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Week 10: Sharing Your Faith with a Muslim | August 10, 2025 Sunday School

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. And turn your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter #12 the book of

  8. Matthew chapter #12 We got a lot to get to.

  9. So let's get right to it as we continue looking at the

  10. fundamentals of the faith and comparing them to the religion,

  11. the false religion of Islam. And we'll go through just a tiny

  12. amount of review here in just a moment, and then get to where we

  13. need to go this week so we can finish those fundamentals of the

  14. faith. And then next week, answer the

  15. question I'm sure is on your mind.

  16. How do we witness to the Muslims, friends and the people

  17. that we have in our community? And I'm really looking forward

  18. to getting into that next week. And so just by way of review, we

  19. want to remember that there are 5 pillars of Islam and we saw

  20. that they are the creed. And what is that creed?

  21. It is there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.

  22. But then we also saw that there is prayer.

  23. That prayer is offered five times a day.

  24. Then there is almsgiving. And that is in certain

  25. situations, 2.5% of a person's income is given to charitable

  26. pursuits with others fasting, particularly during the month

  27. long celebration of Ramadan. And then we saw there's a

  28. pilgrimage. Those who are physically and

  29. financially able are required to be able to go to Mecca.

  30. And then we saw last week that there were two fundamentals.

  31. We saw a sacred texts and authorities.

  32. And we saw that the sacred texts conclude the Quran, but also the

  33. hadith, and that hadith that was the book or books rather of

  34. which spoke of Muhammad and what his exploits and his thoughts

  35. were, as well as some interpretation of those and then

  36. his authority, Muhammad being the prophet of prophets, the

  37. highest of all of the prophets. And then we looked at creation

  38. and we saw that while there were some similarities to where we

  39. find biblical creation in the Word of God, that the idea of

  40. creation is much different in Islam in the sense that and

  41. evolution is allowed to be part of it on top of the fact that

  42. Jesus Christ would not have been part of creation.

  43. And that really is going to be part of what we want to talk

  44. about today because this week we're going to look at the other

  45. two fundamentals that we mentioned last week, which is

  46. the nature of God and the nature of salvation.

  47. And much of the issue with the nature of God comes down to this

  48. Jesus Christ, because Muslims will say to you to your face

  49. that they believe in Jesus Christ.

  50. This is important for us to understand here today that if

  51. you were to ask a Muslim, do you believe in Jesus Christ, if that

  52. was the question that you were to pose to someone of the

  53. Islamic faith, they would say absolutely, we believe in Jesus

  54. Christ. The issue, however, is what

  55. Jesus Christ do they believe in? Because their Jesus would not be

  56. our Jesus. And that's why when you're

  57. dealing with false religions, when you're dealing with cults,

  58. it's very important to get past the first question and typically

  59. to dig deeper into the answer than just simply accepting the

  60. answer. We're going to see a lot of the

  61. cults, particularly when you ask, do you believe in Jesus

  62. Christ? They'll say, of course we

  63. believe in Jesus Christ. Do you believe that God is the

  64. creator? Yes, we believe that God is the

  65. creator, but what does that mean?

  66. Define your terms so that we can better understand and you start

  67. to find that, well, this is not what we believe from the Word of

  68. God, and what they are saying is not from the Word of God.

  69. And it's important for us to understand because the way that

  70. error flourishes is by having some element of truth within it.

  71. The best counterfeits are the ones that look a lot like the

  72. real thing, aren't they? I don't know anything about

  73. counterfeit money. I mean, I haven't used it

  74. lately, but I do know this. Is this OK?

  75. We can't use this in a court of law, I don't think.

  76. But anyway, I would know this, that if you put Monopoly money

  77. into the deposit at the bank, you know, put it up that little

  78. tube, I imagine that tube would be coming back real quick

  79. saying, yeah, you cannot make a deposit with this pink note that

  80. comes from your game of Monopoly.

  81. However, what could be passable is something that has the look,

  82. the feel, the smell of regular money of which we are used to.

  83. And so when it comes to false religions, listen, the most

  84. outlandish thoughts are typically discarded by most.

  85. It's the ones that have some element of truth within them.

  86. That's what Satan does, isn't he?

  87. He makes sure that there's a little bit of truth and that is

  88. the worm, but the hook is the error, and that's the one that

  89. gets you. And so if you were to ask again,

  90. a Muslim, do you believe in Jesus Christ?

