In his sermon, James Lundquist discusses the challenges Christians face when engaging with Islam, emphasizing the importance of understanding scripture to defend the Christian faith. He highlights the profound differences in beliefs about Jesus, noting that while Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet and messiah, they do not see him as eternal or divine. Lundquist encourages Christians to be equipped with biblical knowledge, particularly from John 1, to assert Jesus's divinity. He also addresses the Islamic perspective on the Trinity, which misconstrues Christian doctrine, and advocates for respectful and informed dialogue. Lundquist stresses the importance of recognizing Muslims as individuals created in God's image who need the gospel. He urges Christians to deepen their understanding of grace and the sinfulness of sin to effectively communicate their faith.

Good morning. Let's pray. Our God, as we talk about false religion, as was just preached, God, may the focus be on your greatness and your mightiness, that you, Jesus, our great Savior, not only forgives them, but you paid the price. May we know grace, may we know that you are our God and you have compassion and you have grace. And it came at a great price through our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

So please, Holy Spirit, help us now so we continue to think on this. Amen. Well, Pastor Wilson and I were saying a lot of things about Muslims. Their religion is called Islam. We're saying a lot of things about what they believe in, And when you hear them, you may be, and you should be, in many ways, offended, especially what they say about what you believe and who Jesus is and what you believe.

But if your response is just a sigh, just like, oh, I can't believe that, a rolling of the eyes, or that's wrong, or I know the Bible says that's wrong, if that's all you have, you are not armed very well for this battlefield. If that's your only reaction to this, if you do not know how to give a defense for the hope that's in you with meekness and fear, if you do not know how to use all of scripture to be thoroughly equipped for this good work, a good work of not only evangelizing Muslims, but the good work of building your own faith. You're not prepared. You won't be prepared for anything that's being discussed these couple days. There's a man at Sovereign Redeemer Community Church that has a Bible study at church, has a Bible study of his work, and in that Bible study of, I think it's four other guys, one of them is a Jehovah's Witness, and they're going to be starting to go through John.

I'm going to take us to John 1 here in a moment. And according to most of you know, you're going to hit John 1-1, and that's going to be a tripping point between this man in our church and that Jehovah's Witness and a lot of others. Here's my advice to him. Advice to the man in our church was Move on quickly from John 1-1. Don't get bogged down there because you're going to go through the rest of John, you're going to look at the rest of scripture and use scripture to back up what John 1-1 says.

You need to know the whole counsel of God. You need to be completely equipped and instead of being tripped out by one place, let the rest of scripture testify to what it is. Let it help you. And it's similar with Muslims and anyone. You need to know the scripture.

Pastor Wilson spoke about sin and salvation. I'm going to focus on Jesus and the Trinity. Those are two big areas. A lot of other areas we can touch, and Rodney touched on a couple, I'll touch on a couple as well. I want to start off with Jesus.

Jesus is God. You start off your gospel presentation, start talking off with a Muslim about Jesus is God, right there, You're right there at that hard point. That might not be where you need to start, but that's where you need to know, Christian, that Jesus is God. So the Muslim and Islam, listen to this, they're going to tell you that Jesus is virgin born. We're good.

Jesus is virgin born. He's sinless even, they'll say. He had miracles, they'll call him a messiah. Definitely our definitions don't agree, but we can agree on the term. Say messiah, check, messenger, a prophet, we'd say they, the prophet, but they'll call him prophet, servant, they'll even say word, check, check, check, check, hey, okay, seems like we may be on the same same line, But here's what they'll say about Jesus.

He's not eternal, not eternal, and he's not God. Here's another one. They'll say he wasn't crucified. That's a historical fact. We have Christians, non-Christians, historians that say he wasn't crucified, that he was crucified.

They'll say that their god, Allah, and their god Allah is an idol, is not a god, not the same god. He is an idol. But I'll still use their term Allah. Allah would never let one of his prophets be treated that way is what they'll say. And this is what they'll say.

Someone was crucified and was made to look like Jesus, but it wasn't Jesus. They'll say it was somebody that deserved to be crucified. Anybody got to guess who they think that was? Judas. Judas was the one on that tree on that cross, not Jesus.

