This past week was certainly a week of great sorrow. On Wednesday we were caused again to think upon the terrorist attack in this part of the world. Perhaps you, as I did, heard the reading of the names that began at 8.46 in the morning and continued on for two hours. As 3,066 names are read, those that were killed and put to death by terrorists in this country. In focusing on what happened on Wednesday, most of the focus has been upon the sorrow or the deliverances. There were many deliverances. God did some very unusual things. It was the ex-mayor of New York who said this has been the greatest terrorist attack in this country, but it's also been the greatest deliverance, the greatest rescue effort in this country. The last lady who was rescued had been buried for 27 hours. Her name was Janelle Guzman. She had given up hope. She went to sleep the first night, just thinking that she was going to die, and out of sheer exhaustion went to sleep. Later in the morning, she heard voices, and she began to claw through the rubble toward where the voices were coming from. As on top, they began speaking, and she, back to them, there was an opening, and she stuck her hand up through the opening, and one of the rescue workers grabbed her hand, and after 27 hours, her first words were, thank God, thank God. Some great rescues took place. The focus has been on either the destruction of life or upon the rescue of life. But you know, as I was thinking more and more upon what took place, we have had a group of people in the world declare a holy jihad, a holy war against this country. We have done nothing against them. Nevertheless, they've declared themselves to be our mortal enemies. They do so because they find a religious basis for this holy jihad, this war against our country. Now there are many Muslims in this country who say they are misguided and extremists. But when you look at what they teach, they too teach that we are an error as to what we believe. They teach that what we believe will indeed damn the soul, that we are enemies to be fought with and to be overcome. It is my lot in life as your pastor to spend Sunday after Sunday exhorting in sound doctrine. But it is also my lot as your pastor to refute those who come against the word of God. You can see this stated very clearly in Titus chapter 1. If I had my brothers I would rather spend my time exhorting in sound doctrine. But at times we have to look at the errors that are being presented and refute them. This morning that is what we're about. The religion of Islam or the Muslims as they're called in the world is founded upon a man by the name of Muhammad. and his teaching which is found in the Quran. This morning we are going to look at this prophet Mohammed in light of the scripture and then tonight we are going to, in the will of the Lord, look at the Quran in light of the scripture. I have no desire this morning to spend my time talking about a false prophet. It is my desire that we would see this man for what he is and see our Christ for who he is. You have seen two glorious statements about Christ in this morning's service already. We have read from John chapter 1. We have read from Hebrews chapter 1. Our Lord is God, manifest in the flesh. He is the one seated above the kings of the earth, who now rules and reigns. And in his mercy, we have come to know him. But who is this man who calls himself Mohammed? Well, he lived almost 600 years after the time of Christ. born around 570, we're not sure of the exact date of his birth, died 632. He was born in Mecca, a familiar town by your own understanding of the situation today. His father died when he was still in his mother's womb, and his mother died when he was six years old. He was raised for a couple of years by his grandfather, who then died, and then he was raised by his uncle. For the most part, he didn't have an extraordinary youth, He was a shepherd boy, he was a tradesman, he was in poverty. When he was 25 years of age, he had the privilege of leading a caravan for a rich widow. This widow liked what she saw, and then proposed marriage to Muhammad, and Muhammad accepted. She was 40 years old, he was 25, but she was rich and he was poor. They seemed to have a fairly well marriage, that is, they got along all right. Two sons were born to that marriage, both died in infancy, and four daughters. During this marriage, he was able to spend time alone. He was disturbed about the paganism and the idolatry of Mecca. Some who were disturbed turned to Christianity, found Christ as Lord and Savior. He went to the mountains, went alone into the caves, and spent time alone in fasting and seeking for an answer. He says that during one of these occasions there was an angel who came to him by the name of Gabriel. Gabriel came to him and he choked him and he said, read. And then he choked him again and said, read. And each time he would say that he would read and each time he was choked again, told to read or to recite as some would recount the story. What was given to him then was what he read or what he recited, what we now call the Koran, which comes from the meaning of the word to recite. That was his call to the ministry. He was terrified by what he said happened. He came to his wife, who was a nominal Christian, told her what had happened, and she said, this is a call from God