Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
We're going back to look at Roman Catholicism.
We did an introduction last week about Roman Catholicism.
We went to Matthew chapter 16 and we saw where Jesus said upon
this rock I will build my church in the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. We saw that the Catholic Church
takes that passage of Scripture and assigns that Peter was to
become the first Pope and the foundation of what is called the
Catholic Church, Catholic meaning universal, that it is
the Church, the gatekeeper of Jesus Christ, if you will.
And we looked at why that is not the case.
And we started to look at many of the doctrinal differences
that we have between ourselves as Bible believing Baptist and
the Catholic Church. And I will say once again, as I
said last week and I will today to your Catholic friends, it
might be shared this video that they're watching online or they
might listen on a podcast or whatever, that our desire is not
to mock or make fun of those who are adherence to the Catholic
faith. But it is to point out that the
Catholic faith is different from the faith that comes in the word
of God. That salvation is not found
gatekeep through a church that includes the Baptist Church.
It is found in one and one only, that is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ does not need the Catholic Church to provide
salvation. Mary and the Saints and all of
those others that we are going to look at today, those
doctrines not found in the Bible.
And we really, we brought everything down to this one fact
and this one fact alone last week that when you look at being
a Bible believing Baptist, we look at the word of God and we
say it's the word of God and the word of God alone.
Amen. If the word of God says it, we
believe it. If the word of God is silent,
then we do not try to add to what the word of God says.
However, the Catholic Church makes it very clear that it's
the word of God and, and you can add a lot of words after that,
can't you? It's the word of God and the
infallible words of the Pope when he speaks ex cathedra.
It is the word of God and dogma. It is the word of God and the
Catechism. And we looked at that last week.
And when it comes to adding anything to the word of God,
there's really no limit to what can be added.
It's just man's imagination. And so because of that, you see
in the Catholic Church doctrine changing rapidly over the years,
and even, we'll look at rheology here a little bit this morning,
the very worship of Mary. Catholics won't agree that they
worship Mary, but again, as we talked about last week, that if
something walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it is,
well, a duck. And there's a lot of teaching
that makes it come to the place that's very clear that whether
intentional or not, worship of Mary is part of the Catholic
Church. Where's that come from?
Does it come from the Bible? Well, no, because you can't find
that anywhere in Scripture, but you can't find it in the
Catechism. You can find it in the
proclamations of the Pope and because of that there's no limit
to really what can be taught. But when we are limited to what
the word of God says and we believe that we can really be
sure that we are on the solid rock and not on sinking sand.
And so this morning, as we're not going to have a main text
today, but we're going to look over several Catholic doctrines,
including the sacraments, and then give you Bible verses to
tell you why the Bible speaks about it in a different way than
the Catholic Church does. And so last week we saw that
Peter was not the first Pope. We saw that the claim of papal
authority is one that is not found in the word of God.
Really, the issue comes down to Scripture against Catholic
tradition. And then we took time to ask
ourselves, is salvation by faith or is it by faith and works?
And again, I understand the crowd that I'm speaking to this
morning. I understand that you are aware
of what the Bible says. But we looked at why the
Catholics would believe that it's about works and that
salvation is about those things. And again, perhaps the saddest
thing about all of that is that the Catholic Church does teach
that salvation comes through the sacraments, which means that it
does come by works. But even if someone was a
faithful Catholic their whole life, let's say that they were
baptized as a baby. Let's say they went through the
CCD confirmation that they had the marriage rights, which is
also a sacrament, that they are married in the Catholic Church,
that they have taken confession, that they even have the last
rights before they are to perish.
Let's say they're within the Catholic Church ecosystem for up
to 80 years, and you would have asked them on their deathbed
after they have received the last rites, do you know for sure
that you're going to go to heaven?
That their honest answer would have to be, I hope so.
Can you imagine? Now we have a hope and
salvation, the Bible says, but it's not a hope so salvation,
it's that we have a hope, the expectant anticipation of that
which Jesus Christ has done in our life.
We have hope in that, but we don't hope that well someday
we're going to make it. No, the Bible makes it very
clear that you can know go to first John.
Well, you don't have to go first John chapter 5.
The way I said it, you were, some of you were about to turn
to 1st John 5:00. But you can go to first John 5
and you can realize that you can know.
He that hath the Son hath life, and he hath not, the Son hath
not light. That's a very definite verse
that makes it clear you can know.
And so we left off with the differences between salvation in
the Catholic Church and Bible salvation.