It was made to look like Jesus. So in some strange way, what you could say back if you were being mean-spirited in some way is that okay so then your Allah created Christianity by putting that false person up there and make everybody believe it was Jesus, right? But it wasn't. We know it was Christ. So this is where you need to know Jesus is God.

Where are you going to go to to prove that Jesus was God? Go to John 1. John 1, 1 through 5 is a great place to start. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was a light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." Jesus isn't even mentioned by name until a lot further, I think verse 17, But even the Muslims and others that get this verse wrong admit this is Jesus. This is who they're talking about in the Word. And when you walk through this thing, you need to prepare for the battlefield. You've got to know what scripture says about Jesus being God.

Jesus ain't a bitch by name, but here you have in the beginning, which takes you back to Genesis 1, 1, linking in the beginning, God, linking immediately Jesus with God. In the beginning, before there was time, wrap your mind around that God created time. Jesus created time. So Jesus had to be there before time. So Jesus is eternal.

Wrap your mind around that. He has to be, he was already there. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. Jesus is distinct from God. He was with God, he's distinct from God.

He's distinct from the Father, he's distinct from the Holy Spirit. We start delving into the Trinity a little bit there, but in the beginning was the Word, the Word is with God, and the Word was God. So Jesus is God. It says there at the end. And then you have verse 3, right?

Verse 3, all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. I mean all things were made through him, nothing that was created, right? Nothing was that was created. He created everything. He created everything.

So unless he created himself, right, which he didn't do, right, Jesus is God. He is eternally with God. They are one. Talk about that here in a little bit. Jesus is God.

I can't use these verses, use this kind of, know your scripture to build your faith, to build your faith, to give you confidence when you're facing a Muslim or anybody to build your faith. Jesus throughout scriptures you read, especially the gospels, you see that he proves he's God through his works, through his works. We prove we're sinners through our works. He proves he's God through his works. Listen to some of the things he did.

He created, not just created the world, created everything that there was, all things. When he was here on earth, he created fish and bread from very little to feed 5, 000 and 4, 000. Think of that. What was that like, children? Walking around and the disciples handing out fish and bread and they look in the basket and there's more.

I don't know if they actually saw more be created. We don't know, but there was more every time they delved into that basket. Jesus created. Jesus raised dead. He answered prayer.

He forgave sin. He was worshiped as God. Now, there are plenty of false prophets, false deities. There are false deities today. Leaders of communism tend to be treated as deity.

There's plenty of people around that that receive worship. That's not exactly where your proof goes. Your proof is in scripture. Your safe place is always Scripture. This is your safe place to be.

Not the great commentators as much as we love them, and I'll quote one here in a little bit. This is your safest place to go to. Turn to Revelation 4. I'll be there in a moment. Turn to Revelation 4.

But in Isaiah 6, in Isaiah 6 we have, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. That's Isaiah 6. That's Old Testament talking about God. And then in Revelation, John, God gives us through John a little more clarity of exactly who Isaiah was talking about. He's talking about God.

We have the Trinity, three in one. But in Revelation 4, here we have John having a glimpse into the throne room of God in heaven, and he sees Jesus, starting in verse 8, the four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes and around and within, and they do not rest day or night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come this is Isaiah 6 this is Isaiah talking about Jesus this is what's happening in heaven Jesus on the throne being worshipped Let me finish this and come back. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, The 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying, You are worthy, O Lord, You Jesus are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you. Jesus created all things and by your will they exist and were created. One of the greatest sins according to Islam is saying that Jesus is God.

Well, that's Jesus is God. It is one thing for somebody on earth to receive work, for somebody to worship a false teacher, and for God not to destroy him. Plenty of false teaching, plenty of non-Christians. Everybody, we believe in original sin as Pastor Wilson told us, everybody deserves death. We get that.

But here in the throne room of heaven, God's dwelling place, Jesus is sitting on God's throne and there are creatures and elders worshipping him endlessly day and night. Would God stand that for a moment? No. And the reason why this is praised is because Jesus is God. No scripture.

