I want you to take just a few moments with me as we prepare to look at a method, a suggested method, for witnessing, sharing the gospel, telling a lost soul that's especially in Roman Catholicism about the Lord Jesus Christ. But before we do that, I thought it would be good to share with you what I personally believe is the greatest moment in modern history. Almost 500 years ago, a young monk, an Augustinian monk, was converted to Jesus Christ. No one more completely sought to please God through the Roman Catholic Church, I don't think in history, more completely sought to do that than Martin Luther. He reminds me so much of the Apostle Paul in Judaism, what Martin Luther tried to do in Romanism. And I'd like to read to you just briefly a condensation of his personal testimony. In the summer of 1505, Martin Luther entered the Augustinian convent at Erfurt. That's a city in Germany. He became a monk, as he thought, for his lifetime. The circumstances which led to this sudden step we can gather from his fragmentary utterances. And by the way, he used to have what he called table talks. And people could come to his home and his wife He had so many children already, and she just said, oh, anybody that comes can eat. And someone wrote down his table talks. And so by collecting all those together, fragmentary utterances, you can kind of put together what happened. Martin Luther was shocked by the sudden death of a friend who was struck by lightning as he walked by Martin Luther's side. That would be frightening. Shortly afterward, on the 2nd of July in 1505, two weeks before, He entered the convent. He was overtaken by a violent thunderstorm near Erfurt. And as he returned from a visit to his parents, he was so frightened by the thunderstorm, thinking he was going to get it next, that he fell to the earth and tremblingly exclaimed, help, beloved Saint Anna. I will become a monk. Saint Anna, as you know, is Mary's mother. And so he devoted himself to the monastic life. If ever there was a sincere, earnest, conscientious monk, it was Martin Luther. His sole motive was concern for his salvation. He wanted so desperately to go to heaven. To this supreme object, he sacrificed the fairest prospects of life. Into the convent, or into the monastery, Luther was welcomed by his brethren. They would sing hymns of joy and pray As he joined the Augustinian order, he was clothed with a white woolen shirt in honor of the pure virgin, a black cowl and frock tied by a leather girdle. This was his outfit as he assumed the most menial offices to subdue his pride. He would sweep the floors, he would beg in the streets for bread, and he submitted without a murmur to the ascetic severities. He would say 25 paternosteres with the Ave Maria in each of the seven appointed hours of prayer each day. He was devoted to the Holy Virgin and regularly confessed his sins to the priest at least once a week. At the same time, a complete copy of the Latin Bible was put into his hands for study, the first one he'd ever held. And he was enjoined by the new code of statutes drawn up by the monastic leader Staupitz. At the end of his year of probation, Luther solemnly promised to live until death in poverty and chastity according to the rules of the Holy Father Augustine, to render obedience to the Almighty God, to the Virgin Mary, and to the prior of the monastery. He was sprinkled with holy water as he lay prostrate on the ground in the form of a cross. They would just lay flat. in the form of a cross. As he rose from the ground, he was greeted as an innocent child, freshly cleansed from all sin by baptism, and assigned then to a separate cell in the Augustinian order with a table, a bedstead, and a chair. That's all he had. You renounce all things, poverty, and chastity, and all that. That's all he had. The next two years, which followed, he divided between pious exercises and theological studies. He read diligently his copy of the Bible. He excited the admiration of his brethren because he was able to dispute on scholastic questions from the Bible. And no one had ever quite done that before. They didn't get that interested in the Bible. His heart, though, was not satisfied with brain work. His chief concern was to become a saint and to earn his place in heaven. If ever, he said afterwards, a monk got to heaven by monkery, I would have gotten there. He observed the minutest details of discipline. No one surpassed him in prayer, in fasting, in night watches, in self-mortification. He was always held up as a model of sanctity. And if you know anything about Luther's life, you know that he nearly died on many occasions because he would sleep without blankets or sheets. He would sleep on the stone floor in the German winters on the floor of his little cubicle And he would often be so sick and feverish that they had to carry him to his prayer times and to mass. But he was sadly disappointed. He hoped to escape sin and temptation behind the walls of the cloister. However, he found no peace and rest in spite of all of his pious exercises. The more he seemed to advance externally, the more he felt the burden of sin internally. Staupitz was Luther's spiritual father. He was the abbot of this monastery. And Luther said, first caused the light of the gospel to shine in the darkness