It is fitting that we start this sermon by coming to an understanding of just who we are. Put in its simplest terms, we are soldiers of Jesus Christ. No Christian should ever doubt that. And, as soldiers, we must have certain knowledge and perform certain duties.
2 TIMOTHY 2:3 states,
‘Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.’
It is also fitting that, at this time that I tell you that this is not a sermon built upon hatred, but one built upon knowledge. No matter what side the soldier is on, to keep safe, that soldier must know enough about the opposition to be able to guard against it.
2 TIMOTHY 1:14 states,
‘Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.’
In other words, we were given something very valuable. We were given salvation through Jesus the Redeemer. And, we were given the ability to help others come to the knowledge of the saving grace of Christ. And that is what we are to guard.
America suffered a shocking and horrific mass murder on 9/11. It was shocking because of the boldness in how it was carried out, and it was shocking because of the number of deaths and fatalities, and it shocked us because of the evil hatred that initiated it in the first place. September 11th is the day America woke up, but I agree with British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he said that even though we woke up, many of us just turned over and went back to sleep again.
Since that awful day, Spain has been the target of the same kind of hateful attack. And, in the last few weeks, we have seen two such attacks in England, one in Lebanon, and of course, the ongoing mass murders in Israel.
The question that comes to all civilized people’s mind is: “Why?” What could possibly spark such evil hatred that you would have a burning desire to kill innocent people?
Today, we are going to explore this question, and we are going to do it in the format of comparing our beliefs against the beliefs of those who committed those crimes.
1. JUST WHO IS IT THAT IS DOING THESE THINGS?
Salmon Rushdie is a Muslim author who was sentenced to death by Muslim clerics over his book, “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie said, “The trouble with Muslims saying Islam is peaceful is that it isn’t true.”
Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, said of Islam, "I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion. When you read the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the brutal killing of the infidel, in other words, all those who are non-Muslim."
It was not the Baptists that flew planes into the Twin towers. It was not the Catholics who bombed the trains in Spain. It was not the Hindus who killed those people in the British subways.
The people that carried out these mass murders are the same people who are killing the Israelites every chance they get. They are the followers of Islam. They are all Muslims.
The word ‘Islam’ means ‘to submit’. Those that follow Islam, or the ones who have submitted to it are called ‘Muslims.’ Worldwide, one out of every five people is a Muslim. Islam is the fasted growing religion in the world. It is estimated that in ten short years, one out of every four people will be a Muslim.
In America, there are more mosques being built that any other place of worship. There are currently more Muslims in America than there are members of the Assembly of God churches. It is expected that within ten short years, there will be more Muslims in America than members of the Assembly of God churches and all Church of God church members combined.
Does that represent a problem for America? In my opinion, it represents the biggest problem America has ever faced. Contrary to what some ill-advised and misinformed people may say today, America was built upon the standards of God and our founding fathers put God over this country – intentionally!
We are now on the verge of having to fight a spiritual warfare that will try and keep us from worshiping our God. If you doubt that for one minute, I encourage you to go back just ten years and see what kinds of laws our federal government has passed that limits us in worship so that others might not have to be offended. It would seem to me that those who deny Christ might not just be the Muslims. Some might be in our own midst.
One noticeable difference between Islam and Christianity is that their Allah says kill everyone who does not submit to him, and our God says love and pray for all who do not accept His Son as their Redeemer.
I recently made the comment that Islam has committed more violent acts against others than anyone else in history. I would like to amend that to include Christians as committing violent acts, too.
I must be honest and say that there are some who held the banner of Christianity high and herded Jews into the temple where they sang hymns to Almighty God while they burned the building with the Jews inside.
As much as Christians today find it easy to point fingers at Muslims, we must always remember that we need to point them at ourselves, too. I think it would be safe to say that there have been more murders, more pillage and more wars done in the name of God than anything else. Someday, I believe we will find out what God thinks about all of that!
2. MUHAMMAD WAS A SELF-PROCLAIMED PROPHET
Muhammad’s father died before he was born, his mother died when he was six years old, and then he was given to his grandfather to be raised, but the grandfather died when Muhammad was eight years old. He was then given to his uncle, who was a businessman and went on many trips.
No doubt, Muhammad went on some with him. It is recorded that, at age 12, he went to Syria with his uncle where he met Christians and Jews. Later in the Qur’an, he would refer to them as “people of the book.”
When he was 35, he started going into the mountains where he would find a cave and he would meditate in solitude. What a great way to get away from the demands of the family! It was on one of these sojourns that he was visited by what he said was an angel of God. This happened several times, and his wife and others convinced him that these ‘visitations’ were from God.
On one of these occasions, the ‘angel’ told him to recite. This recitation later became the Qur’an. He was totally illiterate, so he had to memorize the words that the ‘angel’ he called Gabriel told him.
It became his mission to proclaim the ‘truth of Islam’, that was supposedly given to him by Allah through Gabriel. He called the people to stop worshiping idols (including Jesus) and to start doing good works for one another. He taught them that man is God’s slave, and his duty is to submit to God and make others to the same.
In his first three years, he had 40 converts. That is much more than most Christians have in a lifetime! Sometime, we shall have a sermon on what the word “dedication” means.
Around the year 620 A.D., Islam was having great financial difficulty. So, in what he called a vision from God, Muhammad said it was now okay to go and rob caravans that were passing through the area. This, of course, alleviated all of their financial woes.
That shows that when you are having money problems, one of the easiest ways to make them disappear is to have a vision from your god saying it is okay to rob people!
Soon after their financial difficulties were solved, there was a battle in Badr, between his men of about 350, and another tribe who numbered about a thousand. There are some accounts that Muhammad’s men ambushed their opponent, but at any rate, Muhammad’s army won, and the vicious slaughter of the other army gave him the notoriety of fierceness that he so badly needed.
Muhammad was a sinner. Muhammad was also a pedophile. He not only fell in love with his son’s wife and made him divorce her so that Muhammad could marry her, he married a seven-year old girl named A’isha and had her come live as his wife when she was only ten. When he died, he had 12 wives.
3. CHRISTIAN BELIEFS VERSES ISLAMIC BELIEFS
Coming from a Christian pastor, this may seem out of sorts, but there is one thing I admire about Muslims. They are generally among the most serious and devout people on the earth. Many of them have completely memorized the Qur’an. They pray at least five times a day. They fast for one month every year (during Ramadan, from sunrise to sunset). I believe that Christians should show as much sincerity in our beliefs as Muslims to in their beliefs.
But salvation is something, which must be earned. Allah does not graciously give salvation. And they never know if they have done enough to earn it until they die and are being judged.
True Christianity is spread by love and choice – Islam is spread by sword and force. True Muslims, like true Christians, are willing to die for their faith. Unfortunately, some on each side are also willing to kill for their religion, too. In fact, one sure way to lose your Christian salvation is to murder someone for any reason, but one way to gain salvation as a Muslim is to kill a non-Muslim who will not convert.
Those who attacked the Word Trade Center and engage in other acts of evil terrorism are actually acting in full accord with the tenets of the Islamic faith. The principle of Jihad, or “holy war” is taught in the Koran as a viable tool for the cause of Islam.
Jesus taught that we are to love the sinner. Mohammed taught that the infidel must be killed if he refuses to convert. They define an infidel as anyone who is not Muslim.
Whether you stop to realize it our not, America is at war. How long will it last or just what Christians will have to endure are questions that no one can answer. But make no mistake about it - we are fighting for our very right to love and serve God. There will be no place in America that is safe from the devastation this spiritual war will bring.
We are like many churches today. We feel safe because we are so comfortable. We enjoy the good life that God has given to us. But those days will not last forever. By God’s own Words, we will see a time of great upheaval.
In DANIEL 9, it tells how the end time will come as a flood. A flood literally wipes out everything in its path, and so will the evil that comes in those last days. We must be prepared. And you cannot be prepared unless you have knowledge.
There are many people in America’s churches today who think they are saved, but will someday be turned away from Heaven’s gates by the Lord. See, they know “about” Jesus, but they have never taken the time to really “know” Jesus.
Acknowledging the existent of Jesus is not the same as trusting in Jesus for salvation. We must be willing to fully devote ourselves to God, through Jesus, and anything less than that will not get us to heaven. But God wants us to choose Him because we love Him, not because we are forced to.
THE QUR’AN CONTRADICTS ITSELF -
I will not quote chapter and verse from the Qur’an in the holy house of God, but that book contradicts itself on many occasions. Here are a few examples.
It says that man was created out of a blood clot (96:2), and then in another places, it says man was created from mud, which was molded into shape (15:26). Later, it says we were created from dust (3:59), and still another place says we were created out of nothing (19:67 & 52:35).
THERE ARE NO CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE –
I have had people come to me over the years and ask me to explain all the contradictions that are in the Bible. I ask them specifically which ones they are talking about.
They always answer the same. They tell me they don’t personally know, but that they have heard there are many in there. I ask them if they hear everything they believe, and they say, “No, but the person I heard it from knows what they are talking about.”
I then tell them that they obviously think that I know what I am talking about, or they would never have come to me with the question, so they should believe what I say. They will agree, and it is at that point that I tell them the Bible has no contradictions in it – period. I tell them that none have ever been found.
Then, I ask them if they believe me. They don’t have a clue as to what to say, so they mumble something that is supposed to mean “yes” and then wander away, bewildered.
It is the Muslims who are waging a daily war against the Israelites by sending in suicide bombers to kill the Israelites. Yet, the leaders on both sides claim they are trying to get a peace accord signed.
The truth is that there will never be peace in that region until the second coming of our Savior. The Israelites claim that Abraham gave the inheritance of that land to Isaac, the true son of Abraham.
The Muslims believe that Abraham gave the inheritance to Ishmael, who they say was the true son of Abraham. I heard a man once say that it all boiled down to a spiritual kind of sibling rivalry.
If you buy a map in any Islamic country, you will find that there is a blank space where Israel is. The hatred of Jews is so deep in Islam they will not even acknowledge that Israel exists. They have said over and over again that they want to drive the Jews into the ocean and be rid of them forever.
What most people do not understand is how the United Nations helps Islamic countries perpetuate these things. For instance, the UN funds the schools in the Palestinian areas. What do these schools teach their young children? They teach them how to hate the Jews. They teach them how to assemble and use rifles. They teach them the honor of blowing themselves up while killing the Jews. And these children are even as young as five and six years old!
Israel has over two pages of UN charters that list their various agencies and programs that help the Jews accept and help the Muslims (over 100 programs in all). The Muslims have none, and do not have any plans to create any.
The UN condemns hate crimes, but will not be unified and condemn suicide murderers. The word Islam, meaning ‘submission’, says much about the attitude of the followers of Islam. Many world leaders today are very busy trying to apologize for the followers of Islam who commit crimes of hate.
News reporters talk about the “extremists”. It is my opinion that Osama bin Laden and the other Muslims who commit these tragedies are not Muslim extremists, but rather Muslims who take their belief seriously.
I have often said that Christians need to be as serious about God as Muslims are about Allah. If we were, there would be a revival in this world that even the heavy hand of Satan could not stop!
EPHESIANS 6:12 tells us
‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’
IN CLOSING
Let me close by saying that our struggle is not against flesh and blood; it is against Satan and the evil he inflicts upon this world.
But Christians were given a spirit of boldness, not of timidity. God never expected us to roll over and play dead. American Christians need to WAKE UP! We need to start PAYING ATTENTION to what is going on around us! And, we need to ACT!
Will the Victory Singers please come back on stage at this time?
Islam believes in getting to heaven through good works. When I get to heaven, and I find myself standing before my God, I do not believe for one second that He is going to bring out a scale and weigh my good deeds against my bad deeds and decide whether or not I get into heaven.
Let me tell you that God loves all people. He loves Muslims as much as He loves Christians. I am not saying that Muslims are a bad people. Christians believe that they do, however, worship a false god and that false god is the enemy of the real God.
It is easy to say that Muslims are the enemy of Christians, but that is not the attitude that our God wants us to have. We do need to be aware of what is in our world, and because of what they profess, we believe that we may have to defend ourselves against them.
On their behalf, I will say that Muslims are trying their best to be good Muslims and follow their beliefs – just as we Christians are trying our best to be good Christians and follow our beliefs. It is the beliefs that are truly at odds with one another; we humans are just the ones who play out the scenes.
What the devil wants is to start a hate-war between us. What Jesus wants is for us to love them enough to truly and fervently pray for them, as we would pray for anyone else to come to true salvation.
God will judge us solely upon how much of my heart and my soul I surrendered to Jesus. He will judge us on how much we truly fell in love with Jesus. He will not judge us on anything else! And, when He does judge us, will He see the love of Christ in our hearts – for everyone including those of the Islamic faith, or will He see that we hated some others – including those of the Islamic faith?
I have assurance of where I am going. Muslims have no way of having absolute knowledge of where they are going; they just have an empty hope. I don’t know about you, but I hurt when I think of anyone (including Muslims) going to hell because they did not have the right information. I am very limited in my ability to give them that right information, however, so my only other resource is to open my heart to the Lord and pray for them, as I pray for us.
I said I know where I am going. How about you? Do you have absolute assurance that you are going to heaven, or are you just waiting it out and hoping for the best? How much of your inner soul have you absolutely surrendered to Jesus? Do you really know Jesus today?
As we go into our time of invitation, I invite each of you to examine your heart; to reveal your truest feelings about Jesus to yourself. There is a big difference between being safe and hoping you are safe.
INVITATION
