The Need of Compassion Upon Those Lost in the Deception of Roman Catholicism

The Need of Compassion Upon Those Lost in the Deception of Roman Catholicism

Luke23 this evening I know the message this morning was pretty strong, calling out not only the Roman Catholic Church, but calling out the evangelical leaders for not calling out the Roman Catholic Church. But at the same time, I think I made mention of it this morning in the message pretty clearly that that doesn’t mean that we don’t care for or love the souls of Roman Catholic people. And yet we see that the Lord what did I mention this morning? The Lord cared for the souls of the Jews. He came unto his own and even though they received him not, he still loved them, didn’t he? He cared about them in Luke 23:33. What does it say here? And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, it says there, they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots. He said, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And then in Acts 2:22, if you look over there with me we see there, Ye men of Israel, Peter preaches, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Let’s skip down a few verses. Let’s pick up in verse 29 for the sake of the length of the passage. And it says, men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel assuredly know, or know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And we conclude the reading there in verse number 41.

So in these verses that we’ve read both in Luke as well as in Acts, and we know that Luke is the author of both of those accounts, we see that even as Jesus was dying on the cross, knowing that this crowd had just shouted, crucify him. Crucify him. Away with this man. He doesn’t have any right to live. I’ll crucify him. We do also see that it was the Pharisees, the religious leaders, that were the ones that were stirring up the crowd and their animosity toward him. I’m not saying that they’re completely to blame, but they had a large role to play in hyping the crowd, in stirring up the crowd and turning the crowd against them. They even false witnesses were raised up against Jesus. And the court trials were just mock trials. They were not truly legitimate trials that were being held for Jesus. But we noticed that, as we said this morning, Judaism was an apostasy. It was an apostasy from the covenant relationship God desired to have with his people, Israel. There were some that were looking for him when he came, you know, the Annas and the Simeons and the wise men and the Shepherds and the Zacharias and Elizabeths and Mary and Joseph and all of those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem, those types of people. But the vast majority, it was said that they received him not. They received him not.

But even as we saw the Roman Catholic Church, I believe, and Brother Bergman and David and myself were talking about this some this afternoon, about how the priests in the church, the pope, the cardinals, all these. All these leaders in the Church of Rome bear a huge responsibility and they will be held responsible because I think in many ways they know have even a fuller understanding of the fact that they have knowingly replaced scripture with tradition. They have. And there is a sort of a curve there, I guess we can say maybe the higher up you go and the more knowledgeable they are. Like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They considered the cornerstone Jesus Christ, and they rejected him. He was a stumbling block and a rock of offense to them. They knowledgeably inspected and. And understood this is the Messiah. But what Jesus would even say in indicting them, even using parables, he would say, the husbandman said, last of all, after I sent the prophets, he said, I’ll send my son and they will respect him. And they said, here’s the heir. Let’s kill him. They understood what they were doing. They knew full well what they were doing. They saw, saw him and understood he was Messiah and still rejected him. And in the same or a similar way, many in the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church understand exactly what they’re doing in the diminishing of Christ and the exalting of Mary and the exalting of idols and the veneration of saints. We just touched the basics this morning. But all of that, with all of that being said, you and I are not the final judges of the souls of all men, thank God. We’re not of any men, for that matter, not even our own selves. Jesus Christ is the judge. And every man must appear before him. Both saint and sinner must appear before the Lord Jesus Christ.

I certainly know that Sister Bergman was raised early on in the Roman Catholic Church. Her parents were brought up particularly, and especially her father in Roman Catholicism. Dr. Ausdenmoore was raised up in Roman Catholicism. And yet the Lord saved them out of that. And yet it was a process they began to understand through scripture something wasn’t right. And then they really got saved in a Pentecostal context. And then ultimately came and joined a Baptist church. And it was a process that they went through that the Lord brought them to bring them out of that. And there are people, so many in the church, we might say, if the Lord was here today, he may say, father, forgive them. I believe he would, for they know not what they do. There are many who are caught up in it, many who were born into it, many whose eyes have been blinded to the truth of the Gospel.

