The title of my sermon tonight is, To the Romans. To the Romans. I hope everybody brought their Bible to church tonight. You should always bring your Bible to church so that you can follow along. If you don't have a Bible we do have Bibles on the bookshelf back there and a big stack of black New Testaments, go ahead and grab one of those right now. Don't be shy or embarrassed. I want you to follow along in the Bible tonight and it's going to be very easy to follow along tonight. In fact, this is going to be the easiest sermon that you've ever followed along with in your life because the entire sermon is going to come from the book of Romans. That's the only place we're going to turn. You don't have to be really adept at knowing where all 66 books are in order to follow this sermon.
The reason why the sermon tonight is called To the Romans is that this book of the Bible, the epistle to the Romans was specifically originally sent to the Romans, literally. Now obviously we know that the whole New Testament is written to us as Bible believing Christians and that any of the 27 books are geared toward each and every one of us. But it was specifically written to that geography in the beginning.
Now flip over to chapter 1 of Romans and verse number 7 and I'll just show you where this epistle is specifically made out to the Romans. It says in Romans 1 verse 7, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What I want to basically preach about tonight is all of the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic church and how all of it can pretty much be defeated just with this 1 book, the book of Romans. I believe that it's not a coincidence that God knew that the biggest false Christian so called church in the world would be the Roman church, the Roman Catholic church, the church of Rome that would basically lead the way for false doctrine and lead the way in heresy and work salvation and all kinds of other bad doctrine. That He actually put in the book of Romans the most verse that would prove Catholicism to be false.
Most of us that have been in church for a long time have even heard people talk about the Romans Road as being the plan of salvation just because there are so many verses in the book of Romans that have to do with salvation. I'm going to preach against some of the biggest false doctrines of the Roman Catholic church tonight and I'm only going to use the book of Romans to do it. Only the book that's geared toward the Romans.
Now you say, well why preach about this? Because 20% of America's Catholic. Because all over the world this is a huge religion that has people in darkness today, they do not teach the true Gospel. Point number 1 tonight is that salvation is by faith alone, not of works. That is not what the Roman Catholic church teaches. The Roman Catholic church teaches that you have to do other things to be saved other than just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They teach that you have to perform various works and sacraments in order to make it into heaven but that's not what the Bible teaches.
Look at Romans 1 verse 16, the Bible read, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Watch this, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Flip over to chapter 3. Right there in chapter 1 the Bible has already told us that salvation is to everyone that believeth. Look at Romans chapter 3 verse 22, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all then that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time His righteousness, that is the righteousness of Jesus that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay. But by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Isn't that clear? He doesn't say, well you're justified by faith but you also have to have works. No He said, you're justified by faith without works. Faith without the deeds of the law. Deeds and works are used interchangeably in the Bible. He said in verse 22, it's upon all of them that believe, it's the faith of Jesus Christ. Why? Because we've all sinned. The only way that any of us could be justified or declared righteous in the sight of God is not through our own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. But whoops I'm accidentally quoting something other than Romans. I don't need anything other than Romans, it's all right here in Romans.
Flip over to chapter 4 verse 1, what shall we say then? That Abraham our father has pertained to the flesh that found. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. For what sayeth the scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 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. How are we justified? How are we saved? How are we declared righteous in the sight of God? It's not through our own righteousness, there's none righteous, no not one. It's His righteousness. It's the righteousness of Jesus that is imputed unto those who believe, it's through faith that we're saved not of works. It's without works, it's to Him that worketh not.
The Bible says in verse 6, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Jump down to verse 11 about Abraham who was again justified by faith. He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the father of all them that believe. Abraham's the father of all them that believe, not all those who are baptized, not all those who join a church or do good deeds or perform the sacraments. He's the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.
Flip over to chapter 5. We've seen it in chapter 1, we've seen it in chapter 3, we've seen it repeatedly in chapter 4. Look at chapter 5 verse 1, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Flip over to chapter 6 verse 23, for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and by very definition a gift is something that you don't work for it's just given to you for free, unlike wages which are earned.
Look at chapter 10 verse 1, brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The question is, what are you trusting in tonight to get you to heaven? Is it your righteousness or is it the righteousness of Jesus? Because the Bible says the only thing that can save us is His righteousness because we don't have any righteousness to speak of, there's none righteous no not one.
