Week 17: Introducing the Mormons | October 5, 2025 Sunday School

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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.

Turn your Bibles, please. The Galatians chapter #1

Galatians chapter #1 this morning.

And I will say I had mentioned last week after we finished our

series on the Jehovah Witnesses, that we will be moving on to the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the

group called the Mormons. And then obviously for me saying

that on Sunday morning and then Sunday afternoon, we all saw the

awful, what I would call terrorist attack that took place

against the Mormon church where a gunman went into the church

and then shot several people, as well as a burning.

It seemed to be that church down almost to the ground.

And so I want to make clear, obviously this morning that that

type of violence is tragic. There's no doubt about it

whatsoever. It's awful and evil and wicked,

but at the same time, I did have to just search within myself.

Is this may be a study that we should be putting off for a few

weeks? Is it in poor taste maybe for us

to be able to look at that? And I do believe that it's

important for us to continue to look at that while still

acknowledging what took place last week was horrific.

But at the same time, what we want to do this morning is what

we've been doing well for the last several months as we've

been looking at the different types of world religions and

cults, is that we are not attacking the adherents.

Remember, those adherents, those are the people we want to win to

Jesus Christ. We want to see more Muslims come

to Christ. We want to see Jehovah Witnesses

come to Christ. We want to see Mormons come to

Christ. And we'll name all types of

other groups as we continue on in this study.

But at the same time, we do want to make sure that we do attack

the articles of faith and the authorities of these different

groups. And the Mormons are no

exception. So I do believe that we want to

move ahead here this morning with that understanding.

And we'll do so by starting in Galatians chapter #1 which I

hope you turn there. We'll get there in just a few

minutes after I give you a short introduction, and then we watch

a video from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

You know, in many ways they are probably the most fascinating of

the cults, at least to me. I've had the most experience

interacting with Jehovah Witnesses just through the

years, whether it was at my door or whether talking to them at

their literature stands. But the Mormon church is one

that is very fascinating because it is just absolutely filled

with contradictions. Consider this, in many ways they

are almost obsessed with lifting the name of Jesus Christ, but

yet at the same time they blasphemy the name of Jesus

Christ because as they lift his name they are teaching a Jesus

that is not found in the Bible. They desperately want to be

considered to be Christians. The Mormon church has a

desperate feel or desperate need to be counted as Christians,

just as we are, but yet they don't hold to any of the core

doctrines that Christians do. It's contradictory.

They they're concerned about looking good.

They have a almost obsessive nature about making sure that

they have this clean public image.

But when you start to get down deep, you see the seedy

underbelly of what their doctrines lead to.

You see that they have this opulence.

I mean, have you ever seen a Mormon temple before, Whether

it's the one in Salt Lake City or any of the others that have

built over 200 around the world on six different continents?

Opulence, but yet spiritual bankruptcy.

They're very secretive in so many ways.

They're probably the most secretive of any religion that

you will find. And not just talking of

Christian cults, but perhaps even the religions themselves.

These false religions, the Mormons are so secretive, while

at the same time they have this great public push and also

they're continually asking for money.

They constantly want to have a steady stream of income.

The Mormon church does, but yet from the research that others

have done, they have somewhere in the bank.

And of course we understand they don't just have one bank account

that has all of their money in it.

But by the best estimates that we can find somewhere that the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has control of

somewhere around 300 billion. Not million, but billion dollars

with an endowment of over $200 billion.

In essence, because their operating expenses are somewhere

around 1 to $2 billion a year, they could literally fund the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints just off the interest

of their endowment for perpetuity.

But yet, this constant need for money, the Mormon Church, is a

contradiction in every possible way.

And there's a lot that I want us to look at over the next few

weeks. This morning, we're going to be

introducing the Mormons to you, and we're going to do so, as has

been my habit over the last several weeks, not by showing a

video debunking a certain group, but by showing a video that

comes from a group. And so we watched many from JW

u.org over the last few weeks. And so today we're going to be

watching an introductory video about Joseph Smith from the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

And so just go ahead and watch as you watch on your screen at

home or right here in the front. Who was Joseph Smith?

