A Scriptural Response to the Passing of Pope Francis

Let's take our Bibles together for Scripture reading this morning. If you'll turn to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16, I'd like to read in this passage beginning in verse 17, and then we'll be looking at one other portion of Scripture as well. But Romans 16, beginning in verse 17. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. And by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has come abroad unto all men. I am glad, therefore, on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.

Let's also look in Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1, I'd like to read from this portion as well. And when we arrive there in Galatians chapter 1, I would like to look in verse number 6, beginning. Paul says, In Galatians, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which ye have received, let him be accursed.

And let's, we're going to be drawing from both of these passages. If you still have your finger in the other one, you can mark to both passages for our message this morning. And let's acknowledge the Lord in prayer once again. At this time, Father, we once again thank you for your word. We thank you that it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And the ultimate goal that you have in mind is that we might be perfect, mature, completed in your work in our hearts, in your working in our hearts and lives. That we might come to a spiritual maturity and be throughly furnished unto all good works.

Even when we look at the warnings that you give in Scripture, the purpose is completion in our lives. The purpose is not, is for us to have that heart even that we saw in David this morning. As he looked at the errors, the sins of Saul. It was a humbling thing to, even to himself, Lord, because he saw in his own heart his own needs, Lord. And we pray that today as we take, open your word and take these things into our hearts, may we receive the full benefit of the doctrine, the correction, the reproof, the instruction in righteousness that we might be, we might be the mature Christian that you'd have us to be.

We need all, all of those inputs into our lives. Now bless us as we meditate on these truths this morning and as we continue to lift up our voices in worship and as we lift our hearts together around the throne of grace in prayer, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning, I'm diverging a little from the normal, but I don't want us to think this message this morning is at all not in line with, but I want us to think this morning is at all not in line with the perfecting of the saints because the Bible says that both doctrine as well as reproof, you know, correction, instruction, and righteousness, all of those things are part of the proclamation of the work of the word of God in our hearts and lives.

And through a number of different ways that the Lord has been, and leading here in the past couple of weeks, I believe that I need to preach a message and give a statement from this pulpit on the passing of Pope Francis. This message is not really about Pope Francis, but it's actually in the growing silence, I guess we can say, of scriptural, less and less, fewer and fewer. And there are voices out there, but they're growing fewer and fewer that are, it seems, that are giving a clear declaration about the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church and what we need to think about it.

This is a moment in our history. I remember when Pope Francis was, became the next Pope, what was it, some 10, 15 years ago. I remember that and I never heard of the little puff of white smoke, is it, that comes out after the College of Cardinals meets and they select the new Pope. Um, uh, they will convene this Tuesday is my understanding to select the next Pope and, um, the kingdom of God will go on without them, uh, despite what's going on. But I think we need in the absence of clear statements about this matter, scripturally speaking in the evangelical world, at least, um, in fact, I'm going to read some quotes to you this morning that show us that quite the opposite, many will be deceived about the Roman Catholic church because of the lauding of the Pope, uh, in many ways that are being put out by the evangelical world of our day.

But this morning we drew from Romans chapter 16. I wanted to remind you of what we read there in verse 17. Uh, it says in verse 17, now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses. Contrary to the doctrine, which you have learned and avoid them, mark them and avoid them. And then we read in Galatians one, eight now, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that, which you have, we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. Um, and this is the word of our savior.

On these matters, Pope Francis passed away Monday, April the 21st, this year, the day after Easter, he was 88 years old. Um, he died as residents. I understand the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta due to a stroke that was followed by irreversible cardiac arrest. Um, last, last week or the week, some, somewhere in the last 10 days or so. I drove by. I would say the prominent, most prominent Southern Baptist church in our city, Englewood Baptist church, and notice that their flag, both the Christian flag and the American flag were at half staff on the pole. Um, this would be a highly respected other than sunset Avenue Baptist church.

