Week 31: So, What Exactly Is the Catholic Church? | April 26, 2026 Sunday School

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

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Glad to be back with you here today.

And if you would turn your Bibles, please, to Matthew

chapter #16 We're at an interesting spot in our series

right now because we're looking at world religions and cults.

We have now for really almost a year, but we're getting

ourselves to the place where we're kind of tailing to the end

of our series. And we have to ask ourselves a

question this. So as we study world religions

and cults, what exactly is the Catholic Church?

But many have who are here have had experience with the Catholic

Church. Maybe growing up in the Catholic

Church or having extended family of which are part of it,

certainly is very much part of the culture here in New England

where we are. Every town has a parish, or you

could be like Easton, which has two different parishes in

Northeastern and Southeastern. And so there is much in our

culture that is steeped in Catholicism here in New England.

And so we do have to ask ourselves, when it comes to

world religions and cults, where exactly does the Roman Catholic

Church fall? Now I understand, and this may

be a sensitive issue for some, I do want to talk about it in a

way that is, I hope, as we have done with all of the world

religions and cults, that is compassionate.

But yet at the very same time, we must proclaim the truth of

God's word for what it is. We must speak the word for what

it is. And as the Bible says, we speak

the truth and love, Amen. And so it's important for us to

be able to do so to not hold back on the truth, but yet also

to present in such a way that I hope that you could share this

video and maybe the next few videos that we do, the next few

lessons with friend, the neighbor, a family member, and

to be able to show them what the Bible says about Catholicism.

And so really the issue comes down to this.

And this is what we'll look at today when it comes to the issue

of faith in Christ. Is it all about the Scripture or

is it Scripture plus tradition? Because as we as Bible believing

Baptist, we would say today that it's all about the Scripture,

isn't it? If the Scripture says it, we

believe it. If the Scripture doesn't say it,

well, then we don't believe it. But for the Catholic Church and

for our Catholic friends, it is Scripture plus tradition that

all come together to make up what is the faith for the

Catholic Church. And so we want to approach this

with discernment and charity, not contempt.

It's not my desire to make fun of those that are part of the

Catholic Church. That's not my desire in any way,

shape or form. But at the same time, we do need

to address what is the Catholic Church and where does it fall

within our studies. Now by the Catholic Churches own

tally, we don't know exactly how many Catholics there are, but

some estimate that it's somewhere around 1 billion

adherence to the Catholic faith out of the 8 billion or so who

live here on this earth. And there are some things that

we have in common with Catholicism.

Quite honestly. We think about the Trinity, we

think about the bodily resurrection of Christ.

We we say the inspiration of Scripture that even the

Catholics would say that scripture is inspired.

It's what they say after that that is problematic.

But there are many similarities to where we could sit down and

talk with a Catholic and be able to find some common ground.

We understand that, that even in the most grossest of errors,

we've looked at things like Hinduism and we've looked at

things like the Muslim faith that we find that, well, yeah,

there is some kernels of truth that are able to be found and

there. And certainly when it comes to

the Catholic Church, there are certain doctrines that we could

talk about and find that we have so much in common.

But yet the issue is that Rome over the years has added to

Scripture a body of tradition of Sacramento, theology of the

doctrine of worship and prayer to Mary, papal authority, the

Saints and prayers to Saints, all of these different things

that have been added on top of the word of God.

And that's just a very short list that we could present to

you this morning. So the central issue really

comes down to authority. What is the final authority for

Christian faith and practice? So this morning we are going to

look at the issue of is Catholicism A cult or a false

religion? This is the question of which we

will ask ourselves this morning. The Catholic answer again is

Scripture plus sacred tradition, that which has been passed down

from the Church fathers, that which is dogma coming from the

Pope who speaks ex cathedra, meaning that he speaks on the

behalf of Jesus Christ when he speaks in such a way.

But maybe we ask ourselves where do we find the foundation of the

Catholic Church? And the answer is it's actually

found in Scripture, but it's actually Scripture that is

interpreted in error. And so I want us to look at that

this morning to get a better understanding of exactly where

this tradition comes from. So Matthew chapter 16 is where

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

we'll start here this morning in verse #13 I've double checked

all my references today, so hopefully we're in good shape.

I'll write Matthew chapter 16 and beginning in verse #13 Now

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

this is a text we looked at just recently in our Sunday morning

services. And we're looking at a little

bit of a different light today, again with the thought process

of the foundation of the Catholic Church being assigned

to this text. But yet that has been assigned

incorrectly. So look at verse #13.