He is most well known as the first prophet and president of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Latter Day Saints believe that God called Joseph Smith to

restore the fullness of his gospel to the earth.

Let's start at the beginning. Joseph was born on December

23rd, 18 O five. He was the 5th of 11 children

born to Joseph Smith Senior and Lucy Mac Smith.

They were a close knit family of farmers who struggle to make a

living. They were often forced to move

throughout the northeastern United States in order to

support themselves. Eventually the family settled in

upstate New York. The Smith family were devout

Christians. They read the Bible as a family

and attended several churches in the area searching for one that

fit their beliefs. Yet Joseph was confused by the

conflicting teachings. Joseph loved the Bible and the

teachings of Jesus, but he was confused by the conflicting

opinions of the various churches.

One day while studying the Bible, Joseph read a verse in

the New Testament that said, If any of you lack wisdom, let him

ask of God. After careful reflection, Joseph

decided to do as the Scripture directed.

He would ask God which church he should join.

On a spring morning in 1820, Joseph went to a Grove of trees

near his family's farm to pray. Joseph knelt and prayed.

Joseph said that as he prayed, I saw a pillar of light exactly

over my head above the brightness of the sun, which

descended gradually until it fell upon me.

When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose

brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me

in the air. One of them spake unto me,

calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, This is

my beloved son, hear him. Joseph asked the Lord which

church he should join. The Lord instructed him not to

join any of them. That experience, which came to

be known as the First Vision, set in motion what the apostle

Peter referred to as the restitution of all things.

That is, Jesus Christ would call Joseph to restore his true

Church to the earth. Joseph would go on to learn that

Christ's true Church, the one with his authority that he

founded during his time on earth, had been lost from the

earth after the martyrdom of the original Church's leaders.

Three years after the First Vision, an Angel visited Joseph

and instructed him to unearth an ancient record hidden in a

nearby hill, which Joseph translated by the power of God.

This ancient record was the Book of Mormon, another testament of

Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon contains an

account of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the

Americas, and Latter Day Saints believe it is scripture, another

witness of Jesus Christ. Along with the Bible, the Lord

also sent Peter, James, and John to restore his priesthood, that

is, the authority to act in the name of God.

Joseph Smith also received revelations from the Lord that

taught and clarified eternal principles such as the

importance of baptism, the need for temples where we make sacred

covenants with God, and the marriage performed by the

restored priesthood can last eternally, not just until the

end of our mortal life. On April 6th, 1830, the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was officially organized

and Joseph Smith was sustained as the first elder and leader of

the church. So who was Joseph Smith?

Latter Day Saints believed the Lord worked through Joseph Smith

calling him as a prophet to reestablish the true Church of

Jesus Christ on the earth. Latter Day Saints call this the

Restoration. As part of the Restoration,

Joseph Smith received revelation from God, bringing back lost,

eternal truths by the gift and power of God.

He translated ancient scriptures and clarified the meaning of

existing scripture too. He also received the priesthood,

God's authority to act in His name.

Joseph Smith accomplished all of this while facing great

persecution throughout his life. Indeed, from the time of the

First Vision to his death at the hands of an angry mob when he

was 38, Joseph faced great opposition because of his

message. Nevertheless, he never ceased to

testify that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world and that

His true Church had been restored to the earth.

Joseph Smith was the first in a line of modern day prophets who

have likewise received revelation and guidance from God

for all His children. Even today, as in ancient times,

the Lord's modern day prophets teach us of Him and guide His

Church on the earth. Joseph Smith's life and the

Restoration show us how much God loves us.

He wants us to know the truth, and He wants us to know Him.

Now you know. Of what you just heard was that

until Joseph Smith met Jesus Christ, that there was no church

on the earth, that the church had just kind of dissipated.

Whatever was called a church was not truly the Lord's church, and

that after some period of time an Angel appeared.

The Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith with these golden

plates, which were then translated, which became the

Book of Mormon, and then from the Book of Mormon, as well as

the Bible and the Pearl of Great Price and the doctrines and

covenants that all of these are to be scripture, not just the

Bible in which we use. This is the general consensus of

what it means to be a Mormon. And I say that because there are

many different groups of Mormons that are out there today.

We always think of Mormons as the group that has the big

temple in Salt Lake City, but there are also splinter groups

of Mormons that are out there as well, more so than there would

be of Jehovah Witnesses. But there are fundamentalist

Mormons. There are those who still hold

to polygamy. Some of those have been on

television in the last few years as well and actually have been

turned into reality shows. Those will be fundamentalist

Mormons. There are many other Mormon

groups that are out there on top of just the very normal, what I

say normal, but the the group that is the most mainstream of

all of them, which would be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter

Day Saints. But I kind of want to just take

a few moments this morning to just pick apart some of the very

basic allegations that have been made about this man named Joseph

Smith. And to do so, I want us to go

ahead and look at Galatians chapter #1 and we're going to go

to a couple different Bible passages here this morning.

So you follow along with us so that we can look and see what

the Bible says about this idea of someone coming along and

basically saying that for 1800 years mankind has missed the

mark about Jesus Christ. And there's really another to

gospel, there's really another way of teaching that has been

obscured over these years. What does the Bible itself say

about that? Well, it says this Paul, an

apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God

the Father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren

which are with me unto the churches of Galatia, grace be

unto you, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus

Christ who gave himself for our sins, that He might deliver us

from, from this present evil world according to the will of

God and our Father. By the way, verse #4 is not my

message, but verse #4 should be underlined in your Bible.

Amen. The fact that He has given

Himself our sins and He's delivered us from this present

evil world. By the way, that's not just

talking about heaven. That means that we can have

deliverance from the power over sin in this life as well.

That salvation isn't just about waiting until heaven, but that

we've been saved from the power of sin in this life, not just

the penalty of sin in the life to come.

But then it says in verse #5 to whom be glory forever and ever,

Amen. Now walk in here, starting in

verse number six. It says, I marvel that you are

so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of

Christ unto another gospel. You say, well pastor, you mean

there's more than one gospel? And my answer to you would be,

yes, there are many gospels. We just talked about the Gospel

of the Jehovah Witness. So we could talk about the

gospel of the Muslims. We can talk about the gospel of

many different groups, but hold on.

You start to get uncomfortable. You say, pastor, I thought

there's just one way. I thought it's Jesus Christ and

Christ alone. I am the way, the truth and the

life. No, you're on the right path.

In fact, you're on the only path, I would say.

But there are other gospels. But what does Paul say about

this? It says this, which is not

another meaning. This.

It may look like another gospel, but it is not.

It may look like another way. It is not another way.

They may portray themselves to be another gospel.

They are not another gospel. And the Mormons are portraying

that there is this other gospel that is out there, this other

way that mankind can be saved. That what has been said from the

Bible is not adequate, is not enough.

In fact, we'll look at this in greater length as time goes on,

but basically this, that Jesus Christ became a God.

Did you catch that not saying that Jesus Christ is God, he

became a God, which means he was not a God before and listen to

this, you can become a God too. Hey pastor, they don't really

believe that. They believe that and more.

That's not another gospel friend.

What is it? They may call it a gospel, but

that is a road that sends you straight to hell, which is not

another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert

the gospel of Christ. Now I want to consider that word

pervert here for just a moment. Sometimes we use the word

pervert and we talk about it in a different way.

But really the idea of being perverted is this.

There is something that is normal and there's a deviation

from that that is normal. That that's the definition that

there is something that is normal and there's a deviation

from that which is normal. Do you know what is normal?

Listen to this, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for

your sins, and that you're a Sinner and that only Jesus

Christ can save you through his precious blood.

Anything from that listen is a perversion.

Anything from that is a deviation from that which the

Word of God says. And So what does that mean?

It means this. It means that it is maybe called

another gospel, but it is truly not another gospel.