Those are the most prominent Southern Baptist churches that I'm aware of in our area. You can correct me afterward if I'm wrong on that, but, um, those are well-known, well-known you know, run of the mill standards, Southern Baptist churches in our area. Um, that piqued my interest. I thought, well, who has died for them to lower? I didn't know you were supposed to lower the Christian flag to half staff, but they had both of them lower. And I got to thinking and I asked, I mentioned it to brother George and, and, and we got to talking about it a little bit. And, um, you know, the only, only person I can think of was the Pope that passed away about that timeframe that they would be lowering it for.

So it got me interested. And I started looking up to see what were prominent evangelical saying about the Pope and his passing. I wanted to read, and I hope I don't bore you with these this morning. I may not read all of these that I have here, but just going to read a little, a little snippet from each of these. And the reason I read these is because these, listen, these are the prominent evangelical leaders right now. These are the voices. This is that most of the Baptist world, especially the Southern Baptist in our area and others as well. But we were definitely a Baptist country here. You know, they, this is what people follow. These are the ones, these are the leaders that they're following and they're looking to for spiritual guidance.

Okay. So Russell Moore and most of these people, they'll say something like, though we have some theological differences. The Pope kind of quickly moving across that. And then they break into the lauding of the Pope. In fact, Russell Moore, former president of Southern Baptist ethics and religious liberty commission said, Pope Francis was a man of profound humility and compassion who sought to serve the poor and vulnerable while challenging the church and the world to care for the least of these. Tim Keller, founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, well-known author said in his humility and simplicity, Pope Francis showed the world that true Christian leadership doesn't draw attention to oneself, but to Christ and his kingdom.

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said, Pope Francis's focus on caring for the poor, speaking against injustice and his advocacy for religious freedom, particularly for Christians under persecution is a legacy that many of us in the evangelical community deeply respect. His leadership in promoting Christian unity in a divided world will be remembered. Rick Warren, you all know who he is. Pope Francis's death marks the passing of a significant leader in the global Christian community. His commitment to peace, human dignity, and religious freedom touched countless lives and his legacy will continue to resonate.

If you've bought a Christian card, probably Max Lucado wrote the message in that card. He said, The church is diminished by his passing, but his example of humility and service to others will endure. Beth Moore said, Pope Francis was a leader who, no matter what denomination we belong to, reminded us of Christ's heart for the broken and the oppressed. His ministry was marked by a willingness to confront injustice and stand with the marginalized. I didn't always agree with his theology, but deeply respected his compassion and unwavering call to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a hurting world. His passing leaves a great void, but his call to live out the gospel in tangible ways will continue to resonate.

I've read to you half of the authors in Crossway and Lifeway Bookstores you'll find. Those are most of your authors right there that I've already read. There's many more. I could read Ed Stetzer, I could read Greg Lowry, I will read to you J.D. Greer since he is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention currently. He said, Pope Francis' death marks the loss of a significant figure in Christian leadership. His compassion for the poor and his calls for justice were evident in everything he did. Even though our theological differences are vast. His passion for leading people to a deeper understanding of God's love for humanity is something that should inspire us all.

I pray that his passing would remind us of the urgency of the gospel and the importance of caring for the marginalized as Christ did. I have to read one more. Andy Stanley, this is Charles Stanley's son, pastor of North Point Community Church. Pope Francis' leadership was marked by a passion for the marginalized. His passion for reconciliation and service to those in need. His willingness to step into the brokenness of the world with the love of Christ was inspiring. Even for those who did not agree with him theologically. You see, he's a leader in the church. He's showing us the love of Christ. He lives out the gospel. We can learn from him. You're hearing that. That's what we're hearing from all of these.

It's almost like the media. It's almost like the media. It's almost like the media. It's almost like they all read the same script and then they changed the wording a little bit for each one of them. So we have theological differences with Pope Francis. But Pope Francis was a model of Christian humility, of compassion. He demonstrated God's love for humanity. And even though his theology doesn't line up with ours, we still acknowledge him as part of the church, leader in the church. And we want to emulate him in the way he lived out that gospel. So all of this was said about Pope Francis.

Pope Francis was a man who, among many quotes, I'm not going to give you more than this one today, but he said, God not only permits, but positively wills the pluralism and diversity of religions. Let me say that again. Pope Francis made this statement. God not only permits, but positively wills the pluralism and diversity of religions. Let me say that again. Pope Francis made this statement. God not only permits, but positively wills the pluralism and diversity of religions. This shouldn't come necessarily as a surprise to us.