to be a prophet. She went to her cousin, who also was a nominal Christian, and he had conferred and said, yes, this is a call to be a prophet. Muhammad's first convert was his own wife and her cousin. Later, his cousin would also be converted. A good friend of his was converted. An adopted son was converted. And that began what we now know as the Islam religion. He called it Islam because Islam means submission. You are submitting to these revelations that the Prophet has received from God. Well, his wife died when he was in his early forties. And when his wife died, some of the rich wealth that he had went with her, and some of the protection he had in the city also went with her. And so he was harassed as he was stayed in Mecca by other religious leaders as well as political leaders. During this time, he supposedly had another vision by Gabriel, where Gabriel actually came and took him from Mecca, took him from Mecca to Jerusalem, therefore Jerusalem is one of the holy sites in the Muslim religion, and then from Jerusalem to the seventh heaven. And as he was passing through each level of the heavens, he saw some of the prophets who went before him. In the second level, he met Jesus Christ. In the sixth level, he met Moses. In the seventh level, he met Abraham, supposedly. Then when he got to the seventh heaven, he received instructions for daily prayers. It continued to heat up for him there in Mecca, and so he and his followers left. 75 converts had been found in Medina, which was 200 miles to the north. Those 75 converts invited them up there, so they left. They had to leave by night because those in Mecca were hostile to Muhammad and some of them wanted to imprison or even kill him. So they fled from Mecca to Medina. He was received there as a religious leader and finally became also a political leader. He basically ruled the city. Wasn't a lot of wealth in the city. And so there was those who from the city went out to the passing caravans and attacked them for their wealth. And Muhammad gave them permission to do so. Not only did he give them permission to do so, he led three of the attacks himself. Well, Mecca had a lot of wealthy folks who had interest in these caravans, and because of their wealthy interest, they decided that they would come and do away with this man who was attacking their caravans. And so you have the first battle mentioned there, the battle of Badr, where the Muslims actually defeated, that is Muhammad had defeated the Meccans. They were outnumbered 3 to 1, 950 came from Mecca, thinking that just by their sheer numbers they would intimidate Muhammad. He with his 300 followers went to war and defeated them. Because he defeated them and he received from them their wealth, the wealth of this great caravan that was going by, that brought prestige to this man by the name of Muhammad in his follower's eyes. And his rank swelled from 300 to 1,000. Well a year later the people from Mecca who had escaped decided they were going to come back and teach this man a lesson. So you had 3,000 coming and again they came against him. Same leaders basically, same groups of people. They came against Muhammad. This time Muhammad was defeated. His 1,000 were no match to the 3,000. Those from Mecca thought they had killed Muhammad. And so they left alone those that were fleeing and went back down the 200 mile journey to Mecca. Found out later he wasn't dead. So they came on another occasion to Medina. Anticipating their coming, Muhammad dug a ditch around the city. And so they came and they laid siege to the city for two weeks. There was disarray among those 10,000 people from Mecca and they ended up leaving without conquering the city and going back down to Mecca. But because of that, again, the people's eyes were on Muhammad and his victory, as it were, caused his stature to go up in their presence. He didn't like the Jews in Medina because they would never accept his leadership. He drove out one tribe of Jews Later he would drive out another tribe of Jews. Finally, at this stage, when his political leadership was secure, he took the third tribe that was left of the Jews and slaughtered the men, had them executed. He took the women and children and sold them off as slaves. Such was his hatred for those who would not receive him as the great prophet. Later in 630, he would make his attack upon Mecca itself. He would go back to his place of birth, and he would attack the city. Really, he found little resistance. And the leaders, because he honored them with wealth, really accepted his leadership, said, come on, you can come and be our leader. So he came back to Mecca, took over Mecca. And from there, Arabian tribes and leaders also found their allegiance given, sworn, or being sworn to Muhammad. And he actually basically ruled that whole area at the time of his death, at the age of 63. That's in a nutshell, very quickly, the life of the Prophet Muhammad. We can't go through the great history of that belief, that religious system, over these last 1400-1500 years. But now they claim to have 1.3 billion followers of Islam in the world. 35 populations. have 87% of them Muslim. What I'm going to speak about today in refuting what they teach about Mohammed, it could cost me my life in many of these countries. This is very serious, what we're dealing with this morning. There are divisions among the followers of Islam. There are the Sunnis. 