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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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Deuteronomy chapter #13 Last week we started as we looked at
the five pillars of Islam and you might remember from our
study of the five pillars of Islam, we saw that there was the
creed and that creed is this, there is no God but Allah and
Muhammad is his prophet. That someone was to recite that
three times to make them part of the faith.
But then we also saw that there are the other 4 pillars which is
prayer and that prayer would be offered five times a day towards
Mecca as well as those Friday prayers that everyone would
gather together for in a more of a service like would be
reminisces of how we gather together on a Sunday.
Of course the only thing that is similar is the fact that they
gather together. What happens in that service is
much different than what we would have happened in a Bible
preaching church. But they have prayer five times
a day. They have alms Guild giving
which is 2.5% of their income in certain situations that they
would give to the poor, to the needy or to the mosque.
Testing from sun up to sundown during the monthly celebration
or rather the month long celebration.
Ramadan takes place once a year would fast from sun up to
sundown and then a pilgrimage that everyone would be required
to travel once in their life to Mecca as long as they were
physically and financially able to do so That these were the
five pillars of Islam. And you might even remember we
watched a little bit of a video at the end of the lesson to be
able to show you in Islam's own word.
Now, again, just like no one person can speak for
Christianity, no one person can speak for Islam and all the
different flavors, if you will, of Islam.
But I think what we saw was a very down the middle from their
own mouth, from their own theology explanation of these
five pillars. And then I had mentioned that we
are going to this week, look at the fundamentals of the faith,
the fundamentals of the Islamic faith and see how they match up
with Bible believing Christianity.
That was 4 that I want to look at, but I'm afraid that getting
into my study that we're only going to look at two of them
here this morning. We'll look at the other two next
week. And then by God's grace, we'll
be looking at how we can better give the gospel to someone who
is a Muslim and be able to have some understanding of where they
come from so that we can be able to share the faith with them.
Now, of course, we understand that there aren't different
types of salvation. There's way to salvation, Amen.
And we can't give a Islamic person a different version of
the gospel that we would give someone who is a Jehovah
Witness, that we would give someone who is a Buddhist.
No, no, there's only one way to salvation that's through Jesus
Christ. That's salvation by grace
through faith alone. But we also understand that
understanding where they are coming from, understanding that
where their belief system lies, helps us to be able to better
present biblical truth to them. And so that's what we want to
present to the next couple a couple of weeks, the
fundamentals of Islam compared with Bible believing
Christianity. And then in that last week, we
will see how we can take those things and be able to show the
gospel to our Muslim friends and neighbors.
So well, let's look at two of these fundamentals here today.
The fundamentals we're going to look at are the sacred texts and
authority and creation. Of course, we understand that as
Bible believers that the Bible talks much about, well what the
Bible is to us and how it relates to us in our life, where
authority comes from, and also creation.
It's interesting that even creation itself will be part of
our message this morning in second Peter chapter #3 because
creation and the literal 6 day creation found in the Word of
God is often questioned from within Christianity and outside
of Christianity as well. So we'll be looking at that here
this morning. So first of all, we are going to
look at sacred texts and authority, the Quran, Surah 17.
When I say Surah, that is really meaning chapter the way we would
use the word chapter today. But Surah 17 verses 1:05 to 1:07
says this. So this is the Quran in its own
words about itself. It says We sent down the Quran
in truth, and in truth has it descended and We sent you but to
give glad tidings and to warn sinners.
It is a Quran which We have divided into parts from time to
time in order that you might recite it to men at intervals.
We have revealed it by stages. Say whether you believe it or
not. It is true that those who were
given knowledge beforehand, when it is recited to them, fall down
on their faces in humble prostration.
So the Quran is saying of itself that this is a sacred text.
The Quran to someone who is of the Muslim faith would be to
them what the Bible is to us. But that does not mean that the
Quran is on the same level as the Bible.
There are obviously many, many differences.
Well, the biggest being. One is true, the other is not.