of my heart. Staupitz directed Luther from his sins, instead of constantly, he was always focusing on his sins. And he says, why don't you look at the merits of Jesus Christ, which was a novel thought for Martin Luther. He directed him from the law to the cross, from his personal works to faith, from scholasticism to a study of the scriptures. He taught him true repentance consists not in self-imposed penances and punishments, but in a change of heart and must proceed from the contemplation of Christ's sacrifice in which the secret of God's eternal will was revealed. Staupitz. was seeking to lead him to Christ. Well, he encouraged Luther to enter the priesthood in 1507. He brought him to Wittenberg, a town now famous to us. He induced him into the school and asked him to take the degree of Doctor of Divinity and to start regular preaching. Well, by the continued study of Paul's epistle, Luther was gradually brought to the conviction that the sinner is justified by faith alone without the works of the law. He experienced this truth in his heart long before he understood it in all of its bearings. He found in it that peace of conscience which he had sought in vain by his exercises as a monk. He pondered day and night over what the meaning of the righteousness of God truly was. and thought that it's righteous punishment of sinners. But the closer to the close of his convent life, he came to the conclusion that it is the righteousness which God freely gives in Christ to those who believe in him. And here's his conclusion. Righteousness is not to be acquired by man through his own exertions and by his own merits. It is complete and perfect in Christ. And all the sinner has to do is just to accept it from him. as a free gift. That was his first conclusion. His second was justification is a judicial act of God whereby he acquits the sinner of guilt and clothes him with the righteousness of Christ on the sole condition of personal faith which apprehends and appropriates Christ and shows its life and power through good works as a good tree brings forth good fruit. So righteousness is Christ, and justification is received graciously, and it closed us. Finally, Luther's beliefs found faith far more than a mere assent of the mind to the authority of the church. To Martin, it was a hearty trust, a full surrender of the whole man to Christ. And that faith lived and moved in Christ as its element, disconnected from Christ. It was pernicious error, he said. Well, in the second year of his monastic life as he was making these discoveries, he was still in a state of perplexity. And Luther was fully ordained to the priesthood. And on May 2, 1507, he was able to say his first mass. This was a great event in the life of any priest. And he was so overwhelmed by the solemnity of offering the tremendous sacrifice of Christ for the living and the dead, he fainted at the altar. Well, the Pauline doctrine of justification set forth by the epistle to the Romans and Galatians had never been before clearly and fully understand, not by Augustine nor by Bernard, who confounded justification with sanctification. There is the difference Luther found between Catholicism and his Protestant conception. In the Catholic system, justification is a gradual process conditioned by faith and good works. To Luther, the Protestant system, it was a single act of God, the justification is, followed by sanctification, all based on the merits of Christ, not the merits of the individual. This experience was a revelation to Luther. It shed light upon the whole Bible. It made to him a book of life and comfort. He was relieved of his terrible load of guilt by an act of free grace. He was led out of the dark prison house of self-inflicted penance into the daylight, into the fresh air of God's redeeming love. Justification broke the fetters of his legalistic slavery to all of the machinery of Romanism and filled his soul with joy and peace because he was adopted. And he had had the very gates of heaven opened to him Well, it was the autumn of the year 1510, and he was in Wittenberg. But before he graduated as a Doctor of Divinity, Luther was sent to Rome in the interest of his order and at the suggestion of Staupitz, who wished to bring about a disciplinary reform and a closer union of all the other convents and monastic orders in Germany. Martin Luther went to Rome and ascended on bended knees the 28 steps of the famous Scala Santa, said to have been transported from the Judgment Hall of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem to Rome by Leo IV in 850. At every step, as he climbed up those stairs on his knees, The word of the scripture sounded as a significant protest in his ear. You understand, they go up one step and they stop and they pray through. And by the way, if you go to Rome, they're just people swarming the steps and they're all going by each other and it's just crowded with people. And they just go up on their knees up to 28 steps, praying one of the rosary prayers on every step up. But Luther, as he was on his way up, he kept hearing in his ears, the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith, Romans 117. Thus we have the marvelous conversion of Martin Luther. It was at that moment, he said, that everything in his life finally connected together. And though he had read the scriptures and studied justification and found all that Christ had provided, it wasn't till he was in the midst of his own self-efforts climbing, as it were, the steps to heaven. that the word of God brought faith. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And there on those steps, he was converted. There's a marvelous letter that Martin Luther wrote to his son Paul explaining the moment of his conversion. And this is what his son wrote in 1544. In the year 1544, and by the way, this letter is in a glass case in a castle in Germany. It's one of the treasures that you can see. It's historical and beautiful. This is what his son wrote, Dr. Paul Luther. In the year 1544, my dearest father, in the presence of us all, narrated the whole story of his journey to Rome. He acknowledged with great joy that in that city, through the spirit of Jesus Christ, he had come to the knowledge of the truth of everlasting gospel. It happened this way. As he repeated his prayers on the ladder and staircase, those 28 steps of Pilate, the words of the prophet Habakkuk and the apostle Paul in Romans 117 came suddenly to his mind, the just shall live by faith. Thereupon, he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as a chief foundation of all of his doctrines. Martin Luther converted as he knelt before God and realized he could not save himself. Let's open to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10. Really, there is no unique way of leading a Roman Catholic to Christ. There is a mindset, though, that is vital in leading anyone to Jesus Christ. And I'd like to kind of sketch that for you now, because I really believe our basis for evangelizing a Roman Catholic, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or anyone else, just a pagan American, are all the same. And I like to call this the very basis for evangelism, period. What is our basis for any evangelism? And I'd like to read with you 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10, and then we'll have a word of prayer. And let's let the beauty of this verse, which some of you may never have thought of in this light, dawn in our hearts. Second Thessalonians 2.10, it says this, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish. It's talking about the horrors of the tribulation, the Antichrist and all that. Here's why people perish. Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Interesting thought. Let's bow before our Lord. Thank you, O Father, that we who are born again receive by your gracious mercy a love for the truth that could not be dissuaded. We wanted to meet you who are the way, the truth, and the life. And you drew us to yourself, and we have received a lifelong consuming desire for the truth. and we were saved. But I pray that we would understand the very basis for our evangelizing anyone with the good news, burn it deeply into our hearts, bless it to our souls, and then fill our lips with the inability to stop speaking about Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. There are three truths that I've kind of latched onto that others have taught me over the years as they've guided me in my evangelism. I remember as a young boy, I used to always be a soul winner, as they called it in our church. I was always out soul winning. I can remember many nights coming home to my parents and telling them about who in the neighborhood and what they had responded to the gospel. And over the years, different pastors that I've had have pointed out verses to me that I summarize in three points. And the first one is this, only God, can give sinners the hunger for truth. Now, I saw that most clearly when I was sitting at dinner in Switzerland. In 1978, the summer of 1978, I got to stay with Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith. And it was very exciting. It was a fun time at their home. And I can distinctly remember the dinner at their home that summer because they were telling the story about a man from India, and basically the story In fact, dinner started at 6 and didn't get over till 10. And I can't tell you a thing we ate, but I'll always remember the story because it's so gripping. But basically, in the 60s, some tourist in India had wrapped up some food in a gospel track and thrown it to some of the starving and malnourished children that were there in this village somewhere out in the distant part of India. And that was an interesting method of evangelism. A gospel page, they actually just tore pages out of the gospels. And they were throwing it with food in it to the kids. Now, it's unusual. But a young man, hungry, grabbed that, unwrapped it, ate the food, and then noticed it was written in a different language. It was German, actually. And so this young man kept it. And he would go everywhere asking if anyone could read it to him, because he had this desire to know why the tourists threw him food. And so finally, he found someone that could read it. And what they said is, it's the German language, and it's about the god of the Europeans. He saved up and did everything he could and he got enough money and he started the long train ride. If you know anything about going across, there's a train that's very dangerous and you can get from India through the high mountains across Turkey