90% of those who are Islamic are from that descent, the Sunnis. There are about a billion of them. There are those who call themselves the Shiites, there are about 170 million. There's the Sufis who are the mystics, 240 million. These are large numbers. Put those numbers into the United States and you have populations here that far outnumber what we have here in this country. We also have another movement in this country called the Black Muslim Movement. Now the Sunnis were those who felt that the leadership in the movement of Islam ought to come from a elected person. Those who were the Shiites thought no, no, it ought to descend from a blood relative of Muhammad. And they've never been able to get together. The first four caliphs, that is the first four leaders, three of them were assassinated. Very bloodthirsty religion. We have then, in our day, these different divisions in the movement, plus we have different terrorist organizations. Al-Qaeda is the one that you're familiar with because of the terrorist attacks here in this country, associated with Bin Laden. But there are other terrorist organizations, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Liberation Organization, these are names that come up on your TV set over and over again, and this is but the tip of the iceberg. those who declared holy war on the rest of the world. The world has been divided into two groups, those that are Islamic and those that are unbelievers. And as unbelievers, you and I have been targeted by these terrorist groups, as well as Israel and others. In this country, Islam has grown. It's one of the rapid-growing, perhaps the most rapid-growing religion in our country. Islam itself claims that they have 6 million Muslims in this country. Most would say that's a little bit inflated, it's closer to 5 million, but still that is a lot of followers. They went from 30 mosques in 1990, according to one source, to over 3,000 mosques now in 2001. Great growth. Chicago itself has 50 mosques devoted to the worship of Muhammad and his Quran. Is the man a real prophet or not? This is something we have to take into account. We say we have the word of God, and I believe we do. We have worshipped the true and the living Christ. Here is a man who came 600 years later who says he is the last of 124,000 prophets. He is the last prophet. He has given the final message. He has evaluated all the prophets who went before them and their message, and that his message is the one that's true. Well, my proposition to you this morning is that Muhammad was nothing more than a false prophet. A deluded man, as we'll see, maybe even a demon-possessed man, but nothing more than a deluded prophet. Let me give you four reasons why I come to that statement that he is a false prophet. First of all, his claim that the Old and New Testaments spoke of him, that claim is false. Now there are a number of verses that they point to, but the prominent verses that they use to teach us are Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, and John chapter 14, verse 16. The Qur'an says, To those that shall follow the apostle, the unleaded prophet, that is Mohammed, whom they shall find described to them in the Torah and the Gospel. That is, he was predicted and defined and described in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, and in the Gospel that was given to Christ. Even Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, is supposedly one who came from God to speak concerning this prophet who would follow him. Where did he speak of this prophet? In the Gospels. First of all, Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, the claim that he is the coming prophet that was predicted by Moses, that is a false claim. What does Deuteronomy 18, verse 15 say? The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee, that is, unto Israel, a prophet from the midst of thee. O thy brethren, like unto me, unto him shall ye hearken. He's going to raise up a prophet, like Moses, in the midst of the brethren. Well, that can't be Muhammad. Muhammad was not a Jewish descent. He's from the loins of Abraham, but he's from Ishmael. Ishmael is not the nation of Israel. At this point in time, Moses is writing, and he's saying he's going to be from your brethren, which would make him an Israelite. Mohammed was not from the descendant of Isaac. He himself would claim only to be a descendant of Ishmael. More than that, Muhammad never did some of the things Moses did. When you go to Exodus, excuse me, Deuteronomy 34 and verse 11, what does Deuteronomy 34 and verse 11 tell us of Moses? Is that he met with the Lord face-to-face? And that he did great signs or miracles? Now even Muhammad doesn't claim to meet with Jehovah face-to-face. He said he met with Allah through this ministry of Gabriel. He met with Gabriel. More than that, Muhammad never claimed to do miracles. In fact, in the Quran, he makes this statement in chapter 2, verse 118. The ignorant asked, why does God not speak to us or give us a sign? He couldn't do a miracle. He wished he could, but he couldn't. And when they came and demanded signs from him, he couldn't point to it. All he could do was chide those who came to him. Now, later on, 100 years later, 200 years later, when the Christians would bring