Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 11:00am Good morning. If I have not had the chance to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. And before we jump into the message, I have two announcements for you. The first is this Friday night, I want to invite you to our worship night and I want to tell you what we're going to be doing because it's actually something I'm very excited about. Not just worship, but the them.
[00:00:32] The theme is the song goes on. So what we're gonna do is we have chosen the most popular songs, worship songs from the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s, and we are gonna worship God together with that music, Village church style. Now, one of the things I love is that this next generation, if you're kind of watching worship culture with younger people, this, they're going back to that well and bringing some of those songs back. And so really excited. All details are on the Hub and I can already hear some of you in your mind and you're saying, but Pastor Michael, what about the hymns? And I have great news for you as well because we're also planning another night of worship where we are going to go 1700 years into church history and we're gonna pull out some of the most meaningful hymns that many of them most of you guys know. And we're also gonna Village church style. That's coming a little bit later, but we're gonna do that. So you're gonna be fine. But this Friday night we're gonna be digging into some.
[00:01:40] What's the word for it? Older worship, Village church style. So that's the first announcement. Here is the second announcement. If you're kind of newer to the church, you may not know this, but like that direction, way, way, way, way back in the recesses of the church, we actually have an incredible studio for video and production. It's that some of our people have built. And so over the years we have recorded hundreds and hundreds of video and podcast episodes where we are answering some of just the most practical, everyday questions about what God's word says about a whole bunch of different subjects. And so we took a little hiatus on recording and last year we released an 11 episode season on Roman Catholicism, Ryan and I. In January, Pastor Ryan, we just launched and started releasing two episodes a week on the spirit realm, Angels and demons and spiritual warfare. And so there's 22 episodes in that season. We're actually almost done recording our next season, which is gonna come out Sooner than later. And it's 22 episodes on Heaven and hell and eternity and all of that stuff. So many of you don't know that this content is there. So we hired director Michael Bay. Just kidding. His name's Keith Anderson.
[00:03:02] So to put together a little bit of, like, a promo video so you guys can even just get, like, a snapshot of what's coming up. And we put some of this stuff online so that people can kind of see what we're working on. So cue video and dramatic music.
[00:03:19] Can Christians become possessed by Medina?
[00:03:23] If that has happened objectively, then you cannot be possessed by. By a demon. But should Christians fear the devil? If you ask most Christians, they're going to have some kind of fear, right? Anybody who's dabbling in the spirit realm, outside of God's pointed ways, dead. Cut them off.
[00:03:46] What happens one minute after you die? One minute after you die, you will either be, as Erwin Luther says, elated or. Or terrified.
[00:03:55] So this idea here that, like, once you die, you're going to be in the place you're going to be forever is actually not biblical. Is hell real or a metaphor? Goodness gracious. Okay. I'd like it to be a metaphor. Where is hell? Oh, man. All right, so this is probably going to upset some people. When do people go to hell? People go to hell after the Great White Throne judgment. Do demons oversee or run nations?
[00:04:24] Well, the answer is a little scary, but yes.
[00:04:34] All right.
[00:04:35] Do you feel that? Feel it in your soul? Right.
[00:04:39] I never get over seeing my face on a screen. Ever, ever, ever. If you ever want, like, a great weight loss management program, do that. That'll. Oh, my goodness.
[00:04:53] I'm sorry.
[00:04:55] Stick to your script, Michael.
[00:04:58] You might be wondering, oh, Pastor Michael, where do we find that? Okay, so if you go to vcob.org and you see. Let's just show you. Here's a picture of it. And you see Villasurch Digital at the top. Anything in red, it's going to take you to our Village Digital YouTube page. And then some of you might think to yourself, but, Pastor Michael, we only use the Hub. Great. Here's a picture of the hub. Everything in red. If you click, it's gonna take you directly to our Village Church digital YouTube page. And then you're wondering, how will I know I'm there? Here's a picture of it. It'll say, village Church Digital. And then there are literally hundreds of episodes on there. And then we actually. Cause we've recorded so many, we've actually pulled a bunch down. We're re recording them. And so just excited to give you guys some biblical content that goes after some of the questions that people are asking and trying to understand the word of God. So if you've got like questions and things or topics that after you can submit those anytime, you can text them to me if you want. Just be patient because it's probably not going to be a one week turnaround. We're going to probably take a few months or longer. We've got like nine seasons that are plotted out going after really some of the biggest challenges and questions that people have. So you can search Village Church Digital on your podcast, It'll show up YouTube, it'll show up the Internet, It'll all show up and bring you to the same place. Sound good?