See the Jews in Romans stand were going about to establish their own righteousness by doing good deeds, doing good works, performing religious ritual but the Bible says that it's not by works or deeds and He says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. It's not through the law that we are righteous in the sight of God, it's only through the faith of Christ. There are many people today even Baptists who would say, well you don't have to do good works to be saved but you do have to stop sinning. You do have to turn from your sin. But turning from your sin would be obedience to the law, because what is sin by very definition? I mean, sin is when you break God's law.
We're not saved by the law, it's not the law that justifies us. It's not the law of works. The only law that can save you is the law of faith, the law that saves if you believe, you'll be saved. It's not by adherence to the law. The Bible says that that's not the case. Look at verse 9 in Romans 10, that if thou shall confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shall be saved. What could be simpler than that verse? What if there's 1 person on this planet who confesses with their mouth the Lord Jesus and truly believes in their heart that God is raised Him from the dead and that person's not saved? Wouldn't that make this a lie?
I mean, if the Bible says it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth and then there's somebody who truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ in their heart and that person's not saved because they didn't do works. This would all be a lie. Or you didn't get baptized. Well wait a minute, everyone that believeth shall be saved, according to these verse. Verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It didn't say whosoever that joins the church, lives a good life, is baptized. No no no, it's just whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him on whom they've not heard or whom they've not believed? Obviously you have to believe in order to call upon Him by faith and be saved. You have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, not just saying words to get into heaven but it has to be the faith that saves.
The Bible says in verse 10, therefore with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. What comes out of the mouth is nothing more than just a reflection of the faith in your heart. It's the faith that saves you, it's believing that saves you. That is expressed through words with your mouth, that's all that is. Just an outward expression of that which is present in your heart.
The Bible says in verse 14, how then shall they call on Him on whom they have not believed? How should they believe in Him of whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? That's all it takes to be saved. Some preacher, and it doesn't say pastor, you know just some preacher which could be man, woman, boy or girl preaches you the Gospel and thereby you hear God's Word and believe and say I believe that. If you truly mean it from your heart then the Bible says you shall be saved. Look at chapter 11 verse 5. People will say, well I still think works plays a role, I think it's faith and works. This is often what Roman Catholics will tell you. But the Bible says in verse 5 of chapter 11, even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace then is it of no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, is it no more grace? Otherwise work is no more work. You can't have it both ways folks. Either salvation is by grace through faith or salvation is by works. You can't mix those 2. As soon as you mix in the smallest amount of works as a requirement for salvation, grace is gone at that point.
The question is, how cheap would something have to be in order for it be free? It would have to cost zero. If it cost 1 cent it's not free. That's how it is with works. Now, should we do works? Of course. Of course we should do works but wait a minute, what saves us? Works? Do we have to do works. No. You can do no works, the Bible says, to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Let's move onto the second point, we just saw a lot of verses just from 1 book of the Bible, just from Romans alone that destroy the Catholic doctrine of salvation being by works. Well they believe also it's faith and works, no no. Well now it's not grace anymore. Now it's just all works now. Your trust is not in Christ to save you, your trust is in yourself at that point and the deeds that you perform or your faith is in a church or your faith is in a priest or your faith is in someone else who you think has the power to get you into heaven. It's all through what Christ did on the cross when He died and buried and rose again. It's unto all those that believe.
Number 2, flip over to Romans chapter 6 and we'll see that a second doctrine of the Catholic church is destroyed by the book of Romans. You know, you'd think since this book is specifically addressed to them, they would pay special attention to it. I mean, I don't know about you but if there were a book of the Bible that said to the church at Arizona, the church of Phoenix, the the Phoenicians. You know, turn in your Bibles to Phoenicians chapter 1. You know, I would pay special attention to that book, wouldn't you? Be like, oh well we live in Phoenix. This is especially applicable unto us. We should take extra heed.
Well to the Romans tonight, the Roman Catholics, they need to take special heed to the book that's made out specifically to them at church at Rome. Number 2, baptism is by immersion, not by sprinkling or pouring. Number 1 we saw salvation is by faith, according to the book of Romans. Number 2, baptism is by immersion. It's by being dunked under water. This isn't baptism. You know, sprinkling or pouring or this little. You know, I heard Roman Catholics say repeatedly that all it takes is just 1 drop of water. One drop of holy water is all you need to baptize. Then why did John ... Well I can't use books other than Romans.
