The counterfeit we never check

You know, I was thinking about this this week. If y'all have ever had someone come up to you and give you a bunch of money, $20 bills, $50 bills, $100 bills, would you ever check that money? Would you actually check whether or not that money is real? And I was thinking about it this week, and I thought this: it would depend on who gives it to you. Who gives it to you will determine what you're going to do with that thing.

Like, if you're buying something on Facebook Marketplace — y'all know people be sketchy on Facebook Marketplace — you're like, "Okay, let's do a pickup at like Fry's. Let's do it in the parking lot." If they came and gave you a bunch of $100 bills, how many of you know you're checking that bill? You're like, "I'm holding it up to the light. I'm making sure it has the watermark. I'm making sure it has all those things." But if your grandma or grandpa were to come and give you a bunch of $100 bills, how many of you know you're not going to check whether or not it's authentic? Why? Depending on what something comes through, you trust it more. The people who are closest to us, we end up trusting what they give us the most.

And this week, we're continuing our series on Cults and Counterfeits. And what we're doing is we're talking about something that I think is a lot more tender. It's probably the most tender week, because what we're talking about this week is Catholicism. Last week we talked about Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses. And I think maybe for a lot of us in our church, we've had moments where someone has come and knocked on the door. But the second you start talking about Catholicism, I know you're talking to the people in our church. This isn't someone at our door. This is someone at the dinner table during Thanksgiving. This is someone in our family. This is a grandmother. This is a grandpa. And because of that, we need to talk about it. And I think it is so important.

Here's why we're doing this series. What we're trying to do is talk about what the true gospel is, and then what are some of the things that will often come against it. And it's important that Christians are able to stand firm — for every father who is leading your house spiritually, we are leading them so that we can stand firm. This is what the Bible says. 1 Timothy 4:1, "The Spirit clearly says that in the later days, people will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." So because of that, we have to guard against it.

Paul, talking, says this. Galatians 1:6, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ, and you're turning to a different gospel — you're turning to a counterfeit, which is really no gospel at all." He says, "Evidently, there are some people throwing you into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel." We need to be able to guard against it. Why? So that we can share the truth. That's the whole focus — that we can actually share the truth. 1 Peter 3:15 says this, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord, and always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for the reason of the hope that you have." If someone comes up to you and says, "Why are you Christian? Why are you not Mormon? Why are you not Catholic?" we need to be prepared. The Bible says to give a reason for the hope that we have. This is why we believe it. But then the Bible says that we need to do it with gentleness and respect. We're not here to win arguments. What we're here to do is look at what the Bible says, so that we can share the reason we have the gospel.

So the first week, that's what we talked about. We talked about what the gospel really is. I told you about the Secret Service that was created in 1865 to spot counterfeit money. It was a big problem. And the $20 bill is the most counterfeited bill that there is. And I talked about all the security measures and the things that you can do to make sure that something's authentic, like the watermark. Well, in the same way, the gospel has questions that we can ask to determine authenticity. One of those questions is this: what is your final authority? And what do we believe? The Bible and the Bible alone. Here's another question: who do you say Jesus is? He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. He is God, part of the Trinity. Here's another question: how are you saved? So we talked about that week one. Last week, we looked at Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, which have a different authority. They present a different Jesus, and they have a different salvation.

And this week, like I said, we're talking about Catholicism. And so often this is family members who are sitting at the dinner table with us. And often, because it's being handed to us by family members, we tend to trust it far more. But here's what you need to know. There's so much about it that is good, but you can have something that is 90% correct, and the 10% makes it inauthentic. Like if I have a dollar, and 90 cents of that is authentic. That is the difference between paid in full and still paying. And still paying.

And I've had friends that have literally come up to me from this church, and they're like, "My grandma is Catholic. Is she going to go to heaven?" I need you to know this. I'm not here to make a pronouncement. Because here's what I do know. Just like you get different Christians, you get different Catholics. You get people that would say they identify as Catholic, but they believe in Jesus and Jesus alone for their salvation. And you can have Christians who would say that, but they're actually doing works to try to get their way to God. So I'm not here to make an official pronouncement or anything like that. But what's different about evangelical Christianity is we don't have a pope. We don't have a singular source of authority saying this is what you have to believe. What is our authority? It is the Bible and the Bible alone. So what I'm going to do today is I'm not talking about what your grandma may believe — there are certain Catholics that may not even understand what it is that they believe. I'm going to go to what the official Catholic church says. And that's where we're going to start. Why it is a counterfeit.

