The sermon by Rodney Wilson provides an overview of Islam, focusing on its core beliefs and practices, and contrasts them with Christian doctrines. Islam, meaning 'submission', emphasizes complete submission to Allah, with prophets like Muhammad playing key roles in conveying divine messages, culminating in the Quran. Muslims follow 'aqidah' (right belief) and 'sharia' (right practice) to earn Allah's favor. The speaker highlights differences between Islam and Christianity in perceptions of sin and salvation. Muslims view sin as an action rather than an inherent condition, and believe salvation is achieved through good deeds and Allah's mercy, creating uncertainty about their fate. In contrast, Christianity views sin as inherent and salvation as a gift from Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes with a call for Christians to show compassion, seek opportunities to share the gospel, and listen to Muslims to foster understanding and evangelism.

Good morning. My task today is to discuss briefly with you Islam, the religion of Islam, and what it is, what it is like for a Muslim to practice what it means for us as Christians. And prayerfully when all is said and done, you will have something to at least ponder and consider as you go home with your families. Can you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, and we humbly beseech you, Lord.

We humbly ask that you would guide our ears and our hearts, Lord. Guard us and protect us, Lord, from the evil one, even now as the word is going forth. Lord, don't let it fall by the wayside, but let it sit and grow in us from every, for every person here, the smallest boy, the oldest of men. Lord, we seek you, we seek your wisdom. In Jesus name, amen.

So, here's the thing, I'm going to do my best in kind of a cliff notes fashion try to, if there were such a thing, give you like a gospel of Islam if there were such a thing. So that you can kind of see the impetus of why it is that they do what they do. Islam itself, the word Islam, means submission. From their perspective, all mankind should be totally submitted to the God of Allah. Humans should submit totally to the sovereign will of God and the fact that man was actually made to worship Allah.

The Muslim also believes that Allah created the universe much as the way we believe and understand that the Lord created the heavens and the earth they believe as a monotheistic religion that Allah did the exact same thing. And in such, he also made Adam. Now, from that perspective, now we start to see a soul change because Adam sinned. As we know, he fell in the garden. And the Muslim believes the exact same thing, except the Muslim looks at Adam as more or less a lapse.

He didn't obey the Lord, he was forgiven, and that was that. So what Allah, for the Muslim, decided to do was he said he would send prophets to help and not prophet in the sense that we might understand prophet as someone who teaches or brings the word of God but more or less a leader of mankind. And there were many that they believe. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joe, Moses, Jonah, Aaron, Solomon, David. They were all considered prophets, and they were all there to lead mankind.

They were actually elevated above man to the role of a prophet. And that prophet's job was to keep the people in line with worshiping God, worshiping Allah, which what they call the one true religion of Adam. And unfortunately, in their words, what happened was, is over the course of time, man began to procreate, and there were more and more and more religions and more religions, and they left the one true religion of Adam. So what Allah did was with each of these prophets, he said, each prophet will have a specific message. So for example Moses in their way of looking at it, Moses had a message and the message was purely that the children of Israel needed to rebel against Pharaoh.

Jesus as a prophet had a message and his message was a peace for mankind and that's what they needed at that time. Well, shortly, well not shortly, but after Christ came about somewhere around 570 AD, a man named Muhammad came on the scene And he was considered to be the final prophet that would confirm all of the prior teachings that had taken place up to that point. It is through Muhammad that they received the Koran, and it was through a special message that Muhammad had received that they received all of their laws. So the belief is that Islam itself is the perfection of all of the prior religions, Judaism and Christianity included. All people still following these religions after the arrival of Muhammad are either misled or they are rebellious and no religion will be accepted from them on the day of judgment except for Islam.

So now what should the good Muslim do? Well what does mankind need to do in the presence of this type of religion. Mankind needs to learn two things. First, what to believe, which is what they call aqidah, and learn how to live, which they call sharia. And if they do both of these two things, they will earn the pleasure of Allah.