Just look at Romans chapter 6 verse 4, watch this. Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Notice the language regarding baptism. Buried with Him by baptism. Now, when you get buried, do you just sprinkle a little dirt on you or just pour a little dirt on your head? Just touch your forehead with some dirt? No. Being buried means you're completely submerged, you're completely immersed, you're completely covered in earth.
The Bible says we're buried with Him by baptism and it says if we've been planted together. What about when you plant something? You sprinkle dirt on it or do you put it under the earth. Just like when you're baptized you go under the water. The Bible uses the words buried in regard to baptism. Planted. Why? Because baptism, according to this, is a likeness or a picture or an image of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. That's what's being symbolized when you come up out of the water, it's a picture of Christ coming up out of the grave, arising from the dead. Just sprinkling water on you or pouring water on you doesn't do that so this verse wouldn't make any sense if that were Biblical baptism.
Of course there are many many scriptures outside of the book of Romans that teach that but we're limiting ourselves to the book of Romans. Flip back to just 1 chapter to chapter 5 and we'll get into the third thing. This ties in with this whole sprinkling, pouring baptism. Because not only do the Roman Catholics sprinkle, but they also perform baptism on babies. They perform infant baptism. This doctrine is also defeated by the book of Romans. You see, the reason why Roman Catholics baptize babies is because they have a false doctrine called original sin. Now, a lot of people that are Bible believing Christians, Baptists, Evangelicals would say, well original sin's a true doctrine, that's a Biblical doctrine. But that's just because you don't really understand what the Catholics mean when they say original sin.
What the Bible teaches is that because Adam sinned we all inherited the sin nature, meaning that because Adam was a sinner and we descend from Adam we have the tendency to sin. We all sin. Naturally, we sin. That's what we would often mean and some people would use the term original sin to mean that but you shouldn't use the term original sin. That's a Catholic term and that's not what it means, it means something else. Of course we know that Adam sinned and because of that we're all sinners. Of course that's the truth. That is not what the doctrine of original sin teaches.
Now look if you would at the Bible here in Romans chapter 5, it says in verse 12, whereof as by 1 man sin entered into the world, talking about Adam, and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. That is the key phrase, for that all have sinned. Now for means because. The Bible is saying, by 1 man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men. Now if we just stopped there you'd have the Catholic doctrine of original sin. What they teach is that we are responsible for the sin that Adam committed. We're punished, that sin is held against us. Now that is false. God does not hold Adam's sin against me, I'm not punished for Adam's sin. Here it makes it clear that the reason that death passed upon all men is not simply just because Adam sinned, but it's because all have sinned. You see that? Death passed upon all men because all have sinned and just because we inherited our sin nature from Adam we became sinners, but that doesn't mean we're being punished for what he did. We would only ever be punished by God for what we ourselves have done, not for what Adam did thousands of years ago in the garden of Eden.
Now, the reason that this is so important is that the Roman Catholics, this is the reason why they feel that they have to baptize babies. Because Catholics will admit the common sense that a newborn baby is not really capable of sinning. Can a newborn baby commit adultery or murder or steal or take the name of God in vain or make a graven image? Obviously a newborn baby is incapable of committing sin. But the Catholic church teaches, well baptism washes away your sins. They don't believe in justification by faith alone, they believe that baptism washes away your sins. You'd think to yourself, well then why baptize a baby then? They say, well even though this baby has not sinned on it's own we have to wash away the original sin. Everybody see where they're going with this? Because Adam sinned we have to wash away that original sin. They say that if that baby dies without being baptizes it's going to go to hell.
Now, this is a false doctrine. There are many scriptures in the Bible that teach that a baby will go to heaven when it dies no matter what. It's a newborn baby and it doesn't even understand and it doesn't even have sin in it's life. It will go to heaven, that's another sermon. There's plenty of scripture to teach that before a certain age obviously a child is not held responsible for receiving Christ as Savior before it can even understand any of these concepts or even commit sin. But listen to what they say ... I've got some stuff from the Vatican's website and I've got some stuff from catholic.com so this is out of the horse's mouth, okay. Here's from catholic.com, the Catholic church has always understood baptism differently, meaning differently than people that actually believe the Bible. Teaching that it is a sacrament which accomplishes several things, the first of which is the remission of sin both original sin and actual sin. Only original sin in the case of infants and young children since they are incapable of actual sin and both original and actual sin in the case of older persons.
