Let's turn to 1 John, 1 John chapter 4. The verses 1 and through to 6 we'll read this evening. We welcome you. Thank you for joining. Good to see a goodly number here this evening. Thank you on this bank holiday or whatever it is. I don't know what it is. Some of you will be off, some of you will not be off. Well, we're glad that you're here in the house of God. 1 John or 1 John chapter 4. And as I said, we'll read the first six verses off the chapter and then we'll come to the Word of God this evening. The Word of God says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Amen and as I've said we'll end our reading at the end of the verse number six. In these verses that we have read together From 1 John chapter 4, the Apostle Paul comes to warn his readership, or the Apostle John comes to warn his readership, that they were not to believe every spirit. In other words, they were not to take at face value every speaker who claimed to be speaking by the Spirit of God. But rather, they were to try the spirits, whether they were of God, because many false prophets, John said, are gone out into the world. The touchstone, the benchmark, the standard by which we are to try the doctrines and the teachings of such individuals is the Word of God. Whatever agrees with the Word of God must be received by us, and whatever is not of the word of god and does not find itself in the word of god must be rejected now john he reminds his readership that already even at this point false prophets had gone out into the world they had gone out into the world to propagate a false gospel. This was only but evidence of what Jesus Christ said would happen prior to his return in Matthew chapter 24. We read in that chapter that Christ warned his disciples that many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. He would later on say in that chapter, in the verse 24, of Matthew 24, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. One such false prophet that was to arise some 600 years after Christ's warning was the prophet Mohammed, who is said to be the last prophet of Allah the god of islam and so tonight i want us to look at this false religious movement the religious movement of islam and i want to do that over not only tonight but next week because it is such a large subject matter i want to focus on two particular issues this evening i want us to think about the background to islam and then i want us to consider a number of its beliefs and then we'll go and think about the practices of Islam next week and then we'll close with regard to the battle that rages between the ideology of this false religion and the truth of the gospel. Now, the reason why I want us to look at Islam tonight is because in the past, the battle raged between the true church and the Roman Catholic Church with its false teaching. And that battle still rages today. Presently, the battle rages between the true church and secularism, atheism, agnosticism and apostasy. But in the future, as Islam increases its reach into the world, I believe that the battle will be between the true church and the adherence of this false religion. And therefore, we need to know who and what we are dealing with. Now, I must admit, that with all the gifts and the abilities that God has given me, speaking Arabic is not one such ability. And so how I pronounce certain words tonight will probably not be how it is pronounced in Arabic, but I'll try my best and I trust that the Lord will help us through. So let's look a little bit about then the background of Islam and its founder Now as of 2022, this year, over 1.9 billion people, that's 24.7% of the world's entire population, are Muslim. It is a population that is growing at a rate of 3% every year. Every year there is a 3% rise in the number of adherents to Islam. And like many European countries, the United Kingdom has a significant Muslim population living within its borders. With the number of Muslims in Europe predicted to increase significantly in the near future, the UK's share of the Muslim population could rise to something like 17.2 million people by 2050. Today, the estimate Muslim population in the United Kingdom is approximately 4.13 million souls. But how did this false religious movement commence? How did Islam begin? Well, as with many false religious systems, there was a divergence from the truth of the word. And that came through a man called Muhammad. Now, Muhammad was born in a city called Mecca in Arabia around 570 AD. He was born to a Kurdish tribe who were the guardians of the Kaaba. Now the Kaaba was an idol temple that was filled with 360 images that represented the various tribal deities worshipped by anyone who might be passing through Mecca in one of the large commercial caravans. was recognized as the chief of the idols in the Kaaba. It had been officially the god of Muhammad's tribe for centuries before he was born. Now Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. Just the Arabic word for God. Now after his marriage, Muhammad meditated the caves of mecca and as he did so he claimed that he had a visit from an angel how often that happens in false religious movements angels seem to appear to these individuals well he believed or he said that he had been visited and was visited by the angel gabriel and that visitation Occurred over a 23 year period he received during those years supposedly supernatural