  91. The answer, of course, 100% will be yes, we believe in Jesus

  92. Christ. But what exactly does that mean?

  93. Well, as we look at the nature of God, they do not believe that

  94. Jesus is God. Do they believe in Jesus?

  95. Yes. But Jesus is not God.

  96. He is not part of the triune God at all.

  97. Jesus, rather is one of the prophets that he was the

  98. greatest of the prophet, except for Muhammad.

  99. Now understand, even those words just coming out of my mouth,

  100. they're blasphemous. Of course, I'm not committing

  101. blasphemy on teaching you this. But that that would be taught is

  102. rank heresy, that Jesus is lesser than Muhammad.

  103. And we saw the character Muhammad last week, that he was

  104. not a man of high character, that he was a warrior prophet,

  105. but that he also had very low morals in every metric and in

  106. every sense of the word. But then we also saw that they

  107. believe that Jesus is to be revered.

  108. Now, this is important, that they do believe that Jesus is to

  109. be be revered. In fact, some of the videos that

  110. I watched this week about Islam and about this very issue, they

  111. would often say Jesus may peace be upon him, Jesus may peace be

  112. upon him. And they say that as a form of

  113. reverence. But here is where the issue

  114. comes. Here's where the rub is that

  115. Jesus is not simply to be revered, but it is not enough to

  116. Revere Jesus Christ. What do we need to do to Jesus

  117. Christ? We bow the knee to him that he

  118. is not just simply revered as we Revere many things, don't we?

  119. We have great respect for many different elements in this

  120. world. But Jesus Christ is not simply

  121. to be revered. He is to be worshipped.

  122. He is to be the one and only way of salvation and because Jesus

  123. is revered, quote UN quote by Islam.

  124. And again, I want to make clear that while they give lip

  125. servants to reverence, you cannot change the very

  126. fundamental character of God himself and also Revere him at

  127. the same time. There is no way that those two

  128. spheres can overlap any way at all.

  129. You cannot have reverence for God and then also besmirch his

  130. name and then also blasphemy his name at the same time that there

  131. is no reverence there at all. It's just a way to placate

  132. Christians. It's a way to sound more

  133. reasonable, but in no way, shape or form is there any type of

  134. reverence truly for Jesus Christ in Islam.

  135. Well, we're going to look more at what they believe the nature

  136. of Jesus Christ is in just a moment.

  137. But before I do that, I would like to show you a brief video,

  138. again, not from a Christian point of view, but from a direct

  139. Muslim point of view about what they believe about Jesus Christ.

  140. And then we'll dig a little bit deeper into that.

  141. Let's go ahead. Jesus or Isa Al Isalam is an

  142. important figure appearing in both the Bible and the Quran,

  143. but do both Muslims and Christians have the same belief

  144. regarding his position and role? There are some similarities

  145. between them when it comes to the life of Jesus, such as the

  146. belief that he was born to the Virgin Mary or Lady Mariam, as

  147. the Quran says. She said.

  148. How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have

  149. not been unchaste? He said.

  150. Thus it will be. Your Lord says it is easy for

  151. me, and we will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from

  152. us. And it is a matter already

  153. decreed. Secondly, Jesus was given the

  154. ability to perform certain miracles, such as resurrecting

  155. the dead, giving sight to the blind, and curing the severely

  156. paralyzed. Despite these similarities,

  157. there are some points of differences as well.

  158. Christians believe Jesus is an Incarnate or son of God who is

  159. crucified in this world as a sacrifice and atonement for the

  160. sins of mankind. Muslims, on the other hand,

  161. believe Jesus was one of the greatest prophets to have been

  162. sent by Allah for the guidance of humankind, and believing in

  163. him as a prophet is a requirement.

  164. In Islam. He was sent with a divinely

  165. revealed book called the Injeel, a gospel that was later

  166. corrupted and altered, Allah says in the Quran.

  167. Then we made our messengers follow them one after the other.

  168. Then we sent after them Isa, the son of Mariam, and gave him the

  169. Injeel and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of his

  170. followers. In another verse of the Quran,

  171. Allah says Jesus came to his people as a prophet, confirming

  172. the teachings of the previous divinely revealed book and the

  173. teachings of Prophet Moses. Jesus, son of Mary said,

  174. Children of Israel, I am sent to you by God, confirming the Torah

  175. that came before me. One of the most important

  176. differences Islam has with Christianity is on the

  177. crucifixion of Jesus. According to the Muslims, Jesus

  178. was never truly killed, rather it was made to appear for the

  179. people that it was Jesus but in reality it was someone else.

