Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Romans. The book of Romans, chapter number one. And we're going to eventually turn to maybe a couple other passages in a moment, but we'll start with Romans chapter number one. And we're going to begin reading in verse number 16. Romans chapter one and verse number 16. Bible says in verse 16 of Romans 1, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and to salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Let's bow our heads, if we would, as we begin with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this morning. We thank you for this opportunity we have to come to you and to be able to look into the word of God and we can see, Lord, perhaps, Lord, exactly what you have for us to receive this morning. I pray that you would please help us, open our hearts, and Lord, fill me with your spirit, and I pray, Lord, that we would learn what you have us to learn from this passage. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. If any of us have studied the book of Romans for any length of time as Christians, I think probably out of many other books of the Bible, no doubt the book of John is one of the first that we tell many young Christians who are newly saved to start reading because of the simplicity of the book, and of course covers the life of Christ and his ministry on earth. It's a great place to start, there's several epistles that are certainly good books to start and read from to begin, but the Book of Romans I think ought to be at some point really early on the Christians' most well-versed, familiarized, memorized portion of Scripture, simply because of its topic and what it deals with. And it's been said by many others who have studied the Book of Romans in times past that the Book of Romans is the most profound book in existence, book of the Bible. It has been called the cathedral of the Christian faith. Martin Luther said it is the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest of the Gospel. The theme of Romans, of course, is God's salvation for sinners, or God's righteousness, and Paul is, of course, writing this epistle. It is very important to note as well, it is the first letter written after you come to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Gospel records, and then you have the book of Acts, which is a historical book, and then you have this book of Romans, which begins with us with the first letter, especially written from Paul. And Paul wants to advise Christians in Rome, he's writing to the Church of Rome, and although Paul had never been to Rome yet himself, this is believed to have been written probably from Corinth during the year AD 56, which is right about the time of Paul's third missionary journey, when he'd be about in Corinth. And he wrote this letter to them to encourage them, reminding them of what they have in Christ as Christians, but also to hopefully have a desire to meet with them. If we see in verse number 10 of chapter one, making a request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you. So he wanted to come and see them. Now Rome was a central hub of the world at that time. A lot of things going on in Rome and many people that Paul had witnessed to and won to Christ, they had traveled no doubt back, many of them back to Rome, and that church really started from Paul but kind of culminated from many Christians that are in that city of Rome. And, of course, the condition of Rome was a very wicked place. And there was other provinces of Rome that Paul had been in. Paul had met soldiers of Rome. He had met people from there. And we believe that that church being made up that he's writing to is made up of those that he won to Christ and those that won others and gathered there. And, of course, there was probably no church official building, but they met in homes. So Paul is writing this book of Romans. And it's an important book, and every Christian, I believe, ought to familiarize, memorize, and study the Book of Romans. It'll greatly help us and encourage us in the Christian life. The Book of Romans is where we get, of course, our familiar The Romans Road, how we can witness to someone and share with them what Christ has done for us. It's an excellent way to be able to present the Gospel to someone. It's very clear, it's precise. And if we were to look into Romans, we'd see that many believe that Romans 1, verses 16 and 17 are, in fact, the key verses to the entire book of Romans. And we'll read those really quickly again. In Romans 1, 16, it says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, that word power meaning the dynamite, we get dynamite, the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. The Christian life, of course, is a life lived by faith. And he says here, states in this book, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This actually picks up, if you study this first chapter, Paul is what's known as the three I am's of Paul. You have verse 14 says, I am debtor, both to the Greeks and the barbarians. Verse 15, so as much as is in me, I am, it says, ready to preach the gospel. And then verse 16, it comes to the third one, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And this is Paul's testimony, especially to not only the church at Rome, but also to others, that he knew what God had called him to do, and he did it without apology. knowing what his purpose was and did it unashamedly. And we have here in this verse, it's a very unique, very powerful verse, really the state of the elect of God and the free will of man. You have the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Salvation is for everyone. It is for whosoever will. But it is only applicable to those who accept the free gift of salvation. It does not do anyone benefit if they do