What is the Mormons believe? In reference to verses 6 and

seven, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

teaches that the Book of Mormon serves as another testament of

Jesus Christ, presented as an additional witness that confirms

and expands biblical truths or ranging from the ancient

originating rather from ancient prophets records.

Translated by Joseph Smith, this book introduces doctrines like

their plan of salvation involving temple ordinances,

eternal marriages, and baptisms for the which Latter Day Saints

doctrine frames as essential restorations of Listen to this,

the Fuller Gospel. If you ask a Mormon, are you

saved by grace? Their answer would be yes.

But listen, if you are saved by grace and the word but follows

it, you're not saved by grace because they don't understand

what grace is. If they believe that you have to

earn or achieve grace in its very definition, you cannot earn

or achieve grace. We're saved by grace through

faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should

boast. And they would say, well, you

need to make sure that you have a, a temple marriage and you

need to make sure that you live a good life.

And you need to make sure that you tithe enough and you need to

make sure that you have a baptisms for the dead for those

who have gone on before you. I don't know if you're aware of

this, but genealogy.com, that website that has been so famous

over the years, was run by a subsidiary for many years until

I believe the year 2020 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter

Day Saints. They are deep into genealogy.

Why? Because they want to know how

many people are in their a family history so they can

baptize on behalf of their dead with the hopes that those people

could someday be saved. I mean, Can you imagine how

backwards that is? And So what do we see here?

Is it another gospel? They may call it another gospel,

but it's not another gospel. Look at verse #8 But the WE or

an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that

which we have preached unto you. But let him be accursed.

Central to Mormon origins is the 1823 visitation of the Angel

Moroni to Joseph Smith, who revealed the location of the

gold plates and then help with the translation of those

according to Joseph Smith, which then became the Book of Mormon.

Again, this was revealed by an Angel.

But does the word of God cover this for us this morning?

But the we or and what Angel from heaven, I'll be honestly, I

believe that he saw some type of angelic form, but I say it was

demonic. I would say the Lord had nothing

to do with that which was taking place.

What Joseph Smith believed that he saw, because it says if an

Angel of heaven came and preached another gospel, let

that Angel be a cursed. I believe it wasn't a cursed

Angel which came and gave him a different gospel, because

according to the word of God, that cannot be.

But the Mormon Church will hold up the Angel Moroni.

Again, Mormons, that term that we get from that, or they get

from that we see is from this angelic visitation, verse 9.

And as much as we said before, so I say now again, if any man

preach any gospel unto you, then that you've received, let him be

accursed. Again, Mormon salvation doctrine

affirms grace as enabling power of Christ atonement, but insists

it requires human effort to achieve full effect.

Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, temple

endowments, enduring obedience to the covenants.

Official teachings state that while grace saves from sin,

works like ordinance and service are necessary alongside it for

exaltation and eternal life. Again, have you ever wondered

why many go on a? Mormon, a missionary trip when

they are in their early adult ages.

What is that about? That is all about achieving

eternal life. That's all about following those

teachings that are there. Well, they'll go to these

far-flung areas, 18/19/20 years old, young men, young women,

what are they doing? They're doing that purposely so

they can just grab hold of eternal life.

And anytime man tries to get involved with the gospel, they

make it so much more complicated than what the gospel truly is.

So we see that in First Galatians, but why don't you

turn a couple pages back to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 11.

Second Corinthians Chapter 11, the Word of God so particularly

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

condemns the very teachings that the Mormons will hold onto.

And what's interesting about the Mormons, what would be

interesting for you in talking to a Mormon is this.

What was the one of the problems that we found in talking with

the Jehovah Witness, that no matter how much we talked to

them about the Bible, they would discard it because they believe

the New World translation is the only way that they can

understand the word of God. And so it's difficult for us to

be able to talk to people about salvation because if we go to

John 11, in the beginning was the Word, the word was with God,

the words was God. And the same was in the

beginning with God. Verse 2.

They would look at that and say, Nope, that's not what it says in

my Bible. And they would just ignore us.