And we'll pick up this morning with the doctrine of purgatory.
The doctrine of purgatory is the Catholic doctrine that those who
die in a state of grace, but with remaining punishment that
needs to be meted out. We'll go through purification in
this place, place called purgatory.
You know, you'll hear me preach and you'll hear a Bible
believing churches that there is heaven and hell.
And of course we understand that from the word of God.
However, there is this additional place that the
Catholic Church has invented, and I use that word
deliberately. They have invented called
purgatory, meaning you haven't quite made it to heaven yet and
you have to spend some time in purgatory to make sure that you
are going to be purified so that you can someday go to heaven.
This is why when you go to a Catholic funeral, as many of you
have as I have, when you go to a Catholic funeral, there are
still prayers being made on behalf of the person who has
passed because they are unsure that that person has made it to
heaven yet. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church teaches all who die in God's grace and friendship, but
still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal
salvation, but after death they undergo purification so as to
achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
Meaning this, the work that Christ started in you is still
not done. That's a dangerous teaching.
The work that Jesus Christ has started in you still is not
done, even after you have perished again.
The Catholic Catechism says indulgences are a remission of
temporal punishment due to sin granted by the Church.
This doctrine ended up funding the sale of indulgences that
provoked the Reformation. How many remember playing
Monopoly when you can, by the way, you want to ruin a family,
play Monopoly. Amen.
All right, but how many of you play remember play Monopoly and
you get one of those get out of jail free cards.
You know, that is a a really nice thing to be able to get, I
think from chance or community chest or one of those places.
I haven't played for a while because I love my family, but
you get one of those get out of jail free cards.
The Catholic Church were literally selling in the 1400s,
in the 1500s. Get out of jail free cards, you
say, Pastor, you're making that up.
No, that's what the indulgences were.
Do you want to make sure that you can get out of purgatory?
You want to make sure that you got the fast track a a Disney
fast pass, if you will, to cut through the line and get right
up to the front. How do you do that?
You need to pay an indulgence. Those indulgences funded many of
those beautiful cathedrals that you see in Europe.
Many of those were funded off the backs of people who were
paying their hard earned money to make sure they didn't spend
time in purgatory. It was an awful, awful teaching
that sparked the Protestant Reformation.
Again, I'm not saying that I agree with everything came out
of the Protestant Reformation. Some of those reformers were
very big persecutors of the Baptist, including Luther and
Zwingli and Calvin. However, I would say that
absolutely that they were correct in the fact that these
indulgences were evil and wicked, but yet it all goes
together with the teaching of purgatory.
Now where does purgatory come from other than the mind of
someone who is not reading the Bible?
And the answer is there are some verses in Second Maccabees say
pastor I I've read my Bible. I don't seem to remember Second
Maccabees in there at all. And the reason why is because
that's part of a group of spurious books called the
Apocrypha. There are many doctrines that
the Catholic Church teaches that we wouldn't find in the word of
God, but however are found in these non Canon books called the
Apocrypha. Second, Maccabees teaches of
this place called Purgatory and the Apocrypha has been rejected
as non canonical by Protestants by Jewish tradition.
It's very clear that they are riddled with errors compared to
the very perfect word of God. And the fact of the matter on
top of that is, is that the doctrine of purgatory was never
repeated in the New Testament, nor is even intonated by
anything that Jesus Christ said. Why?
Because there is no such place. Now what does the Bible say
about this? What?
We'll start with a verse that quote quite often, Hebrews 927.
It has been appointed unto men once to die, and after this the
judgment, the sequence death, then judgment, not death, then
purification, then judgment. That is quite clear.
Second Corinthians 58 We are confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. A purgatory would make that
verse very unclear. If we're absent from the body
and present with the Lord, but we're in purgatory where the
Lord's presence is not compared to heaven, then how does that
work? It seems very clear that that is
contradicting the Word of God, the teachings of the Catholic
Church. Luke 2343 Verily I say unto
thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
If anyone should have been in purgatory, it should have been
the thief on the cross. What did he do?
Well, he recognized that Jesus was the Messiah in his dying
moments, but he also had said previously while he was on the
cross that they deserved to be on the cross.
He and the other thief acknowledging that he had sins
that he had never gone a confession for he'd never
received the last rites. He'd never had any type of
issues that had taken place. So if anyone should have gone to
a place called purgatory, it should have been the thief on
the cross. Yet Jesus made very clear, not
eventually you'll make it to me with paradise.