Aqidah simply again means right belief, kind of like the way we look at say a catechism, a basic doctrine, whereas Sharia is right practice, what to do, and that practice is based on Islamic law as it was revealed by Muhammad. Following Sharia to them is the way to life itself. It's the words that they recite in prayer. It's how they eat. It's how they fast.

It's how they give to others. All of that is wrapped up and so much more in Sharia and Sharia law. So in short, if I follow the laws of Muhammad and the Quran, I will get closer to paradise. If I fail, I can ask for forgiveness and Allah may be merciful and forgive. And these two things literally hang, literally hang in the balance for in the end, Allah will weigh my good deeds and my bads to determine whether I go to paradise.

So there you have it. In five minutes, five minutes and 47 seconds, a short synopsis of Islam. Now what I want to do because there's so many difference between the two, what I want to do today is I just want to focus on two things as major differences with Islam and Christianity. First I want to focus on sin and their definition of sin. Second I want to focus on salvation.

Say sin. Sin, excellent. Sin, according to the Muslim. One of the biggest distinctions between Christians and Muslim is the understanding of just that, sin. Muslims believe that all people will be held accountable to Allah for their sins.

At Allah's choosing, he may be merciful and forgive. They don't really know for sure, but it's just based on, I guess, how Allah feels and whether or not he chooses to be merciful and forgive. The interesting thing about sin from a Muslim perspective, though, is the fact that it's attached to action more than anything else. What I mean when I say that is You and I, as Christians, we know that sin is not only just what we do, but it's also who we are. If I stole something, I stole.

I took something that didn't belong to me, but you'll be looking at me saying I'm a thief. If I sin before God, I'm not just, I didn't just sin, but I'm a sinner. And that's one of the huge differences. Children, as an example in the faith, as Muslims believe it, are sinless because they don't know the law to break it. So they come into this world literally perfect and sinless.

So there's a huge difference, there's a huge discrepancy here with what sin is for the Muslim and what sin is for the Christian. Muslims do not believe that sin is inherited, which is Another huge issue. They teach that man is ignorant and needs to be taught, but do not teach that man is inherently sinful in and of himself. Muslims believe that Adam soon after his act of disobedience became aware of the seriousness of his sin, and he repented, and he sought forgiveness of God, and God forgave him, and he went on his merry way. So you can see now while the Muslim today will always seek Allah for forgiveness but they will never address themselves necessarily as a sinner that has something in him that needs to be fixed.

And there lies another huge difference. Because if I'm a sinner and there's something in me that I can't get rid of, I need something outside of myself to fix it. I need a savior. For the Muslim, because there is no original sin, there's no need for a savior. And that's the reason why they have difficulty understanding that Jesus was exactly who he said he was.

To suggest even that God sent his son for the purpose of payment for our sins is blasphemous because God is one and only he doesn't Beget nor is he begotten nor is there one like God sin for the Muslim is a conscious Willful act that breaks Allah's command one cannot be a sinner if he doesn't know the law. That's their understanding and that's their belief. What Muslims fail to understand however is that whenever a sin is committed, that there is damage that is irreparable and there's only one way to fix it. Imagine if you would if say your son took a ball, threw it through a window, you told him not to throw the ball in the house, he throws it through the window, glass breaks, shatters, dead of winter, it's cold outside, it's cold inside the house, and you as a good dad say, I forgive you, that's great, but it's cold in here, someone's got to fix that window. So you go to your son, you say, son, you need to fix the window, but dad, I don't have the money to do it.

Okay, well, someone's got to fix the window. For us, we understand sin from that perspective. Something has been shattered. You can't un-sin. You've sinned.

It needs to be fixed. And because as all of us sitting here today know we have a problem with sin, we need something outside of ourselves to fix the issue and His name is Christ Jesus. The Christian understands that we are more than simply ignorant. We have inherited condition called sin and we are sinful by nature. I love it.