Who are Catholics?

But before we even jump into any of that, how did we even get here? People are like, "Okay, where is Catholicism from? How did this even happen?" Because it's very different than Mormonism. It's very different than Jehovah's Witnesses, that have been around for like 200 years. Because Catholicism actually goes all the way back to the beginning. They would actually say that it starts in Matthew 16.

Here's what the scripture says. Jesus is talking to Peter — my man Peter. And He says this, "I tell you, Peter, that on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. And I will give you the keys, the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Now those keys are to open the gospel so that people can come and know Christ. And He says this, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, but whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." For Catholicism, that's the moment. Jesus is like, "Peter, you are the rock, and on this rock I will build My church." So Peter establishes the Jerusalem church. What he does is he eventually goes to Rome, where he leads the church in Rome. And what they believe is he's eventually martyred under Nero. And they believe that he passes the church on to someone else. And what you get is this succession line of authority that stems from Peter — that I can make a pronouncement as a pope, and I'm standing in the same authority Christ gave Peter, and whatever I say goes. Whatever I say goes. That there's been this unbroken line of succession that has happened from all that time. Peter and Peter alone, and the succession that comes from it. So they say whoever sits in Peter's seat has that authority. That is called the Bishop of Rome, also known as the pope, or papa, which means father. And they have complete authority over the Catholic church, all the way from Peter to Pope Leo XIV, who is currently in his seat.

Let me make some comments about this. Real quick. First is this. Peter is foundational. Yes. Do we agree with that? He is foundational, but he is not the foundation. It is not Peter and Peter alone. The Bible says this, Ephesians 2:20, "Together, we the church are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is" — who? — "Christ." Christ Himself. Christ is the cornerstone. What does that mean? Let me show you a photo of a cornerstone. This is a cornerstone. It is the first stone that is placed in a building, and it is more important than any other stone. When they were building houses in ancient times, they would spend all their time making sure the cornerstone was aligned, and it was perfect, and it wasn't leaning — because it was the stone that determined everything else. So when Jesus says, "I am the cornerstone," what He says is everything needs to come into alignment with — who? — Me. So Peter was a stone, maybe the first stone, but he's not the only stone. It came through the apostles and it came through the prophets. They all laid this foundation. And the crazy thing about foundations, I learned this — the crazy thing about foundations is you lay them once. You don't have to relay them generation after generation after generation. We don't need a pope to tell us what the Bible says. The Bible tells us what the Bible says. We don't need it. So Peter is foundational, but he's foundational just like everyone else.

And also, he talks about the keys that are in Peter's possession. Those keys aren't Peter's private possessions to heaven and hell. Jesus literally gives — get this, get this — Matthew 18:18, He talks to the disciples, all of them, and He says the same thing: "Truly, I tell you that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Not only that, the scripture talks nothing about succession, nothing about Rome, nothing about an office that continues, nothing about a transfer mechanism. It is really hard to go from "Peter, you're going to be the rock" to an unbroken line of Roman bishops who hold supreme, infallible authority. That is wild. How did we even get here?

Not only that, Peter never acts like the pope. Like in Jerusalem in Acts 15, Peter wasn't the one that says this is how it's supposed to go. James did. Not only that, Peter makes mistakes. He's not infallible. In fact, in Galatians, he goes and he spends time with all the Gentiles, which is us, the non-Jewish people. And the non-Jewish people, they're not circumcised, and he's hanging out with them. All of a sudden, Jewish people show up, and he's like, "Oh, I need to back up from these people." And what happens is Paul corrects him. He corrects him and he says this. He says, "Peter, what are you doing?" Galatians 2:16, "Yet we know this, that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus, and not by obeying the law." He's like, when you're backing up, everyone feels the pressure to become a Jew. But being a Jew is not what saves you. Work doesn't save you. It is faith in Jesus, and Jesus alone. "We believe in Jesus Christ so that we might be made right with God through our faith in Christ, not by obeying the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." It is through Jesus that we are made righteous. And literally Paul's entire argument in Galatians, where he's talking to Peter and he's saying, "No, the law isn't what saves you," is the same argument Protestants would make today to the Catholic church. It is not your works that saves you. It is a name, and His name is Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the only one that saves. Matthew 28, Jesus says this, "All authority has been given to Me." He says, "Now you go" — decentralized — where the Catholic church will say, "No, all authority is here." It's countercultural. It's counter-Jesus. The upside-down kingdom. It's totally different. And unfortunately, it's worked.