He said today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
And I think that's very, very important.
So that is the doctrine of purgatory.
We will reject the doctrine of purgatory out of hand as
unbiblical, but also click, click, we have Mary Ology, the
issue of Mariology. What is Mariology?
It's the Catholic doctrine that has developed through formal
dogmatic definitions, 2 of which are declared infallible by the
Pope and are required belief for all Catholics.
Let's start with the Immaculate Conception.
Now if you watch football, there was the Immaculate reception
that happened with the Pittsburgh Steelers some time
ago and you say was that have anything to do with it?
No, it's a take off on this term Immaculate Conception.
This was declared dogma in 1854. Now I find it interesting that a
lot of the teachings on Mary that the Catholic Church holds
to dearly today are actually really within the last 200 years
that they have really popped up in a very real way.
They don't go back deep into the history of the Catholic Church
like some of these other teachings have.
What is the Immaculate Conception teach?
Rome teaches that Mary was preserved from all stain of
original sin from the first moment of her conception, that
she was conceived in an Immaculate way and was without
sin and without original sin. Well, there's some problems with
this one. The teaching of the word of God
is this all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Now you don't have to be a Greek scholar to know that word all
means this all, that's it, all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. Luke 147 And this really should
settle the debate right here and right there.
And my spirit, this is Mary, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Savior. What did Mary recognize?
She needed a savior. If she was out sin, she would
not need a savior. Mary herself understood that she
which carried that child within her was carrying her own savior.
Not that she also was in some type of special category that
was somewhere similar to what Jesus was.
And this was a invented doctrine by the Catholic Church.
But further, they have proclaimed that Mary is a
Mediatrix and Co Redemptrix. Now think about this, that she
is a mediator and a Co Redeemer. Now there's you're going to hear
me say this a lot today. There's that, that there's a
problem with this because pretty much everything I'm presenting
you with this morning there's a problem with.
We have a mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
We have a Redeemer who doesn't need any assistance in redeeming
us. Jesus is not a Co Redeemer along
with his mother Mary. No, He is the mediator and he is
the Redeemer. The Catholic catechism #969 Mary
is invoked under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress,
and Mediatrix. Further First Timothy 2 verse 5
says, For there is one God as I just quoted, and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
The word 1 is absolute. You cannot add another mediator
and say that he is a Co mediator with his mother Mary.
Hebrews 725 Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he liveth ever to make
intercession for them. Christ intercession is
continuing and complete. There is no need for Mary to
come alongside and to assist her son to be able to help in this
note that is not taught in the Bible.
In fact, it's taught very contrary in the word of God.
The last time the Pope spake ex cathedral.
And remember, I wanted to make clear last week because I do
want to make sure that I'm accurate in that which I'm
teaching and I'm not just giving you ideas that are false, even
though in our minds they might seem to be true.
The idea that every time the the Pope speaks that he speaks ex
cathedra, that's not the case. The Pope does not.
Every word that he says, every tweet he makes is not ex
cathedra. That is not Catholic doctrine.
I want to be clear about that. However, we do recognize that
the Pope can speak ex cathedra. And when he speaks ex cathedra,
he speaks on earth in the place of Christ.
Send a shiver down your spine to think that someone could say
that he is going to speak doctrine and he speaks in the
place of Jesus Christ as if Jesus Christ is standing right
here. He is not.
So the Pope is standing in his place.
That is abominable doctrine. But the last time the Pope did
speak ex cathedra was 76 years ago.
It was 1950, and that was the meriology doctrine of the
Assumption, meaning this, that Mary was bodily assumed into
heaven. She did not suffer physical
decay that she literally, like Elijah, like Enoch, was just
brought up into heaven and her body never decayed one bit.
Now why would that be important? Along with the teaching of the
Co Mediatrix and the and the Redemptrix and the teaching of
the Immaculate Conception? Because whether they like to say
it or not, they worship Mary. Now again, they would say they
venerate Mary. That's the word that the
Catholic Church will often use, that they hold her in very high
regard. Well, there's a lot of people I
hold in high regard, but I wouldn't assign to them the very
characteristics of Christ. And in the case of Mary, it's
not just holding her in high regard, it's that they are
assigning the characteristics of Christ to her.
I would say as a Bible believing Baptist, I hold Mary in high
regard. Why would I?
Well, because we find that when the proclamation was made that
she was held by the Lord in high regard, that's why she was
chosen for such a wonderful and beautiful task.