It says when Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he

asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son

of Man, AM? And they said, some say that

thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremias or one

of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say

ye that I am? And I'll remind you here again

this morning that really the issue of who Jesus is is not who

your parents thought he was, or what family you got born into or

what family grow up into. It really comes down to this.

What think ye of Christ that all of us are personally accountable

for the faith. And so here is Peter in one of

those moments where you just say, Peter, you said it good

this time he says this, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the

living God. Now I want you to focus here on

Peter for just a moment because there is is a thought process

that Peter was the first Pope. This is a question or rather

this is a doctrine of which the Catholic Church believes that

what is taking place here in just a moment in Matthew chapter

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

16 is Peter becoming the first Pope because Jesus answered

verse 17 and said unto him, Blessed art thou sign in

Barjona, for flesh and blood had not revealed it unto thee, but

my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, thou

art Peter. And a on this rock I will build

my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.

And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in

heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be

loosed in heaven. So here is Jesus according to

the Catholic Church, being ordained as the first Pope of

what will be the Catholic. And by the way, the word

Catholic simply means universal, meaning that they just look at

the Catholic Church as the only true church.

That the Catholic Church will be headed up very first by Peter,

who will be considered the first Pope, that he will be the rock,

the foundation of the church. But then also he will have the

keys to the Kingdom as well, as you can see represented there in

a picture by that large key of which he's holding.

Now there's several problems with the Catholic Church

founding being assigned to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

The 1st is this, that Jesus Christ was not saying that Peter

would be the rock of which the church was built upon.

That is not what is being said here.

He says, I will say also unto thee, that thou art Peter.

Now the Greek word for Peter is Petrus, which means a very small

stone or a Pebble. So Peter, thou art Peter.

Remember this is the name has been assigned to him by Christ.

Thou art Peter, you are a Pebble, and upon this rock I

will build my church. Now the Greek word for rock in

verse #18 is Petra, meaning a bedrock or a massive foundation.

So Jesus is not saying that Peter is the rock that the

church can be built upon, because if that's the case,

you're building upon a Pebble and you can't build a whole lot

on a Pebble. Amen.

But what he is saying is this, thou art Peter, you are a small

rock and upon this rock I will build my church.

And I believe when Jesus saying upon this rock, he is saying the

bedrock principle of what Jesus just or whether what Peter just

confessed, what was the confession that thou art the

Christ, the Son of the living God.

Is the church built upon Peter? No.

Is the church built upon the fact that Jesus Christ is the

Son of the living God? Yes, that is what our church is

built upon. That's what all true churches

are built upon. Thou art Peter, you are small,

but your confession is great. And this confession is what the

church will be built upon. Now Peter himself that that's

the first problem, is that Jesus is not saying that Peter will be

the Pope. He is saying that Peter is the

Pebble, and that his declaration, his confession, was

great and large, that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living

God. The second problem that we have

here is this. Peter himself did not consider

himself to be the foundation. We find in first Peter chapter 2

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

verses #4 and 4 through 6 that Peter makes very clear that

Christ is the chief cornerstone. Peter does not take this upon

himself. You can go back to to even in

Galatians chapter 2. We talked about this a few weeks

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

ago when Peter was with stood in the face by Paul and Paul told

him you're doing wrong and that what you are doing an infallible

Pope does not get corrected by a fellow apostle.

But yet here's Peter or who is corrected by Paul.

We see that Paul was in error and he was not infallible in any

way. In fact, in first Peter chapter

1 Peter 5:1

5, verse 1, he calls himself a fellow elder.

This is the way he looked himself.

I'm just a pastor like other pastors.

I'm not holding myself to a higher standard than other

pastors and I'm over other pastors in a papal way.

No, I'm simply just Peter, a man who is a servant of Christ.

So, so there's several problems here.

There's the problem of the, the issue of, of what the church was

built upon and it was built upon the confession of Peter.

There's the issue of Peter himself saying, I'm not the

foundation of the church. There's also the issue of the

keys, the Kingdom verse #19 it says, and I shall give unto thee

the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.

And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in

heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose

on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

And the Pope's of the day. And there have been hundreds of

popes that have taken place and the numbers of popes that can't

really be reckoned properly because there were sometimes

splinter popes and there was at some time three different popes

at the same time, each one claiming different authorities.

