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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2005: To The Point

Randy Skeete

What I Like About Mohammad

I Am very delighted To see those of you who are here.

I am truly privileged for 2 reasons The occasion that brings us all here and the fact that every single person gathered before me is counted so precious in the sight of God that He sent His Son to die for you.

For that reason more than any other, I am highly, highly privileged to be with you.

Is that Elder Reed that I see sitting over there?

Let me show you a giant in the service of God.

This is Elder Zadok Reed, the last church I pastored.

A tremendous man who has served God almost maybe 60 years I am guessing.

So I feel very encouraged by the presence of Elder Reed with us today.

It is now 18 minutes according to this expensive looking clock.

After 12 I will release you by 10 minutes to 1.

10 minutes to 1 I am done every day for the 12:00 meeting.

The same does not hold true for the evening.

I understand I have a little more chronological latitude so it will be a little longer but for this morning or early day session, I will be done by 10 minutes to 1.

I want to let you know that the first sermons of the day will not contain as much meat as the evening sermons for very obvious reasons.

And I say that deliberately to entice you to come both in the afternoon and in the evening.

I urge you to bring your friends and I seriously mean it when I say bring your enemies because the messages that they hear will convert them from your enemies to your friends.

And this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I will message for today what I like about Muhammad.

Let us if we can bow our heads reverently and pray.

Our Father in Heaven, this is more serious than perhaps any 1 of us imagines.

You are unseen, but you are here in the presence of your Spirit.

Father, upon me lies the burdensome responsibility of delivering the words of life as you communicate them to me.

Lord, I beg you from my heart, because I am made of dirt, The message passing out of me is subject to contamination Lord to prevent that I ask you to grant me the presence of your spirit the spirit of truth That he may speak through me that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be acceptable in your sight I offer this prayer in Jesus name and for his sake amen what I like about Mohammed I have always said to friends and to myself that I wish God would give me the power to go back in time and spend a few days with certain individuals about whom I have read in the pages of history.

I can think of that great military genius Alexander the Great.

I would have loved to have spent a few weeks traveling with him as he went from Macedonia conquering his way all the way to India.

I would have loved to have sailed with Christopher Columbus as he, within the safety of quotation marks, discovered the new world.

I would have loved to have spent at least 5 minutes on the ark as it rode the global floodwaters.

I would have loved to have stood in the back of a crowd and watched Jesus as he said, Lazarus, come forth, and to see that man come forth.

I would have loved to have been on the battlefields of the Crimea in the 1850s and watch Florence Nightingale with her lamp going from sick soldier to wounded soldier.

I would have loved to have been with Marco Polo as he made his historic journeys to the east.

But here I am positioned in the 21st century and I cannot do that.

But there are some men I really really would have loved to have met.

Confucius was born at a time when the feudal system of China was collapsing all around him.

There were wars as feudal lords battle for supremacy and for control.

His father was about 70 years old and his mother about 17 when Confucius was born.

Tradition says that the father was a huge man, a very gifted warrior, and particularly ugly.

And Confucius, true to the line of genetic inheritance, we're told he was born a particularly unattractive child, a large head all out of proportion to the rest of his frame but perhaps the size of his head presaged the wisdom with which he would bless the whole world.

Confucius taught very succinctly that The value of a person was not to be found in the person's connections, the person's lineage, the person's genetics.

But the value of a person should be measured by the quality of life that that person lived, by the quality of deeds that the person carried out and performed.

Confucius believed that through education and learning and the development of the mind, the Basest person could be elevated to the level of the nobility purely by effort and work and following principles that are noble Uplifting and do no damage to one's neighbor Now, how can someone argue with principles like that?

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 10, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.

And that has Confucianism written all over it in the sense that Confucius believed in hard work and the Bible preaches hard work.

That man encouraged people to develop the mind Develop the manners and develop the morals.

How can anyone object to that body of instruction and these?

Instructions have influenced and changed the lives of millions through the ages and today millions of people follow the teachings of Confucius almost as if those teachings constitute a religion.

I admire Confucius And Confucius died in about 479 before the birth of Christ, about the age of 70, 71.