What task? That has only been performed
once and will only be performed once in world history.
But yet there's a difference between saying thou art highly
favored among women and saying thou art the mediator, thou art
the Redeemer. Thy body will not have
corruption. By the way, who does the Bible
talk about? That would be Jesus Christ, that
they continually try to add Mary into the worship of God, and it
is so far from what the word of God tells us.
Now here's another thing. This morning we talked about
purgatory. We talked about Mary Ology, but
I don't know if you heard about this, but the Catholic Church
has a few Saints. How many of you remember back
maybe you had some experience in the Catholic Church and you had
maybe a pendant or prayers that were offered to particular
Catholic Saints? There are different Catholic
Saints that are important to different issues at certain
jobs. Have Saints that patron Saints,
if you will, that will help you. If you've lost something, you're
supposed to pray to Saint Christopher, I believe it is,
and Saint Christopher will help you find what you lost.
Hopefully you didn't lose the pendant to Saint Christopher
because then you're in trouble because you're not going to be
able to find anything because now you lost it.
But the idea is that there's these patron Saints that you can
pray to and be able to have help to you.
But the question is, who are the Saints?
Who are these Saints? Well, again, we don't want to
look to Catholic tradition. We want to look to the Word of
God. And the interesting thing is the
Saints in the Word of God are actually seated amongst us here
today. You say, who is that?
Well, if you know Jesus Christ, you're a St.
We may not always act like Saints, Amen, but the fact of
the matter is, is that we are Saints.
This is what we are called to be in Scripture.
Every born again believer is a St.
Not a special tier of those who have been exceptionally
virtuous. Just a sampling.
Go to the beginning of any epistle and you'll get the very
clear answer of who the Saints are but a sampling Romans one
verse 7 to all that be in Rome, beloved of God called to be
Saints. First Corinthians one verse 2
unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints.
Now consider this. Corinth was one of the most
troubled churches that you'll find in the word of God.
I mean, we know that from Wednesday night, don't we?
All the messes that we have been uncovering for almost a year
going through the book of first Corinthians, but yet even Paul
assigned them the fact that they were called to be Saints,
Ephesians, one verse one to the Saints which are at Ephesus and
to the faithful in Christ Jesus. First Peter 2, verse 9, you're a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a
peculiar people. Every believer belongs to this
priesthood, this royal priesthood, the Catholic process
of canonization. Declaring certain deceased
individuals to be Saints through ecclesiastical process requiring
verified miracles has no basis in Scripture.
The fact is, is that for someone to become a St. the Church has
to recognize that they are blessed above others.
Then there has to be two miracles that have been assigned
to that person and then they can be called a St. and canonized if
you will, in the Catholic Church as a St.
Recent Saints over the past few years would be Mother Teresa.
Many of us of a certain age remember Mother Teresa and her
work in Calcutta, India. But since her death, she is now
Saint Mary. She, she has been, has been
sainted. I'm thinking there's a church
that I just passed, not recently in Pawtucket that has been named
for her and for her work. And she is now a St.
There's a St. believe it or not. And, and I, I promise you that
I'm not saying this to be funny. I'm saying, not saying this to
be cute, but there is literally over the last few years, a Saint
of the Internet is a 15 year old boy who passed away of leukemia,
who has been canonized as a Saint of the Internet.
Now you ask, your name is Carlos Acutis.
And if you're like me, you're thinking, well, what miracles
did this 15 year old boy do before he passed?
Because I just have of the curious nature to try to figure
out, well, what is it that they would have assigned that he had
done? And this is where again, the
Catholic Church plays by their own rules.
They're making them up as they go along.
What miracles did he do in this life?
None. What happened was, is that after
his death, there were Catholics who prayed for miracles and
prayed specifically to Carlos Acutis, this 15 year old who
tragically passed away from leukemia.
And they believe they received that which they prayed for.
And those two people's miracles were assigned to him because
they were praying to him to receive the miracles.
Thus, St. Carlos Acutis, a 50 year old boy
who died just in the last, I believe 15 years, is now the
patron St. of the Internet. It's just a highlight of how
absolutely again the the Catholic Church just plays by
their own rules because they are not tethered to the scripture.
Prayer is offered to the Saints Rome teaches.
I just mentioned that Saints in heaven may be asked to intercede
for the living. The Catholic Catechism, 2683.