And so it was very hard to be able to pin down exactly how

many there were. And all of them claim to have

these keys, the Kingdom, that whatever they say that they are

saying on behalf of Jesus Christ, in fact, they would

consider themselves to be the very vicar of Christ.

You say, what does that word the vicar of Christ mean?

That on earth they are Christ. Christ is not here right now,

but in Christ's place is the Pope.

Now you don't have to know a lot about the Bible to know that

that should bother you, that that is blasphemous, that a man

could claim to be the very representation of Jesus Christ

on earth, that Jesus Christ is basically embodied in this man.

Now there's Catholics who will say that's not what we believe.

They may not believe that, but that's what their church

teaches. And that's the issue, that there

are many good Catholics in the sense that they don't believe

those kind of things. But yet at the same time, that's

what their church teaches, whether they realize it or not,

that He is the very representation of Christ, that

He can forgive sins just as Christ forgave sins.

This blasphemy in the highest order, but he's the vicar of

Christ. This is what's taught.

But he has these keys to the Kingdom, it said, but really the

keys, the Kingdom can be assigned to the fact that when

you look in the book of Acts that there were three different

times the Holy Spirit came down in a very major way.

You look at the day of Pentecost, that the day of

Pentecost when all those folks were saved, the Holy Spirit came

down. You find in Acts chapter 8 that

Acts 8 · chapter mention

when Peter was there that the Samaritans received Christ in

the first time in a very major way and the Holy Spirit, it came

down in a unique way. And then later on while Peter

was talking to Cornelius, the man who had the Italian band,

remember that was not a band like playing instruments, but

that was the the soldiers that were together and and the Holy

Spirit came down again. Every time you see the Holy

Spirit come down to the Jews, to the Samaritans, to the Gentiles.

Those are the three people groups because remember you have

Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans are a mix of Jew and Gentile.

Every single time that that was the case.

Who was there? Peter.

I would say that he was exercising those keys to the

Kingdom at that point, showing that the gospel being given to

the Jews, the gospel being given to the Samaritans, the gospel

being given to the Gentiles. I'm not saying that no one was

saved before that, but I'm saying that the Holy Spirit came

down and filled those believers at that time, and Peter was

there for each of those things. It would seem to me that that

makes more sense of what is taking place with the keys to

the Kingdom than saying that he becomes an infallible vicar of

Christ when we show that, well, he was very fallible and still

made mistakes. Because if you're a person, you

are fallible and you make mistakes.

And so, no, we would disagree with the fact that Peter was the

first Pope there. There is no historical evidence

that Peter was ever in Rome. There was no historical evidence

that he ever claimed to be the first Pope.

These are things that have been assigned to him hundreds and

hundreds of of years later. So we ask ourselves going into

where does these things come from?

You say, pastor, you mentioned some of these things already

that we would disagree with our Catholic friends about.

Where does this teaching come from?

You say tradition, but is that encoded anywhere?

Is that can that be found anywhere?

And the answer is yes, that you find that the Catechism, the

Catholic Church Catechism, the CCC, the Catechism of the

Catholic Church holds the doctrines of which the Catholic

Church believes. And in many ways the Catechism

of the Church holds the same authority as the Bible.

Now again, there will be some of our Catholic friends that would

hold their their heads and maybe scream and say that's not what

we believe. But the proof is in the pudding

whether they actually believe that or not that the Church, the

Catholic Church teaches that what you find in the catechism

is equivalent to the Word of God.

Why? Because tradition holds the

same, and I would even argue holds higher standard to

Catholics than the Word of God. Now, the Catechism of the

Catholic Church states that Scripture and tradition must be

accepted with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.

I'm going to say that again, because again, that's a

blasphemous statement. Scripture and tradition must be

accepted with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.

But what do we find that the Bible says?

Well, the Bible makes clear in second Timothy verse chapter 3,

verse 60 and seven. All Scripture is given by

inspiration of God is probable for doctrine, for reproof, for

correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of

God may be perfect or complete, fully thoroughly furnished unto

all good works. Meaning that everything that you

need can be found in this book right here.

No pastor, there's things that go on in this world today that

can't be found in the Bible. Everything that we need for our

life can be found in precept or in principle in the word of God.

Sure, the Internet, I mentioned this a few so sure the Internet

is not found in the word of God. Gambling.