They're coming right out and saying, well the baby hasn't sinned but yet it needs to be baptized so we can wash away the original sin, Adam's sin, which is a totally made up false doctrine. Here's from their catechism on the Vatican website. Point 1250 says, born with a fallen human nature, I agree with that, and tainted by original sin. That's their false idea that they've put on here. Children also have need of the new birth in baptism. They teach that born again, oh that's being baptized. False. He says, they also have need of the new birth and baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God to which all men are called, the sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant baptism. No, it's actually particularly manifest when you teach that salvation is by believing, by faith. Then you see how free it is.
When you just confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved. They're saying, oh well we believe salvation's free, just look at our teaching on infant baptism. Right, but they teach that you have to continue and do all the other works also. That not even that's enough. The church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God where they nod to confer baptism shortly after birth. Do you see that? According to the Catholics, if you don't baptize your baby, which is taught no where in the Bible you're denying them being a child of God. You're stopping them from being a child of God, they can't be a child of God. They don't have access to the grace of God. That's from the Vatican's own website.
According to them, salvation is putting water on a baby's head. According to the Bible, in what, 20 or 30 verses that we just read it's based on whether or not a person believes on Christ and parents don't have any control over that, the church doesn't have any control over that. That's a personal decision made in your own heart. Here's what they say in point 1263, by baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and personal sins as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the kingdom of God. Neither Adam's sin nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God.
We see very clearly that when they say original sin they don't mean what you thought that they meant. If you say, well that's a Biblical doctrine. No, no, no. They're not saying that you have a sin nature, they're saying you are held responsible for Adam's sin and we've got to get rid of that through baby baptism. It's garbage. Let's look at it in Romans 5 and see how it falls apart, this doctrine of original sin. It's a false doctrine. Look at verse 12, wherefore as by 1 man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men why? For that all have sinned, that's why, that's the part they're not getting. Verse 13, for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had no sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come.
Now verse 14 is often misunderstood saying, well these people didn't sin, it wasn't imputed unto them but death still reigned. No, no, no it says they didn't sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. They still sinned, they committed other sins, they just didn't sin in the same way that Adam sinned. Verse 15, but not as the offense so also does the free gift, for if through the offense of one, Adam, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by 1 man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. Not as it was by 1 that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgement was by 1 to condemnation but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by 1 man's offense death reigned by 1 much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by 1 Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of 1 judgement came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of 1 the free gift came upon all men unto justification alike.
You say, well no it was just by 1 man's offense that the death came upon all men. But keep reading, look at verse 19. For as by 1 man's disobedience, watch this this is the key, many were made sinners so by the obedience of 1 shall many be made righteous. Clearly, the reason why death comes upon us based on Adam's sin is that we were made sinners for that all of have sinned, that's why death passed upon all men, not death upon us because of what Adam did even if we don't sin, even if we're a newborn. I mean, it's a weird doctrine but I'll prove it to you further from the book of Romans.
Go to chapter 7. Look what Romans 7 teaches beginning in verse number 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not known lust except the law had said thou shall not covet. But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of compusense. Watch this, for without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came sin revived and I died. The commandment which was ordained alive I found to be unto death, for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me.
Now notice what he clearly says in verse 9 here, I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came sin revived and I died. Is he saying, I was born into this world completely dead in trespasses and sins? Is that what he's saying? No, before he was old enough to know what lust even was, before he was old enough to even know thou shall not covet to even know what sin was. When he was born into this world he was alive, spiritually. Then once he sinned, then once he understood the law of God and that he was breaking God's law and sinning then the Bible says that's when he died spiritually. Then obviously when he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ he was quickened and made alive in Christ.
You see, Adam was told in the garden of Eden that in the day he ate of that forbidden fruit that he would surely die. If you remember when Adam took that fruit in the garden of Eden, did he die physically that day? No. But spiritually he died, his spirit died and it's the same thing with us. When we commit sin personally ourselves, our spirit dies. When we get to the age where we're capable of understanding that and willfully committing a sin and doing something against God's law, at that point our spirit dies. Then when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that spirit is quickened, that spirit is made alive in Christ. We who were dead in trespasses and sins.