  180. Allah says in the Quran and for their saying surely we killed

  181. the Messiah ISA son of Mariam, the messenger of Allah.

  182. And in no way did they kill him and in no way did they crucify

  183. him, but a resemblance of him was presented to them.

  184. This also means Muslims believe Jesus is alive and never died,

  185. rather his body was raised into the heavens by Allah.

  186. He will return near the end of times along with the Mahdi, the

  187. 12th Imam from the Al UL Bay and assist the Imam in establishing

  188. justice and peace in the world, just as it would have been

  189. filled with tyranny and injustice.

  190. Jesus or Isa al Aisalam. So that's enough.

  191. I don't know how you feel about that, but there's a major

  192. differences between what the Bible says about Jesus and what

  193. is taught by the Muslim religion about Jesus.

  194. And the greatest perhaps would be this was that first, well,

  195. first of all would be that Jesus is not God, but secondly, that

  196. he did not die on the cross, that he went on the cross but

  197. was somehow replaced on the cross and never truly died in

  198. the way that the Bible says. Now, if you're like me, this is

  199. a curiosity. How would he have been on the

  200. cross, but yet not died on the cross, but somehow was replaced

  201. on the cross. And so I went on to a little bit

  202. of a rabbit hole, or down a rabbit hole, if you will,

  203. looking on YouTube at different Muslim clerics and to be able to

  204. hear some teaching. And I did bring me to the place

  205. of where we are in Matthew chapter #12 And so we're going

  206. to read just a moment Matthew chapter #12 beginning in verse

  207. #38. But I, I watched a, a Muslim

  208. cleric answering questions from different people, including from

  209. Christians. And when this video that I had

  210. seen, there was probably well over 1000 people who were in

  211. this room. And this gentleman was asking a

  212. question of the cleric and said, well, you do not believe that

  213. Jesus died on the cross. But I would tell you that the

  214. Bible does say that Jesus died on the cross.

  215. And so how would you answer that?

  216. And so he said, I'd like you to consider Matthew chapter #12 and

  217. verse #38 He says, because your own Bible teaches that Jesus

  218. never died on the cross. And if you're like me, that

  219. immediately gets your interest because I'm thinking I've read

  220. the Bible enough to know it seems very clear that Jesus died

  221. on the cross. And so again, I, I want to be

  222. very careful how I explain this to you, that when we're dealing

  223. with error, when we're dealing with these false doctrines that

  224. are out there, is that they will take one verse of the Bible or

  225. one small section of verses from the Bible and they will twist it

  226. into something completely different.

  227. And that they will do was they will rely on the ignorance of

  228. the people who they're talking to who do not realize there's a

  229. whole mountain of evidence that would be contrary to the one

  230. verse that they are quoting. So look at Matthew chapter 12

    Matthew 12 chapter mention

  231. verse #38 it says this. Then certain of the scribes and

  232. the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from

  233. thee. And he answered and said unto

  234. them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,

  235. and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the prophet

  236. Jonas. Now look at this.

  237. For as Jonas was in the belly, or rather whereas Jonas was 3

  238. days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son

  239. of Man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of the

  240. earth. And so this cleric is starting

  241. to expound off of these verses and he says that prophet Jesus,

  242. you know, peace be unto him. And he says this prophet Jesus

  243. that he makes the mention of the sign and he says in the sign is

  244. going to be the fact that of the sign of Jonah.

  245. And so he says, now let me ask you when he says, you know about

  246. the book of Jonah, right? And the man said, yes, he says

  247. Jonah. And he goes through explaining

  248. what happened in Jonah up to the point when Jonah got thrown off

  249. of the boat. He says when Jonah got thrown

  250. off of the boat, was he alive or dead?

  251. And the man said alive, He says when he was bobbing up and down

  252. in the water, was Jonah alive or dead?

  253. He said alive. He says Jonah got swallowed in

  254. the the fish. He says was he alive or dead?

  255. And the man said alive. He says when he was spit back

  256. out, was he alive or dead? He said alive.

  257. He says at any point in the book of Jonah, do you find Jonah

  258. being dead? And he said, no.

  259. He says, well, this is the sign that Jesus pointed to.

  260. He says, and as Jonah was alive, he says then also Jesus was

  261. alive and never died. Now we'll say that you can just

  262. quickly look at those verses and maybe make a connection to what

  263. he's saying if you didn't know any of the other verses of the

  264. Bible. But the problem with this, and

  265. This is why Bible proper Bible interpretation is so important.

  266. This is why every word in the Word of God is important, that

  267. we don't just read just in a very general way, but that every

  268. word and how the words are put together are so important.

