For Reformation Day celebrations this year, we would encourage our readers to watch the below video or read this transcript on Justin Peter’s recent project in exposing the dangers and heresies of the Roman Catholic Church.
VIDEO
Source: Justin Peters Ministries (@JustinPetersMinistries), The Ruinous Ruse of Rome: The False Gospel of the Roman Catholic Church, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DVXAXyk6AE, YouTube, Uploaded October 24, 2025. (Accessed October 24, 2025.)
TRANSCRIPT
It’s a joy to be with y’all this morning. It’s always a great joy for Kathy and me to come back and visit our beloved brothers and sisters here at Kney Community Church.
Let’s go to the Lord in a word of prayer, and we will begin.
Father, we’re so grateful for this time that You’ve given to us, and we thank You for the fellowship of the saints. We thank You for the unity of Your church. We pray that as we look now at one of the most egregious false gospels that is out there—and I would say the largest organized theological cult in the world, that specifically of the Roman Catholic Church—You would help to bring to our minds and hearts understanding of the error. Help me this morning to teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict, for the glory of Christ our King and for the betterment, encouragement, and edification of Your saints.
We ask these things in Christ’s name. Amen. Amen.
My message this morning is entitled “The Ruinous Ruse of Rome.” Ind I’m departing from the expositional norm for this church on Sunday morning, and I’ll be doing a topical message this morning. This is October, and October 31st is Reformation Day. And so Jim and I thought it would be beneficial to you to address— as I said in my prayer—what I believe is the largest organized theological cult in the world, and that is specifically the Roman Catholic Church.
And we will do so by looking at the five solas of the Protestant Reformation that began in earnest in 1517, but though there were “pre-reformers” before then.
Many people have this view that Rick Warren expresses here. Rick Warren, a false teacher, says,
“We have far more in common than what divides us. When you talk about Pentecostals, charismatics, evangelicals, fundamentalists, Catholics—they would all say that we believe in the Trinity, we believe in the Bible, we believe in the resurrection, we believe salvation is through Jesus Christ. These are the big issues.”
So, many people think of the Roman Catholic Church as just kind of another denomination—another expression of Christianity.
“Yeah, the Pope wears some funny hats, they’ve got funny statues, and they do some funny things—but they’re basically our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
And I aim to show you this morning that that is not the case. Sadly, the Church of Rome preaches a false Jesus and preaches a false gospel. My aim this morning is not to offend anyone. I know there are probably, in fact, I know there are people here in this room who have been saved out of the Roman Catholic Church—I know that because my wife is one of them—and undoubtedly many others.
Certainly, in a crowd this size, we have people with friends and family members who, as I speak, are Roman Catholic. And so my aim here is not to offend, but rather to speak the truth in love. Scripture says we are to teach sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.
We can have differences of opinion with one another on various secondary or tertiary issues of the gospel, but the Roman Catholic Church constitutes a fundamental departure from the gospel. These are not secondary issues. These are not matters over which we can have friendly differences of opinion.
So, as I said, we will come at this from the angle of the five solas of the Reformation, specifically:
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Sola Gratia – salvation is by grace alone.
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Sola Fide – salvation is by faith alone.
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Solus Christus – salvation is in Christ alone.
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Soli Deo Gloria – our salvation is for the glory of God alone.
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Sola Scriptura – as recorded in Scripture alone; Scripture is our only and final authority in all matters of faith.
And so we will look at each of these solas in turn.
We will begin this morning: ‘Sola gratia’ – salvation is by grace alone.
Now I’m going to have a chart here that will kind of show you the differences between biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism.
Biblical Christianity holds that salvation is of the Lord. This is exactly what Psalm 37:39 states. “Salvation is of the Lord.” And yet the Roman Catholic Church teaches that salvation is of the church. Salvation comes only through the church of Rome. And if you are outside of the church of Rome, you have absolutely no assurance of your salvation.