That's Old Testament telling us who Jesus is. How kind of God to give that to us. And you have verse 14 back in John 1. You have verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus, God became flesh. All right, well, okay, that says it here in John, but where else?

Plenty of places. Colossians 1, he, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We were created in the image of God. Jesus is the image of God. See?

See what I'm talking about when I talk to my friend about letting Scripture help you? And you need to know this. There's other places you can go. Go to Psalm 102 and Hebrews 1. That talk about Jesus.

There's plenty that go to the Old Testament that talks about Jesus in the New Testament directly that Jesus is God. You don't have to fear that conversation with a Muslim when they tell you Jesus isn't God. See, to the Muslim, as Pastor Wilson was talking about, they think they're the culmination of all religion. And they have two other holy books besides the Quran, the Torah, we might call a portion of the Old Testament or the Old Testament, and the New Testament of Christians. They say they're their holy books.

And you're allowed to use them in a discussion with them. They'll say, well, you have bad translations. I'll get to it a little bit. They can't point. They really don't know whether it is or not.

They don't know it. But you need to know it. You need how to point them to things that are there. Secondly, there is one God. So Jesus is God.

There is one God. This is talking about the Trinity. In Islam, they believe what they say about God. Pastor Wilson told you a bunch of this. We're on the same path again.

He's holy, he's creator, he's given his law, we've sinned. There's going to be hellfire, a day of judgment. They have a holy book given by God. All right, same page, check, check, check, check, check. But when it comes to Trinity, now we got a problem.

Their idea of a Trinity, three in one, that can't be, that's polytheism. That's Christians, you have three gods, You don't believe in one God. But it's crazy. It really is. The Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right?

You read the Quran and you talk to an imam. They say that we believe the Trinity is the Father, the Son, and anybody know? Well that's right, That's what it is, Mary to them. They say that's what we believe. So if our knee jerk is, you're crazy, we're not going to get very far.

We're not going to get very far. But of course, the Bible doesn't teach that. We know that. Historic Christianity and their creeds and confessions Definitely don't teach that but can you defend what you believe with meekness and with fear? The fear part that you're trying to explain the holy God You're gonna use scripture his holy word to explain the holy God Yeah, the the mind really can't comprehend this, but it is truth.

John 10, I and my Father are one. John 14, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. John 17, what we call the high priestly prayer, where we are privileged. God intentionally gave it to us to see into this intimate moment between Jesus and God before Jesus goes and is crucified. He says this, and now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

He was with the Father for in His glory, sharing His glory, because He is God. They are one. They are one. At Jesus' baptism, Jesus' baptism, you have Jesus, of course, the incarnate God, the Father saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I well pleased, and the Spirit descending like a dove. You have all three right there.

Know these things. Know these things. Hey, my admonition, stick to scripture, especially when it comes to explaining the Trinity. Please, I highly encourage you, stick to scripture. You may try to do an analogy and you will fail every time.

All right, come up to me afterwards. Come up and I dare you to try. All right, I'm not the smartest man, but go ahead and come and try. Try and give me an analogy, and I'll be quick to call you a heretic if you believe that. There's not an analogy that can really explain it well.

Don't use them. Stay away from them. Please do that. Let me give you three applications here. We've said a lot about Muslims.

Let me give you some applications here. One, Be prepared and equipped for this is a battlefield of two billion people. Two billion people. Be prepared and be equipped. At dawn, they get five daily prayers.

Five daily prayers. At dawn is their first prayer. Here's what their first prayer is. Listen to this. This is your battlefield.

They're asked to be led in the path of those that have earned mercy. Stop right there. I can't comprehend that. That's as difficult to comprehend as the Trinity should be. Earned mercy.

That's not the key here though, but it goes back to what Pastor Wilson was saying. They think they can't earn this favor of God. They can't earn His mercy, and they hope they can. They ask to be led in the path of those that have earned mercy, not the path of those that have earned anger, that's the Jews, and have gone astray, that's Christians. Their first prayer of every day, they are praying that they are not you, and they are praying against you and your beliefs.

