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All right, we're here in 1st Corinthians chapter 3. The name of the sermon is, Why Christians Should Not Celebrate All Souls' Day. Why Christians Should Not Celebrate All Souls' Day. And before I get into this sermon, let me just give you a bit of a background on what All Souls' Day is. And in the United States, you don't celebrate All Souls' Day. Catholics just aren't that zealous. So they do not celebrate All Saints' Day or All Souls' Day, but they do celebrate Halloween. And all of these are actually very mixed together. Let me just give you a little bit of a history on this. There was a holiday in ancient Ireland known as Samhain. And it's spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N. I don't understand the pronunciation for it because it doesn't sound like it looks. But Samhain, they would basically believe in this pagan society that the realm between the living world and the spiritual realm was at its thinnest, so it was the best time of year to communicate with the dead. And so basically you could communicate with spirits, communicate with your relatives. And so this holiday was right at this time of year. Now, throughout history, when the Catholic Church took over areas, they would Christianize or Catholicismize a culture. And what that means is they would take the holidays that existed and they would kind of mix it with Catholicism and then kind of make it into something that isn't really godly or ungodly. It's kind of a mix. And that's kind of what they did here with Samhain. And so Halloween gets its name from All Hallows' Eve. All Saints' Day was called All Hallows' Day. So the day before All Hallows' Day would be All Hallows' Eve. So Halloween, you see hallow in there. And that is October 31st. Then November 1st is All Saints' Day. November 2nd is All Souls' Day. Now, a question people have oftentimes is, what's the difference between All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day? Well, you need to realize these are Catholic holidays. And so according to the Catholic Church, what is a saint? Not just someone who's saved, but someone who's especially righteous, like St. John the Baptist, St. Paul the Apostle, right? Now, according to the Bible, what makes you a saint? If you believe on Jesus Christ. If you're saved, you're a saint. But not according to the Catholic Church. So All Saints' Day is about celebrating these great people from the past. All Souls' Day is about celebrating or helping your dead relatives in purgatory by giving them food, by putting candles, by whatever tradition you have, incense, songs, prayers, or whatever. And so here's the thing. All Saints' Day is a more prominent holiday than All Souls' Day. But what are people doing when they go to the graveyards and talk to their dead relatives? What holiday are they really celebrating? They're celebrating All Souls' Day. They're not really celebrating All Saints' Day even though they think they're celebrating All Saints' Day because they're not remembering Paul the Apostle or John the Baptist. What are they doing? They're leaving food for their dead relatives, right? And so of course, if you grow up Catholic, there's a lot of traditions you do. You don't know why you do them. You just go through the motions. But All Souls' Day is specifically about talking to your relatives. There's what's known as a Book of the Dead in a lot of Catholic churches where you'll write the names of your dead relatives and you remember them at this time of year. And this is something the Catholic church supports. You can watch videos of Pope Francis and he also believes this is the time of year to communicate with the dead and talk to your dead relatives. And so the modern day All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, it's kind of a mixing of I guess somewhat Christian things and then this pagan society. But honestly, it's all wicked, it's all evil because, look, necromancy, communicating with the dead is something that's sorcery gets the death penalty. I mean, it's a wicked thing that God's people are not supposed to do. So let me just give you three reasons why you should not celebrate All Souls' Day. Point number one, because there is no purgatory. There is no purgatory, so you do not need to help your relatives get out of purgatory. You don't need to feed your dead relatives. There is no purgatory. When they die, they're in heaven or hell. Now, of course, there's a lot of Bible that teaches against purgatory. Passages like John 3, Acts 16. Famous salvation passages disprove the idea of purgatory, which according to the Catholic church after you die, there's an intermediate stage between heaven and hell where basically everybody goes to get purged, which is where you get the name purgatory, purged from your filthiness, purged from your wickedness. That's what the Catholic church teaches. The Bible there just teaches heaven or hell. But what we're gonna do in this sermon is I'm only gonna show you the major passages that the Catholic church uses to support purgatory. So whether you go to catholic.com or catholicanswers.com, Catholic apologetics, these are the verses they use to prove purgatory. And 1 Corinthians 3 is the number one place that I saw that they use. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet shall as by fire. And what the Catholic church says is, well, you're saved, but it's by fire, meaning you spend 800 years in purgatory and then you're fully saved. That's what they teach. This is their major passage that they show that, yeah, you're saved, but you gotta go through a little bit of fire in between heaven and hell for, you know, 500 years, 1,000 years, you know, depending on how good or bad you were, depending on how much your relatives pray to you and things like that. Now, here's the thing. When you're looking at this passage, we need to realize this is about the judgment seat of Christ. This is written to save people, and this is about getting rewards after we die before the millennial reign of Christ, and then God's saying your works are gonna be made manifest. The things you've done that you get an eternal reward, it's gonna be made manifest, we're gonna know. Now, honestly, I don't know how literal this passage is. I mean, are we literally gonna have a giant bonfire with every saved person around the outside where you throw something in the fire and all of a sudden something comes out? You know, I don't know. The Bible's giving us an example to understand how this takes place. I don't know how literal this is, but I do know it's gonna be made manifest what you did for God, and you're gonna get rewards. You're not gonna get a punishment, okay? But here's the thing. When you look at this passage, ask yourself this question. What gets thrown in the fire? The works or the person? The works. It's not the person getting thrown into the fire. It's the works that get thrown in. It doesn't say the person gets thrown in the fire, and it's like, well, he might make it, he might not. No, it's the works that get thrown in the fire. So regardless of how literal you take this, I mean, look, it doesn't say the person is thrown in the fire. It says the works are thrown in the fire, and he's saved, yet so is by fire, meaning that the fire's gonna declare what good works that he did and what lasts. But here's the thing. Even if everything gets burned up, every work, he does not get burned up. He does not go to purgatory. It is only the works that are thrown into the fire. Go to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Now, of course, the word purgatory is not in the Bible. There are words that are not in the Bible what the concept is taught, such as the Trinity, the rapture, and since it's a very common concept, there's a word that is given to represent that, which makes it a lot easier. But it's not just that the word purgatory is not in the Bible. The concept is not in the Bible either. That's the big passage they show you, and it doesn't say the person's thrown into the fire. It says the works. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 9 and 10. Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And the judgment seat of Christ is for saved people. You say, well, Brother Stuckey, if it's just for saved people, why does it say we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ? Why does it use the word all? Because he's talking to saved people. It's like if I was preaching a sermon, I could say we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, of course, in a church this big, there's probably gonna be some unsaved people in the church, but you understand what I'm saying. I'm preaching to saved people. And Pope Apostle, he's not writing a letter to that church over there or that Catholic church there. No, he's writing to saved people. And he's saying we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. He's trying to motivate saved people to serve God and do right. That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. And the Catholic church says, well, good or bad, so if you've done bad, you've gotta receive something bad for it. Now, here's the thing. The word bad in the Bible is not meaning sinful. Good or bad is not righteous and holy versus sinful. What good and bad in reference to the judgment seat of Christ is something that lasts through the fire and something that doesn't. Something that has an eternal reward and something that doesn't. I mean, take for example, I mean, if you had an apple or some sort of fruit and then you bite into it, it's like, ah, Sirana. It's a bad apple. It's not a sinful apple, but it just doesn't have any value to you now because it's bad, right? And when it comes to serving God, you know, here's the thing. A lot of things in our lives are not good or bad. They're just things we do. You say, what are you talking about? I'm saying brushing your teeth. In my opinion, you oughta brush your teeth several times every day. But you're not gonna get any rewards in heaven for brushing your teeth. But it's something you must do, right? You take showers on a daily basis. Right, you wake up, you put on a new pair of clothes and everything like that. You gotta wash clothes, wash dishes, cook food. There's a lot of things that we do and they give us no eternal reward, but they're things that we must do. And unfortunately, a lot of Christians, it's not that they're doing majorly sinful things, but they're doing a lot of things with no value. Things that are gonna be thrown in the fire and it's just burned up and no value whatsoever because it wasn't done for a heavenly reward, something that actually has an eternal value. It's just something that people chose to do, right? Well, here's the thing. In 2 Corinthians 5 verses 9 and 10, 2 Corinthians is after what book in the Bible? 1 Corinthians. And 1 Corinthians has, the Church of Corinth has a lot of issues going on, and 1 Corinthians was written by Paul the Apostle. 