This makes perfect sense when you understand the Biblical doctrine that's taught in many other places that those who die in their mother's womb go straight to heaven and those who are a young child, newborn baby go to heaven as well. It makes sense because they're alive spiritually, it makes sense that their name's in the Book of Life, it makes sense that they are one who is under grace. Really, they haven't done anything wrong at that point, they're a baby, they're a newborn, they're an infant. But not according to the Roman Catholic church. They teach this doctrine of original sin that hey, you better baptize that baby in our pagan shrine or else that baby is in danger of eternal damnation because you didn't sprinkle holy water on it's head from the priest. Where does the New Testament tell us about priests and monks and nuns and monasteries and cathedrals and archbishops and cardinals and the pope and holy water? None of these things are mentioned anywhere in the New Testament, they're all made up. It's all just completely made up junk that's not even in the Bible.
But if you don't participate in their made up weird ritual of sprinkling a baby's head with their so called holy water, you're supposedly can't even be a child of God. Look, the first 10 minutes of the sermon was just a litany of verse after verse saying that it's through believing that we're saved, not through getting water on your head. How do they make this holy water anyway? What makes it so holy? Where is that concept of that? The best definition I've ever heard of how they make holy water was someone said they boil the hell out of it. Okay, all right I guess that's how you make holy water. But anyway, let's move onto the 4th point.
Number 4, Mary was not sinless. That's another false doctrine of the Roman Catholic church that can be defeated by the book of Romans alone. Look at Romans 3:23, I mean this inst' really tough. Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everyone has sinned. The only person who is without sin is Jesus Christ because He was God in the flesh. The Bible of course tells us in many places that Christ was sinless. But to sit there and say, well Mary was also sinless. There's not a verse in the Bible that even comes close to saying that. Show me 1 verse in the Bible that says hey, Mary was without sin, Mary didn't commit sin. But in their idolatry of Mary and their graven image worship of Mary they say, Mary was sinless. No. There's none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and here's the key, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Mary had to be saved.
Again, this is from catholic.com. Here's what they say about Mary being sinless, she was given the grace to be saved completely from sin so that she never committed even the slightest transgression. Did you hear that? According to catholic.com and this is their official doctrine of course, they say Mary did not even commit the slightest transgression. Protestants tend to emphasize God's salvation almost excursively to the forgiveness of sins actually committed. I mean, where'd we get that crazy idea that salvation means we're saved from our sins that we actually committed. Well I don't know, because the Bible says over and over again that we're saved from our sins. Our sins. I mean, what does it mean to be saved? What is saved even mean? Saved from our sins. Our sins. That's what the Bible says.
It's our sins that are condemning us and it's our sins that need to be forgiven through Jesus. But they say yeah she was saved because they have to admit that the Bible teaches that Mary was saved. They just say well, she wasn't saved from her sins, she was saved so that she never even committed a sin. But where are they getting that? From no where. There's no verse that says anything like that in the Bible. It's a false doctrine.
Look at Romans chapter 5 verse 8, the Bible says, but God commanded His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Verse 12, wherefore as by 1 man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Now when the Bible says all men, we understand of course that all men is referring to both men and women. If the Bible says all men are sinners it's not saying, well women aren't. Obviously it's understood that we're talking about man in the sense of mankind.
When the Bible says here that death passed upon all men through Adam let me ask you something, didn't Mary descend from just a human mother and father? Isn't she a child of Adam? Wasn't she born of flesh and blood? The only reason why Christ did not inherit that sin nature is because He did not have an earthly father, he's the Son of God. Is Mary the daughter of God? I guess you'd have to say, well Mary was born of a virgin. I mean, I'm surprised they haven't come up with that yet. That'll be the next papal bowl that comes out. Hey, Mary was born of a virgin. Her mother was a virgin. Turns out it was thousands of years of virgins. I mean, how else can you get around the fact that Mary was an ordinary human being? Flesh and blood.