Biblical Christianity teaches total depravity or as some say total inability. Now total depravity is not that each and every person is as depraved as he or she could be but rather that we are sinners not only by our actions but we are born sinners. We are sinners by our birth and we are sinners by our nature and there is nothing that we can do to ingratiate ourselves to God. There is none righteous, know not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. Romans chapter 3.
The Roman Catholic Church, however, rejects the doctrine of total depravity or total inability, believing that there is some good in each and every person, even part from God’s sovereign work of grace. Biblical Christianity holds that grace is the unmmerited favor bestowed by our sovereign God. Yet the Roman Catholic Church completely redefines grace. And the Catholic Church teaches that grace is a thing or a force that is merited that is earned through works obtained through the sacraments of the church. And the sacraments of the church are baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, mass, confession, going to the confessional booth, penance, the anointing of sick and marriage, and then the holy orders that you can earn grace by observing the sacraments. And something that you’ll notice about Catholics, at least in the last 10 or 15 years, Catholics have begun to adopt a lot of our lingo as evangelicals.
It used to [be] Catholics wouldn’t even call themselves Christian. “No, we’re not. We’re not Christian. We’re Catholic.”
But now they call themselves Catholic. And they’re adopting some of the lingo that we use as evangelicals. And grace- yes, they will talk about grace, but they completely redefine grace as we’ll see in just a moment.
Now, justification. Justification is defined as a divine act by which God declares a sinner to be innocent of his sins. It is a judicial act of God in which the sinner is declared righteous as though he has already perfectly satisfied the law. That is the definition of justification. It’s a divine sovereign act by God in which he declares us innocent of our sins. And that is solely through grace.
Romans chapter 5:8-9:”But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by” – what? – “by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.” How are we justified? Through the blood of Christ.
In Titus 3:7: “So that having been justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Grace is the unmerited, unearned favor of God that he sovereignly bestows. However, the Roman Catholic Church completely redefines grace.
Let me show you this from the Council of Trent. Now, the Council of Trent was the Roman Catholic answer to the Protestant Reformation. It was a long council from 1545-1563. I hope they packed a lunch. That was a long council. But that was their- that was their answer to the Protestant Reformation. And this is what they said in canon 14 of the Council of Trent:
“If anyone saith that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified because he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified, or that no one is truly justified, but he who believes himself justified, and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are affected, let him be anathema.”
Let him be anathema.
Now dear friends, that word there anathema, that is actually a biblical word. And in no uncertain terms, if you are anathema, then that means when you die, you will go to hell. Period. You are outside of the grace of God. When you die, eternity in hell with Satan and his demons awaits you.
That is what anathema means. And the Roman Catholic Church has pronounced anathema.
Anyone who believes that he or she is justified solely by the grace of God in faith alone, they have literally anathematized the gospel.
Council of Trent says this as well in Canon 12:
If anyone saith that the justification received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works, but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof, let him be anathema. Let him be accursed. Let him be cut off.
And Pope Zachary I 10th, (I believe it was), back in the 1500s, um, had this long creed on exactly what anathema means. And he puts it in no uncertain terms that if the Roman Catholic Church pronounces you anathema, you are condemned forever into the fires of hell. And they have anathematized anyone who believes that justification is merely received but not increased by your works.
So you see, Roman Catholics may use the term grace, but they don’t mean by grace what you and I mean by grace. And more importantly, they don’t mean by grace what the Bible means by grace. They have Inigo Montoya’d the word ‘grace’: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
They have- they have- they have read a definition into grace that simply is not biblical. And Paul makes it abundantly clear, does he not?
Romans 11:6 Paul writes, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works since otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Dear ones, if you add one scintilla of works to grace, you’ve nullified grace. Grace is no longer grace. And the Apostle Paul blistered the Galatians.
“You foolish Galatians who has bewitched you. I’m astonished that you are so soon departed from the gospel.”
What did the Galatians do? What was their severe error? They added just one thing to the gospel. Oh, they believed in the deity of Christ. They believed in his vicarious life, death on the cross, bodily resurrection. They believed in all of these things. They added just one thing and that was circumcision. And the Apostle Paul blistered them.