Okay, get these stats. Catholicism used to be a European story, but the last 100 years, it has been an explosion. In 1910, there were 291 million Catholics. Get this. Today, 100 years later, over 1.4 billion. That's with a B. To give you context, there are 8.3 billion people on Earth. That's almost 20%. Half of every Christian on planet Earth would be Catholic. They're the single largest body of Christians that there are. And they're not only in Europe — they're everywhere. In fact, in Phoenix alone, there are over 2 million Catholics. Over the last decade, over 500,000 more. Phoenix, in fact, right now — the diocese is second in Catholic population. We have now overtaken New York. We've overtaken Chicago. We are second only to LA. So this isn't just something that's far off that doesn't matter. No, if you live in Phoenix, these are our neighbors.

And the crazy thing is that they love God. They love Jesus. But there's stuff that is so missing. You're seeing this resurgence. If anyone's ever been on social media and you've looked at a Christian video and you go to the comments, has anyone ever seen the comments of, "Thank God I'm Catholic. I'm so grateful that I am." There's almost been this resurgence of it. And that's coming from TikTok creators who are Catholics. And here's why. This next generation, what they're looking for is something that is sturdy, because the world is falling apart. So they look at Catholicism. Why? Because it's ancient. It's intellectual. It's beautiful. It's masculine. It's stable. It's countercultural. They call it Catholic-maxing. It's literally a thing that is happening right now. It's actually a thing. But we need to know: what's more ancient than that is the Bible, and everything that we believe about the Bible. And we do not need an institution, because it is Christ. It is Christ.

So here's what we need to do. These are people who genuinely love Jesus, but they're settling for something that isn't always the truth. So what we need to do is take up the detector questions, like I said.

Who do you say Jesus is?

And the first one is actually really easy, because it's: who do you say Jesus is? And this is awesome, because unlike Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics have the exact same truth that we do about God. They will say that they believe in the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the sinless life, real death, bodily resurrection, and human sinfulness. The same foundations that we've talked about, they will say. Okay. But then as you get deeper into it, there are some differences. One of the major differences is authority.

What is your final authority?

Remember, we talked about this. The second question is this: what is your final authority? What is our answer? The Bible and the Bible alone. For Catholicism, they don't subtract from the Bible. What they actually do is they add to the Bible. They have three sources of authority. We have one, which is the Bible. The first source for them is the Bible. They encourage that you read the Bible, but they've actually added seven more books to it in the Old Testament. It's called the Apocrypha. Their second source is tradition. So tradition, they actually put on the same level as the Bible. I'll read it to you. Not making it up. The Catechism says this: "As a result, the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of revelation is entrusted" — it's only the Church that can actually translate what the Bible means — "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone," which is what we would do. "Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence." That is wild. That is wild and completely different to what we would believe. The Bible and the Bible alone.

Their third source of authority is the Magisterium, which is the authority and teaching of the pope. And I want to show you some things about this. In the Catechism, it says this. The task of authentic interpretation is not on you as a Berean who is looking at the Bible and trying to understand what it is. No — the task of authentic interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops. So they have the power to say what is real and what is not. Another one: the pope has supreme and universal power over the whole Church, and can exercise that unhindered. That is terrifying. Unhindered. Here's another one. It is the tradition, sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium — the teaching ministry — that work together to contribute to the salvation of souls. Here's another one, from Vatican I. It says, "If anyone says that the pope's power is only inspection and direction, and not supreme power over the universal Church, let him be anathema." What does that mean? Condemned. Like, if you believe that and you do not repent, you're going to hell. Let him be anathema — if you say that the pope can only give direction and doesn't have supreme power. "This is the teaching of Catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without the loss of faith and salvation." Yo, that is crazy.

And what that gives you the power to do is change the rules mid-game. Anyone ever played a sport where someone changes the rules mid-game? You all know that that's frustrating. Like, I was talking to JR. Is anyone watching the FIFA World Cup? They have that new hydration break. And JR is a massive fan. He loves soccer. And he's like, "Why do we have a hydration break? That's not soccer. That's America hosting it and putting in spaces for ads. It's a money thing. That's why they're doing it." He got real passionate. He was in my house, his arms are flailing, and he's just like, "Why the hydration break?" But here's what's crazy. Literally, even when the stadium is covered, we do a hydration break. What is this? It's crazy. But at least they defined the rules beforehand. It's another thing when you're playing a game and someone changes the rules on you.