not accept it. And so hopefully you're here this morning and you've accepted Christ as your Savior and you have part in that truth and can glory the Lord in it. And in verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The Christian life is to be lived that of faith, from faith to faith. I heard one commentator put it, you know, when he was born long ago, he was raised by the doctor and slapped on his backside and he breathed his first breath life on this earth and ever since then he has been moved from place to place as he grown up and he went to school and then he got married from place to place breathing air to air to air that's his life and as a Christian when we're born we're born by grace through faith we live from faith to faith to faith and that this is what this verse is speaking of as it is written the just shall live by faith it is a faith lived life and And the most wonderful thing, if you're here this morning and you've accepted Christ, and this is something we all know and understand, but Christianity is unique. It is special. It is, of course, truth as we know it from the Word of God, but if you look at the state of the world, the world is not all partaking in what is unique. They are lost. and they are without Christ. They are separated from God. And having the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the life of a believer, He changed us. He makes us new again. He has quickened our spirit, the Bible says. We are new creatures in Christ. We sang this song this morning, since I have been redeemed. And it's a testimony of what Christ has worked in my life, and He has worked in your life. I like what it says in 1 Corinthians when he's writing to the Church of Corinth, Paul, and he states, "...such as were some of you," mentions these people that have come to know Christ as their Savior, "...and God has come to you, wherever you were, whatever state of life you were in, whatever condition you were in, and He was able to save your soul. Isn't that wonderful? And no matter who you are, or where you've been, or what you've done, or what the condition of your life may be, you're not too far gone for God to save. Amen? And so we have this wonderful truth that Paul is introducing this book, this epistle in, and he's trying to encourage them, and he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation, it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Of course, he's not listing the Jew first and also to the Greek in terms of superiority or anything that's more important, but simply how the gospel came. It came to the Jew first and then went to the Gentiles. It was some time before Peter realized this. And then, of course, Paul was called to the Gentiles, as Peter was called to the Jews. That's where God had called him. And as his pattern was, Paul would go to the synagogues first. He would present the gospel, and then when he was done there, he would then present it to the Gentiles. So, we have this wonderful truth. Christianity is in fact unique. If we were to look at other religions of the world, we would learn many things, but most importantly we would learn that it's not like Christianity. It's different. If we were just to look at the six largest religions in the world, six largest non-Christian religions, roughly about two billion people claim to be some part of Christianity by certain surveys taken, and of course I would take that with a large grain of salt. But those that would profess Christendom, which would not be all true Bible believers, we would understand. As of 2020, these statistics are roughly accurate, the number one religion in the world is still that of Islam, which is about roughly 1.8 billion followers, 23% of the world's population. You have that of Hinduism, which has about 1.1 billion followers in the world, 14%. The fourth would be secularism or non-religious type affiliation. Those would say, I have no religion, but in a sense they do have a religion, it's that of secularism or humanism, and it could involve many other different offshoots of that. That's about one billion followers, and that one is growing quite rapidly. Now it's true, Islam is one of the fastest non-religious Christian religions growing in the world today, but humanism is catching up. It's quite not far behind secularism, humanism, non-religious. You have that of Buddhism, which has about 535 million followers, about 7%, and then you have the followers of Confucianism, which is about 394 million followers. There are some other major world religions. We could spend all day talking about how many there are. There's that of animism, animism and animistic tendencies, people that believe in spirits that indwell on every living thing, which of course involve a lot of the Native American or Indian or slash Aboriginal tribes. And you have that of Taoism. You have others. such as those, you have Judaism itself, any of those, different world religions, and then different offshoots of each one of those religions. And if you ever take time and study different religions of the world, you may come out of a book and shake your head and kind of need time to rest, because it's not like reading the Bible, you know? You don't come away encouraged or, you know, uplifted. But yet, almost really, you can come away confused. Because there's so many details of so many man-made come up, men that came up with ideas about what they believe to be true about God, what they believe to be true about righteousness, what they believe to be true about good works, how they believe salvation is attained, and what scriptures they adhere to. And if we were just to kind of do a little bit of a comparison by way of introduction and understanding the fact that Christianity is indeed unique. If we looked at something like animism, which is not