So the primary source of authority for Muslims is what's
called not just the Koran, but according to Surah 8522, the
Glorious Koran. It is the holy book of faith for
Muslims. It is a book that consists of
114 chapters, 6616 verses, 77,943 words and three 338,606
letters. And according to Muslim
teaching, each and every part of the Quran has been dictated by
Allah. The story of the Quran comes
through the Prophet Muhammad. And of course, remember, Allah
is God, Muhammad is the Prophet, and the Quran was received by
mankind through the Prophet Muhammad, although the sacred
text has little to say about him.
There's very few mentions of There's more mentions about
Jesus and Moses and Abraham in the Koran than there are
actually about Mohammed. But the Quran itself affirms it
to be irreproducible in Surah 223, incorruptible 15/9 and
inspired 4251. It is the word of Allah recited
in Arabic 12/2. According to Quran, it replaces
the corrupted text of the Bible, revealing to Jews and to
Christians much that they had hidden or that had passed over
in the Bible, and that now this is the better version of the
scriptures than what the Jews and the Christians had had.
So according to Muslims, this is the most pure, this is the most
most authoritative book, that the Bible is filled with errors,
whether it be Old or New Testament, that there are
certainly names that are mentioned in the Bible, but that
if you want to know who these people really are, you have to
find the Koran and find what the Koran says about those people.
And again, it says it's irreproducible, meaning this.
Not necessarily that you can't copy it, because obviously there
are many copies of the Koran that have reproduced, But the
idea is that it is the pinnacle of literature that there can be.
Nothing greater has been and will never be anything greater
than Quran. In fact, one of the proofs that
Muslims use that the Quran is the word of Allah and it is the
supreme authority, is that it stands at the very height of
literature and that no one has ever or will ever, ever be able
to write anything of its nature. In fact, I have a short video
that I want to show you about that.
And so we're going to watch that for a couple of minutes and then
we will make some comments about it.
The Quran is the direct word of God.
For that you should watch until the very end.
No matter how amazing Ronaldo is at football, you will always
have other amazing footballers like Messi.
No matter how amazing Charles Dickens is at writing, you'll
always have other amazing authors.
No matter how amazing some Youtubers are, you will always
have other amazing Youtubers. The point is that humans can
always imitate humans. This is very important.
Now focus with me for a second. Allah poses an incredibly
powerful challenge to all humanity in the Quran where he
says we're in Kung tum fiori Ben minman zalala abedina, that if
you are in doubt of this Quran, then produce even a chapter like
it. Basically, Allah is asking you
to imitate just one chapter. And considering the shortest
chapter in the Quran is just 10 words long and the fact that
humans can always imitate humans, they shouldn't be too
hard, right? That's literally like Ronaldo
challenging humanity to imitate just one of his goals that he
scored throughout his entire career.
Now if that doesn't sound easy enough, then Allah says and call
upon your helpers and witnesses other than Allah if what you
say. Is the truth.
In other words, not only is Allah basically telling you you
can get all the help that you like, He's also telling you to
call upon your own witnesses, your own scholars that don't
even have to be a Muslim and get them to testify that what you've
produced is like the Quran. Now here's the punch line.
Then Allah says for ILM Tefalu, Wellen Tefalu.
And if you are not able to do so and you will never be able to do
so. In other words, Allah has sealed
the challenge from the very beginning.
And guess what, more than 1400 years have passed and the Quran
remains at the pinnacle of the Arabic language on a level of
its own. And not only that, there's not a
single historical account of a reputable source saying that
someone has successfully managed to imitate the Quran.
So to summarize, humans can always imitate humans.
And because the Quran cannot be imitated, it is therefore from
God. And when you look into the
Quran, you'll actually realize that it answers all life
questions. No stones are left unturned.
And for that, I would absolutely love to invite you to pick up or
put it on and read it for yourself.
So the argument, and this is not a novel argument that is being
made by this gentleman. Some of the research that I have
done that this is an argument that has made many, many times
over that one of the greatest arguments that the Quran is the
height of spirituality and that there is no other book than the
Koran that will teach you things of Allah and things of the
world. And those types of things is the
fact that nothing else has ever been recreated like it.
