chapter together Jude and the chapter one just one chapter and the verse number one word of God says Jude the servant of Jesus Christ brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called mercy on to you and peace and love be multiplied beloved and When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men, crept and unawares, who were before ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, and we'll end our reading there at the verse number four. Let's briefly pray. Father in heaven, minister to our hearts. Again, I fill this preacher with thy spirit and bless our waiting souls. We pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. With an estimated 1.32 billion followers across the globe, Roman Catholicism is one of the largest religious movements of our day. While it appears that the Roman Church's influence is on the wean within the Western world with all of her scandals, there's no doubt that she still exerts great influence across the world and especially in Latin America. in countries like Mexico and Brazil. The power and the subtle influence of the Church of Rome makes it imperative that we acquaint ourselves with her beliefs and her practices, as well as her dogmas, lest we would fall foul of her smooth words and apparently harmless existence now search could never be done in a single on on a single Wednesday night and so we want to throughout the next little while want to take a doctrine a belief a dogma of the Roman Church and of Roman Catholicism each Wednesday night, maybe one, maybe two, and consider it in light of the teaching of Scripture. Now I want to make it very clear that it is not my intention to offend unnecessarily those who hold to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The Christian must always speak the truth, but they must speak the truth in love and that is my motivation in this message series to speak the truth and love now if the truth offends well so be it but i desire to speak the truth in love and to simply to bring us to the word of god and trust as we look at the truth that we find within the word of god that that will equip you and i to witness to those who find themselves as devout followers of roman catholicism Now before considering any of our doctrines this evening, it would serve us well to understand how the Roman Catholic Church came into existence or came into being. You see, the Roman Catholic Church claims that she is the only true church She is the holy church, and she can trace her history back to the apostles. And really that Protestantism is but a relatively new religious movement that owes its origins to men like Martin Luther and John Calvin, but is her claim true. There's no doubt that we owe a great debt to the reformers and to the reformation movement that swept across Europe in the 16th century. But the basic principles and doctrine taught by the reformers go back to the New Testament and right back to the first century Christian church. Protestantism as it emerged in the 16th century was not the beginning of something new, but rather it was simply a return to biblical Christianity and to the simplicity of the apostolic church as is presented within the Word of God, that church that the Roman church long had since departed from. Now the Roman Empire in which the New Testament Church found itself existing alongside, initially proved to be ideal for her existence and her growth. This great and powerful commonwealth stretched from England to Persia, from the Sahara, right to the northwestern edges of the nation of Germany. the initial identification by the state of Rome that the Jewish and the Christian communities really were part of lawful religion really provided protection for both Judaism and Christianity in the early first century. She held this cherished designated title of lawful religion. All other sects would have been called unlawful religion, but not the church or not Christianity. The church would thrive under this protective umbrella with its association with Judaism for about 30 years. And thus, she progressed And she moved throughout the empire, so much so that the book of Acts tells us that the apostles and those connected with the work of God really turned the world. the known world upside down. However, it soon became very evident to the Roman authorities that the New Testament church was not Judaism. Rather, that the New Testament church was very much distinct from Judaism. And in her eyes, Christianity posed a threat to the very social fabric of the Roman Empire. Christians would not swear allegiance to Caesar. They would not, as it were, deify Caesar, see him as a god. And thereby, they put themselves on a wrong footing with the Roman authorities. And as a result, persecution started to spring up. Now, that initially was sporadic. It was infrequent at the beginning. But there was one event that really changed all of Rome, and I'm speaking of the Roman authorities, the Roman Empire, that changed the Roman authorities' dealings with the Christian church, the New Testament church. And that was the fire of Rome that began on the 19th of July, 64 That fire lasted some nine days and swept through 10 of the 14 districts of the city of Rome. Although probably