one of the largest, but it is large, and I think the danger in animism, if we understand it, it of course has its basic principle in the fact of believing that everything has an indwelling soul. So if you have rocks, trees, birds, animals of any kind, you believe that they would have some deity perhaps in them and you worship that deity. And you have your main principle of animism which is basically the fear of those evil spirits. So you live your life according to not wanting to offend or to be careful of offending any spirits around you. Now the danger in this is we actually can get a little bit of this if we're not careful creeped into our Christian life. You say, well, how is that possible, Brother McKeever? Well, the truth is, is how many times have you ever done something, and there were something that occurred that was negative in your life, something downward trodden, and you're thinking, boy, this is not good. And then the first thing you think of is, what did I do? How do I deserve this? What consequence am I paying? What do I need to do to make it right? And that very mindset, in fact, is something that thrives for animism, and the fact that you want to find out what you've done wrong to make it right. But the truth of the matter is, the Christian does not live his life in fear of any spirits. We just trust the Lord. And we live our life to please the Lord, and in doing so, God has a perfect plan for everything. And because God has a perfect plan for everything, we live our life, we live our Christian life, and God allows things to come into our life, but we can know and understand and have peace and trust God that He knows exactly what we're doing and exactly what we're going through. And because of that, we can trust God and in the Christian life live by faith and not be worried about our circumstances, but yet just look to Jesus. But you see that we can have a tendency sometimes to drift, and that's why I think this is kind of a dangerous religious tendency. If you think of the book of Job, his friends, what is it they told him he was suffering because of? is because of something he had done wrong. But yet, in fact, it was not because of anything he had done wrong, per se. It was just God allowing Satan to touch him. And yet, we know the story of Job. So you have that of animism, and then you live your life in fear, and it's very tempting to fall into that sort of belief and idea, because it can be very satisfying when you try to live life day by day, trying to understand and trying to appease spirits, making sure you don't offend anybody, and they can probably live kind of moral lifestyles. But the truth of the matter is, it's an empty lifestyle, because it doesn't have the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have a religion such as something like Hinduism, probably one of the most confusing religions you'll ever study. Hinduism, in a summarization, is based on the law of karma. Anybody ever heard of karma? Okay. From good comes good, and from evil comes evil. And every person that is born into a Hinduistic background is born into what's known as the caste system. And there's typically about four levels or five levels of the caste system, and I won't give you the complicated names of those, but in a sense you have the top of that caste system, which is the holy, most holy people. You have the next one, which is rulers and warriors, and you have below that kind of more of the common folk, and below that the even more so, the craftsmen and then the common folk below that. So you say, well, man, that sounds really detailed. And then as you're born in life, you're born into one of those parts of that caste system. And What it identifies you with is when you live life and you want your karma to be good, and you live life well, and you want to achieve going up that ladder of that caste system, so in your next life you want to be born into a higher part. So as you climb that rung, or what's called a samsara, you hopefully one day achieve enlightenment, or what they call state of nirvana, and you'll now be free from that dependency on being reborn into a caste system, or what we call reincarnation, what they call reincarnation. But it can be a complicated lifestyle. There is, of course, what they call the state of Brahman, which is when you reach nirvana. And that state of Brahman is separated into two parts, and then the lower part is separated into three aspects of what's called the Trimurti, or their trinity, basically, of Shiva, Vishnu, and all this complicated stuff. And you think, man, how did we get to this point? Well, Hinduism started about 1500 BC, roughly, where history kind of tells us. If you kind of equate that to the Bible time, that's about the time of Moses. being born, and born about 1560, something like that, and then shortly after that, so about the time that Israel is going to be freed from Egypt, going through all those things, that's about the time over east you have this religion of Hinduism beginning. So it's pretty old, probably one of the oldest religions other than true Bible-believing Christianity. And you have this religion forming and Satan working on the scene outside of what God's doing with Israel, and you have Hinduism started. And it began in homes with people just transferring things from others to live a way of life, and it develops over time like a snowball effect, and nowadays we have this complicated religion to follow. And they have a scripture that's known as, it's separated into two parts. You have that of which is known as the Vedas, and you have that of another section. It's separated into many more parts we won't talk about. Man, it sounds so complicated. I always tell our students when we cover world religions in the college that after Hinduism and