  269. You look at it again, verse #39 says an evil and adulterous

  270. generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given

  271. to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

  272. What's the sign of the prophet Jonas?

  273. 4 As Jonas was 3 days and three nights in the whale's belly, so

  274. shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of

  275. the earth. Now does it say that the sign

  276. was that he would die as Jonah died, or that he would live as

  277. Jonah lived? No.

  278. What is the sign? The three days and the three

  279. nights, That's the sign. And So what he did was he took

  280. what the word of God said and he turned it and twisted it into

  281. something completely different and hoping that nobody paid

  282. attention. Let me put it to you this way.

  283. Some of you know, we had a little bit of an accident with

  284. our car back before Bethany's wedding the day before.

  285. As a matter of fact, we were stopped.

  286. Casey was stopped at the light. My dad, Diane's mom were in the

  287. were in the car and it was a three car pile up.

  288. We were at the front. It happened at a light and so

  289. there was some damage in the back corner of the car.

  290. Now there's been someone else in the church, which for legal

  291. reasons, I can't say because we're online and the insurance

  292. companies might be watching, but that had some similar issues

  293. that happened just recently in the last few weeks.

  294. And I'm just kidding about the insurance company anyway.

  295. But you understand what I'm saying.

  296. But so, so could you imagine saying, I say, you know, I had

  297. this accident and it damaged the corner of the car and my brother

  298. had an accident and it damaged the exact same corner of the

  299. car. And someone heard me say that

  300. and say you, you were in the exact same accident.

  301. I said, no, that's not what I said.

  302. You, you both were on the same Rd.

  303. No, I, I didn't, I didn't say that you, you, you both, you

  304. were driving the same type of vehicle.

  305. No, I I didn't say that they were both A3 car pile up.

  306. No, that that's not what I said. No, no, that's what you said.

  307. You said it's exactly the same thing I said.

  308. No, I was just comparing where the damage was on one car and

  309. where the damage was on my car. I wasn't saying that the whole

  310. thing was the same. I was just saying that this one

  311. thing was the same. Jesus was not saying that all of

  312. his life experiences would be exactly like Jonas.

  313. That's not what he said. He said this.

  314. There was an element of time that was when one way in Jonah's

  315. life that will be very similar in life.

  316. And was that true? It absolutely was true.

  317. We understand that the three days and the three nights

  318. between the crucifixion and the resurrection, that's all that's

  319. being said here. And false doctrine always takes

  320. the clear teaching of the Word of God and does what it adds to

  321. it, takes away from it or twists it.

  322. And so that's what they've done here because they say, well,

  323. this is really the only evidence of Jesus dying on the cross.

  324. And I want to say, what about the rest of the Gospels?

  325. And then they throw up their hands and say, well, yes, but,

  326. you know, the Bible's been corrupted anyway.

  327. Did you catch that in there, that the message was corrupted

  328. of the word of God? The gospel message that he had

  329. was later corrupted that he was really teaching about all that

  330. time. But, you know, Bible translators

  331. have twisted that and turned it into its own religion.

  332. And so that's where it gets very hard to be able to talk to

  333. somebody about these types of issues because you get to the

  334. point where they say, well, is the Bible even true?

  335. And of course, if they don't understand that the Bible was

  336. true, then it gets very hard to have the place of commonality to

  337. talk to them about salvation. So according to the Quran, Jesus

  338. was created. He was not Creator, He was

  339. created. He was the messenger of the

  340. children of Israel who performed miracles in order to declare it

  341. is Allah who is my Lord and your Lord.

  342. Surah 351 Jesus then rounded up Allah's helpers, the disciples,

  343. Surah 352, who bore witness that they were Muslim.

  344. In time, Jesus fulfilled His mission of calling Jews to

  345. worship Allah and was taken to heaven without experiencing

  346. death. As we just mentioned, the Muslim

  347. rejects any notion that Jesus is God or the Son of God.

  348. Surah 19 verse 88. And as you can see, the

  349. rejection of the deity of Christ goes hand in hand with the

  350. rejection of the triune nature of the Lord.

  351. Islam rejects the very nature and character of God as revealed

  352. in scripture. We know that Lord, Father, Son

  353. and Holy Ghost three and one, one and three and that that is

  354. completely and totally rejected by Islam.