Never play Monopoly Deal with my wife. Y'all, I'm playing this game and I'm doing this thing, and the next thing, she whips out some card and some rule, and I'm like, "What do you mean?" And she says, "That's what the rule says." And I'm like, "But that's not how we've been playing for the last 10 rounds." And she's like, "It's because you don't know the rules. I took a card, but you didn't fight me on it." And I'm like, "What? We're changing the game." It's not fun. The hard thing is that their understanding allows them to do that. I can say, as the pope, I can say ex cathedra. I can say and teach, and in that moment what I'm saying is infallible.

So literally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX, speaking ex cathedra — which means they're sitting in their official seat and they're making a pronouncement, and they invoke the power of the Holy Spirit, and they believe that the Holy Spirit will keep them from ever speaking error, so it becomes like Scripture — he said this: that Mary was conceived and preserved from original sin. She was sinless, and she remained free from sin her entire life. And then in 1950, Pope Pius XII, speaking ex cathedra, said this: that Mary's body was not left in a grave like the rest of us, but she was taken up, body and soul, into heaven. So get this. Just because they did that, they said Mary was conceived without a sin nature — 1854. She lived a sinless life, and she was taken bodily into heaven in 1950. You have 1.4 billion Catholics that have to believe that now, like 1,800 years later. No scripture, no reference, no nothing. Just trust me, bro. And now we all have to believe it. That is dangerous. Because who knows what can happen? That is dangerous.

That's why — what do we believe? Sola Scriptura. What is that? Scripture and Scripture alone. 2 Timothy 3, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God might be complete." We keep coming back to that verse. Complete. Because complete means complete. It doesn't mean kind of complete. It doesn't mean sort of complete. Complete means complete. Equipped for every good work. In other words, there is no good work that God wants you to do that isn't found in Scripture. That's what that verse says. So they failed on that test.

How are you saved?

The third question is this: how are you saved? And here is the massive difference between Catholicism — and this is where I wanted to help — because it all comes down to one word, and that word is probably one of the most important words you can ever understand. And that word is this: justification. How are you justified? How do you stand before an almighty God with the sin that you have and be declared righteous? And Protestants and Catholics have two different answers for justification. What Protestants say is justification is imputed upon you. What does that mean? It means that Christ's righteousness is put upon you. It is final. It is complete. It is in a moment. Catholicism believes that justification is infused into you over time as you do good works.

Okay, let me give you a picture of this. JR, can I have you? And Jesse, my man Jesse, can I have you? I want you to understand this, because it's probably one of the most important things when it comes to what we believe as Protestants. So right over here, I have JR. He's my friend that was very passionate about FIFA. What this is, this is a trench coat. I'm sorry, dude, this is the one that I had. What this represents is Christ's righteousness. It is His robe. How's that look? I think it fits you. I think we're ready to go. That represents Christ's righteousness. I don't have a robe. Y'all are just going to have to work with me today. Okay, this is sin. Sorry, brother. Jesse's like, "Always me. Always me."

Okay, here's what you need to know. This is the gospel. This is why we need to be justified. Every single one of us is like Jesse. We are standing before a holy and righteous God. There is a pronouncement of our punishment that is about to happen. We are on death row, and we're guilty. And we know we're guilty, and the judge knows we're guilty, and the jury knows we're guilty. Everyone knows we're guilty. And the sentence that we're about to have is death. That is us. And what happens in that moment, as it's about to happen — y'all, I have a gavel, I brought a gavel, here we go — as the pronouncement is about to happen, Jesus stands up in the courtroom and He says, "I'll take his punishment. I'll take his punishment." And what happens is, if you say yes — do you say yes? — that sin, every wrong thing you've ever done, comes and is put on Jesus. And you are declared not guilty.

But that's not the gospel. Because just because you're not guilty doesn't mean you're good. And you can't stand before God unless you're good. You see, not guilty means morally neutral. And that's not good enough. You have to be — what? — righteous. So what happens in that moment is Jesus takes your sin, but then His perfect life, as the spotless Lamb, He transfers that onto you. Now, not only are you sinless in God's eyes, in a moment, you are made righteous, and you are declared not "not guilty," but not guilty and righteous. That is the gospel. It is called the great exchange. That's what the Bible talks about in 2 Corinthians 5:21. He says, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us." But it didn't stop there. It says, "so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." And the Bible says that all you have to do is declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, and that great exchange happens in a moment. That justification, it's imputed upon you. What does that mean? Jesus's righteousness gets placed on you in a second. When you say yes, it's imputed upon you.