understanding how they believe what they believe, it helps us understand so we can speak to them and understand perhaps terminologies and things they talk about. But man, all of them, when they're done, they take the test, they think, That's a lot of stuff. But it's all man-made. It's all brought up and thought of. That's what man comes up with when you don't have the Lord Jesus Christ. And we could talk about others. We could talk about Islam and its founding and where it comes from. We could talk about Buddhism, which came out of Hinduism, and finding the Four Noble Truths and all those details. But when you study any of those other religions, which, by the way, I think it's good to study those when you speak to anyone else, if you've ever taken time to witness to anybody else, everybody else believes something else, correct? And so, understanding more of how they believe what they believe, you can understand that when you're talking to someone, you're not just talking to someone who's a thing of information, and you're just gonna spout out information, and then hopefully they'll believe your information. When you witness and speak to people, you speak to people. And people believe things. And when people believe things, you're going to be sharing with them what it is that you believe. And when you understand what they believe, it can be very helpful. You can understand perhaps mentioning this particular aspect of the doctrine of Scripture is maybe not the best way to reach them. Maybe the Holy Spirit will give you another avenue by which to be able to understand. If you speak to a Muslim, you understand the fact in their doctrine of God, monotheism, strict monotheism, which is we believe in monotheistic, we believe God, one God, none other, but we believe in the Trinity, God the Son, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. They do not believe in the Trinity. They believe, in fact, it's quite blasphemous to believe in something like the Trinity. Because they think that God is God. There's none other. He doesn't have a son. Not equal with Him. Not the Holy Spirit. It's just God. So, you understand things like that, and it helps you to witness, and it helps you to speak to those who believe other things. So, all this to say, simply put, Christianity is unique. And I'm thankful for it being unique. And Christianity, there are those in modern philosophy and ideas, all these different religions, knowing how do you know which one is right? How can you truly discover and understand and study and find what is the truth? One of the most profound things, we sang about it already this morning, and we understand it, is that we did not find God. God finds us. And I want to give you this morning some things quickly, but when we think about this matter of the modern philosophy and the idea of the world and the way they view things, and I guarantee I've witnessed to many people who've thought this, it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you're sincere in what you believe. How many of you have ever heard that before? A few of you, okay. I've heard it many times. I was speaking to one lady I used to work a secular job with, and she mentioned to me, I invited her to VBS that year, and I invited her kids to come to VBS. We have a great time at VBS. Kids, man, they get the penny offering, and they invite friends, they get candy, they have snacks, they play games, they just have a wonderful time. And she says, well, I want to wait a little bit longer for my child. I want them to decide what it is they want to believe and practice, and that way they feel comfortable and know. That's the way a lot of the world can think. Believe what you want to believe, but don't force your belief on me. And so, in that philosophy and idea, in the fact that as long as a person is sincere, they're okay. But really, nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. To think that sincerity in one's religion will save you is complete lunacy. Years ago, the Georgia Baptist Convention magazine, the Christian Index, made a survey of their young people and found that 40%, this is years ago, probably 20, found that a sincere person, they believe that a sincere person of any religious affiliation will go to heaven. 40%. I'm sure that number has grown by now. Sincerity is no substitute for truth. If you were to think about two very clear examples, If you think about that of navigation, whether it be on a plane or maybe a boat, and the captain of the boat may be as sincere as possible to try and get you to safety, traveling across the ocean. But if he can't determine the right lights, which are lighthouses and non-lighthouses, it could mean your death. He could be as sincere as possible. And if you go to someone like the doctor, No one likes going to the doctor. And you go to the doctor, and you get checked out. And I never understood, you know, they must take a lot of pleasure in different people that they do. You know how they stick the thing in your mouth, and they ask you to just speak for me? You know you can't speak with that in your mouth, so you look like an idiot. You know, you're just kind of gibberish. And I know there's people out in the hallway probably laughing at you, but they still do it. and they check you. And imagine that doctor coming in and saying, all right, I have something for you to take. And he has a shot. You say, all right, doc, what is it? He says, I don't know. I just grabbed something off the shelf. Whoa, now. What is it you're going to give me? And the doc says, well, whatever's on the shelf. I'm sure it'll be OK. I sincerely want to help you. Well, you'd probably say, no way, not me. Not going to happen. Why? Because as sincere as the doctor may be, whatever he put in that vial, it may not be for you. It may not