  355. Instead, the Quran reveals that a God Allah, who is transcendent

  356. and removed from mankind and sovereign arbitrarily works as

  357. he pleases and works in complete mystery.

  358. So you can see not just the character of Jesus Christ, but

  359. the very character of God. And I'll go through these very

  360. quickly that it says Yahweh, the God of the Bible.

  361. But then Allah, the God of Quran.

  362. Look at the difference for God so loved the world compared to

  363. God baguettes not nor is he forgotten that there is no.

  364. Son of God, immutability. God never changes compared to

  365. Allah, changes as he wills. How do you please a God who

  366. changes as he wills? How do you please a God who

  367. lives by his own whims and his own desires?

  368. It's impossible to do one. God is knowable but yet Allah is

  369. ultimately unknowable. The nature of the relationship.

  370. God is sovereign and intimate compared to Allah is a dominant

  371. master and sovereign. On one side the incarnation that

  372. God became flesh but Allah does not become flesh.

  373. According to Quran, the nature of unity 1.

  374. Essence and three persons, Father, son and Spirit compared

  375. to Allah is one. In mathematical terms, God's

  376. love is unconditional according to the word of God, but Allah's

  377. love is conditional in the Quran.

  378. Truthfulness, God's word is truth.

  379. We see in the word of God, Allah is the greatest deceiver.

  380. Quran 354 That is certainly a very, very difficult thing to

  381. understand. And of course, the word of God

  382. says that God's son died on the cross to atone for the sins of

  383. the world and that the that the Quran makes clear that Allah has

  384. no son in Surah 2116. I want to read you a little bit

  385. longer piece of hope. We're not there yet.

  386. Sorry. Go back.

  387. All right, push the wrong button.

  388. All right, Let you look at that for a while.

  389. But I want to read to you an article.

  390. And I I don't like reading longer articles, but I do think

  391. it helps gel this thought a little bit more is from a group

  392. called the Muslim Unity Center. Sure, thank you, brother.

  393. That'd be fine. The Muslim Unity Center, it says

  394. this. The Quran tells us a lot of

  395. wonderful things. Thank you about Jesus.

  396. As a result, believers in the Quran love Jesus, honor him,

  397. believe in him. In fact, no Muslim can be a

  398. Muslim unless he or she believes in Prophet Jesus.

  399. It will be quickly obvious though the disciples often

  400. referred to him as Almighty God. But I'm sorry, it's important

  401. that I read this correctly. It will be quickly obvious that

  402. the disciples often referred to him as a servant of Almighty

  403. God, but never son of Almighty God.

  404. Peter, for example, said the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the

  405. God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.

  406. And their contention is the disciples only called Jesus a

  407. servant. They never called him God, he

  408. continues. Peter further said God raised up

  409. his servant. Acts 326, where the title

  410. servant refers to Jesus. Not only was it Peter, but the

  411. entire group of believers viewed Jesus as Almighty God's servant.

  412. When they raise their voices together in prayer to Almighty

  413. God in the course of their speaking to Almighty God, they

  414. call Jesus your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed.

  415. Acts 427. They repeated this title also in

  416. verse 30. Consistently Jesus was being

  417. called servant of Almighty God by the original followers of

  418. Jesus. Some people mistakenly thought

  419. that the disciples called Jesus son of Almighty God.

  420. This inconsistency of translation actually helped to

  421. give this wrong impression. In Listen to this in the King

  422. James Bible. This is a Muslim group that says

  423. this in the King James Bible. The translator called Jesus son

  424. of Almighty God in Acts 313 and 26 and the child of Almighty God

  425. in Acts 427. They simply translated the Greek

  426. word paeda as son or child. But the word paeda also means

  427. servant, and the present context demands this translation, since

  428. the author of Acts is trying in this passage to establish that

  429. Jesus is indeed the servant of Almighty God.

  430. The translators knew that the Greek word paeda means servant.

  431. When the same word was used for David in chapter 4 verse 25,

  432. they translated as servant. Why not call Jesus also by the

  433. same title? Or do they feel that son is the

  434. correct translation? Why not call David son of

  435. Almighty God? Jesus and David are both called

  436. by the same title in Greek. Why not call them by the same

  437. title in English alone? Other translators recognizes

  438. this inconsistency. Listen to this and corrected it

  439. in modern translations of the Bible.

  440. So the Muslims say, you know what, those newer translations

  441. of the Bible, they take out some of the mentions of the deity of

  442. Christ that probably ought to give us pause to think a little

  443. bit about why we use the King James Bible, Amen.