This is what the Roman Catholic Church is doing. They are adding works to grace. And by doing so, grace is no longer grace. They may use the same lingo. They may use some biblical terminology but they mean very different things by these terms than what the Bible means by them.
Romans 3:27-28 Paul says, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
It could not be more clear. And yet the Roman Catholic Church rejects this. They add works to grace. So it’s no longer grace.
Paul again, Romans 5:1, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The council of Trent, however, has this to say in Canon 9:
“If anyone saith that by faith alone the impious is justified, let him be anathema.”
If you believe that you are justified by faith alone, you will die and go to hell. And what was adopted at the Council of Trent has never been rescinded. It remains official Roman Catholic doctrine to this very day. Never been rescinded.
“If anyone saith that the justification received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works, but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof, let him be anathema.”
Dear friends, that is the very definition of faith. Faith is actually the confidence in which we put our- our confidence in the divine mercy which remits our sins for the sake of Christ. That’s the very definition of faith. And yet the Roman Catholic Church says if you believe this you will die and you will go to hell.
You see dear ones these are not secondary differences. We’re not talking about your eschatology or who wrote the book of Hebrews or something like this secondary tertiary issues. No, these issues go to the very heart of the gospel. The Roman Catholic Church has literally anathematized the gospel itself.
And the third sola, sola christus – we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Yet the Roman Catholic Church rejects this.
Again to our little chart.
Biblical Christianity holds that there is but one mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. One mediator.
Yet Roman Catholicism holds that there are many mediators between God and man. The Pope is a mediator. All the bishops, they are medi- mediators. The cardinals, they’re mediators. The priests, every Roman Catholic priest they believe is a mediator between God and man. And yet the Bible is very clear there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Biblical Christianity holds that there is but one redeemer.
Yet Roman Catholicism believes that Mary is a co-redemptrix along with Christ. They have the Roman Catholic Church despite what they tell you. Now they- they really bristle when when they hear us Protestants say this. We Protestants say this, uh when we say that uh Catholics worship Mary. They bristle at that and say, “Oh, no, we don’t. We do not worship Mary.”
Well, yeah. Yeah, you do actually because the Roman Catholic Church has elevated Mary to the same status as that of Christ. They believe that she is a co-redemptrix along with Jesus. They basically have deified Mary.
Many of you have heard of the immaculate conception. And a lot of non-Catholics and even a lot of Catholics, I say, because there’s a lot of Catholics who don’t even know what their own church teaches. But the immaculate conception, most people think, oh, well, that’s referring to the conception of Jesus. No, not if you’re Roman Catholic. It doesn’t. If you’re Roman Catholic, you see the Catholic churches teaches that Mary was immaculately conceived, that she was conceived of a virgin and was born sinless, just like Jesus was.
Despite what Mary said in Luke chapter 1, Mary said, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my” what? “Savior.”
If Mary was sinless, why would she need a savior? Yes, she said she she did. You see, the Mary of the Roman Catholic Church is not the Mary of the Bible. It’s a different Mary. They have a different Jesus and a different Mary.
You remember those old Popeye cartoons? You know Popeye was just a normal kind of- looked like even a scrawny guy. And Bluto was beating him up—and Popeye just looks like he is a goner, down for the count. But in that last second, he gets that spinach in his pipe, and suddenly he’s strong and victorious.
That’s the Roman Catholic view of righteousness:
You eat the cracker—His flesh—drink the wine—His blood—and you get a “shot of Jesus.”
And you’re good to go for a while, until what happens? You commit another sin.
Then it’s all gone. That’s why you have to keep coming back to Mass. That’s why missing Mass is considered a sin of the highest order in the Catholic Church—because you need another shot of Jesus.
It’s a false gospel. It’s a different Jesus. And it’s a different gospel.
Now, I want us to look more closely at their belief that Christ is literally re-sacrificed on the cross. We’ll do a little bit of a deeper dive on this.