2 Corinthians, it's kind of like 1 Corinthians 2, isn't it? It's kind of like a follow-up to what was written. And so it's almost like 29 chapters of one book basically because it's like 1 Corinthians 2. And so when he says this statement in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 9 and 10, he makes a quick statement to reference back in people's mind what he said in 1 Corinthians 3. So when he says that, it's kind of a reminder, hey, you remember what I said in 1 Corinthians 3? So 2 Corinthians 5, when it says good or bad in 2 Corinthians 5, 10, that doesn't really tell us a whole lot. But 1 Corinthians 3 does tell us a whole lot. Go to Romans 14. Romans 14. I don't know, I don't see purgatory in those verses. I'm missing it. I mean, usually people give you their best argument. Right, I mean, if somebody came to you and said, hey, prove to me that Jesus is God. Well, there are a lot of things in the Bible that prove Jesus is God. But doesn't it make sense to give your best argument? If that's their best argument, I'm sorry, it looks like there is no purgatory, right? Romans 14, verse 10. Romans 14, verses 10 through 12. Romans 14, verses 10 through 12. But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, once again, the all is in reference to setting it not your brother, another believer in the Lord. So everyone who's saved is gonna appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, the unsaved, where do they appear before? The great white throne judgment, right? And they're gonna be punished for what they did bad. For saved people, we get rewarded for what we did good. And we are all gonna appear before the judgment seat of Christ, except you be an unbeliever. Right, and this is a motivation for us to serve God because we wanna get rewards. We wanna do something that actually lasts, right? And it says in verse 11, for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. And what the Catholic church says is, well, basically you're at judgment, and you've gotta give an account of yourself. And if you're innocent, then you'll go to heaven or just a few years in purgatory. But if you're guilty, then you've gotta go to purgatory for a long time. Now, I mean, this is written towards saved people. And it's saying give an account of yourself. It would be like, for example, at a job, if your boss says, hey, show me what you've done this past week. You're giving an account of yourself, right? But by no means does this imply purgatory at all. Now, the Catholic church will say, but there has to be a purgatory, because if you have a lot of sins, and you're not completely righteous, you've gotta be 100% cleansed from your sinfulness. Look, we're never gonna be perfect, and we get cleansed the moment we believe on Jesus Christ. All my sins are gone. Even though I sin on a daily basis, I am spiritually perfect forever no matter what I do the rest of my life. And the same with you if you are saved. Go in your Bible to Revelation 21. Revelation 21. As I said, these are the verses they use. I mean, these are their big arguments for purgatory. Isn't it amazing once you get saved, and you start learning the Bible, you start realizing that false religions aren't really basing their beliefs on the Bible, are they? Because, you know, sometimes people tell us as we go out soul winning, or we talk to people, well, that's your interpretation. But a lot of people look at John 3.16, and they see baptism and repent your sins. I mean, people have different interpretations. It's like, yeah, people have different interpretations because they're unsaved and don't know what they're talking about. So the Bible's actually pretty clear. The Bible says in Revelation 21, verse 27, and this is one of their big verses, and there shall no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. And so the Catholic church will say, well, you can't enter into heaven if you've lied before. And so you have to go to purgatory to get punished and to get that cleansed out of you, and once it's completely purged, and you'll no longer sin, since God will not let sin into heaven, then you can go to heaven. And it's like, oh man, it's so frustrating. It's like it's so simple, believe on Christ, all your sins are forgiven, and they don't get it. I mean, this is a good verse that we use so many, isn't it? Same chapter as Revelation 21, eight, and in case people want to argue about all liars, it's like, well, how do you know lying is just one lie? It could be like 55 or whatever. It's like, okay, let's go to the end of the chapter, maketh a lie, right? And so the Bible's very clear that if we've lied one time, we're guilty, and that's why we need to be saved. The Catholic church says, well, that's why you need to go to purgatory, right? Well, that's not what the Bible says throughout John 3, Acts 16, and throughout the entire Bible. Go in your Old Testament to Habakkuk chapter one. Habakkuk chapter one. Habakkuk chapter one. Habakkuk chapter one, let's go to verse number 13. Habakkuk chapter one, verse 13. The Bible reads in Habakkuk one, verse 13. Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Iniquity is another word for sin. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. And they say, well, God cannot look upon iniquity. Therefore, since you're a sinner, you have to go to purgatory to get your sins cleansed out of you. And it's like, once again, when you believe on Christ, I mean, all your sins are forgiven. There's nothing on your record. You're innocent. So basically, when you die, God's going to be like 100% innocent. There's nothing to be judged for. You're not on trial for anything because you've already been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not purgatory that cleanses your sins. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. And purgatory is trying to replace the blood of Jesus Christ as the means for cleansing your sin. I mean, it's a damnable heresy the Catholic church has. Well, you got to go to purgatory. That will cleanse your sins away. No, it's the blood of Christ that actually cleanses our sins away. Go to Matthew chapter five. We'll look at one more place. Matthew five. Matthew chapter five. First chapter in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter five. Matthew five verse 25. Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence until thou is paid the uttermost farthing. And what the Catholic church says is, well, prison is the same as purgatory. And basically you cannot get out of purgatory or prison until you've paid the uttermost farthing. Look, Jesus is giving an example saying that, you know what, if you get in a fight with someone and go to a courtroom and get arrested and go to jail, there's a fine to be paid to get out. And what he's explaining is to have nothing wrong against your brother and to get along with people. You can't just take a passage in the Bible and use it for whatever means that you want. Right? I mean, he's literally speaking about a prison. He's not speaking about purgatory. Now turn to the Bible to Luke 16. Luke 16. Luke chapter 16. You say, Brother Succy, is that really the big arguments the Catholic church has for purgatory? No, actually, I saved the biggest for last. It's in 2 Maccabees, chapter 12. He said, Brother Stuckey, or Pastor Stuckey, I got to use to call myself pastor, right? It's like, 2 Maccabees? My Bible doesn't have a 2 Maccabees. Yeah, I hope it doesn't. Neither does mine. That's part of the apocrypha. And of course, the Catholic church does not just believe in the 66 books. They have added books in the Bible. Now, a long time ago, if you were part of the church, maybe three or four years ago, I preached a couple of sermons on the apocrypha and I showed you what garbage it actually is. I've read the entire apocrypha. It's filled full of errors and filled full of heresy. But honestly, where they're getting their doctrine is actually 2 Maccabees, chapter 12. Now in the Catholic Bible, at least on the Bible online, in their chapters, they have sections that they give titles. And this section is called the Expiation for the Dead. And I'm just gonna read you the last four verses here. And of course, I'm hoping you're not turning to 2 Maccabees. Let me just read you, though, from 2 Maccabees. He then took up a collection among all his soldiers amounting to 2,000 silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this, he acted in a very excellent and noble way inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind. For if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. So what it's saying in this section is, if there was no resurrection, there would be no reason to pray to your dead relatives. But since there's a resurrection and since they're stuck in purgatory, you need to pray and give sacrifices to your dead relatives to help them get out of purgatory. It's like, I thought Jesus Christ was a sacrifice. What are they talking about? Well, let's say you got to pray to your dead relatives and it says it would be foolish to do that, to pray for the dead if there was no resurrection. You know, what I'd like to say is, it's foolish to do that when we already have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Your relatives are in heaven or hell already based on what they believed. Then it says in verse 45, but if He did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus He made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin. Look, I agree that teaches purgatory. No disputing it. In 2 Maccabees 12, that sounds like purgatory to me. It sounds like, yeah, we pray to the dead and offer prayers and offer sacrifices, and I'm sure, you know, offer money to the Catholic church to get our relatives out of purgatory. Isn't that what the Catholic church used to teach with indulgences? Yeah, the Catholic church teaches purgatory, but it's not found in the word of God. Go to Luke 16, Luke 16. So point number one, there is no purgatory. That's why you should not celebrate All Souls Day because the whole purpose of All Souls Day is to help your relatives get out of purgatory, and I guess to feed them if they got hungry from being dead for, you know, the last 365 days since the last time you fed them, right? Luke 16. But another reason you should not celebrate All Souls Day is because when a person dies, they cannot cross over to another place. If they're in hell, they're in hell forever. If they're in heaven, they're in heaven forever. There is no crossing over after you die, and so it's foolish and pointless to try to help your dead relatives because wherever they are, they're there forever. Luke 16, verse 19. Luke 16, verse 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments and see if Abraham will fall off and Lazarus in his bosom. So you've got two people that die. The first person, Lazarus, is a poor man and he goes to be in Abraham's bosom. You say, for a second, what's Abraham's bosom? Well, it mentions Abraham and it's saying that he's upon his bosom. Saying he's in the same place. It's not saying the place is called Abraham's bosom. He's right there with Abraham. Just like the disciple of Jesus leaned upon the breast or the chest of Jesus, right? And so here we see that this poor man goes to heaven. Why didn't he go to purgatory? Why did he get to skip purgatory? Now here's the thing. The Catholic church is not very clear which people automatically go to hell immediately, but it's usually just the really bad people or people like us that try to convert Catholics. Well, here's the thing. The rich man goes where? To hell. Does this rich man seem like a really wicked person? Not to me. I mean, he has a decent relationship with Lazarus. I mean, Lazarus knows him. Lazarus doesn't hate him. I mean, he's not a wicked person. He's not a serial killer. So why is it two people die? One goes to heaven, one goes to hell. Nobody goes to purgatory because nobody goes everywhere to purgatory because there is no purgatory. When you die, you go to heaven or hell and you're there forever. It says in verse 24, And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. Then he goes on to say this in verse number 26, And beside all this, between us, referring to me and Lazarus, Abraham and Lazarus in heaven, between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed. Fixed means it's stable. Fixed means it's unmovable. And what he's saying is you can't cross over. It's fixed. There's this great gulf that's permanently going to be there and it's still there today. It's never changed because there's a big gap between the center of the earth and up in heaven, right? That's a pretty big gap between the center of the earth where hell is located and up in heaven. And it's fixed. It's unmovable. It's stable. And it says, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot. And what they say is, you know what? We would pass, there are people that would pass from heaven to hell. Now, why would somebody in heaven be willing to go to hell after they die? Or isn't it true that probably everybody in this room has lost loved ones that died and went to hell? I mean, probably most of your relatives are Catholic, right? Look, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. I'm just trying to be honest. If your relatives are Catholics, the chance that they're saved is extremely, extremely, extremely small because they certainly didn't get saved in the Catholic church. And if they got saved, it's probably because you gave them the gospel. And so here's the thing. If you had relatives that died under a false religion, guess where they are today? They're in hell. And look, that's for everybody here. Everybody probably has relatives or friends or people you know. That's a painful thing, isn't it? I think all of us would say, man, there are people I would love to give another chance. People that I would love to see go to heaven that were nice people, people I spent time with. And then they died with a false religion. And look, there's no way that they're going to be getting out of hell. They're going to be there forever. And what he said in this verse is, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot. Now here's the thing. When he says they, he's not just saying Abraham and Lazarus. He's saying everybody in heaven. Everybody probably knows people that died unsaved. And then when he says to you, he's actually not just talking to the rich man either because you and the Bible is plural. And so what he's saying is, you know, there are people that when they die, I mean, you're going to want to go to hell to rescue your lost loved ones. But it's too late. You say why? Because there's a great gulf fixed. It's not going to change. Then he says, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Obviously, everybody that goes to hell would love to pass over into heaven. You know, sometimes there's these people that hate the Bible. They're atheists or God haters or sodomites or whatever. And they'll make a statement, well, if that's what God is really like, I'd rather go to hell. Number one, what a stupid comment to make. And number two, I guess we'll see about it. He says, don't worry, you're going to get your wish. I'm going to die and go to be with God, and you can die and go to hell forever. And we'll see when you're on fire and burning and in pain whether or not that's better than being in heaven with God. But the reality is, when people die and go to hell, they cannot pass over. It's too late. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would ascend him to my Father's house. So what the rich man says in verse 27 is, okay, you've told me that when you die, those from heaven can't go to hell and those from hell can't go to heaven. So he says, instead, could you send Lazarus to this world and preach the gospel before my brothers die and go to hell? That's what he's saying there. So they can't go down, he can't go down to hell to help me. He can't go down to hell to help anybody. Can he come here to earth to help people? Then says in verse 28, for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto them, they of Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Now, there's a lot of great information in these verses and I'm mainly preaching about All Souls Day, but let me say this, the Bible's very clear here that if people really believe in Moses and the prophets, they would also believe on Jesus Christ when he came. Do you realize that people that are part of the modern day religion of Judaism are the ones that rejected Jesus? See, there are people in the Old Testament in the book of Esther and other books, these are godly people that love God and they truly do believe in Moses and the prophets and they're truly looking for the coming Messiah. And guess what? When he came, they believed it because those that are saved, they would immediately believe. But the remnants, those that did not believe, that's modern day Judaism and they hate Jesus Christ. They blaspheme Jesus Christ in the Talmud. They're not God's people, they hate Jesus. How could you sit here and tell me they're God's people when they blaspheme Jesus Christ, they say Jesus in the Talmud is spending all of eternity boiling in hot excrement or hot poop is what they're saying. They say that Jesus was a sorcerer and a bastard child because his mom committed adultery on her husband. That's what they teach. They say Jesus is the son of Pantera. That's the man that she cheated with. And you're telling me those are God's people? Because I'm pretty sure that in the Old Testament when God's people didn't go anywhere near that bad, they got rejected by God. So don't tell me these modern day Jews are God's people in 2023, that's not what the Bible teaches. But he also says that if someone rises again from the dead, he's like, because the rich man's saying if somebody rises, they're going to repent. Now, what does it mean to repent? Well, you just have to look at verse 31. Neither will they be persuaded. So he's saying they're going to repent and then Abraham's saying no, they will not be persuaded. And so when you persuade someone, what do you do? You get them to change their minds. It's like they don't want to do something and then you persuade them to change their mind and do something. By persuading them, they think this and then you persuade them, well, I don't really agree. And then you persuade them, you know what, I guess you're right, it is a post-Trib rapture. Right? I guess you're right, you know, it is old fashioned preaching. And you persuade them, right? So repenting is not about quitting drinking. Repenting is not about quitting smoking to get saved. It's about changing your mind. And the rich man's saying, you know what, I was wrong, I was not persuaded, but my brothers will be, they will repent. And Abraham said no, they will not be persuaded. And here's the thing, it's mind boggling that somebody could rise again from the dead and people would still reject that. But didn't Jesus Christ rise again from the dead? And did everybody believe it? No. And here's the thing, if you live during that time period, especially in that part of the world, guess what? You run into a lot of people that would say, I saw Jesus risen. And then others would say, hey man, my neighbor saw Jesus risen, my uncle saw Jesus risen. You know, you'd be a fool not to believe it. And yet there's a lot of people that are willingly ignorant and they refuse to believe, even though there's many infallible proofs to prove the resurrection. But my point is this, that when somebody dies, there is no crossing over. It's too late for the rich man. Lazarus cannot help people in hell. He can't come back to earth either to help people. Governor Bobbitt, John 1. John 1. Now here's the thing, everybody already knows in this room there's no purgatory, right? You already know that after you die you're not crossing over. I'm assuming everybody already knew that, you already believed that. But some people would come to you and say, well, I don't believe in it, but what's wrong with going down to the graveyards with my relatives because I don't want to offend them. I want to be able to get my Catholic relatives saved one day. Isn't that what people say? Well, I mean, you don't have to raise your hands, but I'm sure many people in this room, even though you didn't believe in it, you went down to the graveyards to try to appease your Catholic relatives. And I'm saying it's wrong to do that, it's a sin to do that, and you should not do that. Now it's up to you what you do. I personally don't like hanging out in graveyards, but if that's what you want to do, then you can go for it this coming week. But I'm saying as a Bible-leaving Christian, you ought to abstain from that. If you don't believe it, there's actually something wrong with actually going. You say, well, what's wrong? Because you're giving, point number three, you're giving your Catholic relatives the wrong perspective. You're making it harder to get them saved. You're not helping get them saved. You're basically showing them it's not that big of a deal, what we believe is not that different. That's what you're showing them. Look, make no mistake about it, the Catholic church is really just a giant cult. They're headed by one man that is basically God's representative on earth, and whatever he says goes, regardless of what the Bible says, and in times past in the Catholic church, they would kill people for reading the Bible. They'd kill people for getting baptized. They'd kill people for trying to translate the Bible into a language people understood. So what is that? It's called a cult. It's just a giant cult. Now, of course, now they're not as strict with that because of the fact the Bible is written so people can actually read it, but make no mistake about it, they will tell you, well, come to us to understand, because as a layman you can't understand the Bible. People oftentimes try to accuse our church of being a cult. Do I ever tell you, don't read the Bible for yourself, just trust me, because you wouldn't understand. Is that what I teach and preach? I preach that ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things. In its truth it is no lie, because if you're saved you have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you to guide you and to teach you. And another name for the Holy Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit of truth. And the Holy Spirit will guide you in the truth when you read the Word of God. Now, of course, we need preaching in our lives to motivate us, and of course, if you're newly saved you can learn a lot from sermons. But everything I teach and preach from the Bible you could also learn by reading and studying the Bible yourself. So what I'd say is, read the Bible. Read the Bible every day. John 1, verse 12. John 1, verse 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave ye power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Bible says we become the Son of God by believing on the name of Jesus. Now, here's the thing. The Catholic Church doesn't believe these verses. You say, what do you mean, Brother Stuckey? Doesn't the Catholic Church teach that everybody's a child of God? They don't teach that you have to be born again. They say everybody's a child of God. But see, the Bible says, hey, it's not a blanch. You don't just get born as a child of God. Doesn't matter what your parents believe. It's gonna come down to what you believe. And the Bible's saying you've gotta be born again. So here's the thing. What we believe and what the Catholic Church believes are polar opposites to one another. And when you go down to the graveyards, what you're saying is, hey, it's not that big of a difference. We both believe in Jesus. We both believe in the Trinity. We both believe in the Ten Commandments. It's like you're giving them the wrong perspective. And what you're honestly doing when you go down to the graveyards is you are making excuses to not preach to your Catholic relatives, and you know that to be true in your heart. You are putting it off and trying to justify it by saying, well, I'm keeping the relationship with them. Yeah, and you're not preaching the gospel to them because you're either too afraid or too lazy, or because you don't know how to do it. Go to John 3. John 3. You said, brother Stuckey, that's really rude and offensive. You made me really mad with what you just said. How dare you say I'm too scared? Well, prove me wrong. Prove me wrong by preaching the gospel to your Catholic relatives. I hope I motivate you to prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Preach the gospel to your Catholic relatives. Preach the gospel to your relatives that aren't saved. I need that sort of preaching too. You say, why? Because it's very easy in the flesh to get scared and make excuses, isn't it? But here's the thing, if you're not going to preach the gospel to your unsaved relatives, I mean, who do you think's going to do it? You're probably the one that God designed to give the gospel to your unsaved relatives. Now I want to make this a bit of an interactive sermon. So if you were raised Catholic, can you please raise your hand if you grew up Catholic, if you were raised Catholic? Come on, many of you are raised Catholic, okay? You can put your hands down, about half the room, and honestly about half of the other half just don't want to admit it, right? I got baptized as a baby too, but it wasn't in the Catholic church, okay? Now here's the thing. Half the room, 50 people raise their hand. Let me ask you another question. If you got saved because on All Saints Day or All Souls Day, one of your relatives that was actually a Christian and that was actually saved came down to the graveyards with you, and they're like, hey, you know, Brother Mark, let me tell you about Jesus. Right, Brother Ermin, let me tell you about Jesus. Is that how anybody got saved in this room? You were offering prayers to your dead relatives and offering food, and then all of a sudden your relative that was saved said, hey, actually, let me tell you about what Jesus did for you. No, but here's the thing. If you're saved, it's because somebody explained the gospel to you, but not in the graveyard on November 1st or November 2nd at midnight. You got saved because during the day somebody gave you the gospel. I got saved because somebody gave me the gospel. Here's the thing. When you go down to the graveyards, you're not helping get your relative saved. No, I want to be clear. I don't think there's anything inherently sinful about going to a grave if you want to remember your family. I would say don't do it at this time of year, but I get it. If you have a relative that's buried, I mean, people go to remember at times. I get that. I've been to graveyards. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I would say don't do it on November 1st or November 2nd because you're showing people you believe this. And here's the thing. It's not just a vain ritual. This is sorcery, what people are practicing. It's not something to make light of. I mean, to say, because the Catholic Church basically teaches the same thing they did in ancient Ireland during Samhain that basically the realm between the heavenly and the earthly is at its thinnest, or the spiritual and the earthly, so you can communicate with the dead during this time of year. That is sorcery, it's wicked, it's necromancy. You say, well, Brother Sukkiah, I mean, I'm not directly involved in it. Yeah, but you're proving it by actually going. In fact, just turn to Ephesians 5. We'll close up here. And obviously, you know, there's a lot of verses you could show that disprove this idea. But obviously, our salvation is very different in what the Bible teaches than what the Catholic Church teaches. And let me just read you from this article about All Souls Day. On All Souls Day, a traditional prayer called the Office of the Dead is read aloud in churches, and according to the Catholic Register, people are also encouraged to visit family, family graves to reflect on lost loved ones, in an ancient ritual known as the Requiem Mass for the Dead. That sounds very spiritual, a Requiem Mass for the Dead. And the Office of the Dead is read aloud on All Souls Day, and according to an Irish Central article, Celtic nations or Celtic nations believe that around Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the boundaries between the mortal and unearthly realms were thinner. Ancient Irish cultures believed the dead were repositories of historic wisdom, and universal knowledge, and that they would return from the dead to speak to their descendants. So to prepare for the dead's arrival, Irish families cleaned floors, lit fires, and placed bowls of spring water on their dinner tables for their deceased relative's souls. Furthermore, on All Souls Day, Irish children would go soul caking. Another word for soul caking is called souling, and you know, we go soul winning. But basically, they'd go door to door, and they would get food, and they would solicit or ask for prayers for their dead relatives. And so, you know, it's kind of interesting because kind of think of like, Aguinaldo during Christmas time, where people go door to door, and they carol or whatever, and they get food. Kind of a side point, something interesting, the word Aguinaldo in Latin American countries is the word for your Christmas bonus. Now obviously, Aguinaldo here in the Philippines is something kind of different during Christmas time. But they would call it soul caking or souling, where they would go door to door, and they would ask for prayers, and then people would give them what were called cakes, not really like we think of as cakes, but a bread sort of thing that they got, so it was known as soul caking or souling. And it says furthermore, on All Souls Day, Irish children would go soul caking, which was visiting neighbors begging for cakes in exchange for prayers, and families would together visit cemeteries where their loved ones rested, cleaning graves or whispering prayers for their departed, and leaving burning candles. You say, Brother Seggi, what's wrong with participating in this? Because it's false, number one, and number two, because necromancy is wicked, trying to communicate with the dead. You say, Brother Seggi, I've heard stories about how people saw their dead relatives. Look, if people saw their dead relatives, that is an extremely demonic thing that took place. That was not the relative that they saw. That was devils or demons, whatever weird things that you experience. It's like, I personally want to stay completely away from that realm and not even mess with it. It is a wicked and pagan thing filled full of sorcery. But here's what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter five. In verse number 11, Ephesians five verse 11, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. I mean, Brother Seggi, how dare you preach against this? What the Bible says, reprove them. I mean, the Bible says preach against it. Because look, I mean, over half the church grew up Catholic. It's like people need to know this stuff. And here's the thing, there's a lot of young kids in this room, and they might not believe this, but then they're going to have schoolmates or classmates that are going to tell them, hey, we went down to the graves to offer food to a relative. Did you guys do that? I'm trying to help you as parents to tell your children, hey, it's wicked, it's wrong. It's not what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says to reprove it. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, but all the things that are approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. The Bible's saying in verse 13, that as you get saved and then you start to draw close to God, you get closer to the light. And you start seeing all the things that are wrong and the things that you need to change. And here's the thing. Maybe you didn't understand this five years ago. Maybe you didn't understand this 10 years ago. I'm pretty confident that if you've been at our church for any length of time, you already know this to be true. And here's the thing. If you choose to reject what the Bible's saying here, you know that you're sinning. You know that you're doing wrong. You know it's strange. I mean, I imagine most of you as a kid, if you did this, you probably just did it because, well, that's what our family does. You thought it was weird, but well, it's just a tradition. But it's actually not just a harmless tradition. Look, a lot of traditions, there's nothing wrong with them. There's something wrong, though, praying to dead people. That is not something that God approves of. It's called necromancy. It is a wicked sin, and Christians should have absolutely nothing to do with All Souls Day, nothing to do with All Saints Day, nothing to do with Halloween, nothing to do with the Day of the Dead or whatever people like to call it around what part of the world that they live in, Christians should reprove it and realize it's wrong. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see what the Bible says about this topic. Help us to know our Bibles and help us to stand on the truth. Help us not to give in to peer pressure from Catholic relatives, but help us abstain from these wicked holidays. And if our Catholic relatives ask us why we're no longer going to the graves, maybe that gives us a great opportunity to finally preach the Gospel to them, God. And I ask You to give all of us, including myself, and my wife and our family, give us boldness to preach unto our unsaved relatives. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.