Those who now behold the face of God may pray on behalf of those
still on the earth. Let me run that by one more
time. Those who now behold the face of
God may pray on behalf of those still on the earth.
If you need help in praying, you pray to the Saints and the
Saints will pray on your behalf. Now obviously the Scriptures
make it clear again this is not the case, that we don't need
another mediator. We don't need another
intercessor. That doesn't matter if it's Mary
or if it's Mother Teresa or whoever.
It may be that we only need one mediator between God and man.
Again, the man Christ Jesus. Hebrews 416 Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
Every believer may come to God directly and boldly.
No St. is ever placed between the believer and the throne room
of God. That there is no go between
between ourselves and the Father.
What does the Bible teach? The Bible teaches we pray in the
in the name of the Son, our prayers directed to the Father,
and through the power of the Holy Ghost, that all three parts
of the Trinity are actively involved in prayer.
Never do we find that there is Mary or any other St. that is
involved with the prayer of God's children.
Matthew 6 verse 9 after this manner.
Therefore pray he our Father, which art in heaven.
Now we don't call this the Lord's Prayer.
If you call the Lord's Prayer, certainly that's fine.
I don't think it's wrong to. But I prefer here at Liberty
Baptist Church, as others do, to call it the model prayer.
Why? Maybe you've wondered, you're
new here and you've wondered why don't we say the Lord's Prayer
around Liberty? Because if you grew up like me,
we said the Lord's Prayer every service.
And we kind of said it like robots, to be honest with you,
our Father who art in heaven, because you just got so used to
being able to say it. But I could tell you, I could
recite it like that because I had 16 years just about of
reciting it every Sunday in the Lutheran Church.
But maybe you say, why don't we recite that?
Well, the answer is we call it the model prayer because Jesus
was not saying that we should recite it every time we can.
In fact, Jesus just in the previous verses condemns vain
repetitions of saying the same thing over and over and over
again with emptiness. But rather it gives us all the
components of prayer you find in that in worship and adoration
and confession. All of this is found and more in
the model prayer. But nowhere in that model prayer
do we see that we're to pray to the Saints.
You say, well pastor, that was something that came later.
Well, then, where do we find it in the Bible?
Of course the answer is the Bible doesn't teach that.
It comes through Catholic doctrine later.
Interestingly enough, Deuteronomy 18, verses 10 and 11
forbids consulting the dead. Isaiah verse 8 chapter 8, verse
19 says should not a people seek unto their God for the living to
the dead? What the Catholic Church is
actually asking people to do is to consult the dead to be able
to speak to a living God. This is condemned in the Old
Testament and it is never told that this is something we should
do in the New Testament. In fact quite opposite, we have
a living high priest whoever lives to make intercession for
us. There is no vacancy requiring
another intercessor. Next I want us to look at papal
infallibility. Papal infallibility.
What does Rome teach about the Pope being infallible?
The Catholic Catechism 882 The Pope has full supreme and
universal power over the whole church.
And when I look in the Catholic Catechism, that word Church is a
capital C, as it often is. Meaning this the one church that
the Pope is the supreme universal power over what they
would call the true Church. 891 Catholic catechism when speaking
ex cathedral on matters of faith and morals, the Pope enjoys
infallibility. This was declared dogma at the
first Vatican council in 1870 and has never been reversed.
What does scripture teach? Nowhere in scripture do we find
any office of supreme infallible human authority over the whole
church never is found. Has God placed pastors within
the church? Yes.
Did Paul tell Titus to go and set the elders in place at the
Isle of Crete to make sure that churches were set in order and
that there was leadership? Yes.
Do we find in Acts chapter 6 that there were deacons, table
servers if you will, that assisted with the apostles in
the leadership because there was more work to be done than the
apostles could do and they wanted to be able to give
themselves to the Word of God and prayer?
Yes, absolutely. But nowhere in any of those
offices do you find any claim of infallibility.
In fact, quite the opposite. What do you find?
You find that while there are some standards that need to be
held to an elder to make sure that you are not railing against
an elder or bringing false accusations against an elder, a
pastor of a church. That does not mean that a pastor
should not be able to have his feet held to the fire or to be
able to make sure that a pastor is asked questions or that he is
infallible. That a pastor cannot just stand
up in a pulpit and slap his hand on his Bible and say, I'm the
man of God and you'll do what I tell you to do.
By the way, sometimes there's a problem with that in Baptist
churches that we have to be careful of.
Why? Because I am not above any of
those things. No, rather, I have to live under
the same commandments of the Word of God that you all do Why?