help you. It could, in fact, make you sick. So, sincerity is not in itself something that can save you. Can a sincere atheist be saved? Can a sincere cannibal be saved? Can a sincere religious man of any affiliation be saved? The truth of the matter is what the Bible teaches. The Bible says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That's the Bible. And I want to give you quickly four realities of Christianity not found in other religions. And I think these things will help encourage us and help us understand truth. So whenever you speak to someone who doesn't believe what you believe, and you believe the Bible, these four realities can be stuck in your mind of understanding of the fact that this is not what they believe. Four realities not found in other religions. Number one, Christianity is the only faith with a resurrection. Christianity is the only faith with a resurrection. Amen? We sang about the resurrection already this morning. We call Sunday, the first day of the week, as Resurrection Day. Every Sunday is Resurrection Day. No other religion can claim that of resurrection from the dead. All those religions I've already mentioned Out of Islam, there is no prophet. One of their doctrines is not only the doctrine of God, but the doctrine of prophets, believing that there has been well over 100,000 prophets over time that have come to witness from the God Allah, and witnessed to us. And Jesus, of course, they believe is part and among those great prophets. And there was always a prophet specific to that time. But Muhammad was the greatest of all prophets. But Muhammad never rose from the dead. In fact, according to them, Allah never rose from the dead. God would never allow his prophets to be crucified in such a way, so they teach that Judas Iscariot was crucified in his place, which is not the only religion that believes that. You have that of what's known as the Buddha, that of Buddhism. Siddhartha Gautama is his name in real life, and what he became known as as he achieved enlightenment, as he so speaks. Siddhartha Gautama never, ever died and rose again from the grave. Confucius never died for anyone's sins and rose from the grave. Brahma, Shiva, or Vishnu from Hinduism never died for anyone and rose from the grave. They certainly did not save anyone, and they certainly did not rise again. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection." Philippians 3 chapter verse 10. If you would, turn over real quickly to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. Very familiar passage of scripture, also known as the resurrection chapter of the Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, look at verse number 1. We'll read a few verses here. It says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. which I have preached unto you, this is Paul speaking, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I received, how that Christ died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. I like to note when he mentions here according to the Scriptures, according to the Scriptures. In verse 5, And when he was seen of Cephas, and then of the twelve, after that he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then all of the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was in me. Continuing verse 11, Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. Now if Christ be preached, that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witness of God, because we have testified of God, that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not, for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Verse 20 says, But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. You see, Christ is risen. He is not dead. He is alive. And you see, it was necessary for Christ to die on the cross for our sins. Without it, we would have no remission of sins. But without Him rising again, we would have no life after death. We would have no everlasting life. You see, He conquered death. And He had to conquer death to give us life. And praise God, He did it. Once for all, the Bible says. You see, as Christians, we can sing songs like, Christ arose. He arose victorious over death's domain. Christ the Lord is risen today, and we sing songs like, He lives, He lives. Christ Jesus lives in my heart. Christianity is unique. No other religion teaches anything about a resurrection. whatever Hindu you speak to, whatever Buddhist you speak to, whatever Muslim you speak to, whatever Confucius follower you speak to, whatever animistic person you speak to, whatever humanistic person you speak to, no one teaches that of someone rising again from the dead. Number two, not only is Christianity the only faith of the resurrection, but number two, Christianity is the only faith with an indwelling God. Only faith with an indwelling God. You see, no one can live the Christian life apart from God. It's God who lives through us. And Christ sends us, God sends us the Holy Spirit to live within us. And when we get saved, we receive the Holy Spirit. We receive all of the Holy Spirit. When you receive Christ as your Savior, you receive the same amount of the Holy Spirit that I received. And that's all of it. So when we allow Christ to work in our lives and use us, He accomplishes great things, things that we know us not. It's pretty amazing to live the Christian life. The song I just mentioned, He lives, He lives. We sing about our risen Savior. It says, I serve a risen Savior. He's in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever man may say. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him, He's always near. He lives. He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives. He lives. Salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? What are the next words? He lives within my heart. There is no other religion that teaches that God comes to live within you. There's other religions that teach if you work hard enough and you do hard enough and you try hard enough and you do, you successfully outweigh your good deeds over your bad, which by the way is really the predominant of all other religions. The only other way of salvation is by way of good works. And you do enough of that, then maybe perhaps you'll achieve what is entrance into what they would consider to be heaven. Nirvana, heaven, all those things. But yet, the truth remains is it's not about what we do, it's about what Christ has already done. And we ought to be thankful of what Christ has done for us on the cross. And it's because He came to live within us that we have the Holy Spirit helping us live that Christian life. 1 John 5, 11 through 12 says, and this is the record that God hath given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son, He hath made, or excuse me, and that hath the Son hath life, and He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. John 1.12, but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Romans 8.9, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. 1 John 4.13, hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit living within us, to live the Christian life, to give us the power of things that we cannot do on our own, to accomplish things we cannot accomplish on our own, and there is no other religion that teaches such things. Aren't you thankful for Christianity? Aren't you thankful for having the Holy Spirit living within us? To allow us to do things for God that we could not do on our own? Other religions have no indwelling God. Muhammad doesn't come to live within your life. Siddhartha Gautama doesn't come to live within your life. Confucius doesn't come to live within your life, but Jesus Christ does. Galatians 2.20 says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. See, when Christ comes to live within our hearts, He renovates us. He changes everything about you. I think it's pretty interesting if you go and look to buy a house or you go to find an apartment. I remember years ago when we were looking at one of our first apartments, my wife and I, and you walked into a place and it was being occupied, but you're still looking at it, you know, while it's being lived in. And of course, in your mind immediately, you know, I'm kind of, I'm not really a visionary person, you know, I kind of think once we get it cleared out, we'll make it our own. But my wife's already, you know, she's got things. Oh, I'm going to do something with this. I'm going to make this change. And she's already got the whole thing's planned out. She knows exactly how she's going to change everything. I'm going to brighten this room up. I'm going to change this. I'm going to put stuff in here." And she's got it all made. It's amazing how one space can be completely changed and occupied by someone else entirely. Pretty interesting. You walk into the house one day, owned by someone. You walk into it a year later, owned by someone else. It looks different. But yet, it's the same place. And people add on to things and take things away. When Christ comes to live within our life, things change. And it's amazing because it's the same housing. You know, you might look better, but it's still the same place. I'm still Bobby McKeever, but my spirit has been made alive. I've been changed. Life is different. Things are different now. And God does that to a person's life. There is not one other leader of any other religious organization where they change someone's life. They may try, they may work, they say, I'm changing, they try hard, and they may accomplish some things. See, God has made us remarkable people, but it's only through God that we have the victory. Christianity is not only just a faith that is unique because of our indwelling God, but it's also unique because God seeks after man. God seeks after man. I already alluded to this earlier, but it's a pretty amazing thought. All other religions teach the fact that you have to work hard to achieve what you have to achieve in order to come to a place where you can know and understand who their God is. If you're a Hindu and you try to achieve your life on this wheel of life, the samsara they call it, and you achieve life and karma is good, and you're reborn into a life that eventually gets you higher, and if you have bad karma, then you come down that ladder. I mean, you live life as a recycle of rebirths all the time. Man, I'd be tired. And they live life, and finally, and they don't know whether, oh, well I'm born into this part of the caste system, so I must have had a good life last time. Or I'm born into this part, I must have had a bad life. And they're all this time trying to achieve a place, they're just wanting liberation, they want to be free! And yet, they're trying to get closer to what they would consider to be that of deity or close. They're searching, they're finding. You have someone who's a follower of Islam, a Muslim, and they're trying to do what they do to achieve and hopefully appease and to hopefully please God or Allah and say, hopefully He'll bid me welcome. Everything anyone does is a works-based salvation, and they try to do all they can. But as a Christian, we serve God because of everything He's done for us, and we just want to live our lives because He's already been there to save us. And it's an amazing thought when you think about it. When someone is unsaved, the Bible tells us this is the truth in Revelation. He's standing at the door and knocking, and whosoever will, you know, bid me enter. And He's always there. And when you think of someone who's searching and finding, and the people of the world are looking for the right answers and