She was chosen to perform an important function, but don't make too much of it folks. She's a human being. Not only that, go to Romans 13. I'm almost done but just a few other things. Honestly, we could take this thing into so many different directions. If I showed you everything in the book of Romans that flies in the face of Roman Catholic teaching we'd be here all night. I'm just hitting some highlights with you. How about his Roman Catholic doctrine? That thou shall't covet is 2 commandments, not 1. Because they have to get rid of the graven image commandment, they throw that out and then they're left with 9 commandments. What are we going to do? We got a building full of graven images so we threw out that commandment against making idols so now we've got to get from 9 to 10 somehow. Somebody came up with the bright idea of splitting thou shalt covet into 2. Saying well that shall covet thy neighbors wife and they shall not covet their neighbors wife and they shall not covet everything else, 2 commandments.
Reading the book of Romans shows that that's not how God looks at it, God looks at is at 1 because God gives an abbreviated form of the last 5 commandments here. You see, Moses received 2 tablets of stone and there are 10 commandments on these. If you look at the 10 commandments it's interesting how the first half of the commandments have to do with our relationship with God, the first 5 commandments have to do with our walk with God. The later 5 commandments have to do with our relationship with man, with our fellow man. I mean, think about it, thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill. That's between us man. Not having any other gods before Him, not making any graven image, not taking God's name in vain, remembering them Sabbath. You say, well honor thy father and mother. But there's the Father right there, honoring the Father would be under that.
Look at this scripture here beginning in verse number 8, oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness, thou shall not covet. If there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. When God gives just an abbreviated form here of just thou shall not bear false witness instead of against thy neighbor. He's just shortening it and we do this all the time. We just shorten the 10 commandments say hey, thou shall have no there gods before Me, thou shall not make any of the in-graven image, thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. There's more to those commandments, but we're giving them in an abbreviated form just like the Bible's doing here.
Let me as you this, Roman Catholic, which thou shall not covet is this? Is this commandment 9 or is it commandment 10? Another thing, if you would flip over to Romans chapter 8, I'm going to just get here for sake of time but we could go into other things like for example how to deal with heretics. I already preached a whole sermon on that last Sunday so I'm not going to retread that ground, but Romans 16 verse 17 says to avoid heretics, stay away from them, mark them, avoid them. Whereas the Catholic church had a doctrine of torturing and killing heretics, forcing them to recant and arresting them, punishing them, torturing them, murdering them. I already went over that in my sermon on the inquisition but Romans doesn't teach that, you're not going to find that in the letter to the Romans. He said just avoid heretics. Just stay away from them, you don't have to go kill them.
Here's a key point that the Roman Catholics are totally wrong on is that they teach that you cant know whether you're saved or not. You don't know if you're saved. If you go soul winning you'll know this is true because I have knocked on the doors of so many, hundreds and hundreds of Catholics and you ask them the question, do you know for sure if you died to day that you'd go to heaven and often they'll say this, no one can know that. In fact, in the Catholic church this is known as the sin of presumption, to think that you know you're going to heaven, to think you know you're saved. The reason why they don't know that they're saved is because they think salvation is based on all of these factors, all these deeds, all these works that they have to do, all these sacraments of continually confessing their sins to the priest, continually receiving communion, continually doing the deeds, paying the tithes, going to church, doing good works.
They don't believe that it's just a 1 time thing of just believing in Christ and being saved. No, they believe that you can't know that you're saved because anybody who believes in works salvation can't really know that they're saved. Well it's faith plus works. Well then how can you know you're saved because how do you know if you've done enough works? Well it's faith but you also have to repent of your sins. How can you know whether you've repented of enough sins? Because none of us has repented of all of our sins. Goodnight, we'd be perfect, we'd be Jesus. We wouldn't be Mary, because she was a sinner.
But look what Romans 8:16 says, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. You see, we know that we're saved because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. That's why we even go out and knock on somebody's door and say, do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven, because that's a great indication on whether they're saved. Because the person who's saved is going to know that they're saved because they have the Holy Spirit inside of them bearing witness with their spirit that they're the children of God. We don't have to wonder if we're saved, we don't have to hope so. We know that if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we know that we're saved. That's not a sin of presumption unless you're trusting in yourself to get to heaven.