Oh, I guess gambling is found in the word of God.

Online gambling is not found in the word of God.

There's some gambling in the Word of God that gambled for

Jesus, garments, nicotine, marijuana.

Where do you find these things in the Bible?

Well, you don't find them necessarily in precept, but you

find them in principle. And so we always go to the Word

of God, that it's not the word of the pastor and the Word of

God. It's the word of God.

It's not the word of the Pope. It's not the latest tweets from

the Pope and the Word of God. It is the word of God and the

word of God alone. Now again, according to the

Catholic Church Catechism, the Roman Pontiff, the Pope when

speaking ex cathedra enjoys infallibility, meaning that when

the Pope speaks ex cathedra, he speaks without error and speaks

on behalf of God. Now, I want to be clear about

this. The Pope, as he speaks, you say,

pastor, I hear the Pope saying all kinds of things, not just

this Pope, but the other Pope's. So every time he speaks, he's

perfect. To be clear, that's not what

Catholic doctrine teaches because I know the Pope's been

in the news for comments he's made the last few weeks.

That doesn't mean that every time that he speaks, he speaks

with the words of Christ in their own doctrine.

The last time that Pope has spoken ex cathedral was actually

back in 1950, and it was in part about Mary Ology, including the

Assumption of Mary, meaning that Mary didn't die in the

traditional sense, but that she was just assumed up.

And that because she is, we'll see in just a little while,

worshipped as Christ in many ways that the last spoken ex

cathedra, the last time the ex cathedral was spoken by the Pope

was in reference to Mary Ology. Now you say, well, 1950 pastor,

that's 76 years ago. So it can't be that big of a

deal. The fact that that's even on the

table, the fact that there could even be the thought that the

Pope speaks and if he says so that it's equivalent to the

Bible ought to be enough to make a Catholic head for the hills.

Could you imagine if I got up here today and said, I know what

your Bible says, but listen to me as your pastor because what I

say is as true as the Bible and I say it and it comes from Jesus

Christ himself, from him to me, to you, that you need to leave

and I need to sell shoes for a living or insurance instead of

being a pastor because I speak with authority when I preach,

but it's not my own authority. It's the Lord through his word

to me, to you. And when I bypass that and teach

something that's on my own without it being in the word of

God, I lose my authority because my authority is found in that

which God has called me to do. But truly, where does that call

even come from? The word of God?

First, Peter chapter 5 makes that very clear what the job of

the pastors do. That's when Peter called himself

a fellow elder that that we're to be elders and and shepherds

of the flock and examples of the flock.

This is what God calls us to do. But Galatians one verse 8 says,

though we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel

unto you than that which we have preached unto you.

Let him be accursed. Mark 713 making the word of God

of none effect through your tradition which you have

delivered, and many such like things, do ye?

What did the Pharisees do? Well, they had added on top of

the word of God. They had the written law, but

they'd also had the oral law. So where did that oral law came

from? The Pharisees.

They said that it was passed down from Moses through them all

the way to the people. Now here's the problem.

How were you able to find out the moral law or the oral law?

Rather well, because it wasn't written down.

The only way you could find out was to have a Pharisee teach

you. Well, how do we know if the

Pharisees teach you right? You just have to trust them.

Don't compare it to the Word of God, just listen to the

Pharisees. They'll tell you what you need

to know. Does that not sound a lot like

the Catholic Church of today? Well, where do we find the

Bible? Don't worry about it.

There's some other things that you need to know too.

Where can I find out these other things?

You can't find them anywhere else.

You can only find them through US.

Well, should I read it for myself?

Don't worry about reading it for yourself.

We'll tell you that what you need to know.

And the Catholic Church for years has discouraged people

from reading their own Bible. Why?

Because you don't need to know. The priest will tell you what

you need to know, and you follow along.

Can you see how damaging that type of doctrine is when you can

listen to a message here at Liberty Baptist Church by the

grace of God and what's my job? To do well, to preach the word

of God. And then you can go home like

the Bereans in Acts chapter 17. And you know what you can do?

Acts 17 · chapter mention

You can search the scriptures for yourself to see if that

which I said is so there have been times that people have come

up to me over the years. I try to be careful in that

which I preach. I try to be very careful to to

divide rightly the word of truth.

But there have been a few times over the years that someone

said, pastor, when you said this, did you really mean this

or pastor when you said this? I think the Bible says this.