Evangelicals and Catholics Together was a movement going back to the 90s with Chuck Coulson. Chuck Coulson, founder of Prison Fellowship, Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. J.I. Packer, named in 2005, is one of the, one of the top names in the history of Christian religion. He's one of the top 25 evangelical leaders of all time in the United States, even as influence upon the United States. But we notice that the pulpit preaching of Christ Fellowship has always been, we don't, I don't spend messages every Sunday talking about what's wrong with this group and what's wrong with that group. And I don't stand up here and preach about politics, though I will touch on it at times.

And I believe it. And I believe that it has its place. And this is the time, I believe, that something needs to be said, because you are, probably have already had some conversation or have been in contact with people that are going to, have been talking about and are probably going to say something else about the selection of the new pope that's going to come to the forefront. Because that's all, if you have a television, that's all you're going to see on the television this week is waiting for the chimney. You know? You don't want that smoke to come out. The whole world is waiting for this, this pope.

But the pulpit preaching of this church has been my desire, and I believe it was Pastor Peacock's desire, that it would be focused upon the maturing or the perfecting of the saints. And we saw that in these passages this morning. But part of the maturing and the perfecting of the saints has got to do with warning, has got to do with warning. Has got to do with warning. So, this Word of God, I think, has taste. . And so, the Word of God is a big part of that. But the Word of God is not so much about just, you know, trusting God's Word. You know, we have to start with that. You know, not just, you know, following God, but rather, causing the gem, or help it, with the Lord's help, we can see the gem of the true gospel shine in its beauty, full beauty, when we contrast it with the thoughts rather than just muddling things up and mixing it all together and just saying, I know we vastly differ, I know we differ some, or however they would say it. But we're all just part of the same church, you know? We're all just part, we all got to love each other, we've all… No. That's confusion.

This is the same problem Israel had when the priest did not make a difference between the clean and the unclean. The priest in Israel did not teach and teach the people what was common and what was holy. And we see that idolatry was creeping in to the very worship of the house of God. And can we not see that this is what is happening and is truly well underway in our own time? Well, all those things being said, the Catholic Church, I just checked again yesterday, there are approximately 70 million Catholics. 22% of our country are Catholic, at least in name. And the Bergmans can attest to that in Spain. That's a Catholic country. But. You know, no practicando, no practicando, mostly no practice, not so much practicing, but at least we're Catholic in name. One point three billion Catholics worldwide. That's somewhere between 17 and 18 percent of the global population.

Where did the Roman Catholic Church originate? Well, the word Catholic is not necessarily a bad word. It just means universal. If we just take that word at face value, universal. We do believe that. While we, as Baptists, we have a local church with local church government, and we're not part of an episcopate or something like that. We do believe, we do believe that there is Christ's church and that that church is not confined to Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. We believe that we have brothers and sisters all around the world and scattered throughout this earth. Thank God for that. Thank God that we are. We are not a cult, we are a local church, and yet we read in Ephesians 525, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

We read in Colossians 118 that Christ is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Jesus is the head, not only of this church, but of. All the churches, which, you know, the terminology, you talk to one person, there's different ideas about how the terminology should be. But the idea is there are, there are saints throughout the earth, part of all the local churches that are throughout. And we, we call that the universal church. Do we call that the body of Christ? The point is that the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life for the church, right? He died for all men. But he is the head of the church.

In Colossians, we mentioned that he's the head of the body, the church. But Roman Catholicism, we believe, is an apostasy from the true church that was begun in the book of Acts. Inevitably, yes, it is part of church history. The Roman Catholic Church and its story is part of church history. And yes, there are good things. That's why the Burtmans can use the Catholic Bible. They can reference things in a Catholic unbeliever, one who's not a true Bible believer, but they could take the Catholic Bible and point things out in that Bible that are true, that they need to acknowledge. And sometimes you have to say, well, let's open your Bible. Let's look and see what you have written right here, you know? And that's a way that they can go about doing that.