About the time Confucius lived, 1 of his contemporaries was another outstanding person called Buddha.

And Buddha was born to privilege, royalty, lived in a palace until his later teenage years when he came into contact with the suffering in the larger world outside of his world.

And when Confucius saw the suffering and the sickness and the poverty, he set himself to try to answer the fundamental questions in life.

Why is it from the journey from the womb to the tomb is played by suffering and tribulation and trial?

And Buddha dedicated himself to coming into contact with a higher source of knowledge, the light.

Actually the word Buddha means the enlightened 1.

Buddha taught That human beings should not be controlled by material things He didn't say this should not have them He taught this should not be controlled by material things And Jesus Christ said precisely the same thing, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things that he possesseth.

People measure themselves by the kind of car they drive, they measure themselves by the neighborhood in which they live, they measure themselves by the friends with which they associate, they measure themselves by the label that is displayed at the back of their shirts, on the back of their backpacks.

And this outstanding man, Buddha, he preached that we ought not to be tied by materialism, but we should rise to a higher level of living, so that we're not tied to that kind of life, but we understand what material things do we use them for greater good but we are not in that process materialistic he taught that among other things Buddha taught that we should always try to use right words we should Entertain right thoughts we should do the right kind of work and also work hard.

I Admire that man The Bible says by your words you shall be condemned by your words.

You shall be justified Jesus said every idle word a man speaks he shall give an account in the judgment.

And this man, Buddha, said, we must watch our words, watch our deeds, watch our thoughts, watch our ambitions, our aspirations, so that whatever we give off is not negative it is positive.

I admire some of the teachings of Buddha and then this outstanding man died.

In 570 AD, the Arabian Peninsula, there was born a man whose name is perhaps more widely known as the founder of a religious movement.

And when we think of Islam, we think of Mohammed.

There are some things about the religion with which Mohammed is so closely identified that I profoundly admire because they are almost perfect reflections of what my religion teaches.

Some of his pillars are precisely my pillars.

There's 1 God and my religious persuasion tells me there's 1 God.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 reading verse 4, Hear O Israel the Lord our God is 1 Lord.

The Jews say that today in their prayer, the Shema.

Another pillar of the Islamic faith, prayer.

They say 5 times a day, I wish more Christians would pray at least twice a day.

I try to pray as many times as I can on my knees walking in the supermarket on a plane in the bus before coming up here.

Our subject this evening as it was this afternoon is what I like about Muhammad.

When I was in school, I don't recall whether it was elementary school or junior high or high, I had to learn a poem by heart.

It was called and still is called the psalm of life by a poet called Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the first stanza of the poem says Tell me not in mournful numbers 11 Life is but an empty dream 12 And the soul is dead that slumbers 13 And things are not what they seem 14 But the stanza that applies to us tonight 15 Is the 1 that says 16 Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime and departing leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.

Now whether we want to or not we all leave footprints on the sands of time.

For some people follow in those footprints, for others people avoid those footprints.

But inevitably we leave footprints on the sands of time.

Now our subject is what I admire about Muhammad.

There are generally 2 classes of people and I class them under the heading of the effect of their lives during and after death.

Let me mention 1 great person whom I admire, Alexander the Great.

A tremendous military genius, but I've never met someone who tries to pattern his life by the principles of Alexander's military exploits.

But Alexander is indisputably regarded as 1 of the greatest military leaders of all time.

We mentioned Marco Polo this morning or this afternoon.

I have yet to meet anyone who has started a religious movement called the Marco Polo Brethren.

But he was no doubt a great explorer and a great traveler.

But then there are those who after passing off the stage people Live their lives by the principles that these people have left behind their footprints in the sands of time Let us take for instance Mother Teresa.

She dedicated her life to helping the impoverished in the great slums of the cities of India.

And there is an order of nuns after her who carry on her work.

She is dead, she is gone, but her influence remains and there are those who walk in the footprints on the sands of time that she has left.

Mohandas Gandhi at risk to life and limb he fought against what he considered an unjust occupation of his land.

And because of his efforts, his country was eventually released from the colonial grip and won its independence.