What Catholicism teaches is infusion. That yes, there's grace, but you don't get to have that coat. And I will see if, at the end of your life, you deserve this coat. So what happens is you're standing, and there is a ledger that is against you. And now you have to prove your worth. So you get baptized — great, a little faith is infused into you. A little grace, a little righteousness. And then you go through confirmation — a little grace is infused upon you. You go through holy orders — a little faith is infused upon you. A little grace. You start taking communion, the Eucharist — a little faith. And your entire life you're trying to infuse as much grace. And you can never say what Jesus said when He said on the cross, "It is finished." I was talking to people in the lobby right before the service who used to be Catholic. And I was like, "What was it like?" And they said, "All I could ever answer is not 'it is finished,' but 'I'm trying. I'm trying. And I hope at the end of my life I have built up enough grace that when I stand before God, I can be led into heaven.'" And if you're not, you go to hell, or you go to purgatory, where you have to pay for your own sin. Yo, that is not good news. And that is not the gospel. We believe it is imputed upon you.

1 John 5:13, "I write you these things so that you might believe in the name of the Son of God, and that you might know" — that you will know — "and have eternal life." Justification is not received through your good works. But the Council of Trent, that's what they said. They said this. You must be fearful and anxious as to your state of grace. What did Jesus say? Do not be anxious. Do not be anxious for anything. No, no, no, no, no. "You must be fearful and anxious as to the state of grace, as no one knows with certainty that you have achieved the grace of God." That is very different than 1 John 5:13, that we might know and have eternal life. So the question is about grace. Does grace finish the work, or does it just start the work? If it starts the work, it's not grace. Grace finishes the work. What Catholicism does is it hands us a treadmill, and you spend your entire life running on that treadmill. And if you have family that are Catholic, you know that they're trying to do everything they can to be in the good graces of God. But Jesus says, "It is finished."

Paul, when he was writing Galatians, he was talking to the Galatian church about not being stuck in the law. And he says, "I'm shocked that you are turning away to a gospel that appears to be the good news but isn't good news at all. And you're being fooled by people who deliberately twist the truth." He said, "How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it through your good works? No, it was by faith." How was Abraham declared righteous? Through his good works? No, it was by faith. He says it is clear that no one can be made right with God by keeping the law. You cannot be justified by your works. So the scripture says it is through faith that a righteous person has life. This way of faith is very different from the works of the law. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us so that we could be made right with God through faith. And now the way of faith — y'all get the picture. What is it? Faith. Faith. Faith. And faith alone. We believe that faith alone is what saves us.

The Catholic stance disagrees with it. Here's what Trent said, the Council of Trent. It said, "If anyone says that by faith alone a sinner is justified, that nothing else is required to obtain the grace of justification, let him be anathema." Anyone who says faith alone is how we are justified, let him be anathema. "If anyone says that the righteousness received is not increased before God by good works, but that it's merely the fruits and the signs of justification" — which is what we believe — "but is not the cause of the increase, let him be anathema." But Paul is talking to the Galatian church about circumcision, and he's saying don't get circumcised, because if you get circumcised and you start trusting in your works, he says, what good is Christ? He says, "You who are trying to be justified by the law" — verse 4 — "you have been alienated from Christ." What does that mean? Invalidated, wasted, exhausted, wiped out. "You have been alienated from Christ, and you have fallen away from grace." If we trust in our works, we are not fully following and trusting in Christ. Christ alone. Alone. There has been a lot of arguments about that word: alone.

I want to tell you a story that happened 500 years ago, by a man by the name of Martin Luther. Martin Luther, who was a Catholic. He was a monk, and he was doing everything that he could to try to obtain that grace. He was so devout. He would fast. He would pray. He would confess for hours — for hours — to such a point that the priests got tired of him. But he was so aware of his sinful state that he was tormented by it. Eventually, writing about it, what he says is that he actually hated God, because God was so righteous, and what he knew is he knew that he wasn't good enough. So frustrated by it. And then what ends up happening is Luther one day is in a tower, and he reads Romans 1:17, that says this: "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." It is through — what? — faith. And what happens is his entire world is blown open. It is by faith that all of this happens. And what he says is, in that moment, he read that scripture and he felt like the kingdom of heaven opened up to him, and he could finally go and step in. He has that moment where he's like, "Oh my gosh, it is by faith."