Because we're all fallen creatures that need the help of
Jesus Christ to overcome the sinful flesh every day to put in
practice the victory that Christ has already reserved for us
through the cross. And so yes, there's no
infallibility here, but yet the the the the Catholic Church
rather has made the Pope infallible.
Acts 17 verse 11, the Berean searched the scriptures whether
those things would be so I love that verse.
And one of the reasons why is because who are they searching
the scriptures to Fact Check, if you will.
I don't have a lot of regard for fact checkers today.
I love those fact checkers need to be fact checked.
That's why I always wonder who's fact checking the fact checkers,
right? But the Bereans were fact
checkers and they were going through the scriptures.
Who were they fact checking, quote UN quote, Paul.
If Paul would say you know it's OK to be able to be fact
checked, well then who is the Pope?
Who or any of us that we are not above the word of God.
But yet when the Pope thinks he speaks the word of God just it
comes out of his mouth. Of course he would think that he
is above all those things. It's a dangerous, dangerous
teaching. Galatians 211.
We talked about this recently, but when Peter was come to
Antioch, I was stood him to the face because he was to be
blamed. Remember that whole issue where
Peter was eating with the Gentiles?
But then when the group of Jews came in, he all of a sudden
became embarrassed and moved away from the Gentiles and sat
down with the Jews. And Barnabas got caught up in
all this. And Paul, who in many ways was
the apostle, the Gentiles went up to him and rebuked him.
And someone should have took, took Paul to the side, say, hey,
don't do that, he's the Pope. Get what I'm saying?
No, no one did that. Why?
Well, because Paul and Peter and anyone else is not above rebuke
when it comes to not being in alignment with the word of God.
No infallibility whatsoever. And just as I mentioned, elders
and bishops were appointed in the New Testament pastors.
First Timothy 3, Titus chapter 1 gives us the requirements for
them. But yet none hold universal
jurisdiction or infallibility. That is not the case.
Very quickly I want to give you the seven sacraments and then
give you some closing thoughts about this as well.
What are the seven sacraments that Rome teaches?
There are 7 sacraments, each instituted by Christ, each
necessary in some form of the Christian life.
The Catholic Catechism 11/29 states the sacraments of the New
Covenant are necessary for salvation.
Salvation comes through the sacraments.
The sacraments are the vehicle of which God's grace is given to
ma'am. This teaching makes sacraments
the channels of grace that the Church controls and administers.
And here's the issue. Where do you get the sacraments?
You have to get them through the Catholic Church.
And that's why excommunication was such a difficult thing.
It was used in power in the in the Middle Ages against kings.
Why was that? When a nation was interdict,
what did that mean? Well, that meant that the
Catholic Church would no longer give the sacraments to anybody
that was in that Kingdom until the king came and bowed to the
Pope, meaning this. No one could be saved because no
one was receiving the sacraments.
Could you imagine that type of power being wielded by these
men, these evil men? But this is what we see here.
So what are these sacraments? First would be baptism.
And I will say that if you come from a Protestant background, as
I did, there were not 7 sacraments, but there were two
sacraments, these vehicles of grace.
And the Protestants would also say that baptism is one of those
vehicles of grace. And as a reminder, we as
Baptists are not Protestants because we have never associated
with Rome through history. We've not protested anything.
We have always been separate and typically have been persecuted
by both Protestants and Catholics.
Rome teaches that baptism removes original sin and
initiates justification. Catholic catechism, 1263.
By baptism, all sins are forgiven original sin and all
personal sins. But yet Scripture teaches the
baptism is outward sign of what has already happened inwardly
within a believer. We took a lot of time a couple
weeks ago on Sunday morning to look at this.
I won't spend much time on it because we preached on it when
we had the baptisms a few weeks ago, but yet we would
understand. Romans chapter 6 makes clear, as
well as every passage that deals with baptism.
The order is always the same. They are saved, then they are
baptized. Interestingly enough, a couple
weeks ago I put up a video clip from that sermon about being
saved and baptized. I put it on our social media and
I don't remember of all the times that this was on YouTube
actually, that we've had a lot of comments on those video
clips. But all of a sudden people came
out of the woodwork and said that's not what the Bible says.
And I thought, how could you not say that's what the Bible says
unless you are part of the Catholic Church, which doesn't
want you to read your Bible because it's very clear.
Book of Acts, the Gospels, they were saved, they were baptized,
not the other way around. The second is confirmation.