And I can tell you at least a couple times where I've had to

go through and some study on my own and say, you know what?

I'm wrong about that. And when people bring those

accusations to me, and I don't mean an accusatory manner, but

they bring that to me, it's something I take very seriously.

I don't say, well, I'm the pastor, just listen to me.

Well, who does that sound like? We got to be very careful that

we let the word of God speak. And those are things that take

seriously. And sometimes I have to study

some of those issues for a while to be able to make sure I

understand exactly what's being spoken of.

But it has to be the word of God that stands not what we believe

in and of ourselves. But it's all this tradition and

it makes things so confusing. You don't even understand how to

be able to move ahead, to move forward.

What is it to be in the faith? You know, we had this

conversation and some of you have asked and even just

recently, you know, pastor, how do I join the church?

How do I join the church? I'm so glad that the answer,

it's in your bulletin this morning.

I covered it this morning in my article for this week.

But the answer is pretty simple. We go to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They were saved, they were baptized, they were added unto

them, which is the church. Now, is there more nuance to

that that we can explain through the word of God?

Of course. But it really just comes down to

this. You got to get saved the Bible

way, you got to get baptized the Bible way, and then you were

able to join the church. And we saw what a wonderful

picture of that last week. And to see four that were

baptized and that was awesome. I'm still thankful to the Lord

for that. But when you have tradition and

dogma and church fathers and the catechism that are all speaking

on top of the Bible, something that's exceedingly simple

becomes something very complicated.

And that's pretty much the summary of the Catholic Church

in a nutshell. Something is very simple becomes

something very complicated. So I would ask maybe this

morning to the Catholic Church, how does someone become a member

of the Catholic Church? Now, believe it or not, we're

going to need about a 6 minute video to be able to show you the

answer to that. And you say, Pastor, is it going

to be simple? You just need to watch, All

right, So why don't we go ahead and show that now and then we'll

get back to our study here in a moment.

So. How does someone become

Catholic? In this video, I'm going to give

you the full breakdown from the first practical step to your

final moment of initiation into the church.

Let's get into it. Hey guys And Father David

Michael Moses, I'm a Catholic priest and if you join these

types of videos or if you're joining the Catholic Church, you

might want to subscribe so you don't miss out on future

informative videos. So First off, I would have

thought this was obvious, but I just realized some people don't

know this. We do allow converts in the

Catholic faith. I've seen people saying, oh, I

wish I could join the Catholic Church and it's like, you

totally can. And actually not only do we

allow converts, we want converts.

Jesus said go to all the nations and baptize them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So the church exists to bring people to communion with Jesus

Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life.

So I have no problem saying I want you to be Catholic.

I want you to have confession and the Eucharist and the

fullness of the truth. One thing I will say is that for

someone joining the Church, we want them to actually want to be

Catholic, not just to do it because other people are doing

it or because it's convenient in some way.

I hope you love the liturgy. I hope you love the Catholic

devotions. I hope you like the Church and

the people, but we really want to be united in what we believe.

So this video is more geared toward an adult who wants to

convert to Catholicism. A baby who is baptized Catholic

is a different story. So if you want to become

Catholic, the first step would be to call your local parish.

It doesn't have to be the parish closest to where you live, but

it would make sense that it is because it would probably be

where you want to go to in the future when you call the Church.

You can ask them about the OCIA program.

OCIA stands for Order of Christian Initiation for Adults.

It was just recently changed from RCIA, so you might hear

that term as well. Now you might wonder why the C

stands for Christian and not Catholic, and that's because we

believe Catholics are the original Christians.

We trace our history right back to Jesus himself.

So what is OCIA? Well, it's a gradual process

within the community of becoming Catholic and it can depend on

the specific situation, the person, the church, and what God

is doing in their life. But here's the basic outline up

front. There's basically 2 tracks.

There are catechumens who have never been baptized, and there

are candidates who have been baptized in another church.

So if you're a catechumen who hasn't been baptized, then the

ultimate end of OCIA will be Baptism, Confirmation, and 1st

Communion. One kind of cool note is that

because baptism forgives all of the sins of your life,

catechumens don't actually need to go to confession prior to

their entrance in the church, but after baptism.

Of course they would want to make a regular confession.

Because candidates have been baptized into the church, they

would go to confession ahead of time.

Then as they received into the church, they would be confirmed

and received their first communion.