And then no matter how hard anyone tries, it is the very
pinnacle of that. And the challenge has been laid
out by Allah. If you want to try to make
something better, make it. And so the biggest problem that
I have with that, there's a lot of problems that I have with
that. The biggest problem that I have
with that is that something greater came before the Koran.
That would be the Word of God. And that there is much of the
Koran that is either borrowed or outright well stolen from the
very word of God that the pinnacle was and is remains the
word of God. And that the Quran, like many
other of these will all other texts that try to present
themselves as a religious authority outside of the word of
God, have either begged, borrowed or stolen from the word
of God names like Jesus and Muhammad or Jesus.
And we'll see Adam in a moment. Abraham, Isaac.
These are names and then sometimes even themes that are
taken directly from the word of God.
And so no, the Koran is not God's word.
The Koran is not equivalent to the Bible.
The Koran is not irreproducible, incorruptible or inspired.
The Koran is rank heresy from beginning to end because it
teaches that there is another God.
What we understand that the Bible says there is but one God.
There's only one thing that he said I would agree with and that
would be this, to be able to pick up a copy of the Koran and
to be able to read it on your own.
Say, pastor, why would you suggest something like that?
I would encourage you and I would encourage you to be very
careful in how you do so, but do not just take my word for
certain things that are being said here.
I have a copy of the Quran in my office that I have read through
myself, not cover to cover, but I've read fairly extensively
because I wanted to see for myself what the Quran said.
It You say, well, did that weaken your faith?
Well, no, it only strengthened my faith when I saw the
difference of what was being written there compared to the
purity and the authority and the beauty of the word of God that
we're able to hold in our hands. No, no, I'm very confident that
we have. The very word of God in the
Quran is filled with errors, and the greatest error of all is
this, that Allah is God. And really every other error
flows from that very fatal flaw that is at the very top of their
religion. Like Mormonism.
The words of Allah came on a tablet that was preserved.
This tablet, of course, does not exist and is only mentioned in
one verse of the Koran. As such, many Muslims regard the
tablet as metaphorical, meaning Allah promises to preserve the
Koran from distortion here on earth.
Other Muslims believe this verse is literal and that there is a
heavenly tablet that is secured for all eternity as well.
But a critical investigation of the Quran exposes many of the
contradictions of their own claims.
For instance, they say that the Quran is to be unchangeable in
634 and 1064, but Allah removes verses as He pleases.
Quran 1339. The Quran is regarded as
preserved. Surah 80, 522 Yet Allah causes
Muhammad to forget some of the passages.
Surah 87, verses 6 and 7. The Koran states that it's
dictated from Allah, Surah 39, one and two and will be guarded
from corruption. Surah 15-9.
Yet there were varying copies of the Koran during the earliest
days of Islam. These differing manuscripts
caused the third leader of Islam, Uthman, to choose one
copy over the others and to burn the others.
Additionally, A Quran discovered in Yemen in 1972, perhaps the
oldest manuscript that is currently in existence, was
found to have small but intriguing aberrations from the
standard Quranic texts. As in, they are finding newer
copies, and the newer copies contradict the older copies that
were out there. How can this dictation by Allah
have any irregularities, however small they may be?
And early leaders in Islam admitted that they did not have
the entire Koran. The second leader of Islam,
Umar, stated. Let none of you say I have got
the whole of the Koran. How does he know what all of it
is? Much of the Koran has gone.
Let him say instead I have got what has survived.
So even the very second leader, the spiritual successor of
Muhammad, said this. We don't have the whole Koran.
We have as much as we can have. And we're just going to have to
do the best we can with what we have.
And so there are a great many contradictions that take place
with their sacred text, which is the Koran.
But also secondary to the Koran is the hadith.
And that word hadith means traditions.
It is another sacred book which gives example for Muslims to
live by revealing the life and manner of Muhammad.
So the hadith is where the Quran has very little to do with
Muhammad. The hadith is all about
Muhammad. Here's how he lived.
This was his manner of living. And this is how you can live by
following the great prophets example.
But as we saw last week, well, Muhammad is no St.
