to us that when we put works to our faith, it justifies us before God? No, before man. Because now someone can see that you not only have faith but you also have works, therefore you are justified in their sight. And if that weren't true, then Romans four would be a complete contradiction of James chapter two. Romans four says that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Says he believed, okay? Let me continue reading. Numerous passages in the New Testament that I know about, that I know of about judgment says we will be judged by our works, not by whether or not we have faith alone. We see this in Romans two, Matthew 15 and 16, first Peter one, Revelation 20 and 22, second Corinthians five. Oh man, he does know his Bible. Did you see how many scriptures that he just quoted right now? He didn't quote any. Look these up on your own. None of these have to do with what he's talking about. And here's the funny thing. He says Revelation 20, that's talking about him. Read the chapter later on, you'll see. Chapter 20, 21 and 22 are all talking about these people here, right? If we are saved by faith alone, why does first Corinthians 13, 13 say that love is greater than faith? Shouldn't it be the other way around? As Catholics, we believe that we are saved by God's grace alone. We can do nothing apart from God's grace to receive the free gift of salvation. We also believe, however, that we have to respond to God's grace. What does that sound like to you? Calvinism. That's why Calvinists are just neatly packaged form of Catholicism. Or as the Bible puts it in Galatians five, six, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. I don't know what that has to do with anything. So you have a question here. How should I respond to someone who asked me if I'm saved or born again? Answer with a resounding yes. It has an exclamation mark. Tell them that it is through baptism that you were saved. Just as the Bible says in first Peter three, 20, 21. And then it's through baptism, the water and the spirit, good night. And that you are born again, just as the Bible says in John three, five. So go to first Peter chapter three. Let's just look at these real quick. So are you saved? Yeah. By baptism. Then it looks like the only thing going to heaven is your head. Because when Catholics get baptized, that's the only thing that gets wet. Your forehead, yeah. That's a sight. You know, it's just like. First Peter three, 18. Let's look at what they're talking about here. For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit, by which also he went and preached into the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure. So we're talking about something that's symbolic, wherein to even baptism doth also now save us. All right, we're good. There you go, man. I mean, we only read the beginning of the verse, but that's good enough, right? No, we need to read the whole thing. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, end of parentheses, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what we see here in verse 21, it says, the like figure, wherein to even baptism, doth also now save us, how? By the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, the death of Christ saves us, but guess what? So does the resurrection, because the Bible tells us that he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And more specifically, this is referring to the fact that Jesus Christ died, he went to hell, and he resurrected from that, okay? You know, his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. And look, verse 20, the latter end, when it talks about the eight souls being saved by water, is that really true? I mean, think about, read the story. Were the eight souls saved by, no, they were saved by the ark, that was immersed in water. Just as Jesus is the one who saves us because he suffered the punishment in a place called hell, he was immersed in fire. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be fulfilled? This he said after he was physically baptized, which is showing us that that baptism is referring to him being baptized in flames, in fire, when he died and he descended into the lower parts of the earth, he went to hell. So this makes perfect sense that baptism doth also now save us. What baptism? The baptism of Christ, when you resurrected from the grave, okay? We won't go into John chapter three because that's pretty self-explanatory. Let me continue reading here. Let's see here. You see, many Protestants believe that they are saved by making one single act of faith at one single point in time in their lives. Nowhere does scripture say that such a thing, or excuse me, nowhere does scripture say such a thing. As Catholics, however, we believe that salvation is a process, which begins with our baptism. This is stressful. All right, I got my baptism down. What's next? It's just like a process. And continues throughout our lifetime, just as the Bible teaches us. Just as the Bible teaches us. There are so many places, so many places in scripture which talk about how one is saved, but not one of them says we are saved by one act of faith at just one point in time. Oh, that's funny. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Be baptized, you gotta go do that sacrament. You gotta make sure that you do your communion, get your white little dress going on, you know, and then you gotta make sure, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. It doesn't say faith alone. It does say faith alone, it does. Because it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it explain? That it's by faith alone. So alone means there's only one thing. So what's the one thing that we see in this verse? That you just have to believe, right? You know, what saved the scripture? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, right? And in thy heart, that is the word of faith, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It doesn't say thou are being saved. Thou shalt be saved, E-D, done, okay? In Hebrews 12, 14, it says that we will not see the Lord unless we are holy, and that we have to strive for this holiness. Good night. Well, let's see if that's true. Go to Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter number 12. I still got a bunch of notes, so I'm not gonna do like a part two tonight, but I wanna talk about transubstantiation tonight, okay? Now, does anybody know what transubstantiation is, okay? It's the belief that Catholics have that when they eat the bread and drink the alcohol, I mean the wine, that it literally turns to the body and blood of Christ. This is a cannibalistic belief, okay, that they have. I'll deal with that tonight. Look at Hebrews 12, verse 14. This is what they're referring to. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And they say, there you go. See, you have to be holy in order to be able to see the Lord, okay? Look at verse 15. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness spring enough trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Now again, this is your classic, you know, non-saved interpretation of the Bible where they take anything, holiness, salvation and they just apply it. Any word that maybe insinuates salvation and they just apply it to salvation, just period. This has nothing to do with salvation. Look at verse one. Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised and the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied in fate in your minds. So when the Bible talks about to live in holiness, follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, it's referring to what we see in verse number two. Because in order for us to look into Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, what do we have to do? We have to lay aside every weight. And the sin which doth so easily beset us. So in order for us to look into Jesus as our example to continue in this race, we need to make sure that we're repenting of our sin, not for salvation, right? This is so we can finish our race that is set before us, you understand? So as we look at these scriptures, and as we look at these interpretations that they have, we can basically come to a very logical conclusion, the Catholics are not Christian. Amen. Because virtually everything that they believe is completely polar opposite to what the Bible actually teaches. And tonight I'll go over transubstantiation. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you again for these scriptures, Lord. Thank you for the word of God. And Lord, help us to continue to make a distinction in the line, the difference between that which is truly Christian and biblical to that which is not. And when people try to blur the lines, help us to shed light on that compromise, on that blending, using your word. And we don't need to go very far. We don't even need to go very deep to show that there is a massive difference between the two. And I pray, God, that you help us to continue to study, to show ourselves approved unto God, help us to be workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly divided in the word of truth. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.