1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died” how many times? Once. “Once for all, the just for the unjust.”
Again, this is this is imputed righteousness. Christ the just died for us the unjust. And he died once for how many? For all – for all of his elect. He died one time. And yet the Catholic Church teaches that every single time they have mass, they are literally killing Jesus. They are re-sacrificing him. It is not a symbolic observance. They are it’s an actual propitiatory sacrifice.
It’s kind of ironic that the Roman Catholic Church at least says that they are pro-life when it comes to abortion in and of itself. That’s- that’s good. Even though most a lot of Catholics don’t vote that way, but that’s what they say. They’re pro-life when it comes to abortion. It’s ironic because when it comes to Jesus, they’re pro death. And again, I’m not trying to be harsh for harshness sakes, but these are fundamental primary issues related to the gospel.
Now, I want to show you a number of verses from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 10:10, the writer of Hebrews says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ-” how many times? “Once for all.”
“Once for all, never to be repeated.”
Hebrews 10:12, “But he having offered-” how many sacrifices? “One sacrifice for sins for,” How many time?
All time, “Sat down at the right hand of God.” His atoning work was completed- and so he sat down. His atoning work was completed one time on the cross for all.
Hebrews 10:14, “For by-” how many offerings? One offering. “He has perfected for all time those who are sec-sanctified.” By one offering.
In Hebrews 7:26 and 27, “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices-“
Pause right there: “Does not need daily to offer up sacrifices.” And yet, what do we see in Roman Catholic churches all around the world? daily sacrifices when they had their mass.
“First for his own sins and then for the sins of the people because this he did once for all when he offered up himself on the cross.”
Dear friends, I honestly, honestly do not know what Roman Catholics do with the book of Hebrews. It is almost, almost like God in his sovereign omniscience knew that one day after the completed the- the cannon of scripture was completed the apostles were dead. It’s almost like God knew that in a few hundred years there would come along this thing called the Roman Catholic Church. And it would completely twist the gospel.
It’s almost like God knew that we would need a book like the book of Hebrews to thoroughly refute Roman Catholicism. The book of Hebrews is to Roman Catholicism what kryptonite is to Superman. I don’t know what they do with it. I honest- the- the book of Hebrews is a systematic theology that completely dismantles every facet of the Roman Catholic Church and their false gospel. And I have heard people even in our theological circus- circles- uh- men that we would all admire and respect. And I know what they mean by this. But I’ve heard some of them say in their critique of the Roman Catholic Church, that that they would say that they would- they affirm that the Roman Catholic Church um affirms the deity of Christ.
I would submit to you – now Catholics would bulk at this, I know – but I would submit to you that the Roman Catholic Church, if you’re consistent, if you’re if you’re logically consistent in what it teaches, the Roman Catholic Church denies the deity of Christ. Why?
Because of their sacri- their view of sacrifice of the mass. Because they believe that Jesus is being re-sacrificed over and over and over. The only way that- the one-time sacrifice of Christ on the cross could not be sufficient is if His person was not sufficient.
You see, a sufficient person offers a sufficient sacrifice. And the only way that Christ’s person could not be sufficient is if he was not truly God (because God obviously is sufficient).
He is perfect. The only way his sacrifice could not be perfect is if his person was not perfect. And so I would argue that taken to its logical conclusion, Roman Catholicism actually denies the deity of Christ. They would never say that. But if you’re logically consistent with what they teach, that is the only conclusion to which you can come.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1378, ‘Worship of the Eucharist’:
“In the Liturgy of the Mass, we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine… The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers the sacrament of the Eucharist, the cult of adoration.”
Their words, not mine. They actually worship the cracker because they believe that’s the actual presence and actual flesh of Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon had something to say about the mass of the Catholic Church.
He says, and I quote, “The mass is a mass of abominations, a mass of hell’s own concocting, a crying insult against the Lord of glory. It is not to be spoken of in any terms but those of horror and devastation. Whenever I think of another sacrifice for sin being offered by whomever it may be presented, I can only regard it as an infamous insult to the perfection of the Savior’s work.”