We looked at a lot of issues about him last week in brief,
but I would put him down as an authority as well because the
hadith points to Muhammad. And you certainly have a lot of
talk about Muhammad. You have Allah, the Quran, the
hadith which speaks about Muhammad, and even when Muhammad
is named, and I've watched several videos about Islam just
this last week, when Muhammad is named, it's right behind it.
May peace be upon him, may peace be upon him.
It has to be said when you say his name in a way that's very
reminiscent about how people would talk in Islam about Allah.
So when I look at sacred texts and authority, I would include
Muhammad in as that authority as well.
There's a reason why for that, that we'll look in Deuteronomy
in just a second. Well, we talked last week about
his warrior past that we saw that Islam means submission,
right? And that submission, while they
would deny that it has anything to do with the sword, because
submission has to do with committing to the will of Allah.
History is very clear. Remember the map that we showed
you last week of how Islam spread like wildfire across the
Middle East and into North Africa and even into points of
Europe of places that we would call today Portugal and Spain.
That this was not a missionary endeavor like we would see in
the book of Acts, where Paul and Barnabas or Paul and Silas or
any of the other apostles that went to corners of the globe.
That the word of God spread and people believed and people
rejoiced and lives were changed. No, no, this was quite
different. This was submissioned by the
sword. This was you believe or you die.
And this is history. This is not just the conjecture
of a wild Baptist preacher who's trying to put Islam in a corner.
No, history is very clear. Muhammad's life is very clear
about this. And so because of this, Muhammad
as an authority should be judged by this.
As we look at Islam as a whole, we should be able to look at the
Koran and be able to point out the many irregularities in the
Koran. We should be able to look at the
hadith that points to Muhammad and say, yes, there's some grave
and great irregularities in the life of Muhammad.
Muhammad's personal failures, not just his warrior past, but
his personal failures were very great.
Muslims are forbidden to marry. Listen to this.
According to Surah 4 verse 3, there's there are required to
marry no more than four women. A male can have up to four
wives. But after four, that's when you
have to stop Muhammad however, and isn't this by the way, isn't
this the way that cult leaders and religious leaders of false
religions act that he says, well, I have a special
revelation, you know, hey you peasants, you only get 4 women.
But you know, for me, Allah has told me I can have as many as I
want. And the sordid history of him
taking on wives to himself speaks very, very poorly of this
religion as a whole. Muhammad received a special
revelation that he could marry as many as he wished due to
Allah's favor. Surah 33 verses 37 and 51.
He took full advantage of this blessing.
For example, Muhammad was infatuated with a woman named
Zainab. But there was one problem.
Zeynab was married to Muhammad's adopted son, Zaid.
Eventually, the Prophet convinced Zeynab to divorce her
husband, Muhammad's son, and marry the Prophet.
As stunning as it sounds, Muhammad married his
daughter-in-law. Yet that's not even the most
controversial of all of the marriages of which he partook in
such was involved a young girl by the name of Aisha.
Bukhari's hadith states that Aisha was six years old when the
couple was betrothed and she was 9 when they consummated their
marriage. Now I'll be honest with you, I
read this in my materials of which I have possessed and and
that is I said is this is this for real?
This can't be real and I went through and by Muslims own
sources they would acknowledge. Yes, that's what it says.
And it doesn't just say it in one passage, it says it in
several different passages of the hadiths that Aisha was six
years old when they were married and nine years old when the
marriage was consummated. Recognizing that the hadith is
considered authentic and authoritative to Muslims, it's
difficult to imagine any justification of this as
standard or action by a biblical standard, much less desire to
consider Muhammad as many do, as the excellent exemplar one
should follow. This is the man who should be
followed. This is the man who heard from a
righteous God. My only answer to that would be
absolutely not that. I know that I'm saying this
online before God and man, but I'll say it because it is what
it is. The man was a pedophile and it's
gross and disgusting and disturbing on every single
level. And this is something that has
been commonly reported through the centuries.
This is not a religion that should be followed.
It is a religion that should be swept into the dustbin of
history, never to be visited again.