[00:06:25] All right, open your Bibles. Matthew, chapter five.
[00:06:30] So everyone grows up with theological baggage. Amen.
[00:06:35] Yeah. You're not convinced? I'm gonna convince you. Okay. Everyone grows up with theological baggage. And we all have to figure out how to dismantle some of the baggage that we grew up with. And as we do it, here is one of the questions that should guide how we put back together our theology and biblical convictions. And the question is, is my doctrine or belief on. You fill in the blank. Whatever subject we're talking about, is my doctrine or belief on this consistent with the intention of the biblical author? So hypothetically, if I sat down with the Apostle Paul, let's pick a doctrine. I have strong views on the doctrine of predestination. So if I sat down with the Apostle Paul, would he and I agree on predestination? And if Paul and I are probably not on the same page, by the way, who's gonna have to bend their ideas? It's gonna be me. Or I have strong opinions personally on how you interpret, apply, and use the Old Testament in a New Covenant context. So if I sat down with Jesus, I would hope that Jesus and I are on the same page with those things. Now let's get even more personal.
[00:07:40] Some of you grew up in what could be called fundamentalism or legalism.
[00:07:48] I don't wanna pick on you, but I do. Just for a minute. Okay.
[00:07:52] If you grew up in that world, you had a rule for everything.
[00:07:58] In fact, there were rules that were made up to protect you from the possibility of possibly breaking a biblical command. And then more rules were made up to protect you from the possibility of violating another rule that was designed to protect you from possibly breaking a biblical command. Okay. And some of you, you're like, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. And let me just give you an example of what this might have looked like in some contexts. So in order to protect a single person, somebody who's not married, from sexual immorality, there were many fundamentalist or legalist contexts that had this law. Here it is, thou shalt not hold hands.
[00:08:41] And this law was designed to protect you from, not from the reality, but even the possibility of sexual immorality. But some places, they didn't stop there.
[00:08:52] They created another law to protect you from thou shalt not hold hands to protect you from the possibility that you might commit sexual immorality. And here's the new law. Thou shalt not touch nor be alone until you are married. And then if, God forbid, you were alone with your boyfriend and girlfriend, nothing happening, nothing nefarious, you would be considered guilty of sexual immorality because you broke a law that was designed to protect.
[00:09:17] You get the point?
[00:09:19] Now, how do you even get to this place?
[00:09:22] Now, here's what you had. You had young people who weren't even touching or holding the hand or being alone with their significant other. And they believed in their bones they were more godly than the people maybe who did hold hands or who went on dates. Now listen, let's be clear. I don't care if you hold hands. I don't care if you don't hold hands. I don't care if you date or if you don't ever date until you're married. In fact, I think probably, like many people would be better off given the decisions you make with an arranged marriage. Okay, so like, I don't care about that. Here's what I care about.
[00:09:58] I care about when we create or spiritual leaders or moms and dads or churches, we create extra biblical rules. And then we define godliness by our obedience not to those extra biblical, not scripture, but to those extra biblical rules.
[00:10:14] So let's shift gears. So, fundamentalists, you don't feel like I'm only picking on you.
[00:10:18] Let's talk about hyper Pentecostalism.
[00:10:21] If you don't know what that is. Good. So here's what this would look like. The scriptures teach not all speak in tongues.
[00:10:30] But if you go to a hyper Pentecostal church, they're going to tell you if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved.
[00:10:36] How did we get from not all speak in tongues?