Now you might know it by the letters CCDCCD.
The confirmation class is part of the sacraments.
Now. As a Lutheran, I went through
confirmation as well. It's not considered a sacrament,
however, it is a sacrament for the Catholic Church.
Rome teaches that the confirmation completes baptismal
grace and seals the recipient with the Holy Spirit.
It is administered by a Bishop and considered a distinct
separate sacrament from baptism. But yet Scripture presents the
gift of the Holy Spirit as received the moment that faith
comes into the heart of the believer, not through a right
administered years later by some sort of ecclesia biastical
authority. That is abundantly clear.
Again, throughout Scripture there is the Eucharist.
What is the Eucharist? The Mass.
It is not the same as the Lord's Supper.
Now again, Protestants will teach that the Lord's Supper is
one of the sacraments. As a Lutheran, we believe in
consubstantiation, which means that the bread and the wine were
still present. However, the blood of Christ and
the body of Christ we're also mystically, that's the term they
use mixed together to be able to have the Lord's Supper.
But the Catholic Church believes in what is called
transubstantiation. That means that as soon as the
priest gets up and makes his pronouncement over the bread and
over the wine, the bread and wine cease to exist.
They are no longer apart, and the host is now completely body
and blood. Again, this is not taught in the
Word of God. The Mass doesn't represent, but
rather it represents. This is important.
It doesn't just represent, it represents the sacrifice of the
cross. Literally every time the Mass is
offered, Christ is a fresh crucified afresh over and over
again. But yet Hebrews 925 to 28
chapter 10 verse 10 through 14 are unambiguous.
Christ was offered once 1 sacrifice for sins forever and
then sat down. What did Jesus say in John 1930?
It is finished that it does not have to be a continuous
sacrifice. And that's one of the reasons
why, brethren, why we don't have Jesus on the cross here today.
Why is that as it is in many Catholic churches?
Because to them the sacrifices continually, it's a fresh, but
for us the cross is empty. Why?
Because the work has been complete.
That's a symbol that is important for us to be able to
understand very quickly. There is penance, there's
confession. I will tell you, you should be
glad that you don't have to make confession to me.
And I will tell you, I am even more glad I don't have to hear
your confession. Amen.
There is someone that you have to go to confess to, and that is
the Lord. Now I will pray for you.
If you have struggles in your spiritual life, I'm glad to hear
them. I'm glad to help.
I will pray with you, but there is nothing within me that can
say I will forgive you of your sins and those priests will
forgive your sins in the place of Christ.
As a Lutheran, we did something similar.
It was not a priest that we had, it was a pastor.
But we would get up and read from the liturgy that was inside
of our hymnal. And then we would have a time of
silence where you would silently confess your sins before the
Lord as your standing. And the pastor would get up and
he would say, I in the name of Christ forgive you of your sins
against such a dangerous and blasphemous doctrine.
For anyone to say that they stand in the the place of
Christ. I am your pastor.
I thank the Lord that God has put me in that office.
I do not stand in the place of Christ, Christ is Christ.
I am not there is leadership that God has placed.
Again, I am not the chief shepherd of Liberty Baptist
Church. I am the under shepherd if you
will. I work under the chief shepherd.
I do what he says to do in this word.
When I deviate from him, guess what?
Then I've gone off the reservation and then I have to
be held accountable for my actions.
Not that I can decide what I want to do, and nobody can say
otherwise, but penance is confession.
Catholic Catechism 1446 The sacrament of penance offers
those who have fallen into grave sin a new possibility to recover
the grace of justification. 1456 Confession to a priest is an
essential part of the sacrament. But yet first John 19 is, I
quote very often. If we confess our sin, he is
faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness, who is he? That's Jesus Christ.
You don't have to wait to go to a priest.
You don't have to come to me, you go right to Jesus Christ.
This is so important. As we already said, there's one
mediator between God and man #5 very quickly is the anointing of
the sick. It is the last rites Rome
teaches of the sacrament. Sacrament confers grace,
forgive, SIM, strengthens the soul.
The seriously ill and dying, Catholic catechism, 1527.
It completes our conformity to the death and resurrection of
Christ. They go to James chapter 5 where
it talks about the prayer for the sick.
We don't have time to turn there right now, but if you look at
James chapter 5, it's not in reference to anything that would
be considered the last rites. It's our responsibility as a
church to pray for one another when someone is gravely ill.
