The Bible says, When Jesus came into 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 Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, 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. Lord, we love you tonight. Lord, I ask God that you bless the reading of your word. Lord, I ask God, Lord, that you'd reveal to us truth tonight. God, not that we can say that we are right and others are wrong, but Lord, as we go beyond these walls and Lord, we encounter people. Lord, I believe that the greatest tool of Satan is a counterfeit religion. Lord, a counterfeit Christianity. Lord, I ask God that you'd help us to be masters of the Scripture, to know what the Bible says regarding these matters. Lord, we love you. In your name we pray. Amen. You can be seated. Well, we've been on a series of Where We Differ. We've looked at different cults. We've looked at a couple of different religions. We've looked at Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness. We've looked at Seventh-day Adventists. And tonight, we're going to look at where we differ concerning Roman Catholicism. And Finn, can you turn me up just a hair so I can not strain my voice as much tonight? But where we differ when it comes to Roman Catholicism. The reason I had us read this Scripture tonight is because this is a text that the Catholic Church would say that Peter is the first Pope. When Christ said, upon this rock I will build my church, the term Peter or Peter's name Cephas means a little rock. But Jesus was not talking about Peter when He sat upon this rock. Jesus was talking concerning Himself. If you were to examine what other passages of Scripture say, you'll find that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. You'll turn to Colossians. We will here in just a moment. And we'll find that Jesus is the head of the church. And tonight, can I tell you that Peter was not head of the church. The Pope is not the head of the church. Christ is the head of the church. Amen? And so I want to give you a couple... I'm not going to try to bore you tonight with the history of the Roman Catholic Church, but there are some things, some highlights that will help you understand why they are the way they are and where they come at today. So first off, I want to look at just a couple of facts as far as their origination. The Roman Catholic Church would tell you that they portray itself as the one and only legitimate heir to the New Testament Christianity. They believe that the Pope is a Latin and Greek term for father. So they all believe that the Popes are successors to Peter. They believe that Peter obviously was the first Bishop of Rome. And it's funny because when the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Romans in about AD 55, he addressed the church body that existed prior to his first visit there. But he never mentions Peter. It's interesting that they think Peter's the first pope, but in the very book of Romans, you'll never find the phrase Peter. Paul never even mentions Peter, even though he greets others by name. And despite repeated persecutions by the government, there were vibrant Christianity, there were vibrant believers within the Roman Empire at that time. And even after the apostolic times, there were churches within the Roman Empire that were godly, Bible-believing churches. And despite, or excuse me, those early Roman Christians were just like the brethren all across parts of the world, they were just followers of Christ. And from 27 BC to 337 AD, there were roughly 45 Roman emperors throughout the Roman Empire. Now, I'm going to tell you this because it's important. I'm going somewhere. Some of those emperors, of those 45 emperors, are actually named in Scripture. Augustus, the first emperor, ruled from 27 BC, before Christ, until AD 14. He's listed, actually, in Luke chapter number 2, where it says, And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus. Now, tonight, Caesar's not a name. Caesar is a title given to these Roman emperors. Augustus was his name. Then also, Caesar Tiberius ruled after Caesar Augustus from A.D. 14 to A.D. 37. He's also mentioned by Christ. Mark 12, 17 says, And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar, that would be Caesar Tiberius, the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God. Then a couple decades later, not listed in scripture, go a couple emperors later, we would learn about the emperor Nero. Nero was what history would tell us the most cruelest of all Roman emperors. He laid the heaviest persecution on Christians. He would burn them to the stake. He would wrap them up in tar. He would dip them in tar. He would burn them. He would have Christians lined up on the streets of Rome. He would have them impaled. He was just a cruel emperor. It is believed that Nero was the one that martyred Paul. When Paul tells Timothy that the time of his departure is at hand, we believe that Nero was the emperor that martyred the apostle Paul. There's another emperor by the name of Domitian. He ruled from AD 81 to 96. He is what church history believed would be the emperor that exiled John to the Isle of Patmos when he wrote the book of Revelation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And throughout time of the Roman Empire, you have all these wicked rulers who really ruled the known world. And if you know