and the Mesopotamian area and into Europe. And he did that keeping with him this piece of paper. And then when he got to Europe, he started saying, does anybody know what this is? I want to know about this. And so they started reading it to him. And he understood by then enough language that they started reading to him from the Gospel of John. And he says, where can I find the people that wrote this? And after asking dozens of people, finally someone said, well, the person that wrote it, you know, he isn't here anymore. But we can tell you about people that believe it. And they sent him to Libri. And that young man came walking into the village of Felers where Libri is. And he walked in and knocked on the door of the home of the Schaffers and said to them, I, ever since I was a young man, have always asked God to reveal himself to me. He said, and someone threw me this paper around bread, and I have wanted to know who wrote this, because it's the truth, and I want to understand it. And they led him to the Lord. And every time I remember Francis Schaffer telling that story, I remember 2 Thessalonians 2 10 because those who do not receive the love of the truth will not be saved if they don't get that passionate longing for truth number one only God can give sinners a hunger for truth and the first key to salvation is a love for the truth and those because at the end of verse 10 they did not receive the love of the truth they might not be saved. Secondly, let's turn back to Romans 10.17 and this is just foundational. You know this verse. Romans 10.17, a sinner next must come to know and understand certain doctrines or teachings from the Bible. Basically this, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. And so for a person to be saved, God has to give them love for the truth and they have to understand the revelation of God which is in the Word of God and so Romans 10 17 faith comes by hearing the word and that's what the Lord does in their life they hear the Word of God thirdly the message must be from the Word of God not from the teachings and traditions of men now this is where we get into trouble because a lot of people are enmeshed not in the Word of God, but they're much like the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they're bound by the rules of men. My dear friends, my neighbors, when I share with them about Jesus Christ, they usually back up and share what saint or doctor or whoever said. And what they've done is they've elevated up their traditions on the same level as the Scripture. And so they can't be saved, because if the message that they receive is not from the Word of God, if it's the teaching and traditions of men, then this is what happens. Turn back to Mark chapter 4, the gospel by Mark chapter 4, because Jesus dealt with this. In fact, all of the problems we have in soul winning, Jesus encountered the same ones. And in Mark 4 and verse 12, Jesus said, this, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them." What he's saying is these people are ever hearing, but they never understand. And they don't ever let the Word of God come through and penetrate. They don't love the truth, and they don't listen to the Word. And that's sad. Well, as long as you're in Mark, if you want to turn to Luke 24. Here's a good example of the next facet of soul winning. Luke 24 and verse 45 tells us that Christ opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. He opened their understanding. The only way a person can be saved is God and only God can open their heart and make them understand. Only God can do that. And so the first basis of our evangelism is only God can give sinners a hunger for the truth. And the salvation that God gives is holy of the Lord. And they must come to the understanding that they come with empty hands. They don't have anything to pay. And as the songwriter says, that they come and simply cling to the cross of Christ, not to the object like they do in Romanism, not holding on to a crucifix, but clinging to the sacrifice of Christ on that cross once and for all. So number one, only God gives sinners a hunger for the truth. Secondly, and if you want to look at 1 Thessalonians 1.5, you were in 2 Thessalonians briefly, and there are many scriptures, but 1 Thessalonians 1.5 tells us a second point. Number one, only God can give sinners a hunger for truth. Number two, only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Jesus. And that's something we forget. We think that we have to somehow reel them in. Only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Christ. I can't. You can't. None of us can. Only the Spirit of God can. Look what Paul testified. verse 5 of 1 Thessalonians 1. Now this is not Jewish evangelism. This is pagan evangelism. This is a port city on the Ignatian Way. It was a town that was just crawling with people and all the vices, kind of the San Francisco of the day. Look at this. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. See, it's the gospel message of the Spirit of God at work in their hearts, drawing them to Christ. And only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Christ. A sinner must have the conviction that the Word of God is true, because God gives them a hunger for truth. And then the Holy Spirit, as John says in John 16, 8, begins the work of convicting them regarding their sin. The unbeliever will not see that he needs salvation. until the Spirit of God convicts him of the sin in his heart. And what's so important is, see, it doesn't matter if you're working with a Roman Catholic, or just a lost pagan Protestant, or a pagan pagan. If God has not given them a love for the truth, and if the Holy Spirit is not prompting their hearts, you can pray with them, and you can tell them, now you're saved. But if God has not given them a love for the truth, and if the Spirit of God has not begun a work of conviction, they are not saved. They have made a decision. They have prayed. They've done whatever you ask them to do. And they might go on their way happily. But the scriptures describe salvation as a work holy of God. And that's why most Roman Catholics don't understand that God's punishment for their sins is death. They don't ever learn they have to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who took their place. And so what they think is that they're just trying to work off God being upset at them. And so they think the more good stuff that they think is good that they send toward him, he'll finally accept them. See, they don't understand that the penalty for even one sin is the absolute wrath of God and eternal punishment. They don't understand that. They've been blind to that. Their church will not teach them that. So what they think is, they're not even going in that direction. They're over here, and they think I'm, you're bad, and I'm bad, but who knows who's bad, but I'm going to do as much as I can to make God happy. And they think they can make it to God. But only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Jesus, and only God can give sinners a hunger for truth. Here's the last point, and let's look at, Acts 20, because as I said, there are kind of three overarching principles that are always on my mind as I share a track, share a gospel witness, earnestly exhort someone to come to Christ. The first thing on my mind is only God can make them love the truth. And I listen. And I've told you this story before, that I remember distinctly someone who the Spirit of God had given them a heart's desire for the truth. And that person could not be dissuaded. I did not want to witness to them. I did not want to talk to them. I was not interested in talking to them. And they wouldn't stop asking me questions. Because God had given them a love for the truth. And as I shared the scriptures, finally, a little bit grudgingly, they were convicted of their sins. It's the most wonderful thing to see. Third point, only the grace of God can save a sinner. Acts 20, 21 says this, that when God opens a person's heart and makes them love the truth, when the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make them realize that they're a sinner and begin the process of drawing them to Christ, that sinner must make a conscious, willful choice to forsake their own works, to forsake their own righteousness, and to put their complete hope trust, confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what it says in Acts 20, 21. Testifying to Jews and also to Greeks. There's a notion afoot that there's a gospel message for the Jewish people and there's a different message for us. And the Jews had to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. That's Romans 10. But the Gentiles didn't. What's interesting is here it merges. And it says everybody. Jews and also Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. See that? That was the universal message of the first century, the apostolic church. Paul said, the man who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the wicked, that one's faith is credited to him. Now, if anyone will not repent of their self-efforts, dead works that they hope to please God with, then they can't understand a gracious, righteous God. If they will not, look at verse 21, if they will not repent toward God and faith toward Christ. If they will not, what is repent? They change their mind about God. They formerly thought they didn't need Him, or they formerly thought that they were helping Him, or they formerly thought that they have to turn in full, conscious, willful choice toward Him as the only hope. And only the grace of God can save a sinner. And if a person doesn't realize that all their righteousness is like filthy rags, why would they want to be clothed with anything else? Because most of us like ourselves enough that we don't need anything stripped away. Well, mere intellectual assent to be believing certain doctrines will not save anyone. There are two illustrations. One is used in our EE training. The story goes that there was a tightrope walker who stretched a wire across Niagara Falls. He then carefully walked across. He carried a 200-pound dummy on his back from the New York side to the Canadian side. And when he safely reached the Canadian side, he asked the spectators to raise their hand if they believed he could now carry a real person. They all raised their hands. So then asked for a volunteer. Immediately, all the hands went down. They all believed he could do it, but no one chose to trust him with their life. Similar is the one who refuses to trust Jesus with his eternal life, clinging