Well, we learned last week how we can use the New World

translation, how God has preserved some ways in the way

that only God can, that we as believers can show them in their

own New World Translation that yes, there's verses that still

speak to the deity of Christ. But what is good about talking

with the Mormon is the fact that not only do they typically use

the Bible, but they oftentimes use the King James Bible as

well. The problem with them is that

they also use three other books they believe are Scripture, and

that is the Book of Mormon, the Doctrines and Covenants and The

Pearl of Great Price, all of which were written or

compilations of of the works of Joseph Smith.

But we are able to use our Bible and show them different places.

And so I love that Second Corinthians 11 talks in a way

that would be able to help us to show that Mormon doctrine is

condemned here in the Word of God.

Second Corinthians 11 verse one would to God you would bear with

me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me, for I'm

jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I've espoused you

to one husband that I present you as a chaste virgin to

Christ. Now what is Paul saying here?

He's saying that when I came to you people in Corinth, I taught

you good doctrine. When I came to you in Corinth, I

taught you Bible doctrine. Can we put it that way?

Even though he's still writing the Bible, the Bible is still

being inspired. But we could put it this way,

that everything that Paul was teaching them was Bible doctrine

in the sense that he was teaching them that which we find

in the word of God. Everything he was teaching was

true. And he says this.

I have a godly jealousy for you. Now this isn't a green eyed evil

type of jealousy that we think of today.

No, no, this is the fact that Paul says this.

I've taught you good doctrine and I want to make sure you

don't get involved in the bad stuff, taught you good doctrine,

don't get involved. And maybe you ask sometimes

pastor, why do you talk about these false teachers that are

out there? Why do you mention certain false

teachers that they they name the name of Christ, but yet you talk

about them as they are false teachers.

Shouldn't just you shouldn't do that with other Christians.

You shouldn't do that with others who name the name of

Christ. And I do so not to be mean.

I do so not to be arrogant on my part.

I do this because as your pastor, I have a godly jealousy

over you. Again, not the green eyed wild

type of jealousy that's out there, but I want to make sure

you have good doctrine. I want to make sure that if you

listen to a sermon from another church, I want to make sure that

if you listen to a podcast, that if you read another book that

you understand what good doctrine is so that you are not

beguiled by these false doctrines that are out there.

I've watched too many times over the years, even people who had

this fascination with the end times.

And again, I think we should be fascinated by the Book of

Revelation. I think we should.

Why? Because one of the 66 books of

the Bible, we ought to know it. But I've watched people who've

gone down the wrong Rd. who have gotten bad doctrine.

And what happened was they got so deep in that doctrine.

Listen, they're not even in church anymore.

They're not even following the Lord.

And so, yeah, do I have a godly jealousy over you?

Again, not an evil one, no, but but I want you to get good

doctrine and this is what Paul was telling the people of

Corinth he says in verse 3. But I fear let's by any means as

the serpent beguiled E through his subtlety, so your mind

should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Now let's be clear about this. Is the doctrine of Jesus Christ

so deep that we could preach upon his characteristics, that

we could preach upon his life, we could preach upon everything

that deals with him and that we could never exhaust that

teaching and preaching for the rest of our lives?

Our God is big enough that you could do that.

But I'll also say this, knowing that Jesus Christ, knowing that

same Jesus Christ is also very simple, that we don't need to

overcomplicate him. Who was he?

Who is he? He is the Son of God.

He is perfect. He died on the cross for your

sins. That seems pretty simple.

Do you know how I know it's simple?

Because right now Diane is in the back with children and she's

teaching him that very thing. There's going to be a few more

children at 11:00 and Miss Cassandra is going to be back

there as you be teaching them the very same thing.

And then a five year old, a six year old could bow their head

and truly trust Jesus Christ their Savior just as much as you

can. What does that speak to?