anything about history, you'll know at the time, the Roman Empire was the largest empire of its day. They ruled all the known world. So you have all these emperors that ruled. But when you come to A.D. 312, something changes dramatically. It's because there was a Roman emperor by the name of Constantine that professed a conversion to Christianity. So you have all these Roman emperors throughout the Roman Empire and now we have one by the name of Constantine who says that he's been born again. He says that he's been converted to Christianity. Different documents, you know, you could argue back whether he was really a Christian or whether he wasn't. But nonetheless, he professed Christianity and he begins to make changes that would slowly begin the formation of the Roman Catholic Church. Nearly... centuries or decades rather, you got to understand that Christians were persecuted. Remember I was talking about Nero, all through time they're being persecuted. And Constantine issued what has been titled the Edict of Milan in 8313, which granted freedom of worship throughout all of the Roman Empire. So now Christians are not being persecuted. In fact, they're free to worship as they please. Back then, before this was proclamated, it was illegal to worship in the Roman Empire. They were persecuted, as I've mentioned. They'd be arrested, they'd be executed. And different emperors had different degrees of persecution. But Constantine had this Edict of Milan. proclamated that they would be protected. It gave Christians full protections throughout the empire. Their property was restored. They would be released from prison. And it would ban the government from persecuting their faith. It declared a state of religious tolerance. But by the time of Constantine's death, really Christianity was the favorite. In fact, it was the official religion of the Roman Empire. And can I say this tonight, church? That is why it's important. We'll never have a Christian government. The government's not set up to be a Christian government. But it's important that Christians get in government. It's important that we elect those that stand on the Word of God, or at least closely lined up there too, because it's important. That's how changes are made. But this term, Roman Catholic, was defined by the Emperor Theodosius on February 27th, the year 380. It's derived from Roman, because it has to do with the Roman Empire, and then the term Catholic, which means universal or whole. That's when the term Roman Catholic was officially formed. This is how it was defined. It is a religion which is delivered to the Romans by the divine apostle Peter, as Roman Catholic Christians. Two problems with that tonight. Number one, Peter's not divine. Peter's just a man. God's divine, but they ascribe divinity to Peter. Also, the other problem is Peter's never mentioned in the whole book of Romans. Paul writes the book, you'll never find Peter's name mentioned one time. So the book of Romans has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church, has nothing to do with Peter or any of that, but they ascribe that book to him. From Constantine's rule from 312 into the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, the emperors of Rome claimed certain amount of authority within the church. They began to twist and pervert biblical truth. Different church leaders began to believe different things. And during those years, there was many disputes over authority, over structure, how the church should operate. They began to twist doctrine. At the same time, some of the bishops sought to increase their authority in the church. Extreme heresy rose in the 3rd century because the Roman Catholic Church began to have a hierarchy that was patterned after the Roman government. The bishop of a city began to be over the presbyters or the priests. They were over the congregations. They began to control the ministry of the churches. And the bishop of Rome began to establish himself as supreme over all. In other words, what he said went, including the Bible. Now let me say this, it's important to know that throughout this time, there were churches, there was God, Bible-believing Christians that did not adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. They would believe the Bible and they did not take part of all this. But by AD 590, from that point on, the church and the state were fully intertwined to become the Holy Roman Empire, with the Pope exercising authority over all the kings and emperors. Now today, the Pope has no authority when it comes to politics, but they do have him over the head of the church. And they will say, and I'm going to get to this in just a minute, but they'll say, well, what the Pope says, that's truth. They'll worship. If you'll ever watch, they'll parade the Pope. He's dressed up like a woman. You've got people falling down the streets, worshiping him as God. That's what they ascribe him as. So what do the Roman Catholics believe tonight? Let's get into this and we'll go home. But what do they believe? Now, they believe a lot of things. I cannot give you everything that they believe in one service, but I'm just going to give you some core things tonight. What do they believe? Well, first off is this. The bishops, with the Pope as their head, rule the universal church. They'll say the bishop rules the church. I