Amen. And amen.
I want us to talk a little bit about their doctrine of purgatory. This fanciful made-up place that Catholics teach when you die you go and you spend an indeterminate amount of time there to have all of your other sins burned off.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, (and again, I quote),
“Final purification for all who die in God’s grace and friendship, the elect, but still imperfectly purified so that they may achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”
You see, when you die as a Catholic, you don’t go to heaven. You get to go to purgatory to have all your other sins burned up that Jesus somehow did not pay for. You got to have those sins atoned for. So you spend an unknown amount of time in purgatory in the flames having those sins purified.
So let’s go to the scriptures.
Hebrews 1:3, “Who having accomplished cleansing for sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.”
Christ accomplished cleansing for sins.
Again, the only way there could be any sins who have- that have not been cleansed is if his person and his work was imperfect. But his person is perfect. His work was perfect. And so therefore, all sins are cleansed. Not in Roman Catholicism.
Titus 2:14, “Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from some of our lawlessness, all lawlessness, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.”
All sin.
Not some of our sins. Not most of our sins. All sins.
And the final nail in the coffin for purgatory: Romans 8:1:
“There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
My brother, my sister in Christ, when you were saved, when you were converted, when God granted you saving faith and repentance from sin, you were cleansed from all of your sins, past, present, and future.
All of them.
Gone.
You have been forgiven for all of your sins.
Judicially speaking, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And so I ask the question, if there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, what exactly is the per is the purpose of purgatory?
Wh- Why? why is it there?
I’ll tell you why it’s there.
Now, it’s not there in reality. Purgatory is an invention of the Roman Catholic Church. This place does not exist. But you know why the Roman Catholic Church wants you to believe it exists? Because you see, dear ones, the Roman Catholic Church has enriched itself off of this doctrine of purgatory. It has made a mint off of purgatory because they teach that your loved ones, (your mom, your dad, your- your grandma, grandpa, friends, and all these people who die before you)-
“Oh, they’re not in heaven. Nope. Nope. They’re in this place called purgatory. And you don’t want them to stay in purgatory any longer than they have to, right? Well, you know how you can get them out of purgatory a little more quickly. Give us money!”
There was a Roman Catholic priest known as Johan Tetsel and he had a little- little diddy that he is known for and forever will be attached to him. And it goes a little something like this:
For every coin into the coffer rings
A soul from purgatory springs.
That’s how the Roman Catholic Church has enriched itself. That’s how they can afford to build these giant cathedrals – and doctrine of purgatory doesn’t even exist.
Solo Deo Gloria – we are saved by grace alone in faith alone in Christ alone for the Glory of God alone.
Biblical Christianity holds that God alone is due glory for our salvation. Roman Catholicism? No, no. Many people in the Roman Catholic scheme of things get glory, not just God. Many people get glory for our salvation.
Isaiah 42:8, “I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images.”
And yet what do we see in Roman Catholic churches all around the world? Graven images.
And they bow down before them.
They kiss them.
How much more clear can you be?
Our salvation is for the glory of God alone. Not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. To no one else.
There are some interesting parallels between Roman paganism, pagan Roman religions and Roman Catholicism. So the Roman Empire, Roman- that kind of paganism and Roman Catholicism.
Look at this. This is fascinating. And feel free to take a picture of this if you want to. Roman paganism on the left. Roman Catholicism on the right.
Isis.
Isis was the Egyptian mother goddess religion. And Isis was referred to as the queen of heaven and the mother of God. Sound familiar? Roman Catholicism: Mary has replaced Isis. Mary is referred to as the mother of God, the Theotokos, the godbearer, the queen of heaven.
Dear friends, Mary is not the mother of God. Mary is not the mother of God. God has no mother. Mary was not the mother of Jesus in his deity. She was his mother in his human nature only, not his deific nature. God the son did not come into existence in Bethlehem. God the son has always existed. He is the creator. She was the mother of his human nature, not his deific nature. Jesus was one person with two distinct natures. There is no such thing as the mother of God. God does not have a mother.