Now, all that being said, we see here Peter in Acts 2 who is saying, even though he addresses and he’s knowledgeable as he’s addressing this crowd that standing before me. Many of these were complicit in. They were participating in the jeering and the mocking and saying, crucify him, my beloved savior. These men, seven and a half weeks ago, 52 days ago, they were there. Kind of like the hymn says, were you there? No, we weren’t physically there when they crucified my Lord. But Peter, motivated by the love of God, empowered by the grace of God here with the boldness needed to tell the truth and the love of God, needed to communicate this message to these folks. He addresses them here in Acts, chapter two and verse number. Well, we began the reading in verse number 22, didn’t we? Yes, even back in verse number 14, he calls them men of Israel. In verse number 14 he says, Hearken to my words. In verse 22, he says, Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Hear these words. He says, two things happened here. God delivered Jesus Christ by his determinate counsel and foreknowledge. He’s delivered him up for you to crucify him. But you also have a part in that. Even though you may have done it in ignorance, not understanding who it was you were crucifying, you have by wicked hands you have participated in. You have cast your lot in with the crowd that has taken with wicked hands and crucified none other than, not just Jesus Christ of Nazareth, but this is the Son of God. He is the Christ. He is the Christ that was sent from heaven, came unto his own to save his people from their sins. Well, and now I’m here to tell you I’m an eyewitness to his resurrection. Death could not hold him. He is. God has raised him up. God has raised him up and he is ascended. And even today, you know, of course, on that special occasion where men spoke in the tongues of everyone that was gathered there, Parthians, Medes, all these different groups of people, they spoke in their native. They heard the gospel in their native tongue. They heard the wonderful works of God being declared in their own language. And so he says, this is the power in so many words here that God that Christ has imparted to us, having ascended, death could not hold him. Even the psalmist David spoke of this matter. He gives a couple of instances of this, even of how his soul would not be left in hell, but he would not suffer corruption, but he would be raised and he would sit at the right hand on high. And that’s exactly what happened. He told these folks here, and he Says the one that you thought justly deserved death is actually not deserving of anything, any such thing. And in fact, God has raised him up. And so in the spirit led message that Peter is preaching here, we see that conviction began to fall upon the crowd gathered. We notice that in verse number 37, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?

You know, this is a work of God. This is not the work of Peter. But Peter had to participate in the proclamation of truth, both in boldness to say the truth, regardless of whatever consequences would come to him. Because there was mocking that was happening that day. Oh, you’ve been drunk out here. What are y’ all doing? Y’ all already drinking this early in the day? You know what’s going on here? There was mocking. And yet Peter spoke right up and proclaimed the truth unashamedly. He did not try to compromise with the crowd, although he did. He was respectful in his approach, but he was clear in his presentation of the truth. And so we notice that, that the crowd, God, many in the crowd were pricked in their hearts. And they said, what shall we do? That’s a good sign, isn’t it? When the Philippian jailer said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? When the Ethiopian eunuch understood what he was reading, he began to ask questions, didn’t he? He began to ask questions, what hinders me from being baptized? Well, we notice verse 38. Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you and your children and to all that are afar off. Oh, that’s the Gentiles. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Well, those that gladly received this word were baptized, it says in verse 41. And about 3,000 of them were added to the church that day.

Jonah was a man who didn’t want to preach to the Ninevites, right, Because he was afraid they were going to get right. But Peter, Peter was glad to speak to this crowd. Now, Peter was like you and me because he also had some righteous indignation or maybe some unrighteous indignation at times. But he went around and he remember, he wanted to defend the Lord with the sword. And he cut off that high priest’s servant’s ear, you know, what was it, Malchus? He cut off that earth. But the Lord told him, this is not the sword I want you to wield. I want you to wield this sword. I want you to wield my word. That is how the battle is to be fought. This is a battle for truth. And Peter had to wait and receive power to do and to be what God wanted him to do and to be. And we see now as he was humbled before God, God was using him. God was filling him, the Holy Spirit, empowering him to do the work that he was doing.