want you to take your Bible tonight And let's go here quickly. Let's go to Colossians 118. Let's try to go through these quickly. Get there quickly. And I want you to write these references down so you'll have them. Colossians 118. Colossians 118. So they say the bishop, he's the head of the church. What he says goes. I'm just going to read a part of this verse, Colossians 1.18. And he, who's he? Jesus, you'll learn that if you back up a couple of verses. And he, who's Jesus, is the head of the body. What's the body? The Bible tells us. The church. See it? Verse 18. He's the head of the body and the church. So Christ is the head of the body. He is the one that rules the church. So is the Pope the ruler of the church tonight? No. The Bible says Christ is. So they believe that the bishop with the pope is their head, but we know according to Colossians 1.18 and many other passages that Jesus is the head of the body. But what else do they believe? They believe that God has entrusted revelation to the bishops. Now when I mean revelation, I'm talking about God's truth. Say that God has revealed truth to the bishops or to the pope. In other words, they'll say something like this, well, there's no point for you to read your Bible. You really can't understand it all. But just come to me, I'll tell you what the Bible really means. God has given me truth. I'll tell you what the Bible means. Well, I want you to go to Jude verse 3. Go to Jude verse 3. Jude verse 3. Brother Shane, when you get there, would you read that verse for me? Jude, verse 3. Earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to who? Can I ask you a question tonight? Are you a saint? He says there was Christians that got the faith. That word faith right there means the teachings, the apostles' doctrine, the word of God was passed down to saints, not bishops, but saints, those who are Christians. They got it and they're giving it to us. And he says we need to fight for it. We need to contend for the faith. So he doesn't say the pastors or the bishops. He says saints. And by the way, I'm your preacher, but I'm also a saint tonight. Amen. I've been saying it over and over again. I want you to also go to Psalm 119. Go to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Brother Adam, when you get there, will you read nice and loudly verse number 18? Psalm 119, verse 18. Psalm 119, verse 18. Let me ask you a question tonight. Psalms 119, what's that whole chapter about? Anybody know? Word of God, about the Bible. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." The word law is another term for Scripture. You know what the psalmist is praying? There are certain things that I cannot understand, God, unless you show them to me. The bishops of the Roman Catholic Church will say, well, there's only certain things you can understand if I explain them to you. I was teaching some of our men on our Teaching and Preaching the Bible course We have to be careful about putting things in Scripture that aren't there. I've heard men, they'll say, well, you know, this tree that is mentioned in this parable, it means this, and it means that, or that donkey in the parable of the Good Samaritan, it's a picture of grace, or it's a picture of deliverance. Man, it may preach good, and it may get some amens, but the problem is the Bible don't even say that. And sometimes you're sitting there wondering, well, how in the world did a preacher get that? It ain't even there. And then the congregation leaves scratching their head, well how does the preacher come up with all that stuff? Because when I read it, I don't get that stuff. You're right, it's because it ain't there. Can I tell you it's the same thing what the Catholic Church does? Well let me, I'm going to explain to you the deeper spiritual meaning of the Word of God. You can't really understand it, but just put your trust in me. I'm going to give you what it really says. Can I tell you it's very dangerous? Because now the Word of God is being filtered through a man, through his lens. And I tell you that God has entrusted Revelation to every single person who's been born again. How many of y'all know this, that, and I'm just gonna be real and transparent with you tonight, everything I preach, you know you can get that on your own? Here's the problem. A lot of you, though, you work full-time jobs and you can't dedicate eight to ten hours to studying out a passage. That's just the truth. So that's why we have the church. That's why we have pastors. We spend time studying. But in all reality, if you study the Bible, you're going to come up with the same stuff that I come up with. You have the exact same Holy Spirit that I have. I don't have no special, I promise, I wish I did, but I don't got no special ability. I thank God I got the Holy Spirit. But me and you got the same God. We read the same Bible. We come up with the same stuff. So this word of God, this revelation is to the saints. It's to everybody who's been born again. Not just the bishops, okay? It's important to know that. So they believe that the bishops, the pope is the head of the church. They believe that God only reveals revelation to the bishops, the popes, the priests. But also they'll believe this, that the pope is infallible in his teaching. He's infallible in his teaching. You don't have to turn there, but write this down. Numbers 23, 19. God is not a man that he should lie. That verse in Numbers, God is not a man that he should lie. So what is God saying that man does? Lies. The text said, I'm not like a man. Men are liars. By the way, every single one of us is told a lie. Man's a liar, but I'm God. I cannot lie. Can I ask you a question? Who wrote the Bible? God did. Therefore, the Pope, we are sinners. We are fallible. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, the Pope tonight is fallible. He is fallible. God alone is infallible. So, they believe that the bishop is the head of the church, but we know that Christ is the head of the church. We know that the Catholic church believes that God has entrusted revelation to the bishops, but we know that every single one of us gets illumination. And can I say this tonight? God ain't gonna give you a new revelation. Okay? Anything God's gonna give you is this right here. It's not gonna give you dreams Not gonna give you visions Okay, we've got the full canon of the Word of God what the Holy Spirit will do though is give you illumination You say preacher. What does that look like? It looks like this You've read a text a hundred times, but this time you read it and you got something you got something different out of it You know what the Holy Spirit saying I was gonna get I could have given you that earlier But you wouldn't understand it, but you've grown in your spiritual maturity now. I'm gonna give you illumination let me ask you this okay, if if We turned out this play a silly illustration, but if we turned out all the lights and I walked is The floor still here It's still here right, but I can't see it, but if I shed light I I know that it's carpet. I know that it's in squares. I know that it's in blue. It doesn't change whether it's there or not. It's always been there. But now, there's light has been shed on that I can get more details out of. That's what the Holy Spirit will do. We read our Bible. Sometimes we don't understand things. But I promise you, you keep reading it, sometimes the Holy Spirit's going to shed light on something you never understood before. And I think I told our men this, the first series I think I ever preached at this church was out of 1 John. And you know what I realized? Just about everything I preached out of that book was wrong. I'm just waiting for a couple years to go by and y'all forget what I preached on, I'm gonna throw it in the trash can and I'm gonna re-preach it to you the right way. It just is what it is. I learned and I grew and I just figured out some things that I said were wrong. Okay, and by the way, we ought not be too prideful to admit that, amen? The Pope, however, he's fallible. They believe he's infallible, but he's fallible. God is not a man that he should lie. The Pope's a man that he can lie. He's fallible, okay? They also believe that Scripture and tradition have equal value as authority. Their traditions have equal weight as the Word of God. Can I tell you that Scripture alone is the final authority? Second Timothy 3.16, we've read that verse many times. We've been starting the series. Second Timothy 3.16, you can just jot that down. It tells us that all scripture is profitable. It also tells us that it helps us to be perfect, wanting nothing. The man of God may be throughly furnished. We don't need anything else. They also teach this, that Mary is the co-mediator to whom we can entrust all our cares and petitions. They believe that Mary is the co-mediator to whom we can entrust all our cares and petitions. I want you to take your Bible and go to 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2. But Travis, when you get there, will you read verse number 5 for me? 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. Did y'all hear Mary in that verse? Because I didn't. I heard Christ Jesus. There's one mediator. There is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Can I tell you, there is no point for you to pray to a dead Mary. Mary doesn't hear your prayer. God hears our prayer. She doesn't mediate on our behalf. You know, the Bible doesn't say this, casting all your care upon Mary, for she careth for you. No, Christ does. I praise the Lord for Mary. I praise the Lord for her testimony. But listen to me tonight, Mary's not a co-mediator. She's not God. But they believe that she's a co-mediator. They also believe this tonight, that initial justification is by means of baptism. To help you understand this, the Catholic Church will baptize a baby. And Melinda, if I butcher this, you correct me. They'll baptize a baby and that starts them out with initial righteousness. And from that point, they begin the process of true justification by taking the sacraments of the church, by doing good works. They can commit moral sins which will make them fall, but they continue to earn their way up. When they baptize that baby, that baby is considered safe until the process of time comes when that child can start the process of true justification. But they'll say the initial justification is by means of baptism. I want you to take your Bible and go to Romans chapter number 3. Romans chapter number 3. By the way, one of the reasons we're Baptists is because We didn't call ourselves Baptists, by the way. We were first called re-baptizers because we realized, wait a minute, nowhere