revelations from God a Muhammad he then told others these revelations and they wrote them down and they compiled those writings into a book and you know the name of that book the Quran and The quran it is the muslims holy or as they term it their noble book now in those revelations three new ideas Appeared the first idea was that allah was not merely the chief god in the kabbah But the only god anywhere Allah Was the only god? Anywhere not jehovah but allah The second revelation or the second new idea was that Muhammad was Allah's exclusive prophet. He was the spokesman for Allah. And then thirdly, that the whole world must be brought into submission to Allah. His creed was, there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. Now the word Islam really means submission, submission. A true Muslim, then, is one who has surrendered himself or submitted himself to the will of the one true God Allah. Now this new doctrine that Allah was the only God and that Muhammad was exclusively his prophet was first opposed by Muhammad's fellow Meccans. So those who lived in the city of Mecca rejected Muhammad's claims that he was God or Allah's exclusive prophet. And as a result, because he found no traction for his doctrine, his teaching, and his revelations, In Mecca, he decided to flee from Mecca. You see, these people thought it wouldn't be a good idea to do away with all of these 359 other gods. He needed to keep all these traitors happy, and so they thought it would damage their business. So they didn't think it would be good to exclusively place on Allah the claim that he alone was God. And so, Muhammad fled. the city of Mecca in AD 622. And he went to a city called Medina, some 250 miles north of Mecca. Now that event is known as the Hurrah. It's known as the migration. It's very important in Islam because it is then, it is at that date that Muslims, they correlate their calendar. They don't use what we use. With regard to our calendar the islamic calendar is a different calendar and so they did it back the beginning to this flight that muhammad took from Mecca to to Medina. Now whenever he was in Medina, Muhammad's teachings gained great traction and he gained great power as an individual. His number of followers grew and so eight years later, A.D. 30, Muhammad returns to Mecca and he fights against the city by sword and he conquers the city and he now makes that city the city of Mecca, the center of the new religion. And so AD 32, the year of the Prophet's death, the movement had not only captured and reached and retaken Mecca, but the entire Arabian Peninsula had been conquered by Muhammad and his followers. Now today there are two branches to Islam. Muslims are split into two main branches. You have the Sunni Muslims and you have the Shia Muslims. Now the Sunni Muslims would be what are known as the traditionalists. The Shias are more vocal and most certainly more militant. Now the majority of Muslims are Sunnis. estimates around about 85 to 90 percent of all Muslims are Sunni Muslims. Now the split occurred in Islam with regard to a dispute just after the death of Muhammad over who it should be that should lead now the Muslim community. The Sunnis asserted that although Muhammad never appointed a successor, Abu Bakr, a close companion of Muhammad, was to be elected as the ruler of the Muslim community. But the Shias didn't believe that. They believed that Muhammad had explicitly named his cousin and his son-in-law, Ali, to be his successor, and that the Muslim leadership belonged to him, who had been determined by a divine order. So the Sunnis, they honor Ali, but they do not venerate him. The Shias do venerate their inams, or those individuals or teachers, believing that those men, they are endowed with infallibility as they interpret the Quran. And so in many ways, they look upon their teachers as the Roman Catholic looks upon the Pope as one who is infallible. So that's just a little background that we have with regard to how it really sprang up in the early 7th century under the leadership of Muhammad. But let's think a little bit about the beliefs of Islam. Now believe it or not, Christians and Muslims have common beliefs. We both agree that there is one God, who created the universe, and who is sovereign in the lives of men. We agree that God is the source of justice and the source of morality. We agree that God's ultimate justice is dispensed via life after death, either in heaven or in hell. On these areas, we agree. However, upon many areas, we do not agree. And the points of disagreement touch on every important doctrine that we have within the Word of God. In fact, the disagreements are so great, so severe, that they are irreconcilable. They cannot be reconciled. Though beliefs of Muslims worldwide are about as diverse as those among Christians, there are six basic articles of faith that are common to nearly every Muslim. And I want to give them to you before we get to prayer. First of all, their first basic article of faith is that there is one God and His name is Allah. There is one God and His name is Allah. To the Muslim, God is unknown. He is an unknown entity. He is the creator, the true God. He's omnipresent. He's merciful. The Muslim has 99 names for God. They call Him the Pure One, the Creator, the Judge, the Just, the Watchful One, the All-Powerful, the Forgiver, names that are attributed to Jehovah. But