Let’s look over in Matthew, chapter 5, Matthew 5:43. And it says here, ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. You’ve heard that, it’s been said. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Well, there’s plenty of that going on in the early church, wasn’t it? Do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you for righteousness sake. Peter says. Peter teaches us that we will suffer if we suffer for righteousness sake. That’s the right kind of suffering, not for our own sins. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans. So be ye therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. What does this spiritual maturity look like? Well, it looks like. What does it look like to be like our Father? It looks like not just loving those that love us, not just reciprocating kindness to those that are kind to us. Not just saying, well, you’re like us, you look like us, you sound like us. So we’re going to be friends with or we’re going to care about your soul? No, you should also care for. Don’t be a friend of the world, but care for the souls of those enemies of the cross. Care for the souls of those who may count you as an enemy. David cared about the soul of Saul, even though I don’t think we ever really read that David considered Saul an enemy so much as it was that Saul considered David an enemy. He hated, he envied, he was jealous of David. But David cared for his soul. He respected his office. He honored him, even speaking good words of what he could say that was good about Saul, even after his death, even upon his. His death. Well, we’re taught here to love our enemies. Didn’t say love their sin or embrace and rejoice in the sin. No, Peter didn’t rejoice in the sin. In fact, he called their hand on it. Here he says, you have, by wicked hands, you have crucified Jesus. I’m not applauding what you did, but I do want you to know that there’s hope. I do want you to know that Jesus Christ not only died for our sins, but he was raised according to the Scriptures, and he’s alive today. And there is hope for any and all. Not only those that are nigh like you here today, but all those that are far off. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord can be saved. You just have to believe. You have to repent and turn at the good news, the call of the Gospel, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This was in the spirit of Jesus, consistent with the spirit of Jesus when he prayed. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

How many people? How many people? Yes, there are some that have grown up with a lot of light, and they have rejected that light. And they’re just growing deeper and deeper in that rejection of truth. And yet how many. How many have grown up in the Roman Catholic Church and that’s all they know. They might have some truth, but they. There’s a lot of error that’s mixed in there. We need to pray for these souls that we come in contact with, even those that may, as the scripture says here tonight. Pray for them, even those that despitefully use you, and even those that would persecute you. Pray for them. Pray for their salvation. Pray for their Souls.

Look in 1 Peter 2:11. Here we see that Peter beseeches the brethren: Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they don’t have a very high opinion of you. They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. I think we said it a number of times before, but there are some people that, you know, pick out. Sister Brenda, Brother Ronnie, you know, Sister Rebecca, Brother George. Each one of you myself. This week, we’re going to come in contact with people that may not go to church anywhere. They may go to a church that doesn’t preach the gospel, true gospel message. You know, we may come in contact with people who used to go to church many years ago, and they don’t even have any clear testimony of salvation. There’s just so many different types of people we work with, with, or we come in contact with some people that just haven’t even really. They don’t even want to think about it, whatever the case may be. There’s all so many different types of individuals. I know I mentioned this man, Matt, that I’ve had some communication with. He didn’t grow up in church and he just really admitted he’s not a Christian. But at the same time, as we think about those folks, one very important thing we’ve got to do before those folks is to live a consistent life as strangers and pilgrims of the earth. They’ve got to know when they look at your life and my life and say, look, those people, they’re clearly not setting up shop for eternity here on earth somewhere. It just seems like when I talk to them for any length of time, they. There’s something that comes up about the fact that they’re not living for this passing world, they’re passing through it. They’re strangers, they’re pilgrims. There’s something different about that person, that man, that woman. And as Peter says here, that we are to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. There’s to be a difference. Remember, all that’s in the world is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, pride of life. As Christians, the Lord Jesus people should be able to look at our lives and say, there’s something different about those folks having your conversation, your manner of living honest among the gentiles. You know, it was clearly clear that God had granted Daniel favor with the presidents or the princes of Babylon. And it was said, well, we tried, but we’re not going to find any law against Daniel. And unless we find one that will basically cause him to have to contradict the law of his God, because that’s clearly the priority in his life. People see, you know, those folks, they go to church every week. What’s wrong with. You know, they’re in church all the time. They want to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. But whereas they speak against you as evildoers, maybe, you know, God has to open hearts, the Holy Spirit has to work in hearts. As we saw tonight, it wasn’t just any wisdom of Peter’s words, but the timing was right. The timing was right. And the conviction of the Holy Spirit was present in the hearts. And the Lord opened these hearts. And of course, there had to be a willingness to open to him. Right. And we see that Peter was in the right place. And the apostles and the brethren, the disciples were in the right place at the right time. But even leading up to this, there was this beholding their good works, beholding our conversation, our manner of living. And when the time it says, which they shall behold, they shall glorify God in the day of visitation. They will glorify God in the day of visitation.