in Scripture do we ever find that the Bible says to baptize our babies. So what true Christians began to do is they said, wait a minute, that's wrong. Baptism comes after salvation, so they would baptize again. Therefore, we got the nickname re-baptizers because we understood that baptizing babies is wrong. So as they come out, they were nicknamed re-baptizers. But there's always been a group of people that always understood that. But look with me in Romans 3, verse 28. So they believe that justification is a means by baptism. But the Bible says in Romans 3, 28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. In other words, justification is by faith alone. Did the thief on the cross get baptized? Did Zacchaeus get baptized? No. There's many more that didn't have the opportunity to get baptized. Baptism tonight, church, doesn't save you. And I know most of y'all understand that. Every time I fill that thing up, I try to clean it, but sometimes there's dirt, dust floating around. That water has nothing to do with your salvation. Don't clean you up one bit. In fact, you're probably more dirty when you come out of it than when you went in. But it's a wonderful picture of what Christ did in your heart, the death, the burial, and the resurrection. But it doesn't save us tonight. They also believe this, that grace is merited by good works. In other words, we earn God's grace by doing good deeds. You're already in Romans. Go to chapter 11. Romans 11. Look at what Paul says in verse 6. And if by grace, then is it no more of works? Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. You know what Paul said? You can't earn grace. Because if I worked for it, it wasn't grace to begin with. If you work for something, listen to me, you deserve the payment that you get for your work. You know what grace is? A whole bunch of God's goodness that we don't deserve. Paul says you can't work for it. If you work for it and you got it, it's not grace. So they believe that grace can be earned or merited by good works. But listen to me, we can't work for it. Grace is a free gift. And I'm thankful that I don't got to earn God's love tonight. I don't got to earn His grace. They also believe that salvation is attained by cooperating with grace through faith, good works, and participation in the sacraments. So they believe that salvation is earned, it's attained by you cooperate with grace through faith. So there's a form of grace through faith, but also they add to it good works and you participate in the church sacraments. The difference, church, the difference between sacraments Shane, I'm looking for the word that we call it. What do we call the Lord's Supper and baptism? Ordinances. Ordinances, sacraments. Sacraments is this. We don't call them sacraments because sacrament means that you're doing this stuff to be saved. Ordinance means we're doing it because we are saved. You do not take part of the Lord's Supper and you do not get baptized unless you've already been saved. Okay? But they believe that when you take that cup, that juice, that bread, that it literally turns into the blood of Christ and literally turns into the body of Christ, that you do that to earn your part in salvation. Now, we know, and we've read this verse many times, salvation is attained by grace through faith, has nothing to do with works, Ephesians 2, 8, 9. We've had that scripture many times, you can write that one down. They also believe this, I'm almost done, they also believe this, that no one can know if they, you know, out of all the sad things of Roman Catholicism, I think this is the saddest one right here. This is what they believe, that no one can know if they actually attain eternal life. Isn't that sad? They hope so. I hope when I stand before God, everything's right. What a miserable life to live. I want you to take your Bible and go to 1 John 5. 1 John 5. 1 John 5. Can I tell you, church, y'all have this verse right here memorized. Y'all have it circled, starred, because I promise you'll be going back to this verse many times with other people who doubt their Christianity, doubt their salvation. John said this, 1 John 5, look with me, verse 13. These things have I written unto you. So who's he writing to? He says, that believe in the name of the Son of God. So they're Christians. So I'm right, now understand this, when John says name, the name, this isn't just his title, okay? So Kevin, like it's not the same as saying Kevin, okay? We name, our name really just be honest with you means nothing. Like my name means lover of horses and I hate horses, okay? Names don't mean anything. But the phrase name in your Bible means the testimony of. what this person did. So, that word name means the report. So, when John says, those of you, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name, he said, those of you that believe on the report, the testimony of Christ, what he did. He said, I'm writing this to you, these folks. Those of you that believe on it, he says, that ye may know Not hope so, think so, maybe so. He says, I'm telling you, if you believe on the name of the Son of God, you can know that you have eternal life. And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. The believer tonight can know that he or she has eternal life. Preacher, how? I promise you this, it ain't based on how you