But that doesn't mean that the Roman Catholic, the Catholic Church preaches the true gospel. It does not preach the true gospel because it has apostatized from the true faith. During the peak of the Roman Empire, you know, certainly during, we look back into the days of Scripture and the Diaspora with the early Christians at the founding of the church, we see that much of the reason for the missionary work was because of the persecution of the church in Jerusalem. And they were deacons. Certainly apostles that were spread out and going other places and carrying the word of God to other Gentiles out, just not only the house of Israel, right? But we notice that during those years of persecution, there was, generally speaking, greater purity, right? In those years. Not that there weren't problems. We already see problems that began to rear their head with Ananias and Sapphira. But the church leadership dealt with that. And purity was restored.

But when the days of martyrdom ended, when Galerius in 311 A.D. brought the edict of toleration, and then Constantine normalized Christianity, and in fact, in 324, it was made the official religion of Rome. And then it came to the point where you were, it was like the whole thing, the table had flipped. The table had turned. And now. You were persecuted if you weren't a Christian. You were required to be a Christian under this new rule. And Christianity was no longer persecuted so much as it was politicized and it was institutionalized. And then the problems really began in earnest. Of course, the Lord has always had his true church. He's always had his true people. But fast forward. We can't go into the details. Fast forward to 10, the year 1054. Basically, Constantine moved his capital. He moved from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. That was back in the 300s. But through the time of the Ottoman, the Turks, the Muslims that were coming in and invading the eastern, the Eastern. Part of that church. They were. There was a great trouble in the east and Rome grew to more prominence. And so eventually there was a conflict between the eastern part of the church. We now is called the Orthodox Church in the western part, which would be the Roman Catholic Church. And there finally became a divorce, a split in the church in 1054. I'm oversimplifying this, but we must move on through this.

And so now when you whenever you see something like this, you're going to be like, oh, my God, I'm going to be like this. Like the Russian Orthodox Church or the Albanian or Syrian or Ukrainian or Bulgarian Orthodox Church. All of these are part of that conglomerate, I guess you will, that's generally spoken of as the Orthodox Church to the east. But the Roman Catholic Church is to the west. And the main difference they had was they didn't agree about the pope, the pope. There was other differences. But, you know, the eastern part of the church, they didn't really like. They didn't really. They liked the fact that there was a pope that was going to tell them what to do over there. And so that ultimately ended up in the split between the two. So we notice. We're talking about the pope. But what does the pope represent? He's the he is the the vicar of Christ. He is, according to the church, he is the representative. He is the on earth. He is the head of this whole church. And he would view himself as the head of. Even the Protestant churches, even though they don't know it. Right. Even though they may not fully recognize him. He really is the legitimate head of all the churches. That's how he views himself.

And the goal of evangelicals and Catholics together, the goal of charismatics and Catholics together, the goal of all these groups coming together is that they're hoping that. Everyone will be amalgamated back into a one world church under us, not under Jesus Christ, but under a man, a man. Now. We have problems with that, and we have a number of reasons why we have problems with that, and I want to try to briefly enumerate those in the moments we have this morning. Number one, the Catholic Church holds to tradition. As being equal to, they say, but actually superior to and superseding the Scriptures. In fact, the Pope is given the authority to speak ex cathedra. He has the authority to say and interpret what he thinks the Scriptures mean.

The Roman Catholic Church says in its catechism, paragraph 82. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. So they place this problem right off the bat, right off the bat. That tradition is placed on the same plane as Scripture. That's enough for me right there, right at the beginning. Tradition is not on the same plane as Scripture, but that is the case in the Roman Catholic Church. This is a problem with the cults. Mormonism does the same thing. You look at all these different, they do this, they put tradition, Judaism puts tradition, they say equal with, but it's actually above the Scriptures. Whenever tradition and Scripture contradict each other or they come in conflict, you can guess which one they're going to go with. You can guarantee which one they're going to go with. And we have seen it played out over and over again. It's important to note that.