Mithraism: Roman paganism had as a centre of their false religion a sacrificial meal of eating flesh and drinking blood. And Mithros, their pagan god, was present in that meal. Compare that to the Eucharist, which has the real presence of Jesus.
Henotheism is the belief that there are many gods, but that one god really reigns supreme over the other gods. And the- the pantheon of pagan Roman gods, ‘little g’ gods, has been replaced has been adopted into the Roman Catholic Church. And the- the pagan gods were simply replaced by saints. And so you- in the Roman Catholic system, you have these, you know, untold number, thousands of saints. And if you’re a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, you can- you can pray to that person.
You pray to Thomas, pray to St. Thomas, pray to St. Philip, pray to St. whoever. You can pray to these people. So you see, Roman Cathol -Catholicism is a baptized version of Roman paganism. And the Roman emperors, the city of Rome itself was the centre of the Roman Empire. And the- the- the- the- the emperor was referred to as Pontifex Maximus and he was revered as god in Roman Catholicism. The bishop of- of Rome, the pope took upon his- himself the name Pontific Maximus. The exact same name as the name of the Roman emperors.
Pontifex Maximus.
The Mary of the Roman Catholic Church is not the Mary of the Bible. The Catholics believe that Mary remained a perpetual virgin. Uh- yet despite this uh- the clear teaching of scripture that Jesus had at least four other brothers and two other sisters. At least Jesus was the young was (excuse me) was the oldest of at least seven. After Jesus was born then Mary and Joseph had other children the old-fashioned way. But Catholics don’t believe that. They give her undue exaltation. They pray to her. And when Catholics say, “Oh, we don’t worship Mary.” Well, yeah, you do. You do, actually. Because prayer is an act of what? It’s an act of worship.
So, not only do they pray, do they worship Mary, they prayed all they worship all the other saints. They believe that she was sinless. They believe that she was assumed into heaven, that she ascended into heaven just like Jesus did. They don’t believe that Mary ever died a physical death. She is the mediatrix and co-redemptrics along with Christ and they do absolutely give her worship.
This from Pope Pius I 9th. He said,
“The blessed virgin Mary to have been from the first instant of her conception by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Savior of Mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin.”
Mary in the Roman Catholic Church was sinless. And yet, what do we know from scripture?
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and Mary is not an exception to that.
Roman Catholic view of prayer.
Catholics teach that you should pray to Mary and any of their thousands of saints. Yet do we see any evidence of this in scripture? No. Luke chapter 11,
“One of his disciples said to Christ, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples. And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.””
Anything here from Christ about praying to Mary or any of the other saints? No.
The perfect place for it to have been there for Jesus to have said, “Uh, yeah, you can pray to God, but you also need to pray to Mary and all the other saints.” No, nothing like that.
Dear friends, there is no example anywhere in scripture, Old or New Testament, of anyone praying to anybody other than to God. We are to pray to God and to him alone. Nobody else.
They teach that you should pray the rosary which is made up of dozens of meaningless and repetition- repetitious prayer.
A single rosary has one apostle creed, six ‘our fathers’, six glory beads, 53 (count them), 53 ‘Hail Marys’. And be sure at the end of all this you’ve got to put the phrase ‘Hail Holy Wueen’ at the end. And if you don’t do all of that of all of that, you’re not praying. And yet Jesus said in Matthew 6, “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”
Jesus actually says, “Do not use meaningless repetition.”
And yet, what is the rosary? It is meaningless repetition.
And yet, what is the rosary? It is meaningless repetition.
Have you ever thought about the titles that they give to the pope? This is Pope Francis. Now, this is a picture of Pope Francis. This is interesting. They give a three different titles to their pope.
One, the pope is holy father.
Who is the only ‘Holy Father’?
God.
They also call the pope the head of the church.
Who, dear ones, is the head of the church?
Christ.
