All right, our first question is, should we observe Lent? Now, of course, this is a Bible-believing church here, and not one that follows traditions. We want to try to find the Bible and what the Bible says about any issue. And this is something that's not in the Bible, Lent, but it is something that is very widespread in its practice in this area, Western New York, Probably a lot of other places. Our quick answer is this, we cannot earn God's favor through our good works. And we'll show that to you tonight from the Bible. And we'll have some sword drills and things. But the Bible says, it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy that he hath saved us. And Lent is, when you look into its definition and its origin, it is the doing of good works to try to earn the atonement from God and earn favor from the Lord. And if you look it up in the dictionary or Google it, you'll find that that is true. Now, let's read the explanation and then we'll add some things and have some sword drills too. Lent, what is it? Lent is a period of fasting, moderation, and self-denial traditionally observed by Catholics and some Protestant denominations. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday. Those who observe Lent believe that giving something up for Lent is a way to attain God's favor. The Bible teaches that grace cannot be earned. Jesus taught that fasting should be done discreetly. Repenting of sin is something we should do every day of the year, not just the 40 days of Lent, 46 including Sundays. Lent is sometimes an exhibition of one's sacrifice. Other times it is an attempt to earn God's favor or increase His love towards them. And we don't want to try to earn God's favor or increase His love towards us. We just want to receive God's favor which is grace. And God loves us and we need to rest in that love. Now in the further explanation it says this, a believer's involvement in such activities as Lent, Advent, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday especially, etc. would put a stamp of approval on those days which then might affirm someone in a belief system of working for God's merit or salvation. All right. Let me go back and explain some things here. When you study Lent, you'll find that it is a time from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday of doing penance. Now, penance, don't confuse penance with penitent. Penitent is a good word. That means to be sorry for your sin. The thief, the one thief on the cross was penitent. He turned from his sin. He turned to Christ and believed on the Lord and asked Him to have mercy on him. And Jesus said to that other man on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise. He was penitent, he was sorry for his sin. But penance is when you do works to try to please God and hope that you can do something or do it long enough to earn God's favor by doing penance. Penance is another word like Lent that's not in the Bible. And yet it is very widely believed among people that we need to do penance. Anybody want to guess why so many believe they need to do penance? Because they believe they need to earn their way to heaven. Where did their thought of penance come from? Okay, very good. I have a copy here of the Douay Rheims Bible. This came out in 1610. This is the Catholic Bible. We use the King James Bible. This came out in 1611. There was a race to get these Bibles out, literally. The King James Bible was written by linguists. It was a government project. 47 linguists who knew at least three languages, some of them knew at least 10 languages fluently, translated the King James Bible into English. They were linguists. It was a government project under King James. It had nothing to do with the church, nothing to do with religionists. It was linguists, 47 linguists began the project in 1604. Seven of them died between 1604 and 1611 and were replaced by seven others. Fifty-four linguists worked on the King James Bible. These men were so brilliant that there's nobody alive today that we know of on earth who would be smart enough to sit on the translation committee of the King James Bible. Not one person that we know of. Time magazine reported once that there was one guy who would have been smart enough, worthy enough, a linguist enough to sit on the King James translation committee, but he has since died. All right, this is a government project by linguists who were hired by the government of England under King James for seven years to take the Hebrew Masoretic text, translate it into English for the Old Testament, and the majority text, or the received text, the Texas Receptus, Greek of the New Testament, and translate it into English. That's how we got the King James Bible. All right, this is the Douay-Rheims version. Who do you think translated this? Roman Catholics. Who do you think might be more prejudiced to translate according to their religion? Religionists or linguists? Okay, I would trust linguists. I would trust those that were just simply hired to give us the best they could of translation or transliterations in many cases of Greek and Hebrew words into English than the Douay Rheims version. Now let me give you an example. I'd like you all to turn in your Bibles to Acts and chapter number 2. This is the great sermon on Pentecost and we have Peter preaching the words. And he's preaching the word and we get down to verse number 37. 37, let's see here. 37 and 38, this is the crux now of the sermon. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 37, it says, now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So these men were under conviction, they wanted to be saved, and Peter said, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Now let me read it to you out of the Douay-Rheims version. 1610 you just follow along now verse 37 Now when they had heard these things they had compunction in their heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles What shall we do men and brethren? verse 38 but Peter said to them do penance and Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost What's the major difference? The difference between the word repent and do penance. Now, the good thing for us is we have the original Greek to check out. And when you check out the original Greek there, the word in the Greek is metanoia, which means to repent. The King James Version is right. The Douay Version is wrong. And there's a radical difference between repent and do penance. All right? Repent is me turning from my good works and turning to Jesus Christ and receiving Him as my Savior. Doing penance is me doing works of some sort and thinking, you know, if I do enough, God's going to be happy enough. I'm going to earn His merit. I'm going to earn His favor. I'm going to earn His mercy by my own works. But repentance is turning from your own works and trusting Christ and His finished works when He died upon the cross for our sins and was buried and rose again and shed His blood. Repentance puts your focus towards Christ that He can save you. Penance puts focus towards yourself that you can save yourself. Due penance is what the Douay-Rheims version says. So, if you'll turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter number 8, I want to read a few more verses for you. You just read there in the King James and I'll read out of the Douay Rheims version. Acts 8.22, Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness and pray to God that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. That's what Acts 8.22 says. Let's look at Acts 17. Acts 17, verse 30. Acts 17, verse 30, And God, indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men that all should everywhere do penance. What does yours say? They should all what? Repent. Now that's totally opposite in their meanings, those words. Look at Acts 26. But to them first that are at Damascus and at Jerusalem, and unto all the country of Judah and to the Gentiles, did I preach that they should do penance and turn to God doing works worthy of penance. Okay, do you see a radical difference? Now, I'm setting up something here, so just follow me. I'll go to Revelation chapter 2. I'm just trying to make a point here now. It's not on your notes, but in Revelation 2 and verse 5, this Bible says, Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen, and do penance, and do the first works. In verse 16, in like manner, do penance. If not, I will come to thee quickly and will fight against thee with the sword of my mouth. Verse 21, And I gave her a time that she might do penance. Verse 22, Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and they that commit adultery with her shall be in very great tribulation, except they do penance from their deeds. Chapter 3, verse 3. Have in mind therefore in what manner thou hast received and heard and observe and do penance. 3.19, this will be the last one here. Such as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and do penance. Alright? So getting back to Lent. You say, why in the world do all these people do penance for 40 days? What do you think the answer is? That's what they've been taught. That's what they've been taught in their Bible. Do penance, do penance, do penance, do penance. So we don't understand that because we've been using the King James Bible and we should because it is our only English Bible that we have. That's again from the original Masoretic Hebrew text, original Textus Receptus New Testament Greek text. translated into English by expert linguists, absolute expert linguists, most brilliant men when English was at its best in the 1600s and the King James Bible and Shakespeare and all that, English at its zenith. And they, as a government project, they had no scruples, they had no religious Biases, they were just doing their job. There wasn't a Baptist among them. So nobody can say this is a Baptist Bible. There weren't any Baptists in the group. They were linguists. Professional linguists. That's why we can trust this translation. And they didn't come to repentance and say, well, that doesn't fit our church or religion. Let's change it to penance. other Bibles have. So I want to encourage you to be sure you get yourself a King James Bible and use that and study that. That is the Word of God. But that gives us an understanding a little bit tonight of why so many people do penance during Lent. Because when they're reading their Bible, that's what it says they should do. But that's not going to work. Repentance is a change of mind wrought in us by the Holy Ghost where we turn from our sin and turn to Christ the Savior and don't trust in ourselves but trust in Him. Totally different words. But this is the basis for our question on Lent and Lent being a time of voluntary self-punishment to show penance for wrongdoing. And so that's why many people practice it and that's why it's unscriptural. And sadly, you know, some of you have observed and it's brought out often that the hypocrisy of it in many cases too about the, you know, living like a double all year long and then you have that time where you give up this or that for 40 days And God's just supposed to be terrifically happy with you, I guess. I don't know. It just seems to me that if that can't fool me, you know, I don't think we're going to fool the Lord. The Lord spoke out on this. This is not, it's not the first time this has happened in history. There's been times where in the past prophets have addressed those who lived in hypocrisy but then got real religious to try Impress God so brother Kelly's gonna read a couple texts first one is Isaiah 1 verses 11 through 15 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the Excuse me. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and of in the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of lambs or of he goats I When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations, incense that is an abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths, the callings of assembly, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They are trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." Alright, so there's an example in past history where God said, you know, all this religious stuff. I'm not happy with it at all. God does not want us to have a religion but a relationship with him. Day by day, 365 days a year, he wants us to have a relationship with him and not try to impress him with all this religious activity. You're going to find another one in Amos, but in the meantime, let's draw a sword. We're going to have a sword drill. And here's a couple of verses that have to do, I think, with this what we see going on sometimes around the Easter season. Draw swords. Proverbs 15.8. Go! Proverbs 15.8. Alright. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of the upright is his delight. So if somebody's evil and wicked and just sacrifices something to God, it's an abomination to the Lord. And that's what he says about it. So could you read Amos chapter 5? Here's another prophet that spoke about all this religious activity that God wasn't happy with. Amos 5, 21 through 24. I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beast. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials. But let judgment run down as waters and the righteousness as Righteousness as a mighty stream all right So in that text God even got sick of their music Take that away from me the noise of thy songs for I will not hear the melody of thy vows it was all just religious Their hearts weren't in it was just just religious rituals all right, so and That's kind of what lent is it's not based on the Bible But at the bottom like we say do not attack people who are practicing something that is unscriptural rather use it To show them that they are not saved by our own works Before we go to the next question let me read at the bottom there Ephesians 2 8 and 9 maybe some of you haven't memorized if not Try to memorize these verses. It'll really help you it says in revel Ephesians 2 8 for by grace are you saved through faith? And that not of yourselves It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." So we are not saved by works, we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is the gift of God, not of works. Not of works. I remember before I was saved, trying to do good works that I hoped God would In fact, I remember going to church hoping he saw me go to church. Thinking he had a big clipboard in heaven and said, okay, Art's going to church. Let me give him a little gold star on there, you know, and here's another one. And maybe if I got enough of them, he'd say, yeah, Art, you can come to heaven. But it's not the good that separates us from God. It's our sins. Your sins have separated us from God. And our sins need to be atoned for. And the atonement for our sins is made through the blood of Jesus Christ. Leviticus 17.11. Not through our own works. Now another question. Let's go to the last question here tonight. Question 16 on the back. Now this one comes up. Andrew? There is a lot of good Lester Roloff said there's enough in there to get him saved. Okay, I don't know, I don't know, but probably is. There's a lot of good verses in here and then there's a lot that are not accurate. For instance, here's a note on Romans 18. I'm sorry, Romans 8. It says, the spirit himself by the inward motions of divine love and the peace of conscience which the children of God experience, they have a kind They have a kind of testimony of God's favor by which they are much strengthened in their hope of their justification and salvation, but yet not so as to pretend to an absolute assurance, which is not usually granted in this mortal life." Okay, that's their study notes at the bottom. In other words, you can't know in this mortal life whether you have any assurance or not, but keep trying. And maybe you will earn enough favor But let's just look Ephesians to a lot of what they have is accurate two eight nine For by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves for it is the gift of God not of works That no man may glory So that's pretty accurate It's pretty accurate So like Lester Roloff used to say, there's enough in there to get them saved, so you can use that in your witnessing. But when you really dig into their teachings and it's a mishmash of grace and works all thrown together, then there's no assurance that you can know in this mortal life where we don't believe that. We believe 1 John 5.13, but these things are written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Now, the question is, people got to trust Christ as their Savior. And if you've ever done soul winning, ever, this one comes up often, right here. And it's often a distraction to your soul winning opportunity. Somebody will blurt out something like this, but what about those that have never heard? I've answered this question here about five times in church before. But I wanted to get it in writing and in your notebooks so that you'll be able to learn it and use it. And this is something I've memorized, this little alliterated outline here. God has seven witnesses at least. These are just seven I found. Maybe he has more. But at least seven witnesses and four of them are universal. in which God universally witnesses to every single person on earth. There's not a person on earth, 7.2 billion people, who God has not witnessed to in these first four universal witnesses. That's true because that's what the Bible says about it. Number one is creation. All right, the answer is God is witnessing to them in at least four ways universally. and up to eight with seven ways if believers are obedient now enrollments chapter one and uh... some of you have seen this first i've gone over this in church many times i'll try to be quick with this one enrollments chapter one verse eighteen it says this for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all on godliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse just the first one creation God has said that's enough For anybody who wants to, to find the Lord, even the Trinity, is exposed to every human being through creation. They are without excuse. It's a universal witness, number one. Number two is the conscience, Romans 2 and verse 15 says, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. The second universal witness is the conscience. All right? You go to the deepest, darkest forest in Africa or South America, and people have morals. They have morals. Whether they've ever seen a Bible or been in church, they know what right is and what wrong is. All right? Communist China, husbands know they ought to love their wife and take care of their family. Why? Because there's something written in their conscience that tells them to do that. And the conscience is a witness. That's why atheists know how you and I should behave. That's why they know they're experts at it. An atheist will point at a Christian and say, you shouldn't do that or you shouldn't say that. You shouldn't talk like that or you shouldn't go to that place. An atheist is an expert because God has written his laws in their conscience. Christ, number three. Draw swords. Number three, Christ is a universal witness. John 1.9. Go, John 1.9. The ladies are winning tonight. All right, John 1.9 is speaking about Christ. It says, That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Do I know exactly what that means? No. No, I don't know, but I know a long time before I ever got saved that there was a flicker of divine light in me that got me to searching and that was from Jesus Christ. He is the true light that lighteth every man, all 7.2 billion people on earth. He gives light to them. The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, number four, it says, Reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of what sin? Anybody know? Because they believe not on me. All right? Of righteousness. Because what did Jesus say? Because I go to the Father, you're not going to see me anymore. Jesus was the embodiment of righteousness. He says, I'm not going to be on earth anymore, but the Holy Spirit's going to convict you that Christ is the standard. All anybody in this room has to do to go to heaven is be as good as Jesus Christ. If you're not, you're not going to make it unless you get saved and trust Christ. Then his righteousness is put to your account. We are robed in the righteousness of Christ. The only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. He's the standard God has. The standard is perfection. One sin separates us from God forever. But all of our sins can be washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ if we'll trust in Him as our Savior. So, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin because they believe not on Me. That's the sin that condemns the people. Not believing in Christ. Of righteousness, Christ the standard. And of judgment, because what? The prince of this world is judged. Who is he? Satan. And what is his judgment? Eternal damnation. Hell. All right. So the Holy Spirit convicts the whole world of those three things. That's enough to get saved. So the question tonight is, what about those who have never heard? Well, there's really no such thing. Because creation is witnessing to them, their conscience is witnessing to them, Christ is witnessing to them, and the Comforter is witnessing to them. But there are also three other witnesses that are up to us as believers. And they are, notice these all start with C, it's called alliteration when you do that. The Christian, draw swords. The Christian is supposed to be a witness. And this is where we kind of mess up the whole thing sometimes. God is working and we end up turning people off. Maybe because we're hypocrites or something. Philippians 2.15. Go. This one tells us that the Christian is supposed to be a witness, every one of us. The name's the name of Christ. Okay, among whom you shine as lights in the world. It says that we should be blameless and harmless. We've got to be good testimonies. It doesn't mean we're perfect, but we should be blameless, a good testimony, and we should be harmless. We shouldn't be hurting people. All right? Because we are also a witness. If you've got these four witnesses that God is using in people, creation, conscience, Christ, the Comforter, that's universal, and then I come along and mess it up, You know? You hear me yelling at my wife or getting in a fist fight with somebody or getting drunk or something like that. That can mess up everything God's doing. So we're supposed to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a perverse nation among whom we shine as lights. Every one of you at work, at school, in your neighborhood, in your family, All of us, myself included, we need to be good testimonies because we are a witness. We are a witness. So we need to witness. It says by our life, lips, literature, and luminaries. Number two is the church. Draw swords. Revelation 1.20. Go. Revelation 1.20. The church should be a witness. The church should be a witness. Okay, local churches are supposed to be candlesticks Supposed to be lights in every town God wants there to be churches in every town every village every city all over the world not just missionaries We send them out that them out to do that. Well. We should be doing that here Everybody should get behind church planning 110% That's just scriptural. And every church should be a lighthouse. But if the churches are filled with hypocrisy and we hear about all these things going on in churches nowadays, and that stuff hurts. Man, it turns people off. And people just say, if they finally just quit and say, I don't want anything to do with that. These people say they're Christians and these clergymen are doing this. Other people are doing that and stealing money and molesting children and that's, you know, they paint us sometimes with a broad brush. They put us all in that category and they miss all the sincere people and those faults are so glaring that it is a poor testimony. and as a poor witness. So we have to be as a church, a congregation of light-bearing Christians united. It doesn't matter how we live. It doesn't matter how we talk. It doesn't matter about our spirit, our testimony, the tenor of our words, the way we treat each other and our families, the way we raise our children, the way we get along and act or react when people get on our case or whatever. Churches need to be good testimonies in every town. Christians need to be good testimonies, witnesses. And then the seventh witness is the canon. The canon, C-A-N-O-N. Now that is a synonym for the word Bible. This is our last one, then we'll be done. Draw swords. Isaiah 55.11. Go. Isaiah 55.11. All right, I don't know if you could hear or not, but God said, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. That's the Bible. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it. Another witness in the world is the Bible, but a lot of people don't have a Bible. They don't have it translated into their language. Some people only have one verse yet. So we need to get behind translators and missionaries that are trying to get Bibles into other languages, printing ministries that are trying to print more Bibles and get them out, literature, tracts, flyers, things about Christ, because God said, my word shall not return void. And so if these three at the bottom, the Christian, the church, and the canon can team up and cooperate with what God is already doing in a person's soul through creation, through the conscience, through Christ and the Comforter, there's a much better chance. But if we fail, the Bible still says, God has at least witnessed to every person four ways. Four ways, so that they are without excuse. They are without excuse. That question is going to come up right in the middle of your soul winning conversations with people. I promise you. Somebody's going to blurt it out. You'll be sharing the gospel with them, how to be saved. They're going to say, what about those that have never heard? And you might want to say, you know, I have a good answer to that question. Let's get back to you for now. And let's think about your soul right now. Whether you've trusted Christ as your Savior, and then I promise you I'll answer that question afterwards. And that's what you need to do when you're witnessing to people. Don't get derailed. Or you'll end up on all kinds of rabbit trails and never draw the net and try to bring that person back to Christ. So, Fred. Romans 1, 18 through 20. It says it right there about His eternal Godhead and power and I don't know, it just says it. So that they are without excuse. Well, I hope tonight all of you know the Lord is your Savior. That there's been a time where you've asked Jesus Christ to come into your heart, believing that He died on the cross for you, was buried and rose again to have eternal life by faith in Him. So we've seen tonight, it's not ourselves, it's not what we can do, but what Christ did that saves the soul. Trust in Him tonight as your Savior. Let us close in prayer. Father, we thank You for Bible study tonight, and these questions are quite different every week. And Lord, we pray for those around us who are trying to do good things to merit Your favor. And Lord, we know some of them are sincere as the day is long. Some of them are more sincere than we are. But Lord, we are not saved by our works, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank you for dying on that cross for us, to save us. If we could save ourselves, you wouldn't have never died on the cross. What would be the sense of that? And so thank you. Lord, help us all to believe in you with all of our hearts. And Lord, help us to be a good witness. We know you're trying. universally in people's conscience and through Christians, or rather through creation and the Comforter and the Christ. You're trying. You've done all you can do. And you continue to do all you can do. Help us not to mess it up as Christians or as churches or with these corrupted Bibles. But Lord, please, we pray for the translation of the Scriptures. We pray we could help those translating help distribution of all kinds of gospel literature around the world. Do what we can as a church, do our part. Now dismiss us, Lord, tonight with thy blessing. We'll thank you in Jesus' name, amen.