[00:10:40] Two, if you don't speak in tongues, then you're not actually saved. All right, so Matthew, chapter five. Let me just kind of bring you to what Jesus is doing. Jesus has just launched his public ministry and he is entering, he's grown up in, but he's really entering a theological Jewish religious culture where for far too many centuries they treated tradition as on the same level or more important than the actual scriptures.
[00:11:10] And somehow these simple, clear biblical rules would turn into this very complicated set of extra rules, demands and commands that if you didn't follow them, then you were guilty of breaking God's word. I want to share with you two of these examples in Jesus Day.
[00:11:28] The first is Sabbath rules, the Sabbath restriction. It's simple, it's clear on it, the Sabbath you shall.
[00:11:36] There are a handful of other laws that kind of brought clarity to this. But Somehow by the first century in Jesus Day, there were now 39 categories of forbidden labor. And if you double click on each of those categories, you find countless sub rules to the point where what became common in first century tradition in Israel was that the moment the sun set on Friday night and the Sabbath be wherever you are at in that moment, you are allowed to walk 2,000 cubits, which is roughly about a step.
[00:12:16] And if you hit 2001, you have broken God's word.
[00:12:22] How did we get from don't work on the sabbath to step 2001? You're now in violation of God's word. Or here's another example from Jesus Day.
[00:12:36] Back when the law was written, priests were commanded before they went into the temple and did temple duties that they had to wash their hands, which is understandable because essentially they were butchers with animals and feces and all the stuff. If somebody was a butcher working with animals and feces and they came, I don't know, into your home, would you ask them to take off their shoes and wash their hands? Yes. So God says, hey, before you go into my home, we're gonna wash all this off and, and you're gonna be pure. This was for priests. This is for priests in the tabernacle or the temple. But now fast forward to Jesus Day. If you did not wash your hands just the right way before every meal, not as a priest, just as a common Jewish person, you were guilty of violating the law. I wanna read to you this passage. It's Mark, chapter seven, verses one through five. And Mark is very funny the way he tells this story. And I want you to just listen to this.
[00:13:30] He says, now, when the Pharisees gathered to Jesus with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, this is a big deal. That's the theological epicenter of the world.
[00:13:42] They saw that some of the Disciples ate with hands that were defiled.
[00:13:50] And then Mark clarifies that is unwashed.
[00:13:54] Now, defiled is a strong word, okay? Defiled really is a reference to like old covenant uncleanness, like you are now violating God's word. So people wouldn't wash their hands and they would say defiled, okay? Then Mark throws in his personal commentary. And here's what Mark has to say about this. He says, for the Pharisees and all the Jews, they don't eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. And then he goes back to the story. He says, and the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands? And Jesus responds, and he calls them hypocrites. I love it. He gets right to the heart of the matter.
[00:14:53] And so this is to illustrate that Jesus is entering a theological culture that has now confused the traditions and the extra rules and laws with what the word of God actually says. Let me just bring this home and we'll jump into the text.
[00:15:08] Following man made traditions and rules, no matter how good, the intention, is not godliness.
[00:15:19] Obeying God's word from the heart, that is godliness.
[00:15:24] And so many of you, as we kind of go through this message, maybe the Holy Spirit will start to maybe prick at your conscience with some of these ideas that you're like, I think these extra biblical things, I have been measuring my godliness by extra biblical rules and not by submission to the revealed word of God with a pure heart.
[00:15:44] So Matthew, chapter five, Jesus, it's the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus is getting ready to drop some significant theological bombs on these Jewish listeners. And he knows they are not going to respond well to it, or at least many of them. If you ever really want a great way to make some enemies, try going after people's traditions, try dismantling them, and they're going to get really upset with you.
[00:16:08] And one of the things that Jesus, before he says anything hard, is he wants everyone listening at the Sermon on the Mount to know this.
[00:16:17] Never, ever, ever, ever, ever would Jesus ever lessen, ignore or neglect one single command in the word of God. He wants them to know this. He's like, listen, y' all are Bible people. Jesus is like, I'm the Bible guy, okay? So whatever you hear me say next, I love the Bible. I'm committed to the Bible. No one is more committed to the word of God than Jesus. No one in all of human history is more committed to a right interpretation and application of the word of God than Jesus. And so he wants them to know. Before he dismantles all of this terrible teaching, he wants them to know. Listen, before you get upset with me about that, let's just establish this. I'm the Bible guy. So. Verse 17, he says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. And he's anticipating that because he's gonna go after their tradition. They're gonna be like, he's violating the Word. It's like, no, I'm pushing back against the extra stuff. That's what I'm doing.
