The first topic we're gonna talk about tonight is the Pope, Vicar of Christ. Is he the stand-in or replacement? Is he God's man on earth? And we'll talk about it in two different ways. Vicar of Christ, replacement for Christ here on earth, and then is he infallible? So, you may remember from the first two nights, the pattern is this. We'll look at what the catechism says, and then what the scripture says. I will encourage you to try to think in your mind when you read what Catholicism teaches, what the scripture says. Try to think for yourself what the scripture says. 882, the Pope, Bishop of Rome, and Peter's successor is the perpetual invisible source and foundation of the unity, both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful. For the Roman pontiff, by reason of his office as vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered. Let me pause here for a minute, saying any man has full, supreme, and universal power, and you're not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, should concern you, should really concern you. All right? I have respect for your Pastor Emeritus. I have respect for Pastor Auberdeen. But I would never want to say that either of them have full supreme and universal power over First Baptist Church of Oak Creek, much less over the whole true church that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. And furthermore, don't ever try to attribute that to me. Okay? So that's, at the very least, bold. All right, so that's 882. You don't have to go much further, and you'll find an 891. Mind you, when it's bold, I emphasized it to make it easier to grab your attention. I realized that in reading these long paragraphs, it seems sometimes I'm just straight through, but I want you to catch certain parts of it. You can read it on your own. but the bold is emphasis I have added. The Roman Pontiff, head of the College of Bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office. When as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act of doctrine pertaining to faith or morals, the infallibility promised to the church is also present in the body of bishops when together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme magisterium above all in an ecumenical council. When the church through a supreme magisterium proposes a doctrine for belief as being divinely revealed and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions must be adhered to with the obedience of faith. This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine revelation itself. Nutshell. He has infallibility in virtue of his office. I've met, in my opinion, some of the greatest and best pastors in the United States. Though if you get really close to the best men of God, you'll understand that they are men, and they make mistakes. They do. If you get, you don't have to get close to me. You'll find that I make mistakes too. I'm not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. but they say that about the Pope, and that it's promised to the church, present to the bishops, successors of Peter. I would encourage you sometime to go through the whole book of Acts and look at Peter as being Pope. We have in our tract library, I don't think I have any copies with me. I think I ran out earlier on the trip. It's a book called My Passport to Freedom. It's a testimony of a lady who, in adulthood, was going through some of her things and found a church bulletin. She was Roman Catholic. And she found a church bulletin from the church where she was married. And in the notes, in the bulletin, they were talking about how great Peter was as the first pope, and they were encouraged to read the book of Acts to see how Peter acted as pope. So she did. Guess what she found? He was not a very good pope because he wasn't. And you ought to do it yourself. Search the word Peter and go through it and find it for yourself. That's the one who they want to attribute as being the head of the church or the first pope of their church. So, before we head into scripture, Any passages come into mind? Does God need a replacement or stand-in for Christ as infallible on the face of the planet? No. Well, let me ask you this. This is a little bit off my notes. Who did God send to be infallible on earth when Christ went back to heaven? The Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus said it would be expedient for Him to go back to heaven, because then the Comforter would come. Why was it better for Jesus to go back to heaven and the Comforter to come than for Him to stay here? You ever stop and think about that? Go ahead, Sal. Correct. Jesus limited Himself to the body of a man. He came as a man, 100% man, 100% God. But He limited Himself to being in one place at one time, correct? Is the Holy Spirit limited by that way in any way today? No, right before we were getting ready to start, I had my phones in the library and was listening to my home church, the church service there. The Holy Spirit could meet in that congregation and others in the city of Hagerstown, Maryland, and still be here tonight and not be taxed at all. It was expedient. God sent the Holy Spirit. This is actually a slight against the Holy Spirit. When you think about it, it's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. So what does the Scripture say? Most importantly, not what Mark Menos says, but what does the passage of Scripture say? John 14, 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you how many things? All things. All things. And bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Preachers Sunday school teachers VBS workers pastors missionaries Our job is to proclaim the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit do his job It's not my job to convict man of sin It's my job to tell them what the Bible says and not get in the Holy Ghost way John 16 13 how be it when he the Spirit of truth has come he will guide you into how much truth and All truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. We don't need a man to be a vicar or a replacement for Christ, do we? Those that are saved have the Holy Ghost living inside of you. 1 Corinthians 2, 11 through 13. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Be careful of trying to substitute the work of the Holy Ghost. Some people try to do that as a terrible thing. Be careful of that, be sure. Matthew 24, 23 and 24. Then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. There will be people who think that there are Christ's that rise up, there will be false prophets, and they'll do signs and wonders with the idea of trying to deceive people. You go to a Latin American country where Catholicism is so strong, and they will tell you of things that they've heard that have happened. And I have no doubt that some of the things have happened, but it's not of God. It's not of God. It's designed and intended to draw your heart and attention away from God. There are miraculous things that happen. They are supernatural, but not of God. Not everything that's supernatural is of God. The devil has ways of doing things himself. Now, in comparison, the Pope versus Jesus, did Jesus ever control great wealth? No. Tell me about it. Yes, you're right, and? Nowhere to lay his head. Correct. If we were to be a stand-in for Christ, wouldn't we resemble that, instead of being heads over billions, if not trillions of dollars of wealth? Jesus dressed like a common man. The Bible says in Isaiah that there was no beauty in him that we should desire him. I suspect that Jesus was a fairly average-looking person. I suspect that, and biblically speaking, remember, when they wanted to push him over the brow of the hill, what did he do? Walk through the midst. Right. Jesus wasn't some superhuman, some massive good-looking guy that would draw us in our adoration because of his good looks. Jesus lived in simple surroundings. In every way, he was of a simple background. He was a carpenter, he came from Galilee. We're not talking the creme de la creme of Israeli or Jewish society. Jesus was rejected and hated because he told the truth. The Pope is widely accepted in almost every political circumstance. When the Pope wants an audience with a leader almost without exception, he gets it. Jesus was rejected and hated because he told the truth. So, is he the Vicar of Christ? No. Is the Pope infallible? All right, taking this just a little bit further, okay? Is the Pope infallible? Well, what do we find in 889 and 890? In order to preserve the church in the purity of the faith handed down by the apostles, Christ, who is the truth, willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a supernatural sense of faith, the people of God, under the guidance of the church's living magisterium, translation, church leadership, unhalingly adheres to this faith. They think that the church, and as a direct result, the pope, is infallible. My question is, this pope speaks often against traditional Catholic beliefs. Look at his quotes on homosexuality. So my question is this, he disagrees with a pope that's still alive. Which one's infallible? Did God change on the matter? No. 890, the mission of the magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the people of God abides in the truth that liberates. In other words, It's gonna be a liberating truth. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the church's shepherds with a charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms. Are the shepherds infallible or without error? Newsflash, none of you ever knew this or suspected this, but Pastor Brown made a mistake in the last 44 years. One or two, okay? And if you figured out what it was, hush. And your pastor's gonna make one or two in the next 44 years as well. But if you ever discover what that is, be quiet about it. Is the Pope infallible? No. No, he's not. But they teach that he is. All right. 2050, 2050, the Roman pontiff and the bishops, as authentic teachers, preach to the people of God the faith which is to be believed and applied in moral life. It is also incumbent on them to pronounce on moral questions that fall within the natural law and reason. Next section, the infallibility of the magisterium of the pastors extends to all the elements of doctrine, including moral doctrine, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, expounded, or observed. Infallible, okay? Let me tell you a discussion I had. When I first took over the conversion center, I had a lawn care business that I ran on the side to supplement our income. And one particular day, I was talking to one of my lawn customers, staunch Roman Catholic, but he liked to discuss politics. He was a strong conservative for family values and was disturbed by the changes he was seeing in the Roman Catholic Church. Some of your old guard or older generation Roman Catholics are confused and concerned with the direction the Roman Catholic Church is going. They're going woke. Simply put, that's what they're doing. So I was talking to him, and I found with this particular gentleman that if I asked him questions, that would be a good way for a conversation. If you emphatically state something, they'd kind of hem and haw, and him in particular, the conversation would be over. And I asked him a question. I said, sir, are your priests allowed to be married? And he said, no, no. I said, what about your bishops or cardinals? No, never. I