innocent himself, Nero, who was the emperor, was accused by his enemies of setting the city on fire. And so, to divert attention away from himself, Nero blamed the Christians for the fire. And that began a time of oppression for the Church of Jesus Christ. However, persecution of the Church didn't reach empire-wide until an emperor by the name of Daciatus in 250 A.D. Diacus with the other next two Roman emperors believed that the key to Rome's survival and success was the social was social stability and religious unity. Rome was now in the way and they thought to cause her to flourish again, there needed to be this social cohesion and this religious unity. And this led to a clampdown with regard to Christianity in the form of four edicts that were issued in an attempt first to undermine and then eventually to eradicate Christianity from the empire entirely. The four edicts were as follows. Number one, all Christians of the upper classes were deprived of their official positions and privileges. Christians in the imperial court who refused to renounce their faith were sold into slavery. All were deprived of their rights of citizenship. All churches were to be destroyed and all sacred books were to be burned. Secondly, all clergy and other church officials were to be imprisoned. All imprisoned leaders were to sacrifice to the gods or else be mutilated by endless tortures. Fourth, all Christians were to sacrifice to the gods on pain of imprisonment or more severe punishment. And yet the church flourished in days of persecution. In days of persecution, in times of trial, the church of Jesus Christ flourished and found itself influencing vast swathes of the known world. But all that was going to change whenever an emperor by the name of Constantine ascended to power. Constantine, as he struggled for power within the Roman Empire, he before going into battle on one occasion against another so-called or so deemed emperor, Maxitanus, there at a bridge called Mavanna, Constantine, before he went into that battle, said that he saw a vision. And in that vision, he saw a cross in the sky And below that cross, there was these words, in or by this sign, conquer. Well, he immediately pledged that if he won the battle, he would become a Christian, because the cross was the symbol of the Christians. With his victory secured, the persecution ended for the church of Jesus Christ. The Edict of Milan saw an end to empire-wide persecution in 313 AD. Now this supposed conversion of Constantine, and it was only about a supposed conversion, really posed a great problem. or a great threat to Christianity. You see, this now religious system, Christianity, now enjoyed official recognition by the state. And as a result, with Constantine now being a Christian, and now this being the official state religion, everybody and anybody joined the church without being ever born again. without ever being regenerated by the Spirit of God. They simply joined the church in order to move themselves up the social ladder and in order to gain favor with the Emperor Constantine. and thereby the church was flooded with false professors. Not only was the church flooded with false professors, but it was also flooded now with false practices. It started to take on various activities and various means of worship that was being practiced in paganism and is now being carried over into the church of Jesus Christ. And so we find that the church became stronger numerically, but yet she became weaker spiritually. The simplicity of early Christian worship now gave way to the pump and to the ceremony of the pagan court practices of the Roman Empire. One church historian writing about this time in church history, wrote, the line between church and world, between regenerate and unregenerate, between those who were Christians in name and those who were Christians are on heart, was more or less obliterated. And in place of the former hostility between the two parties, there came a fusion of them in the same outward communion of baptism and confession. Or AM Renwick. wrote the church shook hands with the world and the way to potpourri was laid wide open the professing church in the world joined hands and they were now enjoying themselves together. And so many pagan gods and beliefs and practices were now assimilated into this new Christianity. This new Christianity of Constantine the Emperor. It was during this particular time that priests, unbiblical rituals, and image worship were incorporated into the state church that was now the Church of Rome. A. M. Rennick again said, in the Christian church, there were at work the tendencies towards priestcraft, sacramentalism, and monasticism, which were ominous for the future. You see, before Constantine came to power, Satan was a roaring lion. Now he was a subtle serpent, going about as an angel of light. Now from 313 to 590 AD, the state church became well established in the Roman Empire. And during this period, the simple, the plain, the sincere nature of the church virtually disappeared as many would view her today. And many of those dogmas that we know of in the Roman church were formed. at least in their embryonic form during those particular years. And so we see over this