[00:17:15] Do you not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets? I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Translation, I am committed to obeying every single law perfectly. Nobody is more committed to obedience to the word of God.
[00:17:34] Verse 18. Jesus presses this point even deeper. He says, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until it is all accomplished. And an iota is the smallest Greek letter, and a dot in the language is like a little dash. Consider it like the dot of an I or the cross of a t.
[00:17:57] In verse 19, Jesus gets. I mean, even more serious about anyone who doesn't take every command seriously. He says, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same.
[00:18:14] Come on, man, it's no big deal. It's not a big deal. It's just. What? Do you understand what I mean? Why did he even put that there in the first place?
[00:18:21] All these people will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Listen, I don't know about y'. All. I know I'm not gonna be first. I don't wanna be last. Anybody.
[00:18:28] Okay, so we're not going to do that.
[00:18:30] Verse 19, he goes on, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
[00:18:40] Now, there are some religious leaders in the crowd, and no doubt they are thinking to themselves, I command people, require people in God's name to do things that I don't do in my own life. In the private places where no one's looking, you gotta imagine many of them are thinking, is he talking about me? And the answer is yes.
[00:19:05] In verse 20. Jesus amps up the intensity even higher. He says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And you have probably heard this before, so let's just slow down and I need you to see two things that are really important.
[00:19:27] The first thing is this. Jesus has just said that the most religious and Old Testament law abiding citizens in Israel are going to hell.
[00:19:38] Did you catch that? Look again at that.
[00:19:40] He says, even they, they don't have the required good works or righteousness to get into heaven. And the second thing that he's saying implied is the people are gonna respond and say, if they're not even good enough and they're the best at it, then what hope do we have?
[00:20:00] And Jesus has them right where he wants them, realizing that salvation never, ever, ever, ever can be gained by being good enough or obedient enough to God's word. So, like under the old covenant in the Old Testament, salvation by obeying the law was impossible.
[00:20:19] It's like trying to hydrate your body with gasoline. If you drink it, not only will it not work, it will kill you.
[00:20:29] And here's his point. The law was never designed to be used this way. And yet somehow, in the traditions of the first century Jews, they were believing that obedience to the law, good enough, could earn you salvation. Let's apply this now. Salvation by good works is also impossible.
[00:20:50] You might ask, well, why, Pastor Michael? Because nobody can do it. Because nobody is good enough. And whatever goodness, whatever good things that you have done in the world will never be able to outweigh sin. Your sin, my sin against the Holy God. It's sort of like a guy cheats on his wife and says, hey, but I did the laundry. We cool? No, we're not cool. Because this has nothing to do with that. You can do the laundry for the rest of our lives. And this action of goodness over here has no bearing on this evil thing over here. And so why we've gotten this idea in our heads that my good works can somehow outweigh and negate my bad works. And that if I do enough good, then God doesn't have to really care about my bad. Like that is nonsense. You have heard it said, good people go to heaven.
[00:21:35] But I say to you, that is the dumbest thing you can say theologically and one of the most dangerous statements a human being can possibly make. If you just double click on that idea for just a moment, it sounds insane.
[00:21:50] You mean if I just accrue enough good works, it makes up for an evil sin against a holy God. It's just not how it goes.
[00:22:02] The only person who was ever and will ever be good enough was Jesus, Period. No one else. It's because he's God and he's holy. And you and I, I'm gonna break it to you, we're not God and we're definitely not inherently holy, that's for sure. Now, this is our last message in our series, Jesus on Deuteronomy. And you should be thinking, Pastor Michael, you have not talked about Deuteronomy, and you are correct, because now we're gonna do that.