Well, what is this day of visitation? We’ve been through one Peter before. We spoke about this word, but it comes from the same root as the word bishop or overseer. But it’s talking about. It comes from the idea of to observe, to inspect, to oversee. What do we sing? We sing the hymn sometimes. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, do not pass me by While on others Thou art calling do not pass me by visitation. Zacharias talked about this visitation. He said, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people. You know, Jesus talked about, while you have the light, believe on the light. Right, Right. It’s your season of opportunity. This season is not going to be forever. Will there be a time? And I believe there is a time in each life, and maybe there’s several seasons of visitation that God will visit someone and really be working on that soul and conviction and bringing a number of things together in their thinking. And maybe it’s someone that you’ve rubbed shoulders with. Maybe you’ve spoken to that individual. I think about Carlos over here next to the church. You know, he’s been spoken to about the gospel a number of times over the years, but timing wasn’t right. Maybe this year, maybe this week, maybe this month. He seemed like he wanted to talk to Brother Pete here recently. He seemed interested in speaking with him. You know, whoever. If somebody leads him to the Lord, who cares who it is, as long as it’s the Lord working. But the point is, I mean, he has a Roman Catholic background. We pray that God will work in many hearts and lives and in the day of visitation, that we will not become the hindrance or the stumbling block that would keep them from accepting Christ, but they would be able to look at our lives and say, by beholding our good works and by having heard the testimony. Maybe they came and sat under the preaching of the Word. Or maybe it was in our conversation with them, we brought up the Lord Jesus Christ and We shared the gospel with them, but. But that in the time, in the ripe season of harvest, that that soul would turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, this was Jesus prayer, wasn’t it? Well before those persecutors, the ones who had said, crucify him, he said, father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Only God knows when a person is beyond redeeming, when they have hardened their heart so much and they have been presented with light that they have rejected to the point that he gives them over to a reprobate mind. God only knows when that time is. But that’s not really our responsibility to fly fully figure out, because we can’t. If we could, then we might as well be the judge of hearts, right? But we can’t do that. Our responsibility, as it always has been, is to proclaim the gospel truth, to live out the gospel, not live out the kind of gospel the Pope, they said lived out. Live out the word of God. Live out the gospel in our daily lives, praying. Even if someone speaks ill of you for your testimony, for your words, your witness, pray for them. Pray for them. Don’t just be combative for the sake of being combative with them. And this is something we even need to be careful about with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Yeah, sometimes they can get on your very last nerve, especially if you live in a neighborhood where they. They just keep coming around and around and around. But we really do need to be genuine and sincere in our words with them and let them know we really do care about their soul and we are praying for them. I’m not saying they’re going to persecute you. They’re going to be nicer than the cashier down at the store, probably to you. But what I’m saying is don’t make fun of them. In other words, pray for them. Pray for those folks that they would, just like those on the day of Pentecost, experience deep conviction and they would repent of their own attempts to save themselves. No doubt they’re sincere in their earnest, but they’re sincerely wrong in their attempts to save themselves. And people need to know, need to look at our lives and listen to our words and realize that there is hope for them.

So may the Lord use us. I feel like after speaking with the Bergmans a little more this afternoon, I needed to do a follow up to that message this morning that we would, while we, we want to throw the bathwater out, we don’t want to get rid of the baby while we must reject. And I believe there will be great responsibility placed upon these evangelical leaders who failed knowing full well they should have made a clearer statement that was or even just made no statement at all. If that’s what they’re going to say. They’re going to be responsible for those words they spoke, which are clearly an error. They’re clearly not. They were not. They were not being consistent with the truth that the Bible reveals to us. And yet, even if that’s true of the Roman Catholic leaders or any others that reject the true gospel of Christ, we do pray for the Lord to open the hearts of those who are unsaved and that he would be instrumental. Pray that he would be instrumental. We would be instrumental, you of him to be able to get the Word to show people that we care about their souls and most of all that Jesus Christ cares about their souls. And that’s why he went to Calvary. But he didn’t stay in the tomb. He’s risen, he’s ascended, and he’s Lord forevermore.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these moments we’ve had around your word tonight. We thank you for Jesus who prayed, Father, forgive them. And we must remember that really that prayer extended beyond the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. And it extended even to those that are afar off to us. It extended to our unworthy lives, Lord, because we by our own sins nailed Jesus to the cross as well. Though we were not physically there with that crowd that day. Because of our sins, we are responsible in part for the sacrifice of Calvary. And yet, Lord, help us to also just focus our heart’s attention upon the truth that why should he love me? So why should my Savior to Calvary go. May we stand in awe at the great sacrifice of Calvary and know that our Lord expects the best from us. Having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, bless us now. In this final hymn, we sing in Jesus name, Amen.