rather to his own efforts because he believes Jesus may be unable to save him completely. There's another story. And I'm going to share a lot of items from different Catholic missions. But I like the illustration that the Roman Catholic is but if you can imagine a person holding on that's Roman Catholic they're holding on to their baptism they swing to the next one and that's their confirmation they swing to the next one and that's going to the mass and they do that through their whole life and then they swing up here to doing their penance when they're bad and then they swing over here and they're trying to get to heaven and hell is underneath them and when they're when they're confronted with the gospel they're they're swinging between their their loops hoping to get to heaven all of a sudden they bump into Jesus Christ And he says to them, you got to let go and grab me, and I will hold you securely and take you to heaven. And they have been swinging their whole life between the bars, going across, trying to get to heaven on their own. And when Jesus says, you got to let go of all of your self-effort, your own works, hold on to you, they go, no, thanks. I've been doing this my whole... And that's the problem, because they have been conditioned to swing from rung to rung. And that's why Romanism is such a dangerous error. Well, are there any Catholics who are Christians? I know all of us would say we know someone who is a Roman Catholic and born again. But to answer that, I'd like to quote someone who spent their life studying this. And this is what they said. Are there any Catholics who are Christian? Not if you believe the Bible, which describes a Christian as one who has been eternally saved by God's unmerited grace, justified freely by faith without works, and that's Ephesians 2, 5 through 7 and Romans 4, 5, and accepted by God only because of Christ's imputed righteousness, Philippians 3, 9. Yes, there are born-again Christians who worship in the Catholic Church, but they usually leave soon after they have been converted. For a Catholic to be converted, he must repent of dead works all this rung swinging he's been doing his whole life, and believe the gospel. He cannot believe salvation is by grace through faith and at the same time believe it is through water baptism and good works. He cannot believe Jesus paid the penalty for sin completely and still believe sins are remitted through indulgences and purged by the fires of purgatory. They're just two exact opposites. I want to read to you right now just some principles for how to witness effectively to Roman Catholic. Number one, always use your Bible as a guide for your discussion. You will not ever get anywhere if you don't start out with the Bible saying, hey, do you have your Bible? Let them use theirs. They can use the due way. Any Catholic Bible will do. Say, here, let's use yours. And let them get out their special one. Always use the Bible as a guide. And what you say is, let's just, instead of saying, well, I think and you think and all this, read the words. So number one is always use the Bible as a guide for your discussion. Then use the Bible to define the truth. And what you have to do is define a sinner. And Romans 3 defines it. And salvation, it defines it. He gave himself for me. And we just define the terms. Thirdly, we always start with sin. God's justice demands punishment for sin. And what we have to do is we have to say, have you sinned? What takes away sin? And talk about the sacrifice of Christ. Always be pointing to Christ. And it's so easy to get lost in the complexity of the Catholic religion. Therefore, avoid any trails that lead you away from the saving power of the gospel. Proclaim Christ is sufficient. That's what the Bible says, Hebrews 10.10, Romans 1.16, 2 Timothy 3.15. His righteousness, His intercession. Then explain the free gift. And I love this. There are three promises Jesus offers to repentant sinners, which are foreign to nearly every Roman Catholic. Number one, the complete forgiveness of sins on the spot right now. Complete, not partial, not hold over you and worry about them. Complete. Number two, the imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness. That means there's saints on the spot. Boy, that shakes them up. I'm totally forgiven. I totally have the imputed righteousness of Christ. You know what the last thing is? They don't realize they can be totally forgiven. They don't realize they can be a saint on the spot, righteous in Christ. You know what the last one is? They don't realize that they can have a secure salvation. They don't have to go down and through the purging of the fires to get clean enough to go to heaven. They don't know those things. So we emphasize and explain the free gift. And then we emphasize it comes by grace alone. And then we go back to sticking to God's word. For by grace we've been saved through faith. And that not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. It's not of works, so we don't boast. Only God can give sinners a hunger for the truth. Do you have a hunger for the truth? I do. Only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to Christ. Remember when you were drawn to Christ, how your heart longed to know Him. And finally, only the grace of God has saved us sinners.