[00:22:27] The scripture that we just taught on was Jesus preparing the crowd for a serious dismantling of their traditions and their terrible interpretation of Scripture. He's about to bring all he's about to get right after it, and he's going to dismantle it, and he's preparing them.
[00:22:46] So in chapters 5 and 6, Jesus goes after 11 false teachings from the rabbis, dismantles them, and is going to put them back together. And it's interesting that the first five of them are all from the book of Deuteronomy. In fact, Jesus felt it like a high priority to protect the integrity of how one reads, interprets, and applies the book of Deuteronomy. And of the 11 issues, the first six, they all start off with the same formula. And so on anger, it says, you have heard that it was said. And then he quotes Deuteronomy on murder. And then he goes on, he says, but I say to you. And then on lust, you've heard that it was said. And then he quotes Deuteronomy on adultery. But I say to you, on divorce it was also said. And then he quotes Deuteronomy on divorce. But I say to you, on oaths and promises, again, you have heard it said. And he quotes Deuteronomy on oaths and promises. But I say to you on retaliation, you have heard it said. And then he quotes Deuteronomy and retaliation.
[00:23:46] But I say to you, loving your enemies, you have heard that it was said. And here he stops quoting Deuteronomy. He now goes after Leviticus. And is he protective of a right interpretation and application of Leviticus, just like Deuteronomy? And the answer is, you better believe it.
[00:24:01] Jesus is not saying that the Scriptures are wrong, but as soon as he reads these scriptures, they automatically go to their training and teaching. And it was a wrong application interpretation of it. And so Jesus begins to dismantle their wrong teaching. And put them back together.
[00:24:20] And then in chapters five and six, he goes after six more teachings that need to be dismantled. Giving to the poor, prayer, fasting, anxiety, judging others. Like, I don't know about y', all, but if I grew up in a church that got all 11 of these subjects not just wrong, but like severely wrong, I'd be a little upset personally.
[00:24:41] And here's what we see. Jesus is not dismantling God's word. He is dismantling misuse of God's word.
[00:24:50] Okay? So one of the benefits of growing up with a recovering Catholic mom and going to Catholic education for 12 years and an all boys Catholic high school, which smelled so bad, but that's a different story, is that I grew to notice and be unusually irritated when people, especially religious leaders, required others to follow extra biblical or man made traditions. In fact, like this, like what I grew up with. It's one of the reasons why I just count it the privilege and joy of my life to like teach God's word and help people, hopefully to the best of my ability, interpret and apply it and understand it. This is one of the reasons that I just love to do this with you guys. Now, tradition isn't bad, right? Do you have family traditions? For sure, we have traditions here at village church. Awesome. Tradition is not bad. So whatever you hear me say next, tradition is not bad until or unless it becomes as sacred as scripture itself.
[00:26:02] So could I share with you a little bit of personal baggage, understanding this is me, but maybe it'll give you some insight into these principles.
[00:26:10] I have a strong like, recoil tendency in me when I am in high church liturgical settings. Okay? They're not wrong, they're not unbiblical, they're not evil. I'm just talking about me, okay? And this is what I mean. Gowns, bells and smells. Do you know what I'm saying? Okay, all right, good.
[00:26:31] Now what makes me recoil is because here's so often the conversation that accompanies that they'll often self identify as something like this.
[00:26:45] We are the historic church.
[00:26:49] And then I want to shout, no, you're not.
[00:26:53] I'm gonna tell you why. Because before the 4th century, the vast majority of churches didn't do gowns, bells and smells. They just didn't do it. In fact, all of that stuff primarily came in the 4th century and later, after Rome allowed Christianity to be illegal and took a little bit more oversight of the Christian faith. And so like before 325 AD, it was in most of the Roman Empire for most of that time. It wasn't legal to be a Christian and they met in homes. And when they did worship, they would come together and they would do it around a meal. And even their communion was around, it seems to be this table of eating and fellowship. And so like, no, that is, it's historical, but it's not the historic church. By the way, neither are we.