They have one more title for the pope. The Vicar of Christ. Vicar means substitute, vicarious substitute. They believe that the pope is the substitute of Christ on earth.
Who is the true substitute of Christ on earth?
Holy Spirit.
Jesus said what?
“It is to your advantage that I,” do what? That “I go away.” For “when I go away,” who will come?
The helper, the paraclete, the Holy Spirit will come.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They give those names to the pope.
Does that shock you? It should. It should.
And our final sola, sola scriptura
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone for the glory of God alone. Our only final authority is scripture alone. Biblical Christianity. We believe that scripture is our final and sufficient authority for all matters pertaining to life and godliness. Everything that we have is in the Bible, but not in Roman Catholicism.
Oh, they’ll take the Bible almost always out of context. But then they’re also going to add the 11 books of the Apocrypha. They’ll add that to the Bible. They’ll also add to that church tradition, papal bulls. When the pope speaks ex Cathedral, he’s speaking inherently. And all of the councils, Council of Trent, Vatican, all of those things and visions and miracles, they add all of these things and they put them at the same authoritative level, if not higher, than that of scripture itself.
The Catholics deny sola scriptura with the apocrypha. The apocrypha is a combination of 11 different books. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, you see them listed there. So why don’t we as Protestants believe the apocryphal books are scripture canon? Well, the true canon was determined by God. It was discovered by man.
There are historical errors in the apocryphal books. There are geographical errors in the apocryphal books, theological errors. And also, the apocryphal books were never included in the Jewish cannon in the Old Testament. The Jews never accepted these extra biblical writings that we call the Apocrypha. And also, most tellingly, neither Christ nor any of the apostles ever quoted from the Apocrypha.
They quoted from the Old Testament hundreds of times, never from the Apocryphal books. That says a lot doesn’t it?
This is interesting: “Matthew 4:17, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Now, this is a picture of what is called the- the Rhemes New Testament. This is a Catholic version of the New Testament. In Romans, I mean, excuse me, Matthew 4:17 in the Catholic Bible says, “Do penance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” They literally changed the word repentance to penance.
Do penance. You got to say your ‘hail Marys’. You got to say your ‘our fathers’. You got to go to confession. Confess your sins to a priest who’s just as sinful, if not more so, than you are. You got to do this. You got to do that. They literally changed the Bible.
And I want to conclude by looking a little bit just uh three three of the Protestant reformers: John Hus, William Tynddale, and Hugh Latimer. And I want to show you dear ones that what our spiritual forefathers, the Reformers, accomplished by the grace of God is- is something that has yielded inestimable benefits.
And we had a reformation for a reason. I want to show you a little bit about what these men endured and who they were. John Hus was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in Bohemia. But he did what no Catholic should do and he began to study the Bible for himself. He was widely regarded as the first of the reformers. This was before Martin Luther. And he preached at Bethlehem Chapel, insisted on preaching in Czech, not Latin- bbecause all the masses were in Latin.
Well, guess what? Nobody spoke Latin. And so nobody had any idea what was actually being said in the Roman Catholic masses. So he started preaching in the language of the people. That was a big no no.
He challenged the Roman Catholic Church on indulgences in their doctrine of salvation. He challenged the entire papal system, (the popes), by teaching that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, not the pope. He was arrested, endured a mock trial. He was given opportunities to recant for his “heresy,” but he refused to recant. And so for his crime against the church, he was burned alive at the stake.
John Hus said this. These were his dying words. “Lord Jesus, it is for you that I patiently endure this cruel death. I ask you to have mercy on my enemies.”
And then he was burned alive.
William Tyndale, another one of the reformers, English reformer, fluid in eight languages, referred to as the captain of the army of the Reformers. Tyndale was convinced not only of the authority of scripture, but also its sufficiency. And that is where the battle continues to rage today, whether or not God’s word is sufficient. He argued strongly for the sufficiency of scripture.
And he said this, “I defy the pope and all his laws. If God spare my life heir many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of scripture than you, Pope.” He succeeded in getting over 6,000 Bibles printed to get out to the masses of people. And for that crime, the Archbishop of Canterbury rounded up as many of those Bibles as he could with his goons.