He has never given the name Father. Father. He is not described as Father. Our Father, who art in heaven. We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We know God as our Father. We are His children. They do not know Him as Father. Islam does not believe that God is a triune being. They do not believe Him as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but rather They believe in the absolute oneness of Allah, and they believe it to be the greatest sin to associate any partner with Him. He exclusively is God. No such thing as others within a Godhead. They don't believe that to be so. How do we answer that objection? Well, we know what it says in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. Lord our God is one Lord. And so we believe in the oneness of God. And yet we also believe that the Bible ascribes to all three persons within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He ascribes attributes that are exclusively given to deity. And so there are names, There are titles, there are attributes, there are works that belong to deity and yet are ascribed to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And thus, we believe that there is one God and yet three persons within the Godhead, co-substantial, co-equal with one another, Father, Son, and holy spirit trinity in unity unity in trinity the mystery of the trinity you see muslims they teach that christians are polytheistic now that simply means they teach that christians believe in many gods they say you believe in many gods and this is how they equate it One God plus one Son plus one Holy Spirit equals three. One plus one plus one equals three. But Christians are not polytheistic. Christians are monotheistic. We believe one Father times one Son times one Holy Spirit equals one. One times one times one is one if you know your mathematics if you know your arithmetic trust you've been brushing up on it over the last number of weeks you see a muslim says there's no mention of the trinity in the bible the word trinity doesn't appear in the bible that's true but as i've said before neither is the word atheist and yet The very thought, the very truth of atheism is very clearly presented in those words, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And although the word Trinity doesn't appear in Scripture, it is taught throughout the Word of God. You think of the Savior's baptism. Whenever Christ was baptized, we read there in Matthew 3, 16 through to 17. I'll read it for you. And Jesus, there's one of the persons within the Godhead, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God, there's the second person within the Godhead, descending like a dove, and lighting upon him, and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, there's the Father speaking, in whom I am well pleased. Father, Son and Holy Spirit seen together. We think about the baptismal formula given over there at the end of the gospel of Matthew, I believe it is, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. So we have Trinity, we have the truth of Trinity within the word of God and so they believe that there is only one God and that his name is Allah. We believe that there's one God but his name is Jehovah. We believe in Jehovah. The second belief in Islam has to do with angels. Angels are particularly important to the Muslim faith. It was purportedly, as they say, it was the angel Gabriel that purportedly recited the Quran to Muhammad. Islam teaches that every Muslim has two recording angels. Every Muslim has two recording angels assigned to them. Now what do those two angels do? Those two angels are said to record a person's good deeds, and a person's bad deeds. According to Islam, there are four archangels, Gabriel, Michael, Israel, and Azrael. Two angels, Muknar and Nankar, they examine the dead in their graves the night after burial, questioning their souls about their faith and their deeds. 19 angels are said to guard the gates of hell, Eight angels are said to support the throne of God. There is also a fallen angel in the Muslim religion called, and I'll spell it out for you, S-H-A-I-T-A-N, shaitan. Very similar to our fallen angel, satan, satan, satan. Why we believe in angels, We certainly do not venerate them. We certainly do not worship them. We certainly do not give preeminence to them as mere created beings. You'll recall John, over there in the book of the Revelation, he falls down before an angel. However, that angel will respond to John's act of worship over there, Revelation 22 verse 9. The angel said to John, And so the angel deflects the worship that is given to himself and tells John to worship only God. In Colossians 2 verse 18, we read this exhortation. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind. Worship of angels, Muslims involve themselves in the times, is rejected in scripture. With regard to the basis of these various angels guarding the gates of hell, upholding the throne of God, we know nothing of such with regard to the scriptural record. As to the archangels, or to the angels, we know that there is Gabriel and Michael. They are the only two archangels mentioned in Holy Scripture. Lucifer fell. sun of the morning and we well know that and so there is a belief in angels the third belief in islam has to do with scripture now it might surprise you that the quran is not the only holy book in islam islam teaches that at one time there were 104 holy books but only four of those books remain today those books are The Torah. Now, we know what the Torah is. We should do. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. However, Muslims believe that these writings have been corrupted over the years and are therefore no longer reliable. The second book is a book known as Zabar. Z-A-B-U-R. And these are really the Psalms of David. They take those Psalms and they would classify those Psalms, the Psalms of David, as a holy book and they incorporate them into what is known as the Zabar. And then we have the Injil, I-N-J-E-E-L, which is really basically an account of the life and the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, Our fourth lay, can't even count, the Quran. I need to do my additions. The Quran. And really the Quran is Allah's final word. That is the final revelation that is given. Now contained in its 114 surahs or chapters, you have all that is necessary for a Muslim to believe. I was looking at a webpage, answeringislam.org, and it listed 131 internal and 32 external contradictions within the Quran. So even as a piece of literature, it cannot be trusted with regard to historical fact and with regard to contradictions within the book. But we don't reject the Quran merely on the basis that it has contradictions. We reject the Quran because we believe that Jesus Christ gave the final word. He is the final revelation of God to man. Jesus Christ is the final word from God. And God has pronounced a judgment upon those who would dare to add to this revelation of God. You turn there to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22, verses 18 through to 19. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city. And from the things which are written in the book and so all other so-called sacred books and writings Are to be rejected by the child of god because they are in addition To what god has already said within his word and in this revelation This is god's revelation of himself and so the quran falls under this particular curse for there is an addition there is an addition onto these things the things that have been revealed within holy scripture and so they venerate They uphold the Quran as God's final word to mankind. We believe that God's word, the Bible, the scriptures, are God's word to mankind. Islam's fourth belief is with respect to prophets. Muslims believe that Allah has sent 124,000 prophets to mankind. Although only about 25 are mentioned in the Quran, but that's their claim. 124,000 prophets have been sent to mankind. Nine of the principal prophets are Noah, Abraham, David, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Muhammad. Because Muhammad's revelation is considered the greatest of all, he is called the seal of the prophets. He is the seal of the prophets. The Bible, however, teaches, brethren and sisters, that Christ is the prophet of God. He is God's final revelation to man. Hebrews chapter 1 and the verse 1 and 2 tells us, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by Mohammed, doesn't say that, by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he hath made the worlds. These words in Hebrews chapter 1, they ring with finality. That verb there, spoken, half in these last days, spoken, is a verb that is in the aorist tense, and it signifies that the giving of the Old New Testament is a completed and final act, and that there is nothing more to come. That's the very sense and the very tense of the word spoken. God has spoken, and nothing more is going to be said. That's how we can read the very literal translation of the word. The Old Testament forms one body of sacred literature. The New Testament, it gives us the complete canon of scripture. And therefore, there is no ground for a new revelation by a subsequent prophet. Whether that prophet be Mohammed of Islam, whether that prophet be Joseph Smith of Mormonism, whether that prophet be Charles T. Russell of the Jehovah Witness movement, or whether it be any modern day prophet who claims to have been given some new revelation from God. God has spoken. His final word has been declared. And it has been through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet of Jehovah. And thank God we have his declaration in the covers or between the covers of our Bibles even this evening. The fifth belief that Islam has to do with is to do with the end times or the day of judgment. While the Quran doesn't teach that humanity has fallen in the Christian understanding of having a sinful nature, nevertheless, most of humanity is understood to be ignorant and unbelieving. Because humanity has so often turned to idolatry and put away, and away from the worship of the true God, they are in danger of being condemned by Allah on the final day of judgment. And so Islam teaches that the dead will be resurrected at the end of time and judged by Allah when each person's deeds will be weighed on a scale, thus the need for the two recording angels. Those two recording angels will be brought and our deeds will be placed on a balance. Those who are righteous In other words, those who have adhered to the five pillars of Islam, and we'll think about them next week, confession, confessing in prayer, prayer, or confession of faith, prayer, fasting, giving of alms, and pilgrimage, they will be sent to a place called Jannah. It's paradise or heaven, where