John 844 it says, You are of your father the devil, then your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God says Romans 3 23 and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because he in his divine forbearance, he passed over our former sins.

It was to show his faith, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Read Romans 5-12. You'll also see there a beautiful example of how Christ came to do the work that God sent him to do. Next, I wanna talk about salvation real quickly, because that's another big, huge issue. There are two areas within the Muslim life in which they look at to obtain salvation.

The first, they gotta live a good life. He or she to for he or she to approach heaven they have to live a good life, they have to do good deeds. But the second part is is they must hope for God's merciful judgment. And then one might ask the question, well, what do I need to do in order to get God's merciful judgment? Well, you need to do good deeds.

Well, what are the good deeds? They're in the Sharia. They're in the Sharia law. But I can't keep them. Well, you need to ask God for mercy.

Well, how do I obtain this mercy? Well, I've got to do good deeds. Well, I've done the good deeds. Do I get it? They just don't know.

It's a circle. And it just goes on and on and on and on. Islam indeed is a religion of salvation by works. And by pleasing Allah, good works are being done. And entrance into paradise is granted based on a person's personal merit.

How are good works defined? By the law as revealed by Muhammad. This law is often called Sharia law and literally it means the way to water. So if you can imagine for a desert people way back at that time water water was life. So for them this law was like water to them.

It's impossible to keep every law of Muhammad. So each failure must overcome be overcome somehow. So how many good works does a person need to do? What needs, how many need to be accomplished to gain entry into paradise? There is no number.

In fact, the Quran teaches that in the end, Allah will weigh these things out. So if you hear what I'm saying, The Muslim really doesn't know for sure whether they're saved or not, whether they're saved from Allah's anger, whether they'll even be brought into paradise. They do as many good deeds as possible. They follow the law as much as possible. They ask for forgiveness if Allah chooses to give it.

But if you are asking if they're certain, they don't even know. Even Mohammed himself, whenever you hear a Muslim mention Mohammed, he'll say Mohammed may peace be upon him. Why? Because they don't even know if Mohammed, the author of Islam, is in paradise with Allah. So how can a Muslim really know their fate?

They can't. Yet many Muslims walk around day to day assuming that their chances are good. If only they can accept, continue to accept the Muslim God Allah and his apostle Muhammad and they do their good works, they think and they believe and they walk under the delusion day after day that they stand possibly a good chance of being in paradise and out of danger. So if we are to please God by our works to gain salvation, what kind of works can we possibly do? And I ask you that question.

What kind of works can a Christian even do? We can't, we can't do anything because we're sinful by nature and everything we do is sinful in that sense. I can't create anything and give it to God because, well, first of all, it all belongs to God. There's nothing I can do to give to him to absolve and wash out my sin. It's got to come from a savior.

We see that in Romans 6 23. The price of sin, the wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2 8 says for by grace you have been saved so that no one may boast. I'm sorry, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So Christianity is the only faith that provides a remedy for this issue we called sin which is in our nature and we read that also in John 3. You must be born again, Jesus tells Nicodemus. You must be born again and he goes on to say God so loved the world that he gave his only son And you all know the rest of that scripture. I want to read this for you real quick from William Miller.

He was a missionary somewhere around 1919. And this is what he wrote about the Muslim in salvation. Islam has no savior, he says. Muhammad is rarely called a savior. He is said to have brought God's laws to man and they by keeping those laws must satisfy God's requirements and win his approval.

Since many Muslims realize that they fall short of the Quran standards they recite extra prayers in addition to those required each day. They make gifts to charity. They go on pilgrimage not only to Mecca, but to other places to gain that merit and if possible, balance their account with God. But since God does not make known how the accounts are to stand, a Muslim faces death and does not know whether he is to go to paradise or to hell. After all the decision is made by the arbitrary will of God and no one can predict what that decision will be and so the Muslim lives and dies not sure of his final destination.