[00:27:35] So I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's not explicitly biblical. In fact, you know what you're not going to find in the New Testament? Church? Gowns, bells and smells. They're just not there. Doesn't mean they're bad. It's tradition. Fine, use your traditions. But all of us need to understand that the way we do things is not necessarily the perfect way. There are principles, biblical principles we build things on. And so I find this, like this recoil. Now why do we say all this following man made rules and traditions, as we said earlier, no matter how good the intentions is not godliness, no matter how awesome your traditions are, if they're not rooted explicitly to scripture. Like, I don't get to look at extra biblical rules, apply them and say, look how godly I am today. Obeying God's word from the heart is godless. I also want to be clear. I don't think the way I dress is any more godly. I'm not going to wear a robe, but like this isn't. It is.
[00:28:33] You can wear that. I'll wear this. Everyone's happy.
[00:28:36] Now listen, we all want to be right. Nobody wants to be wrong. Anybody here want to be wrong. We all want to be right.
[00:28:42] And sometimes we have the ability to convince ourselves that the way we do it isn't just the best, it is the correct way. And we can all find reasons to try to maybe justify and say, this goes back to the first century. I'll be honest, A lot of the way we do things right, they are biblical principles applied in our cultural moment.
[00:29:04] But there's so much flexibility on how people get to do things. But here's the deal. My standard for what is right and good and true is not my theological heritage.
[00:29:13] It is not the traditions that I love. It's not what makes me feel good. The standard for what is good and right and true are the clear teachings of God's Word.
[00:29:23] And so for Jesus, it's not just the book of Deuteronomy that is being misused and misapplied and honestly sometimes used as a weapon. Somehow these Pharisees and scribes and rabbis were using the whole of the Old Testament and treating it like a club.
[00:29:39] And something that's kind of really beautiful but easy to miss is that as you read the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, you have to understand that one of the things that he's doing is he's dismantling centuries of a crude tradition that are actually not rooted in the text of the Old Testament. Like, if anybody ever was the Bible guy, it's going to be Jesus.
[00:30:01] All right, I have three. So what's I want to share with you.
[00:30:05] Here's the first.
[00:30:07] Continually make sure you are not falling prey to the elevation of tradition over Scripture.
[00:30:15] I do think the single greatest modern illustration of this is the Roman Catholic Church. Now, some of you are like, I brought my Roman Catholic friend, or, I'm Catholic and I'm just visiting. You're gonna be fine, I promise.
[00:30:30] What I want to do is actually help those of you who come from that background to understand why there is so much tension between you and your Protestant friends.
[00:30:40] And so your Protestant friends aren't just trying to be mean or sticklers. It actually comes back to.
[00:30:48] Now, I want to give you two just illustrations of why Protestants struggle so deeply with their Catholic friends. And here's the first one.
[00:31:01] I want to give you a short list of things that are treated as objective and true in biblical in Roman Catholicism that are not in the Bible at all in any way, shape, or form. Okay? And most Catholics don't know those.
[00:31:15] So here they are, praying to Mary, not in the Bible.
[00:31:18] The sinlessness of Mary, not in the Bible.
[00:31:22] Sacramental salvation, not in the Bible. A place called Purgatory, not in the Bible. Never mentioned, not even hinted at. Not there at all. Unmarried priests, not in the Bible.
[00:31:34] And so if you're coming out of a Catholic background, you're like, wait, those aren't in the Bible. And this is where the Protestants were. Like, no, these are extras. In fact, some of them contradict what is in the Bible. And so I hope that helps you understand. But now I want to give you a second illustration, and this one is a little bit more in depth. I want to introduce you to a doctrine. It's a doctrine that is unknown to most Catholics, but you know the symptoms of it because it affects everything you do. In fact, this doctrine is like, most Protestants don't know it about Roman Catholicism, but when they look at a bunch of things, they go, that's not right. That's not right. Why does that feel off? Something is off. So what I wanna do is I actually wanna share this doctrine with you so that you now have vocabulary for where and why we just part ways so intensely. It's a doctrine called the treasury of Merit. And you have to know what the word merit means here. Okay, so merit is, I'll give you kind of the Catholic understanding that in order to go to heaven, you have to accrue a certain amount of quote, merit or good works or righteousness. And if you have enough when you die, you go to heaven. But if you don't have enough, you end up having to go to purgatory to suffer, to work off the gap of merit that you need. And then if you reject God or commit a mortal sin, then you go to hell. But, like, most people don't want to go to purgatory, you want to die and go to heaven. So there's a doctrine called the treasury of Merit. And the treasury of merit is called the celestial treasury of all of the excess good works of three categories of people. Number one, it is Jesus and his good works. The excess merit is infinite.