Of the Old Testament books, all the Old Testament books are quoted in the New Testament, I understand. And what I've looked at, I think is accurate, except for five of those Old Testament books are quoted. But the Roman Catholic Church has no problem including all the apocryphal books and saying, you know, they're just as much scripturous, you know, the Protestants Bible. We don't, they teach doctrines that contradict. The scriptures and, and are certainly not quoted in the New Testament. Another contradiction that we see in Roman Catholicism is the office, certainly of the Pope himself. The Roman Catholic Church, they waited till the year 500 AD, you know, to, to come to this realization, but Peter was declared the Pope in 500 AD by the Roman Catholic Church. But Peter was not. Peter was not the Pope. I mean, if we want to talk about a leader, actually, James was the leader. He was the pastor of the church. He's the one that convened over the council that was held in Acts chapter 15. He was not, Peter was not what Rome makes him out to be, but they base it off of certainly the scripture in Matthew that we'll mention in a moment.

But the, the, the Roman Catholic Church and its code of canon law, number 331 says the Bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is head of the College of Bishops, the, the vicar of Christ, the pastor of the universal church on earth. You hear that? He's the pastor of the universal church. And that really, in their minds, even extent, even though we're disobedient brethren, right? That extends to us too. In their minds. Yes, not in scripture, but they, they take that scripture in Matthew 16 verses 17 and 18. Let's look there briefly. Matthew 16 verses 17 and 18, where it says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. He acknowledged Jesus Christ, son of the living God. But my father, which is in heaven, has revealed it. And I say also unto thee. That thou art Petras, Peter, and upon this Petra rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Latin doesn't distinguish between the gender of this used here, but there in the Greek, you can see there's a different word used here for this rock. Upon this rock. He wasn't saying. Upon you, Peter, the church is built. He was saying upon this rock. Well, what did he just ask Peter? Who do you say that I am? The Christ, the son of the living God. He's the founder of the church, right? He's the, he's the head of the church. We saw just a moment ago in Colossians. And so upon this rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, the church will be built and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Well, the whole idea of. The succession of the, of the Pope's is based upon this erroneous idea that, that all authority resides. It began with Peter and it's been passed down. And, you know, we're just a bunch of disobedient, you know, stepchildren or whatever that are, uh, we need to get straightened out and get back in line and be taught the true ways of the true church. It wasn't until. 1870, the Vatican one declared that the Pope now had complete infallibility, though, and power. He could speak ex-cathedra. He's speaking out of the chair. He can speak. And whatever he says goes. I mean, that's more important. Even the, even if he contradicts scripture, right? Well, we don't need a vicar for Christ. We only need Christ. We need the Christ of scripture.

In fact, when Jesus went up. Why stands he gazing up into heaven? Why stands he gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus will come again. And like manner, as you've seen him go, he's coming back. We're not to be looking to the Pope or for the Pope or whatever. We're to be looking for Jesus Christ to return. Paul said, every man, John certainly said, every man that hath this hope in him purify of himself, even as he is pure. We certainly are taught that we are a royal priesthood in first Peter chapter two. We are a royal priesthood. We're a chosen generation of peculiar people, a holy nation, right? In that passage of scripture, it tells us that, that we are called out of darkness. We're called to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We go through Jesus Christ. It says we're to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, not through the Pope and then by Jesus Christ. But by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ alone.

And this is what the Reformation sought to call the church back to. Martin Luther, when he nailed those, he was just stating what scripture said, sola scriptura. Well, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The high priest has already offered himself as the sacrifice to God. He's already offered himself. And for one time that sacrifice was made, not multiple times. He offered it once to take away our sins. And so the holy sacrifice of the mass, as they call it, is in direct contradiction to what the Bible says Jesus did. Because when the Pope or when the priest takes the wafer, he says that he's actually changing the wafer into Jesus Christ. Jesus' body into his blood. This is the actual Jesus Christ here. Well, sometimes they call it the wafer, the bloodless sacrifice. We're offering Jesus again, basically, is what's being done in their minds.