said, what about your popes? Are they allowed to marry? He said, no, no pope's ever been married. I said, I got a question. He said, what? I said, the Bible tells me that Peter had a mother-in-law. He said, what? I said, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. He did? I said, yeah. And he kind of looked stumped for a second. I said, sir, what's the point of having a mother-in-law if you can't be married? Why would you ever want to do that? He says, I don't know. So I went about my business, went and mowed his lawn, weed whacked, blew off his sidewalks and driveway, and as I was getting ready to leave, he comes to the door and hands me the money and says, I guess that's one of the things they changed. Yeah. So which was it? Can be married or can't be? It's a good question. It's an inconsistency that they struggle with. What does the scripture say? Romans 3.10, there is none righteous, no, not one. Is the Pope infallible? Romans 3.10 says not. Verse 12, they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Is the Pope infallible? Romans 3.10 and 3.12 say no. What about verse 23? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3.10, 12, 23, all say the Pope's not infallible. I will tell you this, many Catholics will tell you that the Pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra, meaning when he speaks in authority on Roman Catholic things. My question is, who determines when he's ex cathedra and when he's not? Man? Sinful man? So sinful man determines when a pope is infallible or when he is fallible? What gives us the right to judge on that? We don't. God's Word does. 2 Corinthians 5.21, Who's him? Lord Jesus Christ, correct. Hebrews 5.9, in being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Who is this speaking of in Hebrews 5.9? The Lord Jesus Christ. There is a danger in attaching your level of spirituality to a religious leader. Imagine what people think when they open up the newspaper or they turn on the news and they find out exactly what their priest has been doing with other people for years on end. You've been trusting that person to forgive your sins and to say last rites. and to baptize you. Your salvation's attached to that if you're a Roman Catholic. You think your salvation's attached to that. What a terrible thing. It's very, very sad. Very sad for them. That's why they need prayer, and that's why they need the Lord Jesus Christ. They need to be saved. Matthew 19, 17. Jesus is speaking. What is he trying to do? He's calling them into question. They're calling him good, and he says, one's good, and it's God. Do you know why he said that? He was God. He is God. One good. Mark 10, 18, Jesus said unto him, Why call a psalmy good? There is none good but one, that is God. Do you remember when I said when something is mentioned in more than one gospel, God's trying to prove a point? You ever work with a contractor? Pastor Auberdeen, you've done some contracting work, correct? A little bit? You ever work with someone that's really good with a hammer? You ever watch them? They may hammer a nail, and you're pretty convinced it's as far in as it goes, but what do they do? Hit it one more time. Why? They want to seat that nail down in there tight, don't they? They don't want it to buckle or come up at all. When God has His Holy Spirit inspire something over again, over again in the Gospels, He's driving the nail home. In fact, you find it in Matthew 19, you find it in Mark 10, look at Luke 18. Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, that is, God. 1 Thessalonians 5.15, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. We're not to render evil, we're to follow after that which is good. Where do fallible men get the authority to declare other men infallible? If others, then Jesus are infallible, then God must be wrong. Consider this, what authority do they have to say that a man is infallible? Now, I'm not intending to get political at all, but one of the things that is a topic of discussion in the world of politics right now is how are they going to determine the candidate for the Democratic National Convention? Because they've already had primaries, haven't they? And so they're trying to figure out the process they're going to do it. And there's a great deal of interest in seeing how they do it. All right? That's it. Leave it there. Don't go any further. How do fallible men say that someone's infallible? What gives us that right? We're sinful men. Okay. Now for another one. And we're not going to be able to scratch the surface too much on this one. Transubstantiation. Alright, so, who in here is former Roman Catholic? Who's been saved out of Catholicism? Raise your hand for me, okay? Who can tell me what transubstantiation is, in a nutshell? Go ahead, Sal. Correct, into the literal body and literal blood of Christ. Let me caution you. When you deal with Roman Catholics, do not ask the question, have you received Christ? Okay? Those of you that are former Catholic, if you were still Roman Catholic and I came up to you and said, have you received Christ? Or have you received Christ as your Savior? As a Catholic, what would you have said? Absolutely. Now in our mind, were thinking they got saved. In your mind, you're thinking, I took Mass, right? Kind of an interesting story, I was teaching on this in Decatur, Illinois. I was preaching for a pastor there, a friend of mine, and I was teaching on that very particular phrase, receive Christ, and at the end, the pastor wanted me to take questions. And there was a visiting pastor and his wife from Georgia. And bless his heart, I think he meant well, but he didn't know what he was saying. He said, I disagree