That's how they open their prayers every day, whether they are thinking evil of you or not. Jason talked about secularism yesterday and the influence. They are being influenced by this prayer every day to inform themselves of not to be a Christian or a Jew or to go their way. That's how they wake up every day. That's how they're preparing themselves every day.

Now, I'm not, do not get this wrong. I'm not telling you, pray every day that you don't walk in the way of Muslims. No, pray every day that you walk in the way of God. You walk in His holiness, in His ways, and you delight in His law. And you're thankful for the grace you get and the mercy you have from God that you don't deserve.

You're thankful for the faith, but they're starting every day like that. Number two, make it your lifelong aim to study the Bible, to study Jesus, to study the Gospel. It will prepare you and build your faith. It will. You're going to be challenged.

I've given you, I've told you, a used scripture to back up your beliefs and to talk with them, and you're going to be challenged on that. You're going to be challenged on the reliability of the Bible. Let me give you something here, the reliability of the Bible versus the Koran. The Bible, the New Testament, has 24, 000 manuscripts that we have before the year 350. 24, 000, okay?

We have many eyewitnesses, secular and of course in Scripture that this is true and prophecies, prophecies all over the place that have been fulfilled especially about Christ that have been fulfilled. Here's what the Quran has. The Quran, Muhammad came around the year late 500s, wrote the Quran between 610 and 632 And he wrote the Quran in there, had it gotten him. Between then and 1650, a lot of words got out there, a lot of pieces and scraps. In 1650, one Muslim said, we're going to bring this all together, create Our manuscript that we're going to go by, you know what they did with the rest of the manuscripts?

Burned them. Their Quran is only since 1650, and they have no historical evidence of whether it's right or not. We know it's not true, but whether it's what Muhammad said was right or not. They don't even have that. So we have 24, 000 manuscripts, they have zero.

We have many eyewitnesses, they have zero. Zero, because it was written in 1650. Who was alive 1, 300 years later or 1, 000 years later and say, yeah, what you have is right? Nobody. We have prophecies fulfilled everywhere.

They have zero prophecies. Zero. You can have a lot of trust in this. Hey, I stand on the shoulders of people that have really studied this stuff out and looked at it. It's people that I commend to you, like James White and Ravi Zacharias, their work, commend to you.

And number three, last thing, wrap up. What comes to mind when I say the word Muslim? We say the word Muslim. What comes to your mind? Their clothing, the way the women dress especially, their intimidating beards might come to mind, their mosque, The Middle East, terrorist, ISIS, all that builds fear, can build fear.

Yes, it's a battlefield, but, agreeing completely with my brother, It's a mission field. It's a mission field. Growing up, I never saw a Muslim. Never. Growing up in California, I didn't see any Muslims.

But I've seen a lot more in the last ten years or so. When I see Muslim, when I say Muslim, instead of all those things I just said, what you should be thinking is a person created in God's image that is heading to hell unless God is gracious upon him the same as you. The same as you. If they don't understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but do you understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Just how abominable it is?

Let me read real quick a quote by J.C. Ryle on this. Let us mark what kind of being the Redeemer, that's Jesus, of mankind must need be in order to provide eternal redemption for sinners. If no one less than the eternal God, the creator and preserver of all things, could take away the sin of the world, sin must be a far more abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful.

If you're going to evangelize a Muslim, you better understand how exceedingly sinful sin is so you can know how wonderful the grace of God is. They have no idea what grace is, not a word for it. They do not know grace. Do you know grace? Do you know what it is to be saved from your sin?

Do you know grace? Then tell them about the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Let's pray. Our God, I pray that it's as hard for us to imagine that you would let this religion flourish on this earth like it has. It would be as hard for us to imagine that as it is as hard for us to imagine that you would have grace on me, a wicked, exceeding, abominable sinner. God, thank you so much for your grace.

Let it be more amazing to us every day. Thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your compassion on anyone. Thank you for your care. Thank you for your word.

Thank you for building my faith, building my brethren's faith. Oh, Father, would you save people? Would you save sons here? Fathers here, please God, let them know your grace. Father, thank you for the time you have given us.

In Jesus name, amen.