But Colossians tells us, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy or vain deceit after the tradition of men, and not… Or after the rudiments of the world. That's what all that is. And not after Christ. We observe the Lord's Supper in remembrance of what Jesus has already accomplished. It is for us that we remember his finished work. He is not once again present in the actual bread. No, the bread reminds us of what he is. What he has finished. What he has accomplished. It is perfectly completed. Well, Jesus warned the Pharisees, didn't he? He said, That's what the Roman Catholic Church is doing. Judaism is an apostasy from the covenant relationship God has with his people. And it's no different with the Roman Catholic Church. It is an apostasy from God's new covenant. It is a full understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These leaders that I just read to you this morning, they should have come out and said, not should have been gracious, but have said, while the Pope may have done some civic good deeds, he's not a Christian. And the only way that you can be saved, someone can get saved while they're in the Roman Catholic Church. But it will be in spite of the Roman Catholic Church. It will be because they're reading their Bible. It will be because they look at what the Bible says. And then they should come out from among them and be separate. That's what should happen. Many people have gotten saved in a bad context, but it wasn't because God was blessing and using that. It's because God worked in spite of it. God worked in spite of that. And so we, we certainly follow the traditions of Scripture, but not the traditions of men. And no matter what men may say, we have got to make a statement against the Roman Catholic Church, especially in light of, not against the souls. We should have the heart that Jesus had. Father, forgive them. We should have pity because we know that we were lost in sin just as well as those that don't know the gospel in the Roman Catholic Church.

This is a, this is, this is a stance against the false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. And, and we must make it clear that we are not in lockstep with the evangelical world that just drools all over the Pope and acts like he's the great, he's a great guy, even though we have some differences, but it really, and it really doesn't matter at the end of the day because he's a great leader. No, absolutely not. When the, when the Roman priest prepares the mass, what they're saying is you cannot have salvation. If you're not part of this, you cannot be a Christian unless you're part and participating in this. Because salvation only comes, they say it's through Christ, but at first it was kind of handed down to him by Mary. And then it comes through the church and then you, you get it through the sacraments. No, absolutely not.

And so we see that, that Mary and I, I must bring all of this to a conclusion this morning, but I think it's interesting. There's two things about Mary that the church teaches. Well, there's more than that, but there's two things that I want to address briefly that the church teaches about Mary. First of all, well, we believe that they worship Mary. I think it's pretty evident. They worship Mary. I mean, they, they pray to Mary. They hail, hail Mary's. Um, the church teaches first of all, that, that, that all justice, Christ was sinless. So it was Mary, the doctrine that they fabricated of the immaculate conception. Didn't wasn't talking about Jesus's conception. It was talking about her conception. And it was the idea that she is sinless, that even as Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth, she is full of grace and truth. No, she's filled with the grace of God, but she's not full of it in the sense that she's the source.

We often, in all these, this symbology, we see little baby Jesus sitting on Mary's lap and she's bestowing gifts upon him and grace and all the, all the good things. And then he gives it out to the world and he gives it out to, to the book, to the people. But Mary is viewed as a media mediatrix. Uh, she's just like Jesus is a mediator, but the Bible tells us very clearly there's one guy we've already said, a mediator between man. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus.

Pope Francis is the first Pope who chose to be born buried outside of the Vatican in 120 years. He was buried. I understand at the, his, his funeral was held and he was buried at the Basilica de Santa Maria Maggiore. This is located on the Esquiline Hill, one of the seven Hills in Rome. And the church there is dedicated specifically to the Virgin Mary. The church is dedicated to Mary.

Um, at the Council of Ephesus in 431, the church convened and they declared Mary the Theotokos. She was the Theotokos. What does that mean? Um, they declared that she was the mother of God. Um, she's not the mother of God. She's the mother of Jesus. And she bore that baby in her womb. And she is to be honored for the role that she played. She is to be acknowledged that she was highly favored by God in that. And she is to be looked up to as a, an example of the believers. But she is not the mother of God. She is not the mother of God. In fact, that is blasphemy to say that she's the mother of God.