The reason this works is that the Catholic Church recognizes

the baptism of other faiths as long as they did it according to

the biblical formula saying I baptize you in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

If you aren't sure, they will help you figure out in the OCA

program. Funny story, my dad was actually

a convert to the faith from the Lutheran Church and he said when

he made his first confession, he was convinced the priest was

going to tell him at the end. Rex, I appreciate that you want

to join the Catholic Church, but with all your sins, we just

can't have you here. To his surprise, instead the

priest just forgave him. So don't be afraid of your first

confession. So the first phase of OCIA is

the inquiry phase or the pre catechumenate phase where you're

getting acquainted with the church teachings and the

community. This is a really great time to

be asking questions, getting more information, exploring,

learning. There isn't a set time for how

long this takes, so people can really move at their own pace

while having the support of the community.

I promise we're not offended by questions at this stage.

We want to get you the right answers.

We could say this is a time to meet Christ, to get to know Him,

to learn who He is. If I could take it back to the

time of Christ, this phase would be kind of like being someone in

the town who's hearing about what Jesus is doing and wants to

get to know Him better. At the end of this phase, you

have the right of acceptance when you're formally accepted

into the process. The next phase is called the

catechumenate phase, which is a period of formation where

candidates and catechumens break open the word being proclaimed.

At this stage, you're usually meeting for weekly classes to

learn more about why the Church teaches, what it does, to go

deeper into what prayer is, to learn more about the sacraments,

the Catholic devotions. These meetings will have talks,

discussions, small group time, and fellowship as you learn more

about the faith. This is also a time to better

understand Scripture, so people in this stage will often go to

Mass and stay while the Scriptures are being proclaimed,

which we call the Liturgy of the Word.

Then, before the Liturgy of the Eucharist and Communion time,

they will often be dismissed to go off by themselves to go

deeper into the Word of God. At my parish, we do both of

these back-to-back. Participants go to Mass for the

Liturgy of the Word, then they are dismissed for a time of

discussion. Then they go for their weekly

meeting where they go deeper into elements of the faith.

This is a time to follow Christ. It's like the moment when the

apostle were called by Jesus to be his disciples.

They didn't have it all figured out.

There was a lot for them to learn, but they were locked in

on following Christ. Around this time you will

probably get settled on who your sponsor is.

This is basically a Catholic whose faith you admire, who can

be a companion and an example and an encouragement to you in

the faith. They can be there during the

initiation process, but they're especially helpful afterwards.

You really want someone who isn't afraid to challenge you to

stay on track. This phase concludes with the

Right of sending, which is performed by the local Bishop.

Next, you have the Purification and Enlightenment stage.

This often happens during the season of Lent.

It's a time of continued reflection and deep prayer.

Part of this stage is public ceremonies called the

scrutinies. Now I know that word scrutiny

sounds kind of intense, but we don't need it in the sense that

anyone is judging you. Instead, we're scrutinizing

ourselves for places where we've been wounded and asking for

God's healing. Part of the scrutinies is a

minor exorcism, which is a casting out of any evil

influence over you. This should actually be a

consolation for all of us that no matter what your history is

like or what baggage you have, the church has a system for

setting you free. At this stage you're referred to

as the elect because you're responding to God's call in a

concrete way. This phase concludes with the

rites of initiation, which is probably what you've been

looking forward to. Usually these happen at the

Easter Vigil, which is a long mass that happens the night of

Easter. The whole church gathers

together, we hear the readings, basically the whole story of

salvation and that we celebrate together the resurrection, Jesus

coming back to life, which is fitting because each person in

the church is being brought back to life spiritually through the

sacraments. This is when those entering the

church are baptized, confirmed, and received their first

Eucharist. It's a really, really exciting

night. Just super, super joyful as the

community welcomes in our new members.

At this point, you're a Catholic.

You are part of the family. This puts you in the final phase

called Mr. Goji, which is a Greek word meaning to lead

through the mysteries. It's basically a kind of

continuing formation. It's like after you get married,

you don't just stop learning about your spouse.

In fact, you're maybe more excited than ever to discover

more and more about who they are.

At this point, you're referred to as a neophyte, which is

basically just means someone who's new.

This is also a time when you're now being sent on mission

yourself. You've become a follower of

Christ, now you need to help others become followers as well.

You might be wondering, how long does all of this take?

So there isn't a set time, but on average it usually goes about

a year. It could take two years or more

if needed, or less time if there are extenuating circumstances.

So there's the basic structure. If you are feeling drawn to the

Catholic faith, please, please act on it.

Call a church, get involved and make it happen.

The Catholic faith is such a beautiful gift and I absolutely

believe it is the best way to encounter Christ and to become

the person He has called you to be.

Let me know what other topics you guys think might be helpful

and we will see you in the next one.

God bless. Saved, baptized, added unto them

or that. Now the production value of that

video was excellent, except for that one video for that one

little clip where the guy had that huge bouquet of flowers

behind it. That was like that was a huge

bouquet of flowers. That was a that that got me

every time I watched it. But you, you see that and you

go, that's so confusing. None of that was found in

scripture. On top of the fact that how does

someone come to be saved nowhere.

Do you see any information on that?

There's a reason for that. And we'll get to that probably

next week. But there was one phrase that I

want you to really focus in on. And I, I, I, it's the third time

I've watched that, but I just, I, I want to write it down

because I, it just really stuck out to me this last viewing.

The church has a system that will set you free.

That one phrase that he said, the church has a system.

That's after he talked about the mini exorcism.

The church has a system that will set you free.

What's so important for you to understand about the Catholic

Church is they believe that they are the very gatekeepers of the

faith. That there is no coming to the

faith without going through the Catholic Church to get to

Christ. The difference between that and

the Bible is this, that Christ is the one who will set you

free. Not that the church has a

program that will set you free. Christ will set you free.

He who is free is free. Indeed, the Word of God says the

Baptist Church is not the gatekeeper of salvation through

Jesus Christ. We are simply what I believe is

The Proclaimers of what the Word of God says about Christ.

But being a Baptist will not get you to heaven.

Now the Catholic Church will say being a Catholic won't get you

to heaven. But yet again, if it talks over

the walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, as I say, if

it talks like a duck, that'd be a talking duck.

But it is a duck. And there's so many things of

which the Catholic friends that we have would say we don't

believe that. Or maybe the Catholic priest

says, well, that's not what we believe.

But yet, if you follow the logical progression of the

teachings, you will find that that's absolutely what they

believe in practice, even if it's not what they think that

they believe in their day-to-day life.

So really, we ask ourselves this question, and this is probably

where we will focus and, and end here today.

And what doctrines do the Catholics hold beliefs that

differ from the Bible? We'll cover just one this

morning and we'll get into more of them, including the

Sacramento system next week. But the first is this salvation?

Is it by faith alone or faith plus works?

Is salvation by faith alone or is it faith plus works?

This is the most critical doctrinal divide between Rome

and the Bible. This is what the Catholic Church

teaches. The Catechism of the Catholic

Church #1129 says the Church affirms that for believers, the

sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation to

be saved. They affirm that the sacraments

of the covenant are necessary for salvation.

The Catholic Church believes there are 7 sacraments.

You ever wondered why, if someone is close to passing away

in the Catholic Church, why they call for the priest?

Maybe you've heard that before. We got a call for the priest.

Why? One of the sacraments is the

last rites, and that is a giving of grace to the one who is

passing away. If the priest is not called and

they're going to miss the grace that they need because they have

no real hope of eternal life. They have a hope so salvation,

but they don't have the hope of salvation.

Any Catholic you talk to and you ask them, are you going to

heaven? If they're being honest about

what they believed, and they usually are, they'll say this.

I sure hope so. I, I hope I'm going and you go

to a Catholic funeral, a funeral mass.

What do you see? That there are prayers being

offered, that they hope that this one will be able to go to

eternal salvation and eternal life.

To them, justification is an ongoing process initiated by

baptism, maintained by the sacraments, acts of penance, and

their own cooperation with grace.

Now this is important. The Council of Trent, which was

spoken in 1547, says this. If anyone saith that by faith

alone the impious is justified, let him be anathema.

They say, what is this in reference to?

It would be the Protestant Reformation.

The fact that there were those who were saying that it was the

Scriptures alone, Sola scriptura was the call the Protestant

Reformation. And certainly there would be

disagreements I would have with the Protestant Reformation being

a Bible believing Baptist. We're not Protestants.

We never came from Rome. And I think it's important you

understand this morning people say, well, if you're a Baptist,

you're a Protestant. My answer is no, I'm just a

Baptist. Protestants were protesting Rome

and separated from Rome as Baptist.