period of time a growth, as I've said, in monasticism, that separating the priests and monks from society and into monasteries, the use of art and ritual in church services, the introduction of the worship of the saints, the introduction of the worship of Mary, the worship of relics, images, and crucifixes, the increased observance of holy days and church festivals, was the powers of the church hierarchy became enlarged. The bishops of the Roman church then started to become leaders or officers of the state, and they started to control and influence civil and political affairs. In 1445 AD, the Roman emperor Valentinian III officially recognized the primacy of the Roman bishop. Above all the other bishops within the Roman church, there were centers of worship. Constantinople was one, Jerusalem the other, Alexandria, Antioch, and then the Church of Rome. And now this emperor, he places the emphasis on the Roman bishop. The Roman bishop is the head bishop. And he does that in 14, or 445 AD. It isn't until 590 that the Western wing of the organized Roman church accepts then this claim that the bishops of Rome inherited the vicarship of Jesus Christ. But we'll think about the papacy and the pope on another occasion. The period that followed, 590, 590 right through to 1517 is known to us as the Dark Ages. And during those ages, it certainly was dark days for Christianity. But then the Protestant Reformation took place. You see, it was simply by a gradual drift and unchallenged error that the church had moved from being the pillar and ground of the truth to becoming the propagator of heresy and of error. And yet, we must not think that the Roman church was the only church that existed throughout the Dark Ages. There were other groupings of faithful followers who had not abandoned the faith. the Waldensians being one, and others throughout Europe who had not abandoned the faith, but had stayed loyal to the faith. And what they did was that they kept the torch of truth burning until the Reformers came and they took that torch and they set Europe ablaze with the rediscovery of the truths of God's Word. And so the truth continued, though the days were dark, the truth continued because truth endures. And we learn from this history, this short history of the development of the Roman church, that error must be spoken against, and that truth must be cleaved to, and that we, though the day be dark, must hold to the truth, Though we be small in number, though we be deemed by society as being the minority view, yet it is our responsibility to hold the truth, the torch of truth, until we either pass it on to a next generation or Jesus Christ comes again and brings an end to not only Roman Catholicism, but every other false religion that exists in this world. Now, you should be aware that the battle that raged between Roman Catholicism and the Reformers really raged around an issue. And that issue, yes, was justification, but I believe it can be traced back to something more basic and more foundational. It really raged around the issue of authority. Authority. Where does the church find her authority for her teaching? That was the issue. Who or what was the authoritative authority for matters relating to faith and practice? That was the question of the time. And that is the question when we come to consider any false religion or any cult. You see, the Reformers held to the belief that the Scriptures alone, the Scriptures alone were the final rule of faith and practice, while the Roman church held to the belief that the Bible and tradition, as interpreted by the church of Rome, were the final authorities in such matters. And really, brethren and sisters, that is where the line of demarcation is always between true and false religion. Does the religious movement or cult believe that the Bible, the Word of God, is the only authority when it comes to the matters of faith and of practice? Does the movement ascribe to Paul's affirmation there in Galatians 4, verse 30, what saith the Scriptures? Or do they add other sources of authority to which they appeal to when it comes to what they believe and what they practice? Is it in the book or is it found in tradition? As we launch into this study on Roman Catholicism and think about this matter then of authority tonight, we really need to ascertain what Rome's teaching is on Scripture Because the Word of God is the benchmark. The Word of God is the standard. The Word of God is the yardstick. The Word of God is the touchstone by which we measure every religious teaching, practice, or dogma. And if it's not in the book, it must be rejected. It must be denied. And it must be spoken against. Up until the time of the Reformation, the Bible was a book for the priests only. It was written in Latin, and you'll know that the common man did not speak Latin. Latin was the language of the scholar. The educated one certainly wasn't the language of the man or the woman on the street. And so this book, this Bible, was confined simply for the priests to read. having been written in Latin itself. The Roman church refused to translate the scriptures into the languages of the common people. However, whenever the reformers stepped onto the scene, that all