everything, Jesus is always right there saying, would you come in? You see, as Christians, we're not trying to help them a long life to try and find where is God. You see, God is already there. We're trying to say, here is Jesus. Come to Him. Come to Him. He wants you. He's right here. He's saying, come unto Me. And we as Christians will show them the way. It's a different aspect. It's an entirely different aspect of the way Christ is seeking after man. Christianity is God seeking man, but other religions, it's man seeking God. You are saved because He came to you. Luke 19 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Job 11 7, canst thou by searching find out God? Idols and gods cannot take the place of the blood of Christ. Scriptures tell us that through the blood of Christ, men are saved. You see, religion says that through idols and works and the blood of animals, you can achieve a place where you find God, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says you're still lost as you'll ever be. Why? Because God finds you, and He saves you where you are. Aren't you thankful for that? Thirdly, not only is Christianity unique because God seeks after man, but fourthly and lastly, I have, Christianity is the only faith that predicts the future. That predicts the future. No other religion has details of things that will come to pass. And if they do, something perhaps like Islam, if you study any eschatology of Islam, you'll learn and understand the fact that it's really our eschatology from scripture just flipped. And it's not original. And a lot of the Koran comes from a lot of plagiarism and other things from scripture. And of course, they don't believe the Bible to be truth. They believe it to be corrupt. They have the doctrine of holy books, which they believe is that of the old Torah, which includes that of the Psalms, and something called the Gospel of Jesus. But they believe those things are corrupt. And the Koran, of course, when written, compiled by Muhammad, supersedes all those things. And when you use the Bible, what they believe you're using is corrupt information. And so, you know, they predict the future, but it really is based off of what the Bible says. It's just changed. Hinduism doesn't really predict the future, other than telling you what you can do or accomplish once you achieve salvation or whatnot, any of these other major religions. But Christianity is the only faith that predicts the future, and it predicts it accurately. Prophecy is woven in every part of Scripture. If we turn back to Romans chapter 1, we see where it says, well, in 1 Corinthians we talked about according to the Scriptures, according to the Scriptures. He's saying, all these things came to pass that Christ has already prophesied about. He's told you for years this is exactly what He was going to do, and He did it. Can you not see? And we have those promises of God where He showed them what He was going to do, He showed them His plan, they just weren't ready to see it. And we have all these promises and many things that God has already accomplished and done, and all the other things that He's still promised that are going to come to pass have not happened yet, but we can be assured that they will, simply because of the promises that He's already fulfilled. Christianity is the only faith that predicts the future. 2 Peter 1.19 says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. We know what's going to happen to the believer. And we know what happened at the moment of salvation is that we were saved from the penalty of sin and we're being saved from the power of sin, keeps on rescuing us when we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us. And one day he's going to save us from everlasting fire. We are saved by the power of God. We won't take the time, but if you read 2 Timothy 3, verses 1-5, it talks about the end times. It should not surprise the Christian that the last days are here. It should not surprise the Christian that times are getting worse, and that the return of our Savior is closer than ever before. But it's important to understand and know that the Bible teaches that Christ will come again as He came the first time. You see, the uniqueness of Christianity, it's wonderful and refreshing to review these things, and it encourages us and helps us, but the uniqueness of Christianity ought to cause us to praise God for all that He's done in salvation and everlasting life. but it ought to make us weep for those who don't know Him as Savior. The uniqueness of Christianity ought to fill us with comfort and peace and joy, but it ought to fill us with a tenacity to want to tell others so they can also have the peace that God wants to give them. The uniqueness of Christianity ought to fill us with joy knowing we have a home in heaven. When you leave this earth, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, the Bible says, for eternity will be with Him in heaven. It ought to fill us with an urgency to want to tell others of the faith that they can have to keep them from a place called hell. Christianity is a wonderful thing, and I hope you're thankful for it this morning. I hope these main things here that you think about when you witness to someone, you think about, this is how it's unique, and it's superior, but it's because we have been blessed. We want others to also know the truth of what the Bible says, and how they can know for sure they're on their way to heaven. And only the Lord can unveil what the devil has blinded their eyes to see. And hopefully God will help us as Christians to be a witness and to be effective when we know these things and believe them and understand them and try to teach others. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you so much for what you've shared with us.