this up to the followers of Islam, They produce miracles. They started making them up. Trees talking. Trees saluting the Prophet. Wolves saluting the Prophet. Mountains moving. Christ turned water into wine. Will Muhammad turn water into milk? I mean, all kinds of crazy things they came up with. You want miracles? We'll give you miracles. And they started writing miracles. When you go back to the Koran, In the early days when Mohammed lived, there were no miracles. No miracles substantiating him as a prophet. Christ is the fulfillment of this prediction in Deuteronomy 18. Peter makes this application in Acts chapter 3. He refers to this very passage as he's preaching about Christ. We've just read in Hebrews chapter 1, God who at sundry times and in diverse matters spake in pastime unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. He's that prophet, raised up among the Israelites, doing miracles, communing with God face to face. He is that prophet. And if you won't hear him, you'll be destroyed. That is the message, both from Deuteronomy and the book of Acts. What about the claim in John chapter 14 and verse 16? Well, in John 14 and verse 16, our Lord says, I will pray to the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, another Helper, literally the word is paraclete, that He may abide with you forever. Muhammad's father said, that's Muhammad. He's the paraclete. He's the Helper. He's the Comforter. Well, there's no such thing. However, speaking of the Holy Spirit, he makes that very clear in John chapter 15 and verse 26, where he speaks of the Comforter, and he calls him the Spirit of Truth. Also, this Comforter would be in the Apostles. You see that in verse 17 of John chapter 14. He would be in the Apostles. Obviously, Muhammad couldn't have done that. He wasn't even born yet. It would be 500 years later that he would come. More than that, it's said that he would be with them forever in verse 16. He would be with him forever. Muhammad can't even lay claim to that. It's not Muhammad that's in view. The other comforter that would be coming would be the Holy Spirit. And our Lord sent him at Pentecost to be the one who, as it were, took his place. To comfort, to exhort, to lead his people. This is not Muhammad. The claim that the Old and New Testament speaks of Muhammad is certainly false. But also, Muhammad was not a holy man. Clearly not a holy man. Peter very clearly says in 2 Peter 1, verse 21, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And we can look at a lot of areas of his life, but the most serious infractions against God's law have to do with his immorality and his murder. He was an immoral man. He practiced immorality. Now not when his first wife was alive. When she died though, he began taking other wives. He had his own harem, you would call it. He multiplied wives. Even the Quran itself says you're only to have four wives. He had eleven at least. And that didn't count his concubines or slaves and the other opportunities that he took toward immorality. I have some statements here. It says in the 10 years following her death, that is his wife's death, he married 11 other women. First he married Sada, but simultaneously showed affection for Aisha, who was 6 or 9 years old. She was a daughter of Abu Bakr, his closest companion. At her father's request, their marriage took place about 3 years later. Aisha was Muhammad's favorite wife during this period. He was morally perverted. He was an immoral man. It says there were many other women who gave themselves to Muhammad out of devotion to him. In addition, he had physical relations with slave girls whom he owned. He was an immoral man. A wretched man. He had an adopted son. He liked the adopted son's wife, so he convinced the adopted son to divorce his wife. And then he took her for himself. Not only did he do these immoral deeds, He actually wrote them in the Qur'an as being legitimate. Not legitimate for others, but for himself. So you find this statement in the Qur'an. When Zayid, that is his adopted son, divorced his wife, we, that is God, gave her to you in marriage, so that it should become legitimate for true believers to wed the wives of their adopted sons if they divorce them. God's will must needs be done. No blame shall be attached to the Prophet for doing what is sanctioned for him by God. How carnal and wicked can you be that you will invoke the name of God to defend your immorality? The next statement says, The Prophet, we have made lawful for you the wives to whom you have granted dowries and slave girls whom God has given you as booty, the daughters of your paternal and maternal uncles and of your paternal and maternal aunts who fled with you, and any believing woman who gives herself to the Prophet and whom the Prophet wishes to take in marriage. This privilege is yours alone, being granted to no other believer. Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. That's the standard of scripture. He was an immoral man. He was also a bloodthirsty man. He was guilty of the death of others. In the Koran we find him writing this. He tries to give some legitimacy to his bloodthirstiness by saying, well, if you're first attacked, then you have the right to attack. and so because he portrayed himself as being forced out of Mecca that gave him a right then to attack the caravans coming from Mecca not that the caravans did anything to him but he now had a right to attack them and to plunder them because supposedly he was attacked when the Jews themselves would not bow the knee to what he was teaching well that was hostility toward him that meant that he could then attack them So he was able to twist even his prerequisite of being attacked into showing that anybody who was really against him was attacking him, therefore we could attack them. Muhammad sanctioned his followers raids of the commercial Meccan caravans. The Prophet himself led three such raids. At another time, Muhammad sanctioned a follower to lie to an enemy named Khalid in order to kill him. When a prominent Jew by the name of Ka'ib had stirred up some discord against Muhammad and composed a poem that was satirical against him. The Prophet asked, who will deliver Ka'ib? And immediately four people went and took the head of this man off and came and gave it to Muhammad. On at least two occasions he ordered the death of those who wrote poems against him. Two slave girls were put to death because they had written poetry against him. and he slaughtered this Jewish tribe that was under his rule, as it were, there in Medina. A bloodthirsty man. And you can see that he has written this very attitude into the Koran. The last statement I've given you there, Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and deal sternly with them. Hell shall be their home, evil their fates. You look at these passages that I've quoted, now you understand where some who are following the footsteps of Mohammed get their holy war idea. Now those who are peaceful Muslims say, this is only to be taken spiritually. But we find that there are many who come here and take this very literally. Fight for the sake of God, those who fight against you, but do not attack them first. God does not love aggressors. Slay them where you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is more grievous than bloodshed. Viciousness, bloodthirstiness. was a part of his life, and it even found its way into supposedly the holy book that he was teaching. But even more so, the real touchstone on any doctrine or any teaching in the world today is, what do they say of Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? And he denied that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. He denied, therefore, the Trinity. And he denied that God had a son, an only begotten son, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he did teach many things about Jesus Christ. He believed he was born of a virgin. He believed he did many miracles. He believed that he was an apostle and a prophet and the Messiah. But he was just a mortal man who died. And so they say in the Koran, he wrote in the Koran, unbelievers are those who declare God as Messiah, the Son of Mary. Well, what does the Bible say? The Bible is very clear. The Messiah is God manifest in the flesh. That was the prediction in Isaiah 7.14. The Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. And Matthew interprets that very clearly. It means God with us. The very next prophecy then, in Isaiah 9, expands on this prophecy, and what does it say? For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, that government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. Mighty God. He is God, manifest in the flesh. In fact, our Lord Himself claimed that. He used the very title of deity in the Old Testament where God came to Moses and said, I am is sending you back to Israel. I am that I am. Our Lord took that title and applied it to himself. And when he did so in John chapter 8, they took up stones to stone him. Actually in John chapter 8, he had done that twice before and they didn't understand it. In John chapter 8, verse 24, he said, I say therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. The word he, you'll find in your English translation, is in italics. He literally says, if you don't believe that I am, you're going to die in your sins. If you don't believe I'm God, manifest in the flesh. If you don't believe that I'm Jehovah, manifest in the flesh, you will die in your sins. You can't get stronger language than that, and it's coming from the lips of our Saviour. Did we not read in John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word is God? And what happened? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, verse 14 says. God manifest in the flesh. Isn't that what we read in Hebrews chapter 1? This One who created the world, the God who made the world, also purged our sins? He's God, manifest in the flesh, both God and man, 100% God, 100% man, apart from sin, yet one person. That's what the Bible teaches. Denying that He is God, they also deny that He is the only begotten Son. The Jews say Ezra is God's son, while the Christians say Messiah is the Son of God. Such are their assertions, by which they imitate the infidels of old. God confound them, how perverse they are. This is from Quran, chapter 9, verse 30. Perverse, they say. Infidels of old. And yet, what does the Bible teach? Our Lord asked this very question to his disciples, whom do the people say that I am? And their response was this. In Matthew chapter 16, in verse 14, and they said, some say that our John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. In other words, their