changed. Luther, he translated the scriptures from Latin into German, the vernacular of the common people of his own nation. Luther not only did that, but others In their other nations, in France, in England, other reformers took to the same task. For they understood that if you want to worship God, if you want to know God, then you're going to have to get the Bible to the people, to get the Word of God to the people. And so they started, with the help of the newly invented printing press, they then started to translate the scriptures into the vernacular tongues of the people. And so wherever the light of the Reformation went, the Bible became the book of the common people. Decrees of popes and church councils gave way then to what the Bible says. Not what the pope says, not what the council has said, but rather what does the Bible say? What does the Bible, the Word of God, say on this particular matter? Now, in contrast, as I've said, to the dissemination of the Bible by the reformers, the Roman Church has traditionally opposed its use by the people. The Bible was, for example, the Bible was placed on the index of forbidden books by the Council of Valencia in the year 1229 AD, and this was the following decree concerning it. That council, they wrote this, we prohibit also the permitting of the laity, the common folk, to have the books of the Old and New Testament unless anyone should wish from a feeling of devotion to have a Psalter, the Psalms, or brevity, that really is a book of devotions, for divine service or the hours of the blessed Mary. But we strictly forbid them to have the above-mentioned books in the vulgar tongue. That was the Council of Valencia in 1229 AD. The Bible was forbidden to the laity. They were only to have the book of Psalms and then a book of devotions. And even then, it could only ever be in Latin, which of course placed the Bible and the Psalms above the reach of the common people. The post-Reformation Council of Trent in between the years 1545 and 1563 reaffirmed that decree and prohibited the use of the scripture by any member of the church unless they obtained written permission by his superior. The decree read as follows, in as much as it is manifest from experience that if the Holy Bible translated into the vulgar tongue be indiscriminately allowed to everyone, The terminity of men will cause more evil than good to arise from it. More evil than good would arise from giving the people the Bible. And since then, many popes have issued decrees that have forbidden Bible reading and the common language of the people. They have condemned Bible societies, banned the possession and the translation of the Bible under penalty of mortal sin and death. Not only that, but the Roman Catholic Church openly burned Bibles, and those who translated it or promoted its study, its readings, such as Jan Hus, or John Hus, in 1415, and William Tyndale in 1536. Now today, the Church of Rome, she grants her people the privilege of reading Bibles, and she even stocks them in her bookstores. However, it must be one of her official versions, the versions that she has approved. And so you have versions like the New American Bible, revised edition, the Ignatius Bible, the Good News Bible, the Catholic edition of it, the New Jerusalem Bible, the new revised standard version, the Catholic edition, the Jerusalem Bible, the revised standard version, the Catholic edition, or the Dewey Rams Bible. While saying that the Bible is the word of God, she'll make that claim. Yet Rome claims that her tradition is equally authoritative and equally binding. Vatican II, that council that sought to address Rome's relationship with the 21st century society in which she was found, declared this, and I quote, sacred tradition and sacred scripture are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. For both of them flowing out of the same divine wellspring come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal. Thus, it comes about that the church does not draw her certainly about all revealed truths from the holy scriptures alone. Hence, both Scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal feelings of devotion and reverence. In other words, nothing is to be believed on the authority of tradition alone, and nothing is to be believed on the authority of Scripture alone, but rather the two simply go hand in hand, and both have come from the same wellspring. Well, what is the wellspring of Scripture? It is God himself. God inspired. God breathed. That's what the word of God is. It's God breathed. And so Rome claims that her tradition is inspired or God breathed. And so she places tradition on the same power, on the same level, on the same ground as the scriptures. Rome teaches them the insufficiency of scripture, And that tradition, which she decides for herself, is on a par with the word of God. If you read the Catholic catechism, you'll read these words. It says, read the scriptures within the living tradition of the whole church. Let me read that again. Read the scripture within the living tradition of the whole church. And so scripture is to be read in light of tradition, not tradition in light of scripture. I trust you understand that, that the scriptures are to