the unrighteous, those who oppose to Allah and Muhammad, will go to hell and be tortured forever. In Surah 23, verse 104 to 105, this is what it reads. In the day of judgment, they whose balances shall be heavy with good works shall be happy, but they whose balances shall be light are those who shall lose their souls and shall remain in hell forever. And so, the Muslim faith or Islam is all about works. Good works versus bad work. Whichever balances out, whichever is the heaviest, determines a person's destiny. You see, really, whenever you strip back all false religion, it comes down to that, man's work, man's ability to appease God, man's ability to do good. Whereas with regard to Christianity, it's really nothing to do with our works, with respect to our getting into heaven, but it's all based upon the work of Jesus Christ, a finished work, a satisfactory work. And so that's what it comes down to. The word of God declares, as you know, that heaven is not secured by our good works outweighing our bad works, but rather a person requires a righteousness for heaven, but not a righteousness that we merit by adhering to rules and rituals, but rather a righteousness that is received by faith from Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness, who is Jehovah Zakenu, the Lord, our righteousness. Islam's sixth belief has to do with predestination or predetermination. Muslims believe in qadar or qadaya. These Arabic words signify Allah's timeless knowledge and power to execute his plans. Islamic determinism goes far beyond the biblical doctrine that God is ultimately sovereign over all, that he's working all things together for good. But instead, Islamic predestination amounts to a kind of fatalistic determinationism, where everything that occurs, both good and evil, is thought to come directly from the hand of Allah. These are the six core beliefs of Islam. And as you'll note, each of them and each of those beliefs, they are mentioned in the word of God. However, Islam looks at these beliefs through the lens of the Quran and not through the lens of the word of God. We believe in angels. We believe in scripture. We believe in predestination. We believe that there's one God. We believe in these certain things. And we believe them as they are found in the word of God. And so, brethren and sisters, it all comes back to a matter that I began this study with. It all comes back to the matter of authority. Authority. authoritative standard. What authoritative standard do we take when we come to understand what is truth and what is error? And brethren and sisters, the question is, do we take the Word of God or do we take the Word of Mohammed as our authoritative standard? Well, I would suggest to you that the word of God is the standard by which we must go to whenever we are on a quest for the truth. Jesus said, thy word is truth. Thy word is truth. And so that means that we must then come and take every doctrine and every belief the touchstone, the standard, the benchmark of his word. And we must believe what we find that is written, find written therein. This is what we believe. This is our belief. What saith the scriptures? And that's where I need to end this evening. But God willing, in the will of God next week, we'll think about those five pillars of Islam And we'll think about that, and then we'll think about the battle, where the battle rages. And you'll not be surprised where it rages, because with every false religion, it always rages. It always is fought on this particular doctrine. You'll have to come back next week to think with us, in the will of God, of what that particular doctrine is. May the Lord bless our studies together, and may God give us understanding in these matters. Amen. Let's stand for a word of prayer just to change our position at this time. O God, our loving Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast brought the truth to these souls of ours. You shall know the truth, Jesus said, and the truth shall set you free. Lord, we thank Thee that we have received the truth of God, and we have found it to be so. There's something of truth that rings with it. It witnesses with the spirit of truth as we read the word and we receive it as the truth of God. We think of those who have found themselves deluded, brought under, oh God, the heel of the oppressor. Lord, we recognize that Islam It desires to bring all the world into submission under its heel. And yet, dear Father, it is a tyrannical heel, a heel of oppression. And yet we thank Thee, dear Father, that whenever we're brought under the submission and under the control of Christ, Oh, there's freedom, glorious freedom, not freedom to do what we want, but freedom within the bounds of Scripture. And surely that is freedom indeed. Oh God, open the eyes of those, oh God, who have found themselves believing the lie of the devil and believing the lies of false prophets. And grant, dear God, the truth of God to spread into these nations. who find themselves under Islamic reign. Lord, answer prayer and grant, dear God, the sun of righteousness to arise. Oh, we thank thee, Lord, that we don't have a crescent moon as Islam has. Ha, we have got the sun, the sun of righteousness. And whenever he arises, the moon is eclipsed and the moon disappears. Oh, that God would arise and scatter the enemy. We offer prayer in and through our Savior's precious name. Amen.