Unto us, a child is born to us. A son is given. He came, he dwelled with his father before he came. He, he was the, he was there long before Abraham was, he was locked there long before Moses. He was long before Mary. We see no pride in, in, in, in, in the desire for worship and Mary of anything self defacing and humble and lowly. She's she did not desire any worship. Well the Lord will not give his glory to another. Isaiah tells us that the Mary of Rome is not the Mary of the Bible. Mary of Rome is not the Mary that we read about in scripture. She is the Madonna. She is the, the reincarnation or whatever you will of all the, the goddess worship. That we saw back in the different empires through history at where, where the, the Madonna and baby, you've got the, you know, the mother, what is it? Isis. And then, uh, I, I, I can't remember all the names right now, but the, the goddess is sitting there with her little baby and he's the, he's a little God. But this is, this is nothing more than the religious cloak being put on pagan practice is all it is. It's all it is.

And when, and in fact, when you come to that church, when you, when you approach that basilica that was mentioned just a moment ago, um, there is a statue of Mary holding the baby in her lap and he, and I'm going to read you a description that this was not a non, uh, an, and someone that was against Catholicism, but this was a quote that was made about, uh, that statue. Mary's left hand is raised up and out to the world. And a gesture, a gesture of basta enough, stop the war and the violence in her right arm. She holds Christ depicted as a small child dangling an olive branch, a symbol of peace waiting for his mother's word to allow it to fall from his fingers and descend to the world. The image conveys a strong sense of the centrality of Mary's intercessory role in the life of the church. The dove waits for the branch to descend. The branch waits for Christ to release it. And Christ waits on the word of Mary.

My purpose in this message this morning, and I know our time is up was simply to provide a scriptural. I'm not saying anything. Probably some of you don't know. I certainly, the Bergman's know this well, but we need to be reminded the gospel of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with Mary's Mary's media media, media, a mediatorial role. It has nothing to do with Mary. It has nothing to do with Mary. It has nothing to do with her being immaculately conceived. It has nothing to do with the traditions of an apostate church. It has nothing to do with a Pope who's supposed to be the pastor of all the churches in the world. It has nothing to do with the succession of bishops. It has nothing to do with the mass being made the sacrificial Christ. Every time it's offered again, it has everything to do with man believing on the Lord, Jesus Christ, right with his heart and confessing with his mouth that the only one that can save him is Jesus Christ. And there's only one mediator between God and man. It's the man, Christ, Jesus, end of story.

And this should be, this is these people that said what they did about the Pope know better. They should know better. They're not dumb. They're much, I probably all of them were smarter than I am, but money, position, power. It, it, it, it, you don't want to upset people. It's, it's a political play. It's a, it's a game. No, we're playing with the souls of men here and people have to know the truth. They've got to know the truth about Rome. If they're coming in, if they come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, John says in second John one verse second John verse 10 receive him not into your house. Neither. Godspeed for he that bid him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. That's not a popular take is it? But it's a scriptural one. It's a scriptural one.

As we read in our texts today, if there's any come, Paul said, if even if an angel comes to you with another gospel, I didn't be accursed. It's not of God. May we have discernment. We need discernment. We need discernment before far more than the Pope. But that is a very with the waning of fewer and fewer voices that are being heard saying anything about it. All God's people need to speak up and say, no, we love and we want to see Catholics saved, but we're not part of the same church. This is not the true church. This is the only church that will endure. And, and, and prevail. The gates of hell will not prevail against is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the head of that church. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would help us in these things that we've seen today. Lord, this is not just a rant, but that we would take it to heart and really just be grateful. Not with a sort of a religious, hypocritical kind of gratitude like the Pharisee had. I think the, that I'm not as other men are, but Lord with true gratitude in our hearts. Thank you that we know that we're not in the deception that thinking that the Pope is, is Christ essentially on the earth, but instead that there is only one sacrifice that is needed. And that is to forgive our sins. We do not have to go confess. We do not have to go to mass. We should, and we are called to confess our sins and your faithful and just to forgive us. But it says nothing of the church says nothing of a man coming in between other than the man, Christ Jesus. Thank you for that truth today. Help us to, to just share that with people as we go help us to lovingly, as we speak with Catholics, Lord, help us not to be ashamed of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Even if it, even if they don't accept it, Lord, help us to, to, to, to speak the truth in love, help us to speak it well, but help us to speak it and not be ashamed of it in this adulterous generation. Bless us as we go forward now and may, may we meditate upon these truths today in Jesus name. Amen.