with you. I said, that's nothing new. Lots of people disagree with him. What do you mean? He said, I have asked many wonderful Catholics if they've received Christ, and they've told me that they're saved. And I said, What do you mean you asked if they received Christ? Did you use those words? Yes. I said, do you know what they're thinking? He said, yes, that they've been born again. I said, no. It means that they've taken the wafer and they've drunk the wine and they've received the Eucharist, which Lord willing, we'll get to tomorrow night. He said, that's not it at all. And I said, I'm sorry, that's what it means. And I asked the same question I just did. Anybody here a former Roman Catholic? And a bunch raised their hand. I said, what does receive Christ mean to a Catholic? They said that exact same thing. They believe in transubstantiation. Now, I've been here before when Pastor Brown has talked about consubstantiation. Who knows what that is? The mystery. Yes, go ahead. You can say it better than I can. Some mystic presence, yes. Correct. Now, around here, what would a church be that would believe in consubstantiation? Lutherans, yep, absolutely, very good. So you're on par with that. So what does Catholicism teach? Again, not my words, theirs. It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. Can I just say that when they have the mass in Latin, they use an interesting phrase. Anybody know what it is? Hocus corpus, from which we get our phrase? Hocus pocus, yes, very good. The church father strongly affirmed the faith of the church in the efficacy of the word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion. Thus, Saint John Chrysostom declares, it is not man that causes the things offered to be the body and blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest in the role of Christ, you notice that? he's now the Vicar of Christ in that aspect, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's, this is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered. And St. Ambrose says about this conversion, be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated, the power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself has changed, could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before. It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature. In a nutshell, they teach that when he says the words, when he is in the process of giving mass, that it ceases to become a wafer, it becomes the literal body of Christ, And it becomes the literal blood of Christ. That's what that's taught. Study how they handled people in the Middle Ages that did not believe that. And how they martyred some for saying, that's not the body of Christ, that's not the blood of Christ. Full disclosure, they do use alcoholic wine. They do use alcoholic wine, and in some places, even in my hometown today, they do not allow the people to take the drink of wine. They allow the priests to do it for them. I have a friend who is a former altar boy who was working at a local Catholic church as a little boy, and he told the priest, Father, there are not very many people out there. Shall I put a little bit of wine in the cup for you today? He said, no, fill it up. What do you think the status of the priest was after mass? Drunk as a skunk. That little boy remembered that well into his fifties. It didn't change the wine at all. It was still alcoholic. I have in my library at home, excuse me, a pastoral companion for a Roman Catholic priest. We have an entire priest library. When he died, it was given to us. He had been saved. When he died, it was willed to us. And I have access to all of his books. I have his cheat book. And I'm sorry, Mason, that you're in here, but it's going to get gross for just a moment. In his cheat book, there is actual sets of instructions on what to do if somebody throws up after eating the wafer and drinking the wine. What they're to do with the particles of the vomit. It's unbelievable. I have it in my library that you can look and see. There are different things that they're supposed to do because they think that's the literal body and blood of Christ that someone just threw up. This is real. I'm not making it up. 1376, we'll try to move quickly. The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring, because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly His body that He was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God in this holy council, now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread, into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, bread to the body of Christ, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of the blood. This change the Holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation. Because of time, I'm going to skip through these. You can look them up on your own, 1377 and 78. and 1333. You can see there in the middle that they believe that under the words of the priest, that they call words of Christ, it becomes Christ's body and blood. What does the Bible say about it? John 6, 33 and 35, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Well, looking forward, 1 Corinthians 11, 23, 25. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take ye, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in what? Remembrance of me. And after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as you drink it, in what? Remembrance of me. Now I'm not sure, does your front table have this doing? Okay, I thought it did. The table that sits up here most of the time says this do, oh, it's over there, sure is, sorry. This do in remembrance of me. Remembrance, what is a remembrance? A memorial to remind you of something. Okay. Think about this for a minute. In my hometown of Hagerstown, Maryland, not far from the conversion center office and the church where I'm at, there has just been a memorial put up and it was dedicated in the last month and a half to Clara Barton. Who knows who Clara Barton is? Nurse, right? And she founded the what? Red Cross, any idea why Clara Barton Memorial would be in Hagerstown, Maryland? She was at the Battle of Antietam just outside of Hagerstown. In fact, it's really neat. They have a memorial to Clara Barton. Follow me, there's a point to this. They have a memorial to Clara Barton on the Battle of Antietam. It's white. It's on the battlefield right near where she was. And there is a red cross in the memorial on the battlefield. What's significant is they took bricks from her home in Massachusetts, brought them down, and that's what makes the Red Cross in the memorial. They're made out of bricks from her home. But the memorial in downtown Hagerstown shows her sitting and helping a soldier that's been wounded, and you can actually see a corn stalk right there in the memorial because she was near the cornfield. If you're familiar with the battle, there was a cornfield that had a significant role there that day. It looks exactly like her. In fact, it says Clara Barton on it. Is that her? No, she's not there. She's not nine or 10 feet tall either. I got a picture with myself standing in front of her. She's a big lady. My daughter, Katie, she's a tall 13-year-old. She's dwarfed by Clara Barton. What is that? It was done in remembrance. of her in memorial. I told you last night, I've had the grand opportunity of having operations on my ankles and knee. And every time before I would have surgery, they would do an MRI. And what would happen is I'd have a follow-up appointment with the doctor, and the doctor would pull it up on the computer screen or put the film up in front of the white light, and she would say, here's your ankle. Is that my ankle? No, still attached. Right? Do we all know what she meant? It's a picture of my ankle. All right? We can laugh. If I walked in and she said, this is your ankle, look what a mess it is. And I'm like, no, ma'am, you're maybe smart, but it's right there. I probably would not be treated by that doctor anymore. Right? We understand what in remembrance of the Lord means, okay? There's a reason that passage is in there in the scripture, not to criticize or make fun of, but to understand. Luke 22, 19, and he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body which is given for you, this do in. Remembrance of me. One of the saddest things about transubstantiation is to believe that it is the, quote them, the ongoing unbloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. My dad and I had a chance to sit down with a Catholic priest one time, and he was talking about how all we do is we get our stuff from the Bible, as if that's a bad thing. But he was saying, the Bible doesn't have everything that you need to be able to live a spiritual and godly life. And my dad said, okay, what does it not have? Well, how often you have mass or communion. Dad said, it's in there. He said, where is it? He said, as oft as you drink, that you find in number 25, this do as oft as you drink it. What is that? That's liberty. How often does First Baptist of Oak Creek have communion? Once a month. There are some churches that have it twice a month, once every other month, once every three months, once a year, whatever. Am I going to get upset because someone has it less frequently or more frequently than me? No. Why? As often as you drink it. He was saying, look, you need to have it set a certain amount of time every often, in this case, every week. It is there. There's some liberty in regards to that, in remembrance of Him. Coming to Jesus in faith is like unto eat, and believing in Him is like unto drinking. Communion is a remembrance, not a redoing or a reenactment. There's a considerable difference. There's a tract we have on our table called Transubstantiation. It was written by the previous director, Donald McConaghy, that deals with it in great detail. This is something upon which the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church is built. If this falls apart, they will have a hard time struggling in holding things together because they think they've used that as a way to lord power over people for hundreds and hundreds of years. Think about it, if I can deny you this means of salvation, this means of taking the mass, then you're going to do whatever I tell you to. Again, not intended to be political. Note the power struggle between different bishops in denying or allowing certain politicians to take mass. Just watch the news, that's all you have to do. Look at the politicians. One bishop will say, because of what you believe and what you do, I will deny you mass, and another one says, perfectly fine, come on over here. It's a power struggle. All right, some churches that I travel in have closed communion. You know what that means? If you're not a member of that church in good standing, you can't take part. I don't agree with it, but I'm not going to say anything about it. It's not a big deal to me. Others have open communion. Some have close. I don't know what First Baptist has. That's not my business. You know why? That's not significant or important. But when you place that much emphasis on the Mass, you can see how it creates a power struggle and an element of fear. Lord willing, tomorrow night we're going to talk about the Eucharist preserving from sin and Helping the dead. Helping the dead, okay? If you're not familiar with that, come back for tomorrow night.