  444. And so it says this. Nevertheless, the fact that

  445. Jesus was almighty, God's servant was so well known that

  446. even the King James Bible called him by this title in Matthew

  447. 1218, referring back to Isaiah 42, one Matthew identified Jesus

  448. as the servant of the one true God, Yahweh.

  449. So there's a lot that can be said about what takes place

  450. here, but the fact of the matter is Jesus Christ was a servant.

  451. I, I think would anyone argue with the fact that Jesus was a

  452. servant, of course was a servant.

  453. You know he was a servant. I know he was a servant.

  454. The Muslims know he was a servant.

  455. Of course Jesus Christ was a servant.

  456. We know that he came to serve. But we also know this while he

  457. was a servant, he ultimately was and is God.

  458. That part of the fact of Jesus coming to this earth was to

  459. become as what the form of a servant, but yet the deity of

  460. Christ is immestakable in the word of God.

  461. You you can go to John 20 verse 28 where Thomas remember

    John 20:28

  462. doubting Thomas. I won't believe it unless I see

  463. him unless I put my hands into the nail prints and and as soon

  464. as he saw Jesus. What was his exclamation.

  465. I use this often when talking to people about the deity of

  466. Christ. He said this, My Lord and my

  467. God. Thomas had no problem

  468. understanding that Jesus Christ is God.

  469. Hebrews one verse 8. But the But unto the Son, he,

  470. God saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.

  471. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.

  472. Hebrews 18 refers to Jesus Christ explicitly as God.

  473. I just mentioned this a moment ago.

  474. Philippians 2 verse 5 and 6 Well I mentioned the same passage,

    Philippians 2:5

  475. let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who

  476. being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with

  477. God. John 1030 Jesus said this I and

  478. my father are one and he said well there could be a little bit

  479. of misunderstanding about that. Well the next verse says that as

  480. soon as the Jews heard him say I, my Father and one, they took

  481. up stones and wanted to stone him.

  482. I think they were very clear of what Jesus was saying, that he

  483. was God. Jesus did actions that could

  484. only be accomplished by God. He raised the dead, He forgave

  485. sins, He created and sustains the universe.

  486. This becomes even clearer when one considers that God said that

  487. He alone was there during creation, which Jesus was active

  488. in creation. Further, Christ possesses

  489. attributes that only deity can have.

  490. Eternality, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence.

  491. That everywhere you look in the word of God, Jesus is God.

  492. But what do the Muslims do? They take one verse and twist it

  493. so much that if it was a towel full of water, they twist it so

  494. much there wouldn't even be one drop left in it.

  495. That's how much they twisted it. But they take that one verse,

  496. ignore the balance of Scripture, and say that Jesus wasn't God,

  497. and yet they Revere him. That's rejected completely and

  498. totally that they do not Revere Jesus Christ in any way.

  499. Again, you cannot just merely Revere Jesus.

  500. He's either your Lord or He is not.

  501. There is no middle ground. And so we look at all of this

  502. and we see the nature of God. But then I also want us to look

  503. at very quickly #4 and finally, the nature of salvation.

  504. In Muslim theology, listen to this.

  505. No one is lost. Now we understand we're lost in

  506. our sins. That's why we needed Jesus

  507. Christ to save us. Amen.

  508. But in Muslim theology, no one is lost, but all are born weak

  509. and forgetful. It's a big difference, isn't it?

  510. You're merely weak and forgetful.

  511. That's why you don't need a savior.

  512. You need a prophet to guide you and to teach you.

  513. Remember we saw that last week that that's why the Prophet

  514. Muhammad was so uplifted. Why?

  515. Because he was the 1:00 to be able to as the highest form of

  516. prophet, to be able to teach people the good and right way.

  517. They don't need a savior. They just need a guide and then

  518. their guidance comes Quran, which states these are the

  519. verses of the wise book, a guide and mercy to the doers of good.

  520. So how is 1 saved, quote UN quote?

  521. By being a Muslim. Now we understand that whoever

  522. calls upon the name of Christ shall be saved, right?

  523. That we repent of our sins and call upon Christ to save us.

  524. We're going to see a lot of that in our message this morning from

  525. second Peter chapter #3 But let's ask the question, what

  526. does it mean to be saved to be a Muslim?