The very fact that they call it the sin of presumption just shows who they're trusting in. Themselves. Oh that would be presumptuous. Does everybody know what presumptuous means? You know, presumptuous comes from the word, to presume. Presumptuous is when someone presumes too much. This would be someone who is assuming or presuming that they are good enough to go to heaven. That's very presumptuous. To think that you're good enough to get into heaven. I agree, that is presumptuous. But that's not why I know I'm going to heaven, I know I'm going to heaven because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because I've been justified freely by Christ, being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Because He's the justifer of him who believeth in Jesus. Why would it be presumptuous to say that Jesus will keep His word? Why is it presumptuous to say that Jesus died for all my sins? Why is it presumptuous to say that He was buried and that He rose again from the dead? Why is it presumptuous to say that I'm a sinner who deserves to go to hell, but that Jesus Christ saved me by His grace? Why is it presumptuous to declare that His righteousness is my ticket into heaven? That's not presumptuous at all.
In fact, that's quite humble. See a presumptuous person often lacks humility. But in fact, salvation is for the humble. It's for those who are willing to admit they're a sinner and to believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior. But the Roman Catholic church teaches that you can't know that you're saved, no one can know that. Well, I know that and I have the Holy Spirit inside of me to bear witness with my spirit. It's not just the Holy Spirit that tells me I'm saved, the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit. I know I'm saved because I've believed on Jesus. I mean, you know tonight whether or not you've put your faith in Jesus.
Now I can't look within your soul tonight and know whether you've put your faith in Jesus but you know. Look, Judas he did not believe, but he knew that. Now the people around him didn't know that, but he knew that. You know tonight whether you have put all of your faith in Jesus. There's nothing complicated about this. Well I don't know, it's complicated. No, it's simple. What are you trusting in to get you to heaven tonight? Are you trusting Jesus or are you trusting self? Are you trusting your repenting of sin or your being baptized or your church attendance or your tithing or your good deeds and good works or adherence to God's laws? You know the answer to that question.
The Spirit itself, the Holy Spirit along with your spirit should both be telling you, you're a child of God. Why? Through faith in Christ Jesus. It's that simple. The Catholics don't have that assurance for 2 reasons. Number 1 because they don't have the Spirit of God living inside of them because they're not saved. The second reasons why they don't have that assurance is that their spirit can't tell them that they're saved because they think salvation is through this unattainable goal of works and ritual and confession and all these other things. Of course they can't really know whether they've dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's and how lenient God's going to be in the final run down.
All that to say this, there are 66 books in the Bible. I could demolish Catholic doctrine from any of them. We could have gone to the book of Matthew tonight and I could show you hey, here's a sermon from the book of Matthew on why the Roman Catholic church is a false religion. I can do it. Don't test me, I'll do it. We could have gone to the book of John and had a field day with salvation verses. We'd pull more out of the book of John than we pulled out of Romans. We could have gone to a number of books but I find it interesting that probably the best book, probably the 1 stop shop where we're going to be able to destroy the most Catholic doctrines in a single book just happens to be the book of Romans. They just happen to be the church of Rome. I don't believe that that's a coincidence.
I believe that God is trying to grab these people and shake them and say, you're in a false religion, I'm trying to warn you. I mean I put your name on the book that really will straighten you out more than anything. Will you pay attention?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father thank You so much for the book of Romans Lord and for the great teachings in it Lord. It teaches us Lord, that salvation is by faith, it teaches us that baptism is by immersion, it teaches us that everyone's a sinner which would of course include the human being Mary. It teaches us that we are responsible for our own sins because we've all sinned. We aren't held accountable for someone else's sins Lord. It teaches us that the newborn baby is not condemned to hell unjustly when it hasn't even done anything wrong. It teaches us how to deal with people who believe false doctrine. It teaches us that the church at Rome's not infallible but that it would be broken off if they did not continue in the right doctrine according to Romans chapter 11.
Lord it teaches us so many things and I pray that those who are Roman Catholic which is a multitude tonight, even in the United States of America it's a great multitude of people. Many tens of many millions of people who have been deceived Lord. I pray that faithful soul winners from our church and from elsewhere Lord, would knock on the doors of Roman Catholics and would open the book of Romans and show them down that Romans Road how to be saved Lord. I know Lord many Catholics are being saved on a weekly basis through the ministry of this church Lord, especially through our door to door soul winning. But Lord I pray that we would continue that and expand that Lord and that many Catholics would be reached as a result of being taken down that Romans Road. In Jesus Name we pray, amen.