And then he starts hearing about someone who is selling indulgences, a Catholic priest. And an indulgence, it's something that you have to buy that allows your family to pass through purgatory and get into heaven. And he sees this happening, and he's like, "No, it's not by works, it's by faith." So what he does is he writes 95 theses against selling grace, and he goes to the door of Wittenberg, and he takes these 95 theses and he nails them to the door. It is by grace, through faith. And the Protestant Reformation started, to such a degree that he eventually is standing before the emperor. He is standing before the church. And what had happened in Europe is the Catholic church was the church. It wasn't like, "Man, I'm going to go find a non-denominational church. Is there some Baptist church? Can I go to a charismatic church?" It wasn't that. It was Catholic church or nothing. And they said, "Recant. Take it back, that it is grace alone, by faith alone." And he said this: "Unless I am convinced by Scripture, I cannot and will not recant. Here I stand." He's like, "It is by faith alone, and I stand on faith alone, that Christ's work is enough, and He doesn't need my help."

The Protestant Reformation, it is seen by these five major marks. It's this. Sola Scriptura. What is that? Scripture alone. It is the Bible and the Bible alone. How are we saved? Sola Fide. What is that? Faith alone. Sola Gratia. What is that? Grace alone. Solus Christus. What is that? Christ alone. And just in case you think you did all of that and you deserve the glory — no. The fifth one is Soli Deo Gloria. To God be the glory alone. It is God. That's why we believe in that "alone" — that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. It is by Him. And I have friends on that treadmill, when Christ has already done the work. You can get off the treadmill.

How to share the gospel

We need to reach them. We need to love them. And the way you do that is not by arguing about Mary, about the saints, about indulgences. You start with what we have in common, which is Christ. And Christ got on the cross, and He said, "It is finished."

Nothing to add

You see, for a Catholic person, the gospel gives something absolutely beautiful: that there's nothing to add. It is a gift, and it is not a wage. Ephesians 2:8, "For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and it is not from yourself. It is a gift from God, not by works, so that no one can boast."

Nothing to earn

Not only is there nothing to add, there's nothing to earn. Because Christ's record — what happens is He is credited to you. Romans 4:5, "However, to the one who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness." Don't have to work. Just trust God.

Nothing to fear

And they have nothing to fear. If you ask a Catholic, "Are you saved?" the only response they can give is, "I'm trying." No, no, no. You have nothing to fear. You do not have to fear. 1 John 5:13, "I write you these things so that you might know." And I think the best case for that is the thief on the cross. Man, he is on the cross. And there's another thief on the cross. And that person starts mocking Jesus. And he says, "Man, do you not know who you are talking to? This man has done nothing wrong, yet He is on the cross." And he turns to Jesus and he says, "Jesus, remember me. Remember me when you enter your glory." And Jesus says, "Today you will be with Me in paradise." Not, "I'm starting." No, no, no. Today. He didn't get to be baptized. He didn't get to take communion. He didn't get to prove his righteousness. He just said, "God, I believe You. God, I believe You." And in that moment, Jesus said, "Today."

The hard thing about this is it's the default state of our human heart. Because we can talk about Catholics who are trying to work their way to salvation, but I have met Protestant Christians who have given their life to Christ, and you still think it's your Bible reading and your prayer and all your other things. And I'm here today to tell you: there is nothing that you can do that can make you righteous. And I will ask you, kindly and lovingly, get off the treadmill and trust in Christ alone. He is our firm foundation. Not our partial, not our rocky, not our kind of. No, He is our firm foundation. The cornerstone. Got to love Him. Got to share with them.

Get off the treadmill

Can I pray for you? Lord God, I want to thank You for every single person who is here. Every single person under the sound of my voice. Lord, You know their family members. Lord, You know their friends. Lord, You know that there might be some people here today, and they're trusting in their works for salvation. And God, if that's them, Lord, I just pray that You'll give wisdom, that You'll give discernment.

I also want to take a moment, while we're still praying. There might be some people here today, and you have realized that you have not trusted in Christ alone. You thought that being a good person, going to church, doing the thing, is going to somehow declare you righteous before a righteous God. That's not how it works. There is nothing that you can do that can bring yourself back to God. It is only in faith in Jesus. The Bible says in Romans that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord — that you're making Him Lord of your life — and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, that you will be — not might be — you will be saved. Not you might be after all that you can do. You will be saved.

And if you're here today and you've never made that decision, I would love to pray a prayer. Can we all pray this for the benefit of those praying for the very first time? Just say: "Dear Jesus, I believe that You're the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe You came to this earth. You died on a cross, and You were raised, that I can have life. Right now, I make You my Lord. I make You my Savior."