[00:33:14] Category number two, the excess good works of Mary, which are, and this is quotes from the Vatican Catechism on the Rome's website, truly immense, unfathomable, and even precise and their value before God. And then there's a third category of merit that goes into the treasury of merit. And these are the prayers and the good works of all the saints. So basically, when a saint would die, all the merit that he needed to get into heaven, good used up. But then all the excess merit goes into the treasury of merit. And now you might be asking who gets to go into that treasury of merit and use it. I'm glad you asked. The Pope is authorized to dispense the merit in the treasury, Celestial treasury of merit. And one of the most frequent ways that this merit is distributed is by something called indulgences, where you give money to the Church and that there's an agreement that if you do this, then the Pope has affirmed a certain amount of merit to be allocated to your account. And then you could also pay a little bit extra money and they could be put into the account of a dead person who's in purgatory.
[00:34:20] And okay, if that sounds crazy or off or just like not biblical, this is why Protestants cringe at some of these ideas. This is why we go, something isn't right here. And most people don't know the treasury of merit exists. And it's not an old antiquated doctrine that they rejected years ago. It is today actual teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. And it is the spinal doctrine that helps you understand why all of these things are helping you accrue merit. Now I say all that because I want you to understand with clarity.
[00:34:58] I don't want you to just feel good. I want you to understand with clarity.
[00:35:02] When something is added to the gospel, it becomes a dangerous thing. Now let's go back in time. There's a guy named Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King, Martin Luther. And he launched unexpectedly the Protestant Reformation. And he goes to this church in Wittenberg, Germany and he posts 95 theses or statements on the door of the Church. And this was actually a semi common way of like creating like ideas and topics for debate. It appears he did not understand the firestorm that he would start. Now you can go back and read those, they're online, translated into English. But he had quite a bit to say on the Pope, the treasury of merit, Purgatory and the allocation of merit. What I did is I kind of just made a summary statement in my own words. It's not far off, but you'll get it.
[00:35:49] Essentially, here's what he said.
[00:35:51] If the Pope is so loving and kind and he has full access to the complete treasury of merit at his whim and disposal, why not, for the love of all those poor souls suffering in purgatory, release them once and for all out of love and compassion as opposed to keeping them in suffering for money?
[00:36:13] Do you understand why they wanted to kill him?
[00:36:16] Because he just outed their hypocrisy and their plan.
[00:36:20] And I want to come back to this statement continually. Make sure you are not falling prey to the elevation of tradition or unbiblical ideas over the explicit and the clear teaching of the Word of God. And if you are Roman Catholic and you've got more questions and you want to go deeper, guess what? We have a whole season on Village Church Digital on Roman Catholicism for you.
[00:36:40] So number two, joyfully allow the Scriptures to challenge all you believe to be true.
[00:36:50] Sometimes it is fun to not know you're wrong because ignorance is bliss.
[00:36:56] But when it comes to eternal things, when it comes to my soul, I want to know what the truth is.
[00:37:03] Now, I grew up in a really phenomenal church. It was such a great church. And this is. I'll describe the church. It was a large mega Presbyterian church. You don't find those often, but it was a really wonderful place. Great men and women, made disciples, taught us the word of God. Really just a phenomenal place to grow up.
[00:37:24] As a Protestant kid, as I shared earlier, I went to a Catholic all Boys high school.
[00:37:30] And here's without a doubt, I'm not like being arrogant when I say this. I knew the Bible better than every single one of those Catholic boys. I could wipe the floor with all of them.
[00:37:39] And I thought I was really smart.
[00:37:43] And then I went to college at Michigan State University and I started going to a church that really taught and trained the people who grew up in that church and the Word of God.
[00:37:52] And I realized on my first day of going to that church that I had a lot of things that I thought were in the Bible that I had strong opinions on that I was flat wrong. And so I made like a short list for you of this is not exhaustive, but here are just a handful of things in my late teens, twenties that I had to really go after and undo because I thought what I believed was true. And then when I challenged it with the Word of God, I realized I was the problem, not the word of God. I had to rethink my views on the end times, infant baptism, speaking in tongues, spiritual gifts in general, preaching, philosophy, how you do it, the purpose of it, predestination, free will, women pastors and elders, women deacons, liturgy, the high church sacraments, eternal security, the role of the Old Testament in a Christian's and this doesn't include, by the way, all of the personal habits and heart issues that Jesus had to dismantle in me. That list is far too long and it's still under construction.
[00:38:55] Joyfully allow the Scriptures to challenge all that you believe is true.
[00:39:01] It is okay to be wrong.
[00:39:05] It is better to be in agreement with the Word.
[00:39:11] So at number three, I lastly have just incredible news for all of you. Despite our human tendency to add burdens to the Gospel, the Gospel is the great news that good works and traditions can't actually save you. Only faith in Jesus.
[00:39:32] I would like to share with you my strong irritation at the concept that good works can save you.
[00:39:40] And I hope you leave here taking my strong irritation and making it your strong irritation.
[00:39:46] Because when you tell somebody that good works save you, here's the how many how do I know that I've crossed the threshold?
[00:39:56] Like, is there a system where some bad works are greater point levels and then they negate good works? Did the bad works even apply? Did Jesus just forgive me the bad works? Now all that matters is I now have to accrue a whole bunch of good works. Like, here's what I do know. The Bible teaches it's appointed for man to die once and face judgment. So I don't Have a second chance. Okay, so, like, how do I know that on the day I die I wasn't one good work short of going to heaven?
[00:40:23] Can I just tell you the oppressive, vile nature of that idea will destroy your soul. And all you have to do is busy yourself with the idea. At least I'm not as bad as Hitler.
[00:40:34] And that is not the way the Bible teaches salvation. In fact, John writes this. He writes, I write these things so that you may know that you are saved.
[00:40:44] Because what God wants for every one of us is to have a confidence that what Jesus did for us is real, that it was not based on our good works, our accrual of merit or the redistribution of some celestial box of good works. No, it is in Christ alone. Like God forgives those not who are good enough, but those who come to Christ and ask for forgiveness and believe in his life, death and resurrection. You have heard it said, water baptism saves you, but I say to you, only faith in Jesus saves you.
[00:41:18] You have heard it said, you, Michael cannot preach in sandals. But I say to you Jesus did, and summer's coming.
[00:41:31] You have heard it said, good people go to heaven, but I say to you, no, it is forgiven people who go to heaven. And what I just love is that God's like, it's never by works, never will. You can try it. It's like drinking gasoline. It'll kill you. But like, listen, what is real is salvation is for those who apologize to God and ask him to forgive.
[00:41:51] Do you believe in Jesus? That he died for your sins and was raised from the dead? God's hand is chomping at the bit to forgive you of your sins. And not because you're good, but because Jesus was good for you. Guys, that's incredible, awesome news. And I just want to encourage you if you have never trusted in Christ, you know when the best day today is? I just gave the answer on accident. It's today. Let's pray together. Father, we love you and we thank you. We worship you, we adore you.
[00:42:17] We are so grateful that we are not saved by trying to be good enough. Thank you for taking that impossible burden off of us. And even if it was possible, we don't even know how much it would require. So just thank you for just that entire idea, throwing it in the trash so that we can know what is real and true. We are saved by grace, through faith and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you. We love you and are so grateful to not live under the massive weight of salvation by obedience to to Old Testament law or to rules or tradition or good works. But God, we also admit that we are sinners and we want to become more like Jesus. And so we just pray that as you ground us in the gospel and what is true, God, you would also change us and make us more and more like Jesus. And on a personal level, I want to thank you that we get to witness now Sierra's baptism. So excited to hear her testimony. We love you. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.