  527. Well, there's a formula that you can follow and it's this.

  528. It's repentance and faith plus works equals.

  529. Now look at this possible salvation.

  530. That is not a comfort in any way shape or form, is it?

  531. Repentance, faith and works means only possible salvation.

  532. You might get there, you possibly could get there.

  533. Well, that's not a comfort in any way, shape or form.

  534. Repentance. What do we mean by repentance?

  535. In Muslim terms, it means this salvation begins with right

  536. belief as seen in the creed. There is no God but Allah and

  537. Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.

  538. Remember, we've seen that creed for the last several weeks.

  539. Repentance is this is the creed. I say it three times to become a

  540. active Muslim. But then faith.

  541. What is faith? Well, according to Muslim

  542. teaching, there are 6 fundamentals to the faith that

  543. are essential to salvation. 6 fundamentals.

  544. I'm just going to read them to you #1 Belief in one God alone

  545. with no partners, which means this.

  546. No Jesus #2 belief in angels #3 belief in the revelations which

  547. came down, most notably the Quran #4 belief in all his

  548. prophets from Adam to Muhammad. 5 belief that Allah will judge

  549. all men and women, and six believe that all men and women

  550. will spend eternity in either paradise or hell.

  551. So that is faith. You have to believe in those six

  552. things and then what follows is works.

  553. Right action must accompany belief.

  554. All the pillars must be followed on top of the commands of the

  555. Quran and the Hadith. So you have to follow the five

  556. pillars that we've been looking at everything that's in the

  557. Quran, everything in the deep, and then it is possible that you

  558. will achieve salvation. Now we see at the judgment, the

  559. hope is the weight of the good outweighs that of the bad.

  560. So we understand what the Bible says about salvation is this is

  561. that if you sin, you are a Sinner and that you are in need

  562. of a Savior, that when we get to the Great White Throne Judgment,

  563. well, if you are saved, you won't go to the Great White

  564. Throne judgment. But if someone is unsaved and

  565. goes to the Great White Throne judgment, according to what we

  566. see in Revelation chapter #20 is that your works will be judged.

  567. And it's not your good works and your bad work weighed on a

  568. cosmic scale is if you have sinned once, you're a Sinner,

  569. you've transgressed and you need a Savior.

  570. And everyone in humanity's history that has tried to save

  571. themselves their own way, including by the way, Muslims

  572. will have to show that they can have salvation on their own.

  573. And every single person at the Great White Throne judgment will

  574. be guilty because they'll find holiness within themselves.

  575. And holiness isn't found with ourselves.

  576. It's only found within Jesus Christ.

  577. But to them it's this, your good works and your bad works.

  578. You put them on a scale and you hope the good works tip to the

  579. good side and the bad works lift themselves up.

  580. Then this. There are many things that could

  581. send someone to hell. Now look at this arrogance,

  582. stubbornness, careless words, giving a temptation.

  583. These are just a few of the examples of the sins that could

  584. send a person to hell. So let me ask you this, where is

  585. any type of comfort within the Muslim religion?

  586. Where is there a time where you have the security of knowing

  587. that someday you will spend an eternity with Allah?

  588. Where do you get to the place where you feel like I know that

  589. I am a friend of Allah, I know that I will spend eternity with

  590. him and have comfort and peace? The answer is there is no Muslim

  591. who could ever have that. So much so that listen, it's

  592. taught that Muhammad couldn't even guarantee that he'd make it

  593. to heaven. Muhammad, if he couldn't make

  594. it, what Muslim could make it? What an awful, awful line of

  595. theology. What hopelessness.

  596. And that's why when we see the rabid following of Islam

  597. throughout the world, the calls to prayer, the the absolute

  598. devotion, listen, it's not about love, it's about fear.

  599. Why? Because I've got to make sure

  600. that in the scales of Allah's justice I've done enough good to

  601. be able to make it to heaven. Listen to this.

  602. Even infants are not assured of making it to heaven if they

  603. pass. In fact, there's a great

  604. likelihood that infants would die in the Muslim theology and

  605. go to hell. It's an awful pernicious line of

  606. doctrine. There is one guarantee though,

  607. that someone could make it to heaven, and this is found in

  608. Surah 9 1st #111 and it is this. It is not that that would be the

  609. end. That would be the end.

  610. How many times I push what? What did I do here?

  611. Let's see, Keep pushing this. Hold on.

  612. I feel like I had this, like this real flourish there, and

  613. then I just totally, totally messed it up.

  614. All right? I don't know what I did.

  615. Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go.