What did we sing last night? Complete in thee no work of mine may take dear Lord the place of thine thy blood hath pardoned bought for me and I am now complete in thee. Yea justified oh blessed thought and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood hath part and bought for me, and glorified. I too shall be.

Amen. The Muslim can't say that. He can't say it. It's impossible for him to say it. And it should break our hearts that they can't say it.

Because they honestly don't know. And this group of people, along with many, many, many, many other religions around the world, have been deluded by Satan into thinking that they're serving the one true God. So in closing, is there a 21st century battlefield upon which Christianity and Islam meet? Yes, yes there is, but you know what saints, I don't believe it's where we think it is. I don't believe it's in the rapid growth of Islam in the United States.

That's expected. You know how I know? Because the Bible tells us that. The Bible tells us wide is the way. Many find it narrow is the way that leads to life.

So it doesn't surprise me that Islam is increasing. Not at all. I think the battle, friends, is between the Christians' possession of the gospel and the possession of this good news and their fear to deliver it. It's not out there. It's this thing in our mind where we say, you know what, there's a Muslim over there, but I don't know much about Islam.

I don't know what to say. And Islam is probably, the Muslim probably knows more about the Bible than I do. And he knows a lot about the Quran and the Bible. And they're going to just talk me six ways till Sunday. And I don't know how to react.

I don't know what to say. And good gracious, those beards, they look intimidating. You know? Think about that for a moment. If there's any religion in the world where we can look at and a Christian would run to evangelize, we don't have any issues with evangelizing to the Hindu, to the Mormon, to the Jehovah Witness, to the Catholic, or any other religion out there.

But when it comes to the Muslim, for some reason or another, for many of us, there's fear. Three things I want you to consider and to pray about. Number one, pray for compassion. You want an impetus to preach the gospel regardless of whether you know everything in the rule book about Islam, here's the answer for you. Compassion for the lost and the hurting.

Compassion for those who can't sing that song. Compassion for those who don't know who their savior is, but they think they do. In all of the intellect of Islam, in all of the Koran, in all of the Sharia laws that they have. Okay, great. Put all of that aside.

Where are you gonna end up? I'm concerned about you. I want to see you one day with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and it concerns me that you don't understand that and that you've been tricked into thinking something that is totally false. It bothers me, sir. It bothers me, ma'am.

I need to talk to you about this. Ask God for compassion for those who don't know because they've been tricked and deluded by Satan. Ask for the confidence to go and to deliver the gospel and to share it on your jobs in school wherever you go. Pray that the Lord will send you opportunities. You know the best way to get your feet wet?

Ask God send me an opportunity to preach to a Muslim. You know what he'll do? Send you an opportunity to preach to a Muslim. And guess what? You'll do it.

You'll be nervous. Your hands will be sweating. That's OK. As long as you did what your Lord and Master told you to, preach the gospel. Throw out the seed.

He's doing all the hard work. All we have to do is preach the gospel and pray for the salvation of souls. And finally, listen. Just listen. As Christians sometimes we have this tendency to kind of put up our guard so quickly.

What if we were to invite a Muslim into our home and say here you tell me about Allah. Tell me what you think about him. Tell me how you worship. What it is that you do. Let me just listen.

I realize saints that One of the biggest things that hinder us in our evangelism effort sometimes is just the ability to sit down and hear what another person has to say. I'll tell you this and then I'll sit down. I'll never forget this time at my old job where I had this guy and he literally had a hodgepodge of religions, I like a buffet of religion in his head. And he had to do some work on my computer at work. And I had the opportunity to share the gospel with him.

And I answered every single question he could. And you know what, in the end he told me, you know what, Rodney, I still don't understand, I still don't believe in God. But I'll tell you what, you're the first Christian that ever took the time to sit down and listen to what I had to say and explain it the way you did. That in and of itself is victory. Because he's so used to Christians shutting down and ruffling up the feathers.

Just listen. Three things. Pray for compassion. Pray for opportunities. And listen.

Amen.