be read within the context of tradition. And so tradition trumps scripture. This is what she teaches. The Catholic Catechism also declares Through tradition, the church in her doctrine, life, and worship perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes. Through tradition, she communicates, transmits to every generation all that she herself is, and all that she believes. Well, we certainly don't do that. It is through the Scriptures that we transmit to every generation what we believe. We believe what the Bible teaches. And thus, this statement, we see that tradition usurps or tradition trumps the authority of Scripture. According to Rome's catechism, it is by the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, not Scripture, that she communicates what she believes to the faithful. What do we believe? Well, we believe, as the apostles and the reformers believed, that the Scriptures are entirely and exclusively sufficient when it comes to what we believe and how we are to behave. We take seriously the words of John in the book of the Revelation, where he says there in chapter 22, the verses 18 and 19, "'For I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, that if any man shall add on to these things, God shall add on to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in the book. The addition of tradition by Rome to her belief system is an adding, therefore, to the words of the prophecy of this book. And such must be rejected because tradition can be untrustworthy, it can be contradictory, it can be inaccessible, it can be impractical, and most importantly, it is unscriptural. The Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 15, the verses 3, 6, and 9 condemned the traditions of man that existed in his day. He warned the scribes and the Pharisees that they had made the commandment of God of none effect and they had done so by their traditions. Scripture alone is the final authority and is the only court of appeal when it comes to the matters of faith and practice. The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1, section 6 states, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory Man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of man. There are many references that speak of the sufficiency off the Scripture. Nowhere do we find in Scripture that there is the need for Scripture to be supplemented by church councils, by creeds, or by people decrees. Verses such as Isaiah verse 20, 2 Timothy 3.18, John 5.39, 2 Peter 1 verse 19 and 21. You see, the Roman Catholic Church on the surface, it appears to be a brand of Christianity because it claims staunchly to embrace and defend the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. However, after close examination, it soon is proven that it is that system that actually nullifies and distorts scriptural truth by adding erroneous, man-made traditions that simply contradict the teaching of God's precious word. Prominent Roman Catholic doctrines and practices such as the mass, purgatory, the priesthood, transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, indulgences, penance, the worship of Mary, the use of images in worship, holy water, rosary beads, the celibacy of priests and nuns, the papacy, and many others are based totally upon tradition and have no scriptural warrant or support to substantiate them. In fact, the Word of God gives strong witness against many of these teachings and many of these practices. In the coming weeks, we're going to study some of these doctrines, dogmas, and practices that Rome holds to, and ask the question, what saith the Scriptures concerning them? What saith the Scriptures? And if they are not based or substantiated by Scripture, then we reject them. We reject them as erroneous. You reject them as false, but we hold to the truth of God's precious Word. The authority of any religious movement is and ought to be the Word of God, Holy Scripture. Let us then know the Scriptures. Let us study them. Let us love them. And let us live them out in our lives. for the glory of God. Amen and amen. Let's bow in prayer. Our gracious Father, we rejoice and thank Thee for Thy precious word. The Bible stands like a rock undaunted. We bless Thee that it stands the test of time. And we cry to Thee that we might be biblical In our belief system and in what we cleave and hold to, we pray that thou wilt save us from man-made traditions. And grand dear Father, our lives and our worship to be directed by the scriptures. We pray for those of our neighbors, our loved ones, our countrymen, our God who are sincere, in holding to the Roman Catholic faith. We pray that thou will deliver them from their darkness. And we pray that gospel truth will shine into their hearts, that they will come to a knowledge of the truth. Lord, we pray that they'll read the Bible, and they'll get to know the God of the Bible. that the God of the Bible will work strangely and wondrously in their soul and bring them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Answer prayer and take of our thanks for the mercy that thou hast shown us in bringing us to the truth of the gospel. We pray this and our petitions in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen.