We do not preach ourselves, 2 Corinthians 4-5, but Christ Jesus the Lord. There has been great controversy over the past several days because of some remarks that were made at our national prayer breakfast. As I read those remarks, and I have it printed out in seven pages, don't worry, I'm not going to read it. But as I read the remarks, there's nothing wrong with the remarks. I want to say that. As I read the remarks, as they are, there's nothing wrong with the remarks. Yet there's something wrong with it. And that's what I want to talk about today. As I read those remarks, there's nothing wrong with it. Here's the deal. As a Christian, I have to stand up for Jesus. I have to defend Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is without sin. The Lord Jesus Christ has never harmed anybody. The Lord Jesus Christ has a perfect record. If I lift up Christ, I have no fear at all of being contradicted. No one can charge Christ with sin. Even when he drove the money changers out of the temple, there's no evidence whatsoever that he ever struck any human being. He cracked a whip to get attention. He didn't crack a whip on somebody's head or back. He overturned the tables of the money changers. But he didn't pick up the coins and hit people in the head with them. The Lord was as we'll see in a moment in Philippians chapter 2, a person who lived for others and who died for others. So we do not preach ourselves. Let me say that it's vital that we not preach and defend Western civilization as everything that happened in it is somehow another good. Western civilization is rooted in four basic things. the thinking of the Greeks, the thinking of the Romans, the thinking of the Jewish people, and the thinking of Christians. Four basic pillars. Western civilization is not the embodiment of the Christian faith. Terrible things have been done, and so I stand in full support with this statement. How do we as people of faith reconcile these realities, the profound good, the strength, the tenacity, the compassion, and love that can flow from all our faiths operating alongside those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous sins? Humanity has been grappling with these things, these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse, and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ. As God is my witness, may He strike me dead. That statement is true, and you know it's true. But there's something missing and that's what I want to look at with you. What is missing? What's missing is there is a profound and radical difference between Muhammad and Jesus. And let me give you the heart of where I'm going with this before I go. I don't like to do that because I want to keep you guessing and I want to take you on a tour that is almost blindfolded and that's how I preach. I don't want you to know where I'm going. That's my method. But today I'm going to let you know. The problem in the world is that Christians are not more like Jesus. The problem in the world today is that many people name the name of Christ and do horrible things in His name. The problem is that there are many people who are members of churches who have never been born again, who know nothing of a personal relationship with Christ, who know nothing of the daily struggle to take up the cross and follow Christ. What the world needs now are more people who imitate Christ. What the world needs now are more people who truly trust in Christ and Him alone for salvation. Now, what about Islam? I've been in North Africa, I've been in the Middle East, and I've been in the United States. I've never been mistreated by a Muslim. I've had Muslims in my home, I've been in their homes. Muslims are like Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists who don't know the Lord. You know, it's possible to be a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist, and not know the Lord. Good old folks, by and large, honest, treat you right, not gonna cheat you. Don't wanna ever divide an estate with somebody like that, but by and large, they're gonna be honest people. And I'm gonna say that's the way it is with Muslims in my experience. But what the world needs is for Muslims to distance themselves from the life and the teaching of Muhammad. That's the crux of the difference. And if we don't put that out before people, we end up basically propagating a lie. As if all religions are essentially the same. They are not. As if all religions are the same and some crazy wackos hijack them. I'm going to say something. It's in your printed form. I trust everybody here has a copy of that. Does everybody have a copy? That's so I don't have to be overly extensive in quotes. If you look at a statement there on the second page, ISIS, ISIL, IS, in its evolving names, is an authentic attempt to follow the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. I want to say that. I first studied Islam in 1963, before I became a Christian. I bought books. I studied. I know something about the topic. The focus of my doctorate was Islam. So I know whereof I speak. ISIS, ISIL, ICE, is an, notice I used an indefinite article, not the definite article, is an authentic attempt to follow the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as they are revealed in the Quran and the Hadith. ICE, ISIL, ISIS, holds to the same understanding of Islam as does the leadership of Saudi Arabia. I'll say that again. They hold to the same understanding of Islam as does the leadership of Saudi Arabia. The fundamental difference in the two is that ISIS is in the house of war while Saudi Arabia is in the house of peace. Shiite Islam is less radical than both, but it too is an authentic attempt to follow the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Now I'm going to give you something, and I'm getting ready to get to the Scriptures, which is what we're here about, is to hear a sermon from God's Word. This is very critical. How do you make sense of the Koran? Well, the Koran is a very different book than the Old Testament or the New Testament. For one thing, it is not arranged chronologically. The Koran is arranged with the exception of the very first chapter, which is the shortest, It is arranged according to the longest chapter first, then the second longest, then the third longest, and on down to the shortest. So it doesn't arrange chronologically, it's arranged according to the length of the chapters. It would be like opening your Bible to Genesis chapter 1 and discovering there Psalm 117, which is the shortest of the Psalms. And then you go to Genesis 2 and you find Psalm 119, and so on. So what I want you to understand is that the Quran is not chronologically arranged and that then leads to difficulty in trying to understand its meaning because there are two radical events in Islam that you must understand are there. And if you don't, You'll never get it. Why am I talking about this? I'm talking about this because Islam is on the move, as it has been ever since the end of World War II, and it is making great strides. You need to understand it. Islam can be divided, really, the whole of history can be divided into before an event, the Hijrah, and after the Hijrah. You see, the calendar of Islam doesn't begin with the birth of Muhammad. It doesn't even begin with the revelation of the Quran to Muhammad in the caves outside Mecca. It doesn't even begin with Muhammad preaching in Mecca. The message that Muhammad preached in Mecca was essentially a good message. It was against oppression. It was against idolatry. It was about treating people fairly. It was about honesty. And so if you look at the message of Muhammad as he preached in Mecca, it's essentially a good message. It's not the Christian message, but it's essentially a positive message about justice. But the Muslim calendar doesn't begin with his birth, his conversion in a sense to Islam or his preaching Islam, it begins with the Hijra. What is the Hijra? Muhammad was persecuted severely and his followers were persecuted severely by the people of Mecca. And the end result was that he and they fled and he was invited to come to a city to help settle the problems in that city. That is the Hijra. It occurred in 622 A.D. When he came there, the city was renamed to Medina, the city of the prophet. and Muhammad became the political leader of that city-state. In other words, Muhammad was the chief legal authority, the chief civil authority, he was the head of the military, he ordered this, he ordered that, he oversaw who would live, who would die. And so it's interesting if you date Islam according to the Muslim calendar, real Islam cannot exist except as a political force. I want you to understand that. Real Islam is never simply a religion. It's never simply a system of beliefs or practices of the individual. Real Islam is about political force enforcing the Muslim view of the law of God. And so there are radical changes because many people had lost their property to the Meccans. They sought to get property back from the Meccans and so they went on raiding parties. When they went on a raiding party, here was what happened. If you were an individual soldier and you died in battle, Muhammad promised you that you would go to heaven. Under Islam, nobody can know he's going to heaven but one way, to die for the cause of Islam. That's the only way to know for sure. You never know if you've been good enough. You never know if you've been bad enough. You can only know you're going to heaven if you die in the cause of Islam. And so from that point on, Islam comes really to exist. That's year one of Islam. Because in that year, Islam begins. Because it cannot be divorced from politics. It cannot be divorced from the state. And so as you begin to sort out things in the Quran, you have to try to figure out, was this prophecy given before Muhammad became the political leader? That is, before Islam began. Or did this prophecy come about after he became a political leader? There's another thing there, and that's this. Under Islamic teaching, if you had to kill someone in battle, Everything that he had was yours as an individual as long as you paid a double tithe on it. His women, his property, his slaves, his gold, his silver, his house, whatever it is. And you see, there's a great incentive, therefore, to engage in that form of jihad. Jihad can mean the struggle an individual has with his sinful nature, but jihad comes to mean, of course, in time, very much, waging war to force other people to submit. Now, you've got to understand something. Our nation has not suddenly become pro-Muslim with Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama is on the same path as Mr. Bush. Mr. Bush is the one who said that the meaning of the word Islam was peace. That's simply a lie. And he was either ignorant or he was lying. And why would he lie? Why he would lie is that ever since 1971, when President Nixon disconnected the value of the dollar from gold and connected it with oil, we have been beholden to the Gulf oil states, particularly Saudi Arabia. You don't want to cross them. They even own a significant part of Fox News. So what I want you to understand is that our nation has been very careful, our politicians and our people on television, like Brian Williams, to be careful not to say things overly critical about Islam. But Islam spread. Because when you converted to Islam, you could become one of the Muhajideen. You could become a warrior. And when you were a warrior and you engaged in warfare and defeated an enemy, you took his wife. She could be your slave or another wife. You could sell her as a slave and so on. So what I want you to understand is that all of this stuff that's going on with ISIS today is nothing new. Please understand it. It's nothing new. It's conquest. 80% is mine, 20% I have to give to the mosque. Look at that at the end of the thing on the Crusades, Quran chapter 8 or surah 8, verse 41. And know that out of all the booty that you may acquire in war, a fifth share is assigned to Allah and to the apostle and to near relatives, orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, if you do believe in Allah and in the revelation we sent down to our servant on the day of testing, the day of the meeting of the two forces, for Allah hath power over all things. You see what he's saying? A fifth share or a double tithe is given to charity, but you get to keep 80%. Now that's very important. If you look at the personality of the Prophet, you see that the personality of the Prophet Muhammad, as I have it written out there, is profoundly different from the personality of Jesus, as we'll see in a moment. Look at the second paragraph that I have there, which is a quote from the Hadith. The Hadith are the traditions that are accepted by 90% of the Muslims in the world as authoritative understandings of the way of life and teaching of Muhammad. Listen to what he says. Allah's Messenger said, The hour will not be established until you fight against the Jews. And the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, O Muslim, there's a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him. I want you to understand, it's not just the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. And by the way, I've asked this before. What were the first two nations in the world to recognize the modern Israeli state in 1948? The first one was? The United States. What was the second one? Iran. Wow. The first two nations in the world to recognize the state of Israel were the United States and Iran. But this anti-Semitic thread goes back to the time of Muhammad himself. And read this account of Islamic history, early Islamic history at the time of Muhammad. We see there with regard to this particular Jewish tribe in Medina, quote, the apostle of Allah, may Allah bless him, sat with his companions and they were brought in small groups. Their heads were struck off. There were between 600 and 700 in number. Ibn Sa'ad adds that Muhammad took a Jewish woman whose husband had just been killed as part of the spoils. The Apostle of Allah, may Allah bless him, chose Ruhana bin Amr for himself and ordered the booty to be collected. One-fifth portion of the goods and captives were separated and the remainder was sold to the highest bidder." I want you to understand who Muhammad is. You see, if President Bush and President Obama would have told you the whole truth See, I want you to understand, this is not a problem with Democrats or Republicans. It's a problem that we owe our soul to the company store. And the company store is deeply in hock to Saudi Arabia. And deeply dependent on their supporting the price of the dollar with price of oil. So, listen to this. As you skip down there, look at the revelation in the Quran regarding Muhammad's adopted son's wife. Think about it. Muhammad saw her, he liked her, he wanted her. So look at Quran, Surah 33, verses 37 and 38. Read it this afternoon and examine it, and then look at the four questions, observations I make about it there. Zanab is the Prophet Muhammad's daughter-in-law, married to his legally adopted son, Zaid. Secondly, at the time of these events other people were scandalized by the action of the Prophet Muhammad because they saw such a marriage as incestuous. Thirdly, fear of their reaction caused the Prophet Muhammad to delay doing what he wanted to do. Fourthly, in a profound example of deus ex machina, the eternally written Koran provided the Prophet Muhammad with a solution. His son Zayd must divorce his wife and Muhammad is ordered to marry her. Now, I'm simply giving you quotations, authentic, true quotations from authentic, true, recognized Muslim sources. And you have to look at that and you have to say, who is Muhammad? And you have to compare Muhammad with Jesus Christ and you have to say, there is no comparison whatsoever. And if you begin to talk about atrocities being committed in the name of Christ, that's valid. But if you fail to realize that the root cause of that is that people are imitating Muhammad, whereas when people do atrocities in the name of Christ, it's because they are turning their back on Christ. That's essential and that's fundamental, and may God Almighty grant that every one of us understands that. When atrocities are done in the name of Islam, Those atrocities are in keeping with the life and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. When people commit atrocities as they have throughout human history, in the name of Christ, it is because they're substituting something else for the gospel of Christ. Well, let's look at what it is to be a Christian for a moment, because as we look at that, and we contrast it, we see how profoundly true this is. Let's look at Philippians 2, page 1349. Well, that rather lengthy introduction, but an introduction that's vital for you to have. You're not going to get the truth from the government of the United States, whether you've got a Republican or a Democrat, or from the news media, because we owe our economic security to Saudi Arabia, among others. Goes back again to 71 and Nixon disconnecting the dollar from gold and tying it to oil. You cannot bite the hand that feeds you. And the dollar is bolstered by OPEC. Are we going to cross them? No. That's why President Bush lied to you. I can't believe he's that stupid. He has too many intelligence security advisors to be stupid. when he told you that the meaning of Islam is peace. That is simply a lie. Trust me, it is a lie. When he said it, I heard it, I knew it was a lie. I studied Islam a long time ago. It means submission. That's what it means. And so if you're a Christian or a Jew, and the armies of Islam come your way, as they came to Jerusalem, as they came to Damascus, You're allowed to be a Christian and be a Jew, but first you have to submit to the Muslim state. And you enter into a pact, a non-aggression pact, and you promise you will not try to share your faith with a Muslim and other things and pay a special tax. I want you to see this radical difference. What is the standard of Christianity, page 1349? Verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. What are we told here? We're told here that Jesus is God, He came in the form of God. That means in Greek that every attribute of God the Father was an attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's truly God. We're also told here that He became a true and authentic human being, just like you and me, except He never sinned. But then we're told something else about Jesus and it stands in radical distinction from Muhammad. And what is it that we're told about Jesus? He humbled himself. He put your welfare, your rights, your need ahead of his own welfare rights and needs. He abandoned himself so that you and I would never be abandoned. He went to hell for you and me on the cross in order that we would never go to hell. He left the glory of heaven because He loved you more than He loved Himself, because He valued your needs above His own needs. That's who Jesus is. He came into this world and gave up everything for you and me. He emptied himself, not in the sense that he ceased being God. He emptied himself in that he put aside his own needs. He put aside his own rights. He put aside his own feelings. He put aside all of those things and he filled himself with fulfilling the Father's purpose and that is to put you ahead of himself. Now, notice that the model of the Christian life isn't the Ten Commandments. Does that mean that we're indifferent about the Ten Commandments or flabby about the Ten Commandments? No, the Ten Commandments are a good summary of the way of life that God wants us to live. But you can keep the Ten Commandments and be a heathen if you keep them externally. And people are capable of keeping the Ten Commandments externally. How many people I stand up have never... No, I'm not going to ask you to do that. You can keep the Ten Commandments externally and know nothing of Christ. But I want to tell you the essence of the Christian life is what? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It means that whether you're dealing with a Muslim or a Jew or your mother-in-law, you've got to put that person ahead of yourself. That means when your wife insults you or your husband insults you, you've got to put them ahead of yourself. That means when somebody has knifed you in the back and lying about you, you've got to pray for them. You've got to plead with God for them. You've got to bless them rather than curse them. You have to understand then that the Christian life is modeled in the life of Jesus. And anything that's done that isn't like Jesus is anti-Christian. Even if people happen to be keeping the Ten Commandments externally. If it is not a life of self-denial for the sake of Christ, it isn't Christian. You see, it's interesting in Calvin's Institutes, there's a section called the Golden Book of the True Christian Life. And what's the golden book of the true Christian life about? It's about self-denial. Self-denial. Self-denial is the essence of the Christian life. It's not denying yourself in the sense of, I don't think I'll have another piece of lemon meringue pie. It may include that. But the core of it is, when you've got the right to take revenge on your enemy, you show them mercy and kindness. That's the essence of Christianity. Now I want you to realize that once you come to grips with the truth of that in Philippians 2, that the standard of conduct for Christians is to imitate Christ in His kindness, in His gentleness, in His forgiving others, His loving His enemies, His literally turning the other cheek, He's doing all those things. That's the life of Christ. And that's what you and I are called to do. That's what you and I are called to imitate. Notice how he puts it down in verse 12 and 13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation. What is it to work out your own salvation? Well, the moment you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. The moment you repent of your sins and cast yourself on God's mercy in Christ, you are on your way to heaven. But that's justification. It means that God has declared you not only not guilty, but declared you righteous in Christ for Christ's sake. But sanctification begins with the new birth, and it continues on until you go to heaven. And sanctification is about putting other people ahead of yourself. It's about having no rights compared to the needs of others, especially your wife, especially your children. And here's the trouble. Well, here's my confidence. Verse 13 assures me that if I'm a believer, God is working in my life to make me more like Jesus. So I can say in light of verse 13, it's God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure, I'm not who I used to be. I'm not who am I going to be, but I sure have a long way to go. And every week of my life, I won't say every day because I'm still blind to things about myself, but every week I have some wake-up call reminder that says, Bob, you're just a self-centered hypocrite. And I'm serious. At least once a week, I have some reminder that comes home to me that says, Bob, you're just a self-centered hypocrite. You're self-absorbed. You are the focus of your life. It's all about you. Now come on, I'm not alone here. And so while my goal is to become like Christ, which is to make it all about you for the sake of Christ, yet the reality of my life is that I keep coming back to that thing of myself being the heart of the matter. But God's at work in me, changing me, verse 13. But when I really come to grips with the call of the Christian life, look at chapter 3. When I really come to grips with what is the standard of the Christian, When I really come to grips with the fact that God really doesn't care if you smoke or drink or chew or go with girls who do. No, I'm not being silly there. I'm simply saying people amazingly focus on silly stuff. Stuff that's not even spelled out in Scripture. Should you try to be healthier? Of course. I'm always flabbergasted at obese people who condemn people who have a drink of wine. What's far more important than what you eat and drink and put on and all of that? What's more important even than the Ten Commandments? It's dying to yourself and living for others. And that's what nails my hide to the wall again and again and again. Because I love me. And you love you. And I put me ahead of you. And that's the great driving force. But when I become aware of it and I become convicted of it, I become profoundly aware of another truth. Chapter 3. And that is, I'm on my way to hell! except for one thing and one thing only, God's grace in Jesus Christ. I'm a bad person, folks, if I measure my life by Jesus Christ. I'm talking now not hyperbolically, I'm talking about who I really am. When I measure myself by Jesus, I come so short, I have no hope of heaven. But, look at chapter 3, page 1350. And he goes on here, and he says in verse 7, having described all of his religious zeal, Philippians 3.7, he says, Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish." A gross, anemic translation. It refers to excrement and waste, and he used the equivalent of a four-letter word in Greek of that time, skoubalon. that I may gain Christ and be found in Him," notice verse 9, "...not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God." Look at verse 9. The person who says, I'm a Christian, and trusts that he's got something that can get him into heaven is a fool. You don't know Christ if you don't have a deep sense that I don't deserve to make it. That's the bottom line. You see, when I really understand the demand of the standard of Christ on me as one who names this name, I realize I've been weighed in the scales and found wanting. I've got no hope. That's why when I look at Revelation 20 and the great white throne judgment, and where the books are all opened, every single person whose life is revealed there is cast into the lake of fire except for one group of people. Those whose names are written in the book of life. That's my only hope. My only hope is my name written in the book of life. And if my name's in the book of life, then I know this. Christ died for my sins according to the Scriptures. Look how Paul puts it in verse 9. And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. What's wrong with my own righteousness? Well, it's like this robe. My parents bought this robe for me 40 years ago. And if you look carefully, if I were to not wear a black shirt underneath, you'd see there are moth holes in the back. And it's frayed. Esther and Burleigh pointed it out one day. They said, look, that thing needs repairs, but the moth holes are worse. I've got another robe. But it's frayed. It's riddled with faults. The moths have eaten the back out. That's the trouble with my righteousness. It's flawed. It's riddled with failure. It's riddled with selfishness and sin. But you know, Paul knew he was going to heaven. Why? Because he knew he had an alien righteousness. He had the righteousness of somebody else put to his account. Verse 9, Be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God. He goes on, he talks about the Christian life. In verses 12 and 13 he said, you know, I look at my life as a believer and I'm a babe. The Apostle Paul viewed himself as a babe. Yeah, he viewed himself as a novice. He recognized that he was coming short. He recognized in spite of all of the progress of grace, he still didn't measure up. I haven't achieved it yet. Now I want you to see something. What is it that makes you a Christian, if you are a Christian? It's knowing Christ. That's as simple as I can put it. It's knowing Christ. Do you know Christ? Well, if you know Christ, you also know some things about yourself. You know you don't measure up. You know that you're not good enough to earn your way to heaven, and you'll never be good enough to earn your way to heaven, and you know something else. Christ was good enough in your place, and He died in your place. And so you're right with God, not based on what you've done or promised to do, but what Christ has done for you. Now, I want us to look at the Crusades for a moment in light of that, because I think it's pretty profound. One of the great authorities on Islam in the Western world is a retired professor from Princeton University named Bernard Lewis. Lewis made this statement. In speaking of the Christian world, we use two different words, Christianity and Christendom. The one denoting a religion, that is to say, a system of belief and worship. The other, a whole civilization that grew up under the aegis of that religion, but containing many elements not part of the religion, some even contrary to the religion. In speaking of Islam, we use the same word Islam in both senses, and this gives rise to confusion among Muslims and others. When Jesus was about to be executed by the cruelty of the Roman cross, he made a statement. as his disciples pulled a sword to defend him. He said, don't you think that I could not at this point call on my father and he would send legions of angels to rescue me? He said to Pilate, he said, my kingdom is not of this world, otherwise my disciples would fight. I want you to understand something. In biblical Christianity, there is no place for physical coercion. In biblical Christianity, it's all turn the other cheek. In biblical Christianity, it's all forgive your enemies. Now, a biblical Christian can be a soldier. And a biblical Christian can be elected to political office. And a biblical Christian can become a policeman. And in those roles, they may have to use deadly force. But they're not waging war in the name of Christ. They're waging war or waging peace or defending the community. by virtue of the office they have as an agent of the civil government. What happens when you mix Christianity with the state, as happened in the wake of Constantine's Edict of Toleration, the Edict of Milan? What you end up with is a squirrelly thing that is neither Christian nor biblical. But in reality, substitutes something. Look at this. I think that this is very, very striking. Muhammad promised, if you look at the crusades in your handout, in the Quran, chapter 47, verse 6, those who are slain in the way of Allah, soon will he admit them to the garden that he's announced for them. Quran 9, verse 111. Theirs in return is the Garden of Paradise. They fight in His cause and slay and are slain, then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded. That is achieved the supreme." Now, I want you to see something. Can we justify the Crusades at all? Yeah, I think you can. As a civil matter, I think you can talk about defending people. However, the Crusades were not really fought as, for example, Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 722 when Islamic armies were stopped from advancing into France. That's one thing. The Crusades were rooted in something else. The Crusades were rooted in the false idea that somehow or another there's virtue in going to places where Jesus was born, where he walked, where he was crucified, where he was buried. Now let me ask you a question. Is there anything in the Word of God that in any sense whatsoever would imply that there is some kind of virtue, some kind of credit, some kind of shortening your sentence of punishment, some kind of getting into heaven easier if you make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Is there anything of that in the Bible? Of course not. How do you get to heaven? I've already said it. You get to heaven by repenting of your sins and casting yourself on God's mercy in Christ. And everybody, whether he's a Jew or a Muslim or an atheist or a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a Catholic, everybody who repents of his sins and casts himself on God's mercy in Christ will be saved without exception. Now I want you to see that in the beginning of the Crusades, near the end of the Council of Claremont, Pope Urban II gave a rousing sermon in which he promised, all who die by the way, whether by land or by sea or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I'm invested. I want to tell you In order to launch the Crusades, the Bishop of Rome adopted Muhammad's plan of salvation. That's what he did. In order to get people to engage in the Crusades, the Bishop of Rome adopted the Prophet Muhammad's plan of salvation. I challenge anybody to prove that wrong. That's historical fact. That's what Pope Urban II said when he launched the very first crusade. What did he do? He patterned the way of salvation, the way of Mohammed. He was very wrong. He prostituted the church of Christ to a political end. He did. and he erected a false system of salvation in order to motivate people to fight and kill. But here's the reality. While I may kill as a soldier of the United States or as a police officer, we've had someone in our own congregation serving as a police officer within the past 12 months who had to use deadly force. And I went to see him that night when I learned about it, and I assured him that he had done what he had to do. He had to take human life. It was essential. While we may take human life by virtue of holding civil office as a policeman or a soldier, Christ has never called us to advance His kingdom by taking human life, but only by giving up our own lives. And don't you see then that the Crusades are a blight on the name of Christ, and God did not bless the Crusades. Indeed, if you read the great Christian historian of the last century, or actually the 19th century, Philip Schaff, they did things like setting Jewish synagogues on fire and burning up the Jews inside. The Crusades have nothing to do with Christianity. They conflate the gospel of Christ with a man-made gospel. I'm not saying that everything they did was wrong, but I'm telling you that Christ hasn't called you to defend the Crusades and say, oh, we were better than the Muslims. You are a fool to say that because the Crusaders did some dreadful things. So I'm saying that our president was correct. that people have hijacked the Christian message, hijacked the teachings of the Prince of Peace, and done great evil in the name of Christ. And the Crusades are an example. Not that they were all evil, and not that the Crusaders were any worse than Saladin, whose name curiously means the righteousness of the faith. And he was from, by the way, he was from Saddam Hussein's hometown, Saladin. I'm not saying that the Crusaders were worse or better than the Saracens. I'm simply saying, Christ hasn't called me to defend what people have done in the name of Christ. I don't preach myself. I preach Christ. Christ is impeccable. He is without sin. He is without fault. He is without flaw. But people who've named His name have done terrible things. The President also mentioned lynching. It wasn't something in the distant past. That happened in my lifetime. Ever heard of Emmett Till? I was needing to use deodorant when Emmett Till was murdered. Lynchings occurred in Alexandria in the lifetime of people who are still alive now. You say, well, they weren't done in the name of Christ. Of course they were done in the name of Christ. Of course they were done in the name of Christ. So the President's right. And I agree with the President on this 100%. But, and this is gigantic, he left out the thing that's the key issue, but so did George Bush. Let's look at the foundation of Islam and let's look at the foundation of Christianity and there is no comparison. Christ is the eternal Son of the eternal God. He never sinned. He loved His enemies. His dying words on the cross are, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Muhammad, on the other hand, was a man who was full of the spirit of vengeance and revenge. Justice was not swift and sure. Vengeance was swift and sure. Anybody who crossed him, or in any way he perceived as insulting him, is cut down. And then think of the poor Jewish woman. Her husband has been murdered, and the same day Muhammad sleeps with her. What do you call someone who does that? So I'm saying to you, that the missing thing that you don't get from Republicans or Democrats and you don't get from the news media is this. Look at Christ Jesus and look at Mohammed. And there is a world of difference. And I implore you to turn to Christ. My Christ, my Savior, loves you. He left the glory of heaven for you because He loved you, because He put your needs and welfare above His own. He left the glory of heaven that you would never taste the fires of hell. He did everything that you need. Won't you come to Him? Won't you come to Him? And dear ones, if you're a Christian, Don't get caught up in the polarizing demonic divisions of modern America, where political parties and others are beating horses for their own purposes, trying to fan the flames of hatred and division in our nation. Reach out in love. Don't defend what other people have done in the name of Christ. Defend Christ! Tell people who Jesus is. Cause people to look at the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. Christ and Christ alone is worthy of your worship. And without Christ, if you're a Baptist, you're going to hell. If you're a Presbyterian, you're going to hell. If you're a Catholic, you're going to hell. If you're a Muslim, you're going to hell. Your only hope and my only hope is Jesus Christ. You're not good enough to go to heaven, but Christ was good enough in your place. He died for your sins. That's all I have to commend to you. Christ is my only message. Christ is my only hope. Not Western civilization. Not the United States. Not the crusaders. Not the lynch mobs. Christ. Look to Him. I commend Him to you. I am a flawed man. as every single person here is, as all of our characters in history, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, all have flaws. There's no hope for any man or any woman in history but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And no matter what you've done, He will receive you. May we pray. Lord, we live in a world of lies and misrepresentation. We live in a world where presidents Tell us the truth, but leave out the most critical truth. We live in a world where our news media not only leaves out the critical truth, but often spins yarns, as we've seen this week. Lord, where shall we look? Your Word alone is truth. Your Word alone is reliable. But grant us, O God, as we take that Word, defend that Word, proclaim that Word, never to do so, with a view to our own self-justification and our own righteousness, but only with the alien righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope in life and death. For Jesus' sake, if you're here today and you're not sure that you know the Lord Jesus Christ, I'd love to share with you, remember again, Christians are no better than Muslims. But Christ, is the eternal Son of God, without fault, without blemish, and Muhammad was a very flawed and at times a very vengeful, lustful man. Come to Jesus.