  616. This is it. No, that's not it.

  617. All right, so I didn't save the last slide.

  618. Here is the only pretend that last 30 seconds didn't happen.

  619. OK, Here's the only guarantee that a Muslim has of making it

  620. to heaven is being a martyr. Does that explain some of the

  621. things that we see throughout the world?

  622. By the way, does that explain some of what we see in Gaza, why

  623. people would so willingly do some of the unthinkable things

  624. that they would do? Why?

  625. Because it's the only way they can be sure they will go to

  626. heaven. When you understand that, it

  627. explains a lot of what we see in this world.

  628. And again, this isn't my, my word saying this, that Surah

  629. Chapter 9, verse #111 And I checked it myself to be able to

  630. make sure that this wasn't something that was mistaken.

  631. It is very, very real. The only way a Muslim can know

  632. is by giving their life for the faith.

  633. So what does that mean? Again, nothing is done out of

  634. devotion, true devotion. It is completely done out of

  635. fear. There is no love.

  636. There is no love. What do we see about the word of

  637. God when it comes to salvation? Well, that Jesus Christ,

  638. actually, we have time to go there.

  639. Turn to Acts chapter 4. I saved so much time on that

    Acts 4 chapter mention

  640. slide, not being there. I got time to turn to Acts

    Acts 4 chapter mention

  641. chapter 4. All right, I think I didn't save

  642. that slide. That's a that's a bummer.

  643. All right, by the way, this is, I purposely picked this text

  644. because it's that sermon of Peter's that the Muslims were

  645. out, that he just kept calling Jesus a servant, A servant, A

  646. servant. As we read just a little bit

  647. here, let me ask you, what do you think is meant by Peter in

  648. relationship to Jesus and salvation?

  649. So let's look at Acts chapter 4. Look at verse #8 it says this.

    Acts 4 chapter mention

  650. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost.

  651. I don't know how to explain that either.

  652. So they don't believe in the Trinity.

  653. But anyway, Peter filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them,

  654. You rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day

  655. be examined of the good deeds done to the impotent man, by

  656. what means he is made whole? Be it known unto you all and to

  657. all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of

  658. Nazareth, whom He crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

  659. Again, do you see it right there?

  660. He's raised from the dead. Well, how is He raised from the

  661. dead if he didn't die? The contradictions are so

  662. numerous. We raised from the dead even by

  663. him. Doth this man stand here before

  664. you hold? This is the stone which was said

  665. it not of you builders, which has become the head of the

  666. corner. Now this is a strong and

  667. important statement in the New Testament understanding the

  668. person and work of Jesus that He is the chief cornerstone.

  669. Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament Psalm 118 verse #22

  670. but then Jesus made reference of this again himself.

  671. Matthew 2142, Mark 12 verse 10 and 11 and Luke 20 verse 17.

    Mark 12:10 Luke 20:17

  672. Peter quoted it here that he also quoted in first Peter

    1 Peter 2:7

  673. chapter 2 verses 7 and 8, which you might remember from our

  674. series on Sunday mornings. But then also Paul alluded to

  675. this verse in Ephesians 2 verse #20 as well, that when it comes

  676. to salvation that Jesus is the chief cornerstone.

  677. And here's the capstone of all of this.

  678. Go to the next verse. Neither is there salvation in

  679. any other, for there is none other name under heaven given

  680. among men whereby we must be saved.

  681. Hey, there is. That's it.

  682. All right. That's.

  683. I know. Ralph, I'm with you.

  684. All right, all right. I was dying up here, all right.

  685. I was withering on the vine up here.

  686. We found it. That's all right.

  687. Thank the Lord. But what do we see?

  688. We see this, that Jesus is the only name to be saved under,

  689. that he is the chief cornerstone.

  690. And that is the theme from Old Testament to New Testament, from

  691. prophets to gospels to epistles, that it's all about Jesus

  692. Christ. Now we learned some very

  693. important things about folks who believe the Islamic faith This

  694. last, this, this lesson we're going to try to take by God's

  695. grace, take those things that we learned and be able to help

  696. understand their mindset to better be able to show them the

  697. Jesus Christ of the Bible. You say, well, they're not going

  698. to be very receptive. They're they're very far away

  699. from what we believe. It's not about whether they're

  700. receptive enough or not. It's about us being faithful and

  701. giving the gospel, and that's knowing the best way to do it,

  702. by understanding a little bit of what they think.

  703. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  704. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  705. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  706. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  707. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  708. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  709. grow in His Word.