But yet, remember, there is over a billion adherents to the
Muslim faith here in the world today, somewhere between 1 and 2
billion depending how it's reckoned.
Now, I think a lot of those might be cultural Muslims.
They live in Muslim countries, so they're just counted as
Muslims. But yet nonetheless, somewhere
between 1 and 2 billion people believe that this man is an
authority who heard from God. And it's not just wrong, it's
disgusting and it is an abomination before a good and
right and holy God. Of course, as believers, our
perspective on sacred texts are much different, aren't they?
What is our final authority for faith and practice?
Well, the good news is you're holding it in your lap right
now, aren't you? Or it's on your phone or tablet
right now. It's the word of God, isn't it?
That the Word of God is our final authority for faith and
practice. And often times when people ask
me what makes you different as a Baptist, particularly talking
about Catholics and other denominations or even other
religions, but what makes you different as Baptists?
My answer is always this, that we believe the Bible and the
Bible alone. That we don't need any other
type of sacred book, That we don't need any other type of
authority. That if the Bible says it, we
believe it, and the Bible says did not do it, we know we're not
supposed to do it. The Bible says to do it, we know
we're supposed to do it. This is where we get all of our
authority right here in the word of God.
And so it's much different from what you would see within the
Muslim context. Second Timothy 316 and seven.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
obstruction of righteousness to the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Doctrine, reproof, instruction, and righteousness.
I love those 4 categories. Doctrine is what's right,
reproof is what's wrong, correction is how to get it
right, and instruction and righteousness is how to stay
right. What more do you need in life
that all of that is found in the Word of God.
Second, Peter 120 and 21. We just looked at these a few
weeks ago, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the
Scriptures of any private interpretation, for the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
That what we have here is a book, a compilation of 40
different authors, but truly those 40 different authors were
really 40 different Penman. That there is one author to the
Word of God, and that is God himself.
Psalm 12/6 and seven. The words of the Lord are pure
words, as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified 7
times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord,
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
By the way, why do I believe that we have the preserved Word
of God today? And why do we use our King James
Bible just as a reminder that the Bible talks that there is a
preservation of the Word of God, that it's not just, well, there
were originals and they are correct, but we don't know that
we can have the correct word of God anymore.
I'm so glad that God is so mighty and He's so great that He
didn't just inspire His word, but He supernaturally preserved
His word, so that we can know that we have the word of God.
Matthew 518 For verily I say unto you, to heaven and earth
shall pass away, not one jot or one title shall pass away from
the law, till all be fulfilled. Proverbs 35 and 6.
Every word of God is pure. He has a shield unto them that
put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto his words,
lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
Isaiah 40, verse 8. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
John 1717. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. But as far as Muhammad, the
Bible has clear commandments of what should be done with false
prophets, particularly in an Old Testament context.
Hopefully you're in Deuteronomy 13.
Remember 30 minutes ago when I asked you to open there?
All right, I'm forgotten. All right, Deuteronomy 13.
Let's look at verse #1. In this retelling of the Law by
Moses, it says, If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer
of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign
or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee,
saying, Let us go after other gods which thou has not known,
and let us serve them that should not hearken unto the
words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.
For the Lord your God prove with you to know whether you love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep
his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him
and cleave unto him. And that prophet or that dreamer
of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken to turn
you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the
land of Egypt, and redeem you out of the House of bondage, to
thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee
to walk him. So shalt thou put the evil away
from the midst of thee. So in this Old Testament context
that we have here, when the there was a prophet who would
come and speak to the people of Israel and they would say,
here's a sign, Here's a wonder because the Jews required a
sign. We see that quite often the Old
Testament reiterated the New Testament that the Jews wanted
to see a sign. But part of that was this issue
of, you know, there's also another God I want to tell you
about. It's not just about Jehovah.
There's these other gods as well.
Or maybe they would say outright Jehovah's false and this other
God is the true God or this whole group of gods are the real
God. The Bible was very clear.
This is not only not someone that should be heeded, it's
someone that should be put away entirely.
Now, I want to be very clear. What I'm saying here is that I'm
not calling for those who are adherence to Islam or those who
preach from the Koran to be killed.
That's not what I'm saying here. We're understanding this was Old
Testament regulation that was given to the people of Israel.
But I do think what is very clear here is that those who
teach that there are another God must be disregarded and must be
put off to the side and say, we as believers, we don't believe
that, and that it will come to not whether it's here in this
life, it will come to not, not at the great white throne.
Judgment. Jeremiah 14, verses 14 and 15.
Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets, prophecy lies in my
name. I sent them not, neither I
commanded them, neither spake unto them.
They prophecy unto you a false vision and divination, and a
thing of naughty, and the deceit of their heart.
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets, that
prophecy in my name, and I sent them not.
Yet they say, sword and famine shall not be in this land.
By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
He was saying here in the book of Jeremiah that those who were
talking about sword and famine, he says this if I didn't come
for me, then it's going to be placed upon you.
He says if that message of sword and famine didn't come for me,
then you're going to get the sword and famine that you have
prophesied for those other people.
And I will say this, the fruit of Islam today is that the whole
Middle East as well as Islamic countries are filled with
turmoil more often than not. That it is not a religion of
peace. It has not been a religion of
peace. And again, I want to be very
clear that there are very peaceful Muslims who live here
in our nation and that there are live in other places.
But we are looking at the overall arching look over 1400
years of this doctrine. And we would say this, that
those who live in a peaceful manner are the minority and
those who live according to Sharia law and according to
these other thought processes like women being property, as we
looked at last week, that this is really the literal
interpretation, the Quran that is used in many, many parts of
the globe. And it's very, very sad.
The bottom line is the prophet should live or die by his words.
That's what the word of God says.
The prophet. You say it, you got to live by
it, and then you'll have to be judged by it.
And I just think of Mount Carmel.
There's Elijah and all the prophets of Baal.
O Baal hear us. O Baal, hear us.
Well, he didn't hear because he
couldn't hear because he wasn't. And that's the bottom line,
isn't it? What happened?
They live by their words, and by the end of the day, they died by
the words. And again, I want to be very
clear that I'm not calling for the death of anyone here today.
We want to love people who do not believe in Jesus Christ as
their savior. We want to love them to the
gospel. But at the same time, we cannot
hide the differences and call that love.
We need to expose the differences so that we can
expose them to the to the saving power rather of Jesus Christ.
And so the first of the fundamentals that we want to
compare Islam to Christianity, to a sacred text and authority.
The second is this creation, creation.
Now it's important that these go together because the second
makes sense of the first. If the Bible is your authority,
then we have a very clear understanding about creation.
When you have a different authority than the idea of
creation can be quite different. Now I will say on its face,
Islam and Christianity seem to have commonalities when it comes
to creation. Those similarities include that
heaven and earth were created in six days.
And may I remind you, sometimes we say they're created in seven
days, but really was six days because the Lord rested on the
7th day. Now if you say 7 days, no one
should get upset about that. But if we're being very literal,
which we ought to be very literal about the word of God,
it was created in six days. Humans were given responsibility
over creation. That's another similarity that
the woman was tempted in the garden.
Genesis chapter 3 is where we would find that and that Adam
and the woman were removed from the garden because of sin.
So there are similarities at the 1st and it would almost be to
the point to make you think that we believe the same things about
creation, but that certainly is not the case.
In fact, this is where the similarities end.
First of all, the Quran does not give a detailed account of
creation. In fact, creation itself is only
mentioned in about 30 verses of the Quran.
Not much at all when you consider that we have Genesis
1-2 and three on top of a multitude of other verses found
through scripture that affirm that the creation was not just a
myth, that it was not just an analogy for something else, but
it was a real event that took place in six days.
In fact, Jesus himself affirmed this, didn't he, That he will
also said that this was the creation.
And he affirms the first 12 chapters of Genesis himself.
Muslim clerics allow for evolution, saying that their
version of creation is likely just an allegory.
In fact, they use a verse that sounds very similar to what we
have in our Bible, very similar to what we're going to look at
today in second Peter chapter #3 where it says a day in the sight
of the Lord is like 1000 years. And so their idea as well,
listen, time is, you know, he said six days, but it really
could have been a whole lot more and it could have evolved.
But you know, the problem is, is that their verse does not have
the context of creation. And I would say this some, but
some Christians would even say, well, we, you know, our Bible
says a day is like 1000 years. So couldn't creation have been a
whole lot more? What we're going to see this
morning that that verse has nothing to do with creation
whatsoever. In fact, it talks about the
timetable of when Jesus is coming back, that there were
those who were concerned about was he coming back yet?
Is he, is he, why isn't he here yet?
Like, listen, God's timetable is not our timetable, but we also
don't get to take that one little snippet of verse and try
to apply it to twisting Genesis chapters one through 3 into
something that it is not. There's a lot of differences
between the Bible, the Quran. I'm going to run through these
quickly. As far as it goes to creation, I
know it's a little bit smaller there, but hopefully it's big
enough for you to see. The Bible says there's precise
details of six days of creation, but there's very little detail
in the Quran, in the Bible. Listen to this.
Jesus is the creator. John 11 through three in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, and the same was in the beginning with God.
But in the Quran, Jesus was a created being.
They affirm that Jesus was alive, but there Jesus is not
our Jesus. I want to be so very clear about
that, that just because they mentioned Jesus, he was one of
the prophets, but Muhammad is the greatest of the prophets
according to the Quran, that Muhammad is the greatest of the
prophets and Jesus was just one of the minor prophets.
And to that we say we cannot agree in any way, shape or form.
Eve was honored in creation and Bible taken out of the side of
Adam and Eve is never mentioned by name in the Quran whatsoever.
I mentioned on the previous slide the fact of the woman.
The woman, Well, that's because Eve is never mentioned by name
and that name is just supplied by others later.
Well, where did they get that name from?
I wonder? Kind of like where they got a
lot of other names and information from.
And they want to have the the standard of, well, could anybody
make a book like this? And I think it's already been
made and a whole lot better and a whole lot truer, you know, and
righteous. So Eve was on her creation.
Eve was never mentioned by name. The Bible, mankind was made in
the image of God and the Quran. Mankind is a small creation.
Satan is seen as a cunning serpent in the Bible, but in the
Quran, there's no mention of Satan as a serpent.
Adam became a living being while the last Adam, Jesus Christ,
gives life. And Adam was the first Muslim,
and he was the first prophet of Islam as well.
Adam and Eve we're tempted by Satan to eat from the three of
the knowledge of good and evil. And then Quran Adam and Eve were
tempted by Satan, who also tempts the rest of humanity.
The Bible, Adam and Eve's sin recognize the need for a savior,
and the Quran recognizes that Adam and Eve's sin illustrated
the need for guidance. Now, this is where it's actually
quite important, this last part. We understand that because
mankind fell in the garden, there was a need for the Savior.
You remember on Wednesday night that we looked at Genesis 315,
that first mention of the gospel, the proto evangelium.
And why couldn't I say that on Wednesday night?
So I was, I was like drooling on myself trying to say that on
Wednesday night. But the proto evangelium tells
us that that there was going to be a savior.
Remember, it was hidden in mystery at the time that that
mystery gradually unfolded throughout the New, the Old
Testament until Jesus revealed himself in his incarnation in
the New Testament. But we realized through all that
that mankind needed a savior. According to Islam, mankind does
not need a savior. Mankind needs guidance.
That's a big difference. That may not sound like much but
it's a huge difference since mankind according to the Quran.
Since mankind has not fallen and death is natural.
Oh no, I'm sorry for Christians. Mankind need a savior to redeem
them, but in Islam they need a prophet to guide them.
The path to heaven is paved by good works, not grace.
By listening to the final Prophet Muhammad, not God our
savior. This is a burdensome struggle,
but it's great virtue for the Muslim meaning this is that they
know that mankind has had struggles, that different
prophets have guided them along the way.
But the greatest Muhammad, greatest prophet of all,
Muhammad, he is the one that you really need and he is going to
lead you into everything that you need.
That really there was no understanding of what quote UN
quote salvation was until Muhammad came.
You know, you and I understand that salvation has been around
well since mankind's been around you say, well, I thought
salvation was just about Jesus and everybody after No, no, that
salvation has been this. There were those in the Old
Testament that believed in the promise of the Messiah and
looked ahead and those of us know that Messiah is Jesus
Christ and we look back. But salvation's always been by
faith. That's what it's always been.
It's always been through Jesus Christ and the to the Islam, a
believer that they just need guidance.
And Muhammad is the one that gives guidance.
And when you don't believe that you are a fallen creature in
need of the grace of God, you're in a very, very difficult place.
So what does the Bible say about this?
We'll turn to Ephesians chapter 2.
Some very familiar verses there. Ephesians chapter #2
we'll begin in verse #4 Ephesians 24.
But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he
loved us even when we were dead in sins.
Now I'm going to stop right there.
When someone is dead in sins, do they need guidance?
But they need a whole lot more than guidance, don't they?
If some, if something is dead, you can't really guide it
anywhere. You can't, you can't, you can't
move it around, right? It's there.
It can't move it. It, it's beyond guidance at that
point. It needs to be made alive again.
And we can't do that ourselves. We were dead in our trespasses
and sins. Could we make ourselves alive
again? We cannot.
Was there enough good works that we could do to revive ourselves?
We couldn't. We're dead.
So what we need is much different than what Islam
promises. Instead it says this.
It says, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ by grace you're saved, Hath raised us up
together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace. In his kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus 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
what we need is the grace that only comes by Jesus Christ.
It's not by works, it's not by guidance, it's not by any of
those types of things It's by Christ and Christ alone.
I'll leave this with you and we'll, we'll leave off for today
and we'll hit the other two fundamentals next week.
But it's fairly often that I walk around downtown Mansfield.
And I've mentioned this to you before many times that maybe a
couple times a week that I go out there.
And it's been a habit that I've formed ever since my surgery a
few years ago to make sure my legs get the stretching that
they need. But there is an Islamic school
that is there just off of Main Street in Mansfield.
And it's very often that I see children getting off of the
train at the train station and walking a few blocks over to the
school and usually in their traditional garb.
And, you know, you look at that and you look at that within the
context of the society that we live.
And they look, they look different and we have some
preconceived notion sometimes because of some things that have
happened in our nation in our past.
And sometimes you can look at people that are in that
situation and you really don't have a lot of regard for them if
you're not careful. But I want you to know that when
we look at those Muslims that are here in our communities and
there are more than sometimes we realize that instead of being
put off by them or their appearance or put off by the
prayers and put off by the other things.
Know what we need to do is to put on compassion and love and
realize these are some people that have been very, very
misguided, likely for generations and generations in
their family that they know no other way.
They've never even considered another way that we need to show
them not just Jesus, but the Jesus of the Bible.
Not just the Jesus that was a good prophet, but the Jesus that
was the Creator, Godfather, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Three and one. This is who they need.
But I'm afraid often times, because there are all these
grave differences and because of some of the things that we have
seen in the name of Islam over the years, that we just kind of
have no regard for them. Listen, we must have hearts of
compassion for all who do not know Christ, no matter what
their belief system is. Because listen, as we go back to
lesson #1 all the way back at the beginning of May, if we go
back to lesson #1 really it all comes down to this.
There's only two religions, God and not God.
There's one God, God's Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Everything else falls under the category of not God.
No matter what the flavor is, no matter what the clothing is, no
matter what the garb is, no matter who the authorities are,
no matter what the sacred books are, no matter what any of those
things are, there is one God. And it's up to us to be able to.
Thank you, Ralph. That's a good one.
So and so that's what we need is to be able to look at those
people who maybe look different than us or have different types
of beliefs than us or different types of habits than us and
realize this. We need to radiate Jesus Christ
to them because they are lost unless they come to know Jesus
Christ, the Jesus Christ of the Bible, as their Savior.
So next week we're going to look at the two other fundamentals,
and that's going to be the nature of God and the nature of
salvation. And we'll look at those in a
greater way. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.