evaluation of Jesus Christ is no better than Mohammed's was. Then he said, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. God has taken the scales from your eyes, and you see me as I really am. I am the Messiah. I am the Son of the living God. That's who I am. John 1, verse 14, we said there that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The only begotten is another way of saying the Son of God. When we come to verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Now I'm not going to go through the New Testament and show you every occurrence where it calls Jesus Christ the Son. But if you remove that from the New Testament, you're going to have a big gaping hole in the New Testament. He is the Son of God. He is the second person of the Godhead. It is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost that we baptize in, in that name, in that name. John 3.16, perhaps the most famous of all the verses of the Bible, very clearly says that God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. But you go on in verse 17, it says, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, that the world through him might be saved. He was the Son of God before he came. He was the Son of God sent into the world. He did not become the Son of God. He was the second person of the Godhead when he came. God manifests in the flesh, the Son, the eternal Son, the only begotten Son. In Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 8, We read there, but unto the Son he saith, that is, unto the Son God saith. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Here is the Father addressing the Son, and He calls Him God. The Bible is very clear. The Bible is not only clear that Christ the Messiah is God manifest in the flesh, that he is the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God. The Bible is also clear that if somebody comes professing to be a Christian, yet denying his sonship, he is filled with an evil spirit. The Bible is clear on that. I don't want to skip over this point too lightly this morning. If you deny the sonship of Christ, It's even more than being filled with an evil spirit. You have denied the only means of your salvation. When we go to the Scripture over and over again, it's to the Son that we must look. We just mentioned John 3.16, the one who believes on the Son will not perish but have eternal life. Look at John 3.36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. You deny that Christ is the Son, God's wrath is abiding on you. It's not merely you're filled with an evil spirit. God's wrath is upon you, right then, if you deny the Sonship of Christ. 1 John 5, verse 11 says, this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This is not mere some theological debate that's for theologians in some seminary somewhere. This is telling us that if you don't have the Son of God, you don't have eternal life. Salvation is bound up in this person that Mohammed is denying. verse 7 says, We walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship one with another. In the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. The Son needed to have blood in order that he might shed it for the sins of his people. He had to lay down his life in a sacrificial manner. There had to be the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. He had to shed his blood for our sins if we were going to be atoned for in God's sight. Muhammad denied that that ever happened. We'll look at that tonight, Lord willing. More than that, it's not just necessary that a man die for another man. This man must be able to give to a sacrifice of value, an infinite value, if he's going to atone for the sins of more than one person. And so you note that John correctly says, it is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, that is, the God-man. Because the person behind the sacrifice is Deity. He is able to give to the human sacrifice an infinite value, because God is infinite. It's because of that. The atoning work of Christ is sufficient for you as an individual, and it's sufficient for everyone in your family, and it's sufficient for everyone in this church, and it's sufficient for every believer in the world, times ten million. There is an infinite value placed upon that human sacrifice, because it's his Son who is behind it. His Son. It's very important then, that we understand that the denial of his son is the denial and repudiation of the gospel and everlasting life and it brings the wrath of God upon the head of the one who says it. When we look at the history concerning Mohammed, there is evidence in history that he was indeed filled with an evil spirit, had contact with evil spirits. One biographer, Haikal, who himself is a Mohammed who is writing In a positive way, a biography of Muhammad says this. This is his description concerning Muhammad's supposed meeting with Gabriel. He says this, stricken with panic, Muhammad arose and asked himself, what did I see? Did possession of the devil which I feared all along come to pass? Muhammad looked to his right and to his left but saw nothing. For a while he stood there trembling with fear and stricken with awe. He feared the cave might be haunted and that he might run away still unable to explain what he saw." This is the biography of a, as it were, a follower of Muhammad, not an enemy. His first response to what had happened was that he was dealing with an evil spirit. Remember the spirit choked him. told him to recite and choked him again and choked him again. His wife, the nominal Christian, was the one who convinced Mohammed that it was indeed God dealing with him. Convinced him that he didn't deal or see an evil spirit, but he had dealt and saw Gabriel, a messenger from God. But later on he would have other revelations, and the same biographer does describe some of those revelations, those times when supposedly God came and gave him more information. This is one of those descriptions. Silence reigned for a while, nobody could describe it as long or short. Muhammad had not moved from his spot when revelation came to him, accompanied by the usual convulsions. He was stretched out in his clothes and a pillow was placed under his head. Aisha, his wife, later reported, thinking that something ominous was about to happen, everyone in the room was frightened except me, for I did not fear a thing, knowing I was innocent. Muhammad later recovered. He sat up, began to wipe his forehead where the beads of perspiration had gathered. I'm not going to go into demonism this morning, but there are descriptions that we could parallel this, not of God's Spirit coming upon someone, but an evil spirit coming upon someone. But we don't even have to go to the murky and dark waters of history to tell whether or not he was dealing with an evil spirit. It's very clear he was dealing with an evil spirit. How do you know? Because the Bible tells us that. The Bible tells us that. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul writes, "...forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of living God, not in tables of stone, but fleshly tables of the heart, and such trust have we through Christ to God." Actually, that is not the passage I want. Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians 11. But I fear lest by any means, as a certain beguiled Eve through a subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you have received another spirit whom you have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted, ye might bear it well with them." Here Paul is saying that there is another Christ that is being preached, there is another spirit, there is another gospel. Now we have already seen that the Christ preached by Mohammed was another Christ. He was animated then by another spirit. Obviously the gospel he preached also had to be another gospel. In that same chapter, the Apostle Paul goes on and he says, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Satan transforming himself into an angel of light. Satan having his own apostles. It's interesting, that's one of the titles they like to give to Muhammad, he's one of the apostles. Turn if you will to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I had it there in reference, but the computer actually spit out the wrong verse, so 2 Corinthians chapter 3. The reason it spit out the wrong verse is chapter 4, I should have put. Chapter 4, verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Who has blinded the eyes? If a man, if a woman, if a congregation, if a group of people cannot see this Christ that we have been presenting this morning from the Scripture, what has happened? The God of this world has blinded their eyes. God of this world. He wasn't dealing with the Gabriel of Scripture. If he were dealing with an angel at all, it was the angel of light, that is Satan. If he were dealing with a spirit at all, it was another spirit. His mind was veiled, as it were, concerning the gospel of Christ. He couldn't see it. Turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. We have it very clearly stated there as well. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 21. John says, I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Not THE Antichrist, AN Antichrist. THE Antichrist is stated in verse 18. Now he's dealing with the spirit of Antichrist in the plural. There are many Antichrists throughout time. And he says, if you deny the Father and the Son, you have this Antichrist spirit. Verse 23, Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. For that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father." Hang on to what you've been taught. Don't be persuaded by another spirit. Don't be moved by these other teachers. Don't be moved. They're of Antichrist. Our Lord himself in Matthew 24 said that after he would depart there would be false prophets and false Christs who would arise. And in that train of false prophets, and we can go into church history and name many of them, but in that train of false prophets is the name Mohammed. Mohammed. Empowered, deceived, influenced, whatever word you want to use, by an evil spirit, not the spirit of a living Christ. When Solomon Rushdie, who is an Indian and a Muslim, wrote on what are called the satanic verses. That, by the way, is not his terminology. That is a terminology used by Muslims concerning some verses that Muhammad put in the Qur'an and later he removed from the Qur'an saying that Satan had influenced his putting them there. He wrote on those satanic verses. I believe he wrote a novel. But when he wrote that, you remember perhaps in the newspapers how the Ayatollah Khomeini from Iran put him under the sentence of death. and how that the English government had to protect him and put him in hiding. He dared speak right against the Prophet Muhammad. Today many who expose Muhammad for being a false prophet do so in peril of their own lives. There are countries where you could not do so without being put to death. And 9-11 this past week, many times you heard people talking about heroes and they would go to those and say, who are your heroes? Oftentimes it was the firefighters or the policemen or the brethren who were part of the flight 93 that crashed out here in Pennsylvania, who actually took on the terrorist or actually risked their own life to try to save the life of others. While not in any way trying to demean the fact of their heroic efforts, if you were to come to me and say, who are your heroes? To me it would be those who are bringing the gospel to those in Muslim countries. Those who right now are risking their lives, that people in Saudi Arabia can hear the gospel. People in Iraq can hear the gospel. People in Iran can hear the gospel. We're not afraid of the persecution and death threats in Egypt, and we'll take the gospel there and give them the word of Christ. 1 John 4 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. This morning that's what we have been about. We have been trying the we have identified a false prophet and a multitude of people who are ensnared and being brought into bondage and will be taken to hell by this false prophet. Should we be in despair ourselves? No. He goes on in 1 John chapter 4 and says, Year of God, the little children have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. God has liberated you. He's liberated you by the power of the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ has opened your eyes, and you have overcome. You have overcome this world. Brethren, God is able to overcome, overcome in the lives of many who are now ensnared by this darkness. We support his missionaries, Steve Ludwig and his wife, Kida. I've known Steve and Kida for years. They labor in Turkey, a Muslim country. They have seen some who have had their eyes open and overcome. We are about this business of giving the gospel out and praying that the Holy Spirit would come and overcome this evil spirit that has, as it were, blinded the eyes of people and would keep them deceived and keep them in darkness. As Muslims in their religion grow in this country, you won't have to be a foreign missionary to take the gospel to a Muslim. More and more you can just go to your neighborhood, go to the cities of our nation. It is said that Los Angeles is the second largest city in the world of Iranians. Our nation is becoming more and more Muslim. And you and I have this glorious gospel to give them. You and I have the only thing that will liberate them. And the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. We need not fear. We need to boldly give out this word. That the Lord might set free those who have been deceived by this madman. those who have been deceived by this false prophet. We have to give out the word, give out the gospel, that God might bring them to himself. Let's pray. We have been dealing with that which is a false gospel and a false prophet. Could be this morning you're here and you say, I don't follow Mohammed, I'm not a follower of this false prophet. But do you know Christ? Do you know this one that we have been speaking of, the one who is the eternal Son of God, God manifest in the flesh? Have you ever come to him and laid hold of him as Lord and Savior? If not, then you may not be a follower of Islam, yet you're still not in the kingdom either. Come to Christ. Come to this eternal Son and lay hold of Him as your Lord and Savior, and He will save you. He will redeem you. He will cleanse you from sin. You say, I'm bound by sin. I can't come. I'm afraid of this and I'm afraid of that. He can set you free. Go to Him for the power to be set free. Salvation is in Christ. Come and embrace Him. You are saved. who have declared themselves our mortal enemies. Yet for Christ's sake, in love we give them the gospel. And we plead with them in time that they would repent, lest they spend eternity in hell. May the Lord give us a great burden for all those that are lost in our world, especially those who have been deceived by religious teachers. Father in heaven, we come to thee this morning, thanking thee that you have put us in the enviable position You put your spirit within us, and he is greater than the one in the world. You have removed our sins from us, something the world cannot boast. You have brought us into union with our own dear Son, so that he represents us, and that he as man now is our living head, and that we are united to deity through him. Lord, we stand amazed. We stand amazed. Lord, you have said that we are going to spend eternity with thee. Lord, give us in boldness. in our day and age, to be the spokesman that we ought to be, to speak to this world concerning the glory of Christ. Use us, Lord, that we might see others one unto thee. Lord, we pray for any here who may be without Christ. Lord, draw them graciously to thyself. Open their heart as you opened the heart of Peter to the great truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Lord, do that we pray even this day, for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.