We've never identified with Rome anytime in history.

In fact, often times very much persecuted by Rome, whether

Baptist or our Baptist forefathers in different groups

that came before, you know, identified with Rome.

We never protested being part of Rome and so we are simply Bible

believing Baptist. But in reference to the calls of

Sola Scriptura in reference to salvation by grace through

faith, they said in the Council of Trent, if anyone saith that

by faith alone the impious is justified, let him be anathema

meaning this let him be cursed. Now understand the implications

of this this morning. The Catholic Church has taught

that anyone who is outside of the Catholic Church that teaches

salvation by grace through faith that they are not saved and they

will spend an eternity in hell. Now again, there will be

Catholics that will have their hair on fire and say we don't

believe that the Council of Trent is still in force today.

The Catholic Church has had multiple opportunities to

overturn the Council of Trent. They've talked around the

Council of Trent. They've made dialogue about the

Council Trent. I would encourage you to look

this up on your own, from reliable sources, both from the

Catholic Church itself and from others.

And it's quite clear that the Council of Trent is still in

force today, meaning that the clear teaching of the Catholic

churches, unless you are anything but a Catholic, you

will not go to heaven. You said, why is it important

that we know that? You need to know where the lines

are drawn. You need to know where they are.

Now, again, many of your Catholic friends don't know

this, don't understand this, and certainly it's very likely not

being taught in their local parish.

But just because they don't know it, and just because it's not

being taught doesn't mean that that's what the hierarchy of the

Catholic Church stands for. And that is their clear belief

that if you believe that you're saved by faith, that you're

accursed and you're outside of the faith.

Now Needless to say, that's not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches it's not by our works of righteousness.

It's not by that of which we do. Let me just give you a sampling.

Romans 328 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith

without the deeds of the law. That ought to solve it right

there. Romans 4, verses four and five.

Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace,

but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but

believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is

counted for righteousness. If you have to work for it, then

you are the one that has paid the debt.

There's no grace involved. Ephesians 289.

Probably the most quotable of all these verses.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of

yourself. It is the gift of God, not of

works, lest any man should boast.

I don't know how a Catholic gets around those two verses.

And I think the answer is when it's not just scripture but also

tradition, that it really doesn't matter what the

Scriptures say. It really matters what the

interpretation of man of the scriptures say.

What do we say? Let the Scriptures speak.

The purpose of Bible preaching is this, to find the true

context of the Word of God, to make sure we're preaching it

straight and true as it is. So you know what the Word of God

is. The purpose of the Catholic

Church is. Let's explain what we want the

Bible to mean. And you need to believe our

explanations even more than you believe the Bible.

It's a damnable heresy. And so where do we consider

Catholics? Is it a world religion?

Is it a cult? And we'll look at this more next

week. But the answer is I don't know.

I don't know. But I don't know that I need to

categorize it as one or the other.

Here's what I know. It's error.

And those who believe it truly follow it are not saved.

Now, there are some people that have attended Catholic churches

that don't believe what the Catholics say about salvation

and believe what the Bible says. And again, it's not about where

you go to church, it's about the fact that you believe the

gospel. Do I understand all of that?

Why would you attend the Catholic Church and not believe

with the Catholic Church? I don't know.

But I do know this, that again, we don't get our cards checked

of what denomination we were when we get to heaven.

And that's just the Baptist to get in.

It's really about this. It's about do you believe the

gospel message? And so I'm not here to tell you

that every single one of your friends who have ever attended a

Catholic Church are going straight to hell.

That's that's not my call to make.

I thank the Lord is not my call to make that Christ is the

righteous judge. But I will say this, if they are

to believe everything that the Catholic Church teaches, it is

not a doctrine that will send anyone to heaven.

And this ought to burden us about our Catholic friends, our

Catholic neighbors, maybe even your Catholic family.

Now, the good news is you probably have some that you're

close to that are Catholics, but it's just because their family

was before them, they don't really have a lot of regard for

the Catholic Church. They may even have some disdain

for the Catholic Church because of the abuses that have taken

place and have been uncovered in the last several years, which,

by the way, go back generations and generations.

My goal today is not to try to mock those who believe in

Catholicism. My goal today and in the next

couple weeks is not to try to to talk down to them, but rather to

plead with them. What does the Bible say?

Believe the Bible. Do not trust the word of man,

Trust the word of God. 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

[email protected]. 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.