feel. There will be times in your walk with God you are going to feel unsaved. Mark my word there are gonna be times you'll think in your mind if I was really a Christian I would have never done that I would have never thought that I would have never went there Can I tell you? Saved Christian born-again people can act just like the child of devil devil was lost people can But I'm thankful tonight that my salvation has nothing to do with what I've done or what I have not done or how I feel But it's based on what the Word of God says. And John says, hey, just keep on believing the name of Son of God, because those of you that do, you can know that you have eternal life. No one, they say nobody can know it. I'm thankful my Bible says different tonight. It says that I can know. They also believe this, the Christian soul goes to purgatory after death to be cleansed of the sins that had not been fully satisfied during this life. There's so much stuff in the air. So if this person committed horrible sins, then they can go to purgatory. If their sins haven't been fully satisfied during this life, they'll go to purgatory. And if people pray enough for them, then their soul will be released from purgatory. Well, my question is, the people that's praying for them, when do they know to stop praying? At what magic moment is the soul released from purgatory? How many sins do you have to commit to end up in the purgatory? There's so many unknowns, but write this down. 1 John 2, 2. So they'll say that in purgatory their sins have to be cleansed. But you know what 1 John 2, 2 says? And He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. To say that we must atone for our sins by a cleansing in purgatory is to deny the atonement and the sufficiency of the blood of Christ. Lastly, they believe this tonight, that the sacrificial work of redemption is continually carried out through the sacrifice of the mass. In other words, essentially they're saying this, Jesus Christ's work is not done. When you come partake in mass, it's a continual work. That's why, and I always butcher this word, Melinda, you may have to help me with it, transub. Say it louder, Brother Jason. Yes, that word. That is the belief that the juice literally turns into the blood of Christ. That the bread literally turns into, listen, y'all, I know that that bread's nasty, don't get me wrong, but it ain't that nasty. I ain't eating flesh. It's bread. But they'll believe that it literally turns into the body and that juice literally turns into blood. And every time you partake of it, Christ is being crucified afresh. It's a continual work. But you know, my Bible says in Ephesians 1, 7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of grace. Hebrews 1.3 says, Who being in the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and the upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sin, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Those priests in the Old Testament, they never got to sit down. You know why? Because their work was never finished. Every day, those sacrifices. Every day, they had to work. They never sat. But you know, when Jesus finished the work on Calvary, Tetelestai, it is finished. The Bible says He sat down, meaning that the work was done. There is no other work to be completed. I'm thankful tonight that the blood of Christ is sufficient for every sin, past, present, and future, and I don't got to go somewhere and do all these crazy works to try to earn my way to heaven. But I'm thankful that Christ completed it for me. The sacrificial work of redemption was finished when Christ gave His life for us on the cross. He said it's finished. I'm thankful tonight, church, that it's finished. I don't got to earn my way. I don't got to do sacraments. Paul said this, it's the love of Christ that constrains me. You know why we do communion? To remind us. It's a reminder. It doesn't do anything for us. Listen, when you drink that juice and you eat that bread, you don't get closer to God. Don't make your... No, it's to remind you of what Christ has done. We ought to break our heart to think of the price that was paid on Calvary. I'm thankful that the work was finished. Let's continue, church, to contend for the faith. I'm not teaching these things tonight. Remember, it's a point to others to say that they're wrong and we're right. I'm just telling you, these Scripture references, you ought to have them written down. When they come at us, we can contend for the faith, we can speak the truth of love, and hopefully, Lord, we'll appoint them to the truth of God's Word. Let's pray. Lord, we love You tonight. Lord, I ask God that You would saturate our mind and our heart, Lord, with these Scriptures. Lord, I ask God, Lord, that You would help us, Lord, to be mighty in the Scriptures, to know what the Bible says. Lord, as we learn, God, what these different cults, different religions, Lord, as we encounter people, as we go beyond these walls, Lord, that we can help them. Lord, to understand Your goodness and Your grace. God, there's nothing that we can add to salvation. Lord, it's been complete. It's been finished. Lord, I ask God that You'd help us tonight as we travel home. Lord, would You give our people safety. Lord, I ask God that You'd bring us back at the next appointed time. We love You. In Your name we pray. Amen.