The goon squad burned every Bible he could get his hands on. And that is really- that’s really all you need to know about the Roman Catholic Church. Its entire history is one of it doing its dead level best to keep the word of God out of the hands of people. That’s all you really need to know about the Catholic Church.
He was arrested, imprisoned in the year 1534 for a year and a half. Tyndale was then strangled and then burned. His body burned. Tyndale said this. These were his last words: “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England.”
Those were his last words, his last prayer. And you know what, dear ones? God answered the prayer of William Tyndale. Because within two years of his execution, a Bible was placed in every English parish and made available to every person wanting to read it by order of the king of England himself. “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England,” and God answered his prayer.
The eyes of the king of England were open and by his own order Bibles were sent out to the people.
Effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And finally, Hugh Latimer.
Hugh Latimer started as a fierce opponent to the reformation. And he hated the reformers and he ridiculed a colleague of his who actually did expositional preaching. But then funny thing happened. He actually got saved through the testimony and witnessing of a man named Thomas Bilney. And as a converted man, guess what? He started to do? Expositional preaching.
He drew large crowds to his sermons. People who had never heard the truth before.
He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for six years, released for a short time, but then was imprisoned again under Bloody Mary. And he also was given opportunities to recant for his “heresy” and to submit to Rome, but he refused to do so. And for his crimes, he was burned at the stake with fellow reformer Nicholas Ridley.
And Hugh Latimer’s last words, as he and Nicholas Ridley were tied to the stake, he said this, “Play the man, Master Ridley. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.”
And that fire, that light that has come from the sacrifice of the reformers has never been put out. It burns today.
We had a reformation for a reason.
The solas in Roman Catholicism, dear ones, the Roman Catholic Church, has literally anathematized every single sola. If you believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, and scripture is our final authority, it alone, you are anathema.
You will die and you will go to hell. So what now?
We do not hate Roman Catholics.
Hear me.
We do not hate Roman Catholics. We love Roman Catholics. But we should love them enough to tell them the truth.
What we do hate is Roman Catholicism.
Psalm 119:104, “From your precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way.”
I love Roman Catholics, but I hate Roman Catholicism. I hate the word of faith movement. I hate Mormonism. I hate the theology of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I hate these things.” Why? Because I must hate them. We must hate them. Why? Because we as Christians must hate every false way, everything that is contrary to the gospel. We must hate those false systems. But we love the people entrapped in them. And we should love them enough to tell them the truth.
Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also to the Greek and also to the Catholic.”
Do I believe that there are saved people in the Roman Catholic Church? Only those who are brand- brand new believers that somewhere outside of the Roman Catholic Church, they heard the gospel and they were converted and they are very young,,very immature Christians. Those are the only people, the only true Christians that you will find in the Catholic church. But the funny thing is is that babies don’t stay babies. Babies grow up. And so a true Christian cannot stay in the Roman Catholic Church because a Roman Catholic Church has literally anathematized the gospel.
We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone – and our authority is scripture alone.
Love your Roman Catholic friends and family members enough to tell them the truth that they’re in a cult. But there is freedom in Christ.
Let’s close in a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for those who have gone before us. We thank you for men like Martin Luther and John Calvin and William Tyndale and Hugh Latimer and all these reformers that that gave their lives for the gospel. Um, we thank you that you and your sovereignty have used these men to recover the gospel from a false church that was trying to keep it hidden from the masses. Lord, give us a burden for those who are trapped in this deception.
Give us a love for them. May we be bold enough to tell them the truth and to speak the truth in love, but to speak it nonetheless. Father, help us. Help us to remain firm in our convictions. Help us to stand boldly on the shoulders of these giants who have gone before us these hundreds of years ago. And may we do so for the glory of Christ our King. It’s in his name that we pray.
Amen.
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“Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Galatians 4:16
Categories: Roman Catholic Church (RCC)