You know, here at Liberty Baptist Church, it talks about
in James about the anointing of oil, those who are sick.
There have been times in the past that we have anointed with
oil those who have been sick and prayed as the men of the church,
as the Bible says, to pray for this person.
You say, pastor. I feel like that's kind of
weird. Well, we're just doing what the
Bible says. That's all it is.
We don't take more. We don't take less.
That's what we do. But at the same time, there's a
big difference between that and the actual last rites.
And as I mentioned before, I've met people at the hospital and
sometimes they're scared or family members are scared when I
show up because they're afraid. I've come to do the last rites.
I'm just here to pray for you. I'm not, I'm not here to do
anything else other than just tell you we love you and the
Jesus loves you. More important than that, Number
six, the sacrament of holy orders.
Those are for priests. Those are for deacons or
bishops. It's their ordination, if you
will. And then seven is holy
matrimony. And matrimony is what Rome
teaches between two baptized persons.
It's a sacrament that confers grace and mirrors the union of
Christ and the Church. And does marriage mirror the
union of Christ and the believer?
It does. However, we would say that that
doesn't mean that it is a sacrament, that it confers the
grace of salvation. Again, nowhere in the Word of
God teaches that that is the case.
Now, what is the common thread of all these things?
It is this that if you want salvation, you have to get it
through the gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper is the universal
Catholic Church, that it cannot be found anywhere else.
Now again, I say this not to be unkind.
I say this not to be uncharitable.
My prayer, as it has been over the last couple weeks, there
will be some who have been part of the Catholic Church, will end
up watching this that aren't here today.
And that they will come to understand that there are
teachings that they have been given that are nowhere found in
this word of God, but that they can find salvation not through a
church, but through Christ. That's where salvation is found
and that includes the Baptist Church.
That is not by coming a Baptist that you are saved.
This is not well, they're the Catholics and we're the Baptist
and we're better than them. So no, no, it's about this.
You know what's better than everything Jesus Christ that we
are going to go to him and it's just our job as Baptist to
proclaim this book about Jesus Christ and nothing more.
Not us and any other doctrine. I'll leave you with this.
We'll look at, we'll start to finish up our series next week
with a week or two on the series on the New Age movement.
But I will leave you with this, the question I receive the most
as a pastor and I want to help you with this because you might
receive this a lot yourself. They someone knows that you come
to a Baptist Church, they ask you this, what's the difference
between a Baptist and a Catholic?
Anybody ever been asked that before?
Probably quite a few of you, right?
I remember having a ride along as I was working on becoming a
police chaplain, which never did pan out here in Easton for
whatever reason. But I remember having a ride
along with a Sergeant who lived here since retired and moved to
North Carolina. And I was with him for about 10
hours in the squad car. You know, you got to talk about
a lot of stuff for 10 hours when you're together to be able to
ride along to make things work. We were together for 10 hours.
And really I wanted to minister to him and be able to, you know,
do what I can. But but in a in a chaplaincy
position, you kind of just have to let people talk to you as as
they feel comfortable. So we just had conversation and
told him a little bit about the church here there been with him
about 10 hours. We pulled into the parking lot
of the police station. He says, you know, I got a
question for you. He said, what's the difference
between Baptists and Catholics? I thought we had 10 hours for
you to ask that question. And I'm pulling into the parking
lot now you're going to ask. And my answer was this, as quick
as concisely I be. As Baptists, we believe that the
Bible alone is what we follow in faith and practice.
And that guides what we believe. As in the Catholic Church
believes by their own admission that it's the Bible and the
Catechism and the Pope and the dogmas and the Church fathers
and the encyclicals. And we could say this without
being ugly. We could say this without being
indecent to people. I know some wonderful, wonderful
people that have been part of the Catholic Church.
They are wonderful people, loving people.
It's not my desire to try to offend them or hurt them at all.
I do have to teach the truth of God's word.
And the truth of God's Word is it's all about the Word, that
it's not the word. And like salvation, when you add
to salvation, you get yourself into trouble, don't you?
Because you can't add to salvation, but you can't add to
the word of God either. In fact, you get to the end of
the Book of Revelation, and it seems like God has a pretty dim
view of adding or subtracting from God's Word.
In fact, there's some condemnations that's put in
place. So as you minister to your
Catholic friends, love on them. Don't be rude, don't be crude,
don't don't don't mock or make fun.
Just show them the love of Christ through the Christ of the
Bible and that salvation can be found in Christ alone, in His
Word alone. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.