The simplicity that's in Christ? But yet that same 5 year old who

gets saved could go their whole life if they live 3 score years

and 10 and perhaps of that eighty years or more on this

earth, that they could learn about that same Jesus the rest

of their life and still never get over it and still never

exhaust it. I never get to the place to say,

you know, I haven't learned anything new about Jesus for

years now. There's not new things in the

Word of God. But I will tell you this, as the

Holy Spirit is your teacher, He illuminates you and guides you

and helps you learn more. You know, there's nothing new in

this Bible. We're not Mormons, we don't

believe that there's going to be another testament just added to

it. But we do say this, the Holy

Spirit as your teacher and God continues to show you that

although Christ is simple, you can spend a lifetime getting to

understand him and by the time you meet Him in glory, you won't

say this. Well, I already figured

everything out about you. He'll be whoa, holy, holy, holy

as Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up as we see in

Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention Revelation 5 · chapter mention

That's celestial scene that's there.

I can't even imagine what that would be like.

There'll be nobody bored because they figured it all out while

they were here. But yet he's exceedingly simple

to understand as well. Verse 4 for he that cometh

preaches another Jesus. We've not preached, or if you

receive another spirit which we have not received, or another

gospel which we have not accepted, you might well bear

him. This is what he's saying.

He's saying, I fear this, I fear Church of Corinth.

Because remember, they were immature in their faith.

They were doing a whole lot better in Second Corinthians

than they were in First Corinthians, but they still had

a lot of problems. And as he's talking to them, he

says this. You know what I'm afraid of

That. If someone comes to you with

another Jesus, if someone comes to you with another spirit, if

someone comes to you with another gospel, here's what I'm

afraid of, you might listen to them.

I'm not talking about listening like we, we watched 5 minutes of

their propaganda here this morning, but I'm talking about

listening as in taking it to heart.

I didn't watch that this morning and say, well boy, I sure hope

the people in this church don't fall for that.

You know, I wonder if anyone's going to going to fall for that.

I wonder if anyone's we can listen to that and listen to it

in a way where we understand with discernment, with the

Spirit inside of us, that that's false.

But Paul's afraid they'll listen to a false teacher and they

might bear it meaning this, they might fall for it.

So don't listen to another Jesus.

Don't listen to another gospel. Don't listen to another spirit.

There's only one Jesus. There's not another Jesus.

By the way, Jesus didn't walk the Americas after he ascended

into heaven. This is what the Book of Mormon

teaches. Jesus did not wander around to

indigenous peoples that have never been found in history that

are mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

I'm pointing at this. This is not a Book of Mormon, by

the way, so I'll point to it a random area over here in the

Book of Mormon. This, these things did not

happen and I know who I'm speaking to this morning, but

this is what they're teaching. They're not teaching Jesus

Christ from the Bible. They're teaching another Jesus

and the book and the Jesus from the Book of Mormon, that Jesus

from the Doctrine and Covenants, that Jesus from the Pearl of

Great Price may be called Jesus, but he is not Jesus.

He is another Jesus. What do they believe, just very

quickly about who Jesus Christ is?

They believe that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer.

I'll say that again. They believe that Jesus is the

spirit brother of Lucifer that comes from the Pearl of Great

Price, the book of Moses chapter 4 verses one through 3.

The Latter Day Saints teach that all humans including Jesus and

Satan are spirit children of the Heavenly Father Elohim in pre

mortal existence, making Jesus and Lucifer literal brothers who

volunteered in a heavenly council.

They believe that Jesus was the first born spirit child of the

Heavenly Father. Christ is portrayed as the

eldest spirit brother among God's offspring and their pre

existence, not eternally begotten, but created as the

first among equals. They believe the Godhead

consists of three separate gods, not a Trinity.

Father, Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, gods

united only in purpose. Jesus is a separate God who

progressed to divinity. They believe that Jesus

atonement actually occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane, not on

the cross. The suffering and blood

atonement for sins habit in Gethsemane according to the Book

of Mormon, Mosiah chapter 3 verse 7, with the cross merely

finishing what began there, emphasizing his emotional agony

over his sacrificial death. Jesus visited and ministered to

people in the Americas after his resurrection.

Book of Mormon Third Nephi verses 8, chapters 8 through 11.

Post resurrection, Christ appeared to ancient inhabitants

of the Americas teaching and performing miracles as recorded

in the Book of Mormon. Also, Jesus progressed to good

godhood through obedience as part of eternal exaltation.

Like humans, Jesus advanced from Spirit child to exalted God by

keeping Father's commandments, modeling the path for believers

also to become gods. Doctrines and Covenants 93

verses 12 through 14 and doctrines in Covenant 76 verses

58 through 59. What do we see here that they

get Jesus Christ all wrong? They get him wrong.

So what do we do? We discard the line of thinking.

We do not listen to it. We don't bear it.

We make sure we win these people to Christ.

I asked this question this morning as well.

What about this fact that the church just disappeared?

Now we've seen a version of this teaching through the Jehovah

Witnesses, but even the Jehovah Witnesses, they tried to put on

this veneer. Do you remember watching some of

their videos where they tried to hold up certain historical

Christian people and tried to hold them up and basically said,

well, they weren't Jehovah Witnesses, but they were, they

were decent people. They tried to do that.

The the Mormons have no desire to do that whatsoever.

In fact, they said basically that once the apostles were

gone, that biblical Christianity was gone.

But do you think that Jesus would have ever spoken about

something like this? Do you think Jesus would have

ever brought up the fact that maybe the church would just

disappear after his disciples were dead?

Well, I would submit to you that he did very much bring this up

during his life and made an emphatic defense about why that

would not be the case. So turn to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And this is one of those chapters where Peter says

something good. And we like that, don't we?

Matthew, Chapter 16. All right, look at verse #16

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

actually, let's go to verse #13 When Jesus came to the coast 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, others Jeremias, or one

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

ye that I am? Because here's the question, it

really doesn't matter what other people think about Jesus Christ

as it deals with your eternal soul.

Here's the question, what do you think of Jesus Christ?

Again, not that what you think of Jesus Christ changes who

Jesus Christ is. Listen, he is who he is whether

we get on board or not. But when it deals with our

eternity, the question is not, were your parents believers?

The question was not, are your grandparents believers?

What was your dad, a pastor? Those aren't the questions.

The question is this, What think ye of Christ?

And so here's Peter, God love him, what does he say?

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter gets it right. And Jesus answered and said to

him, Blessed art thou Simon Bart Jonah, for flesh and blood have

not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this

rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not

prevail against it. Now there's a couple things

going on here in this verse that I want to make clear.

Verse #18 is oftentimes used by the Catholic organization.

Why? Because it is a proof text for

them that Peter himself was the first Pope.

Now there is nothing within this text that would indicate that

Jesus was, or rather Peter was the first Pope.

It doesn't come up, it's not mentioned.

There's no historical information or biblical

information that Peter ever made it to Rome.

Peter made it very clear that Jesus was the chief cornerstone.

He said that more than once that Peter himself would not have

been the vicar of Christ on the earth.

In fact, he would have thought it to be repugnant to be called

the vicar of Christ here on this earth.

He would have had nothing, nothing to do with that.

Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

When he's saying that Jesus is saying this Peter, the

declaration that you just made that I am the Christ, the Son of

the living God. That declaration will be of the

foundation upon what the church is built upon, because what is

our church built upon? What is any Bible preaching

church built upon? It's built upon Jesus Christ.

And so he's not saying, Peter, you are the one of which the the

church is going to be built upon that that is wild fantasy by the

Catholic Church. But what he's saying is that the

declaration you just made the statement that Jesus is the Son

of God. Yes, that is.

And you could even have looked at it this way, that that Peter

even or that Christ is talking of himself, that thou art Peter.

And upon this rock, again, the same connotation.

Upon this rock I will build my church because again, Jesus is

taught by Peter as the chief cornerstone.

But getting on to that, because I'm getting off course with the

Mormons, I, I'm going over to the Catholic Church and that's

not where we're supposed to be going this morning.

And it says this and the gates of hell shall not prevail

against it. Now, what does it say?

The gates of hell will not prevail against the church, The

church. Now, what's interesting about

that? The gates of hell means this,

that the church is making forward progress.

The church is making forward progress and is marching against

the very gates of hell. A lot of times I think we get

this idea that what Jesus is preaching here and what Jesus is

saying here is that listen, just hunker down in the church.

Just hunker down. You just get down low.

Don't talk to anybody, don't make waves, don't get out there

in the world and listen, Satan will will fire his arrows at

you, but as long as you stay safe in the church, you won't

get hurt. What's the opposite of what he's

saying? In fact, he's saying this.

Go forward, go boldly, go up to the very gates of hell and

attack them, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against

thee. Why?

Because of us? No, because of him and because

of his protection. Meaning this, that we go out in

the world and we try to win as many as we can from Satan's

Kingdom, and to try to bring them into the Kingdom of God,

into the Church of God. But it says this, that Satan,

the gates of hell, shall not prevail against the church.

But yet the Mormons would teach that the that Satan prevailed

against the church for about 1800 years.

They made Jesus to be a liar. Well, the Bible makes it clear.

Were there times where the light was dim?

Well, you look at the dark ages and you look at the

strangulation of the Catholic Church upon real believers and

you'll find this. There were time the light was

dim, but the light was never extinguished.

They're always Bible believers and Bible believing churches.

How can you historically say that?

How, how, what proof do you have?

My proof is Jesus Christ said that's what it would be.

And so that's what it was. Well, that's exceedingly simple,

pastor. Well, he's a simple Christ.

I think we covered that, didn't we?

He said it, we believe it. And by the way, history proves

this to be the case. We can look at history and find

that there are records that even the Catholic Church itself,

Cardinal Hoshus, would have gone back to say these Baptists have

basically been around for about forever.

So yes, we know. And there are other Bible

believers as well, not just Baptist or groups that align

with Baptist teaching that weren't necessarily called

Baptist, but they've always been believers.

But the Mormons that have you believe until Joseph Smith came

along, people were getting it wrong.

They got the Bible wrong because they didn't have the other three

books. They got Jesus wrong because

they believed that he had always been God.

They got the Godhead wrong because they they, they were

teaching 3:00 and 1:00 instead of three separate entities.

And they got it wrong because they weren't teaching people

this, that if you keep your nose clean and you stay right, that

you can be a God like Jesus someday too, friend.

That's blasphemy of the highest order.

There's nothing gospel related about that.

It is another gospel which is no gospel.

So Joseph Smith perpetuates this.

Brigham Young follows as the second of the presidents and

continues this as they move to Salt Lake City and as they start

to build Salt Lake City for it to become what it is today.

There's a lot of that that I was hoping to look at today, but we

took a lot longer in our text than I had anticipated.

But that's OK because I think we laid a good foundation this

morning for what is to come, because I want us to see these

things. And we'll look at this next

week. We'll look at who Joseph Smith

is. And we'll learn that while the

Mormon church will call him a martyr and a hero, he was

anything but. We'll look at the fact that

Brigham Young continue to grow the Church of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and most people are

actually more familiar with Brigham Young than Joseph Smith

because they're familiar with the name Brigham Young

University and they're used to the football team or something

like that. So they've heard that name

before. We'll look at the words that how

you worship in the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day

Saints, but also the temples as well that there are over 200

temples and more under construction all the time around

the world. Believe it or not, there is a

temple according to Mormon Church in Boston.

And I use the term Boston like this because, you know, people

who don't live in Boston think that everybody lives in Boston.

If you live within a 50 mile radius, you know, they think

people that live in, you know, Springfield probably live in

Boston. You know, that's kind of the way

it is. There's a Mormon temple, the

100th Mormon temple actually, that was built, was built in

Belmont and it is there in operation today.

And only members in good standing are allowed to go

inside. One of the reasons why is

because of the practices that take place inside.

I would call them a cultish practices, some of them which

came from Freemasonry many years before.

And we'll look at all of those ties and how all those go

together. And I didn't get nearly where I

thought I'd go this morning, but I think we got where we needed

to go. Praise the Lord by going through

His words. So I hope that was a help to you

this morning and that maybe lay the groundwork for how we look

at the Mormon church in upcoming weeks.

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.