And there are people today who pursue social change by the same techniques that Mohandas Gandhi used and perhaps the most notable is our own Martin Luther King in whose footstep people follow today because of the life he lived and the ideals for which he was willing to sacrifice his life and shed his blood.

His teachings are followed today by uncounted millions of people and whose lives have been changed profoundly, materially, educationally, in many ways because they have incorporated in their lives the principles that this man propounded when he was alive.

Principles of the determined acquisition of education as the certain means of lifting oneself from a low estate.

The principles of the equality of the classes bound together by a determination to live noble lives.

The principle that 1 ought without cessation develop the mind, develop the morals, and develop the manners.

Confucius believed that learning should end in the grave and so do I.

His footprints are followed today by millions of people.

He left large footprints in the sands of time.

Footprints again that are followed by multiple millions of people.

People who have a deep respect for life as Buddha taught it.

People who believe the fundamental principle of life is love.

People who believe based on Buddha's teachings that 1 ought not to be captured and caught like an animal in a cage by material things but a person ought to be able to rise above them.

People who believe in the Eightfold Path, we ought to speak good words and have good deeds and good work, good ambition, good thoughts.

And there was a man called Muhammad and our subject is what I admire about Muhammad.

Let me extend that admiration to those whom I have already named.

Muhammad is associated with a religion that straddles the globe.

He taught among other things 5 things that I believe in myself and many others, even non-Muslims.

I may not call my God what He called His, but I believe there's 1 God, and that is found in the text that functions as my authoritative holy text.

Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord, and I believe that.

It's a vital part of millions of Christians.

Whether it's 5 times a day, once a day or 50 times a day, we say that prayer is the breath of the soul.

Fasting it is not only something people do in the month of Ramadan But fasting is something some Christians do once a week some Christians fast usually the middle of the week Wednesday fasting for Christians is a very necessary spiritual exercise as essential as prayer and Bible study and engagement in evangelism giving alms to the poor.

We're told by John, and whoso seeth his brother, whoso hath this world's needs or goods, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him.

John, that beloved disciple closest to Jesus Christ, he taught that we should take care of those less fortunate than we are.

It exists in both religions and I admire it and I try to practice it.

And Islam believes that there should be a pilgrimage to Mecca.

I would love to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the Holy Land, and see where Jesus walked, and the disciples walked, and the Old Testament patriarchs lived their lives and crisscrossed the land going about the business of their God.

And I believe that we should regard certain sites as very important to us, as part of the history.

No wonder Jesus says so often, or the Old Testament tells us, remember, remember, remember.

Remembering history is important, and pilgrimages are part of remembering history.

He lived his life made his contribution and then he died He went the way of all flesh.

He made a sterling contribution, then he gave up the ghost, and he died.

I admire the Prophet of Islam for his persistence.

Even when he was driven from his homeland with just a few followers you must at least admire the persistence in something he believed.

Like Buddha, he tried to provide answers to life's fundamental questions.

Like Muhammad, He founded a movement which we call Christianity.

Like these great men, he endured disappointment.

He came unto his own and his own received him not.

Mohammed was driven from his homeland or from his town.

And after a brief life of 33 and a half years, Jesus Christ died.

Human beings, all 4, preached principles for the improvement of life give gave of themselves for what they believed and made the ultimate sacrifice for the beliefs and all 4 died But let me say with all possible respect that Confucius is still dead.

But Jesus Christ who made it particularly clear when he was alive the evidence scientifically examined tells us that Jesus Christ, yes having died he rose from the grave which to the reasonable mind should lead someone to say let me take a second look at that man How can a man die and come back from the grave well there were other men who had that experience notably Lazarus But I need not take a second look at Lazarus.

The Real Truth About Sin

And there isn't a person under the sun, I would suspect, certainly not in the Western Hemisphere, who is not familiar with the word sin.

Our Father in heaven I ask in the name of Jesus to come very close to us in the person of your Holy Spirit.

Please open our minds, enlighten our understanding, sharpen our intellects, and break down the Jericho walls of opposition to truth that you may find surrounding any heart.

Father, capture every living soul in this place And save us when you come.

The Bible says in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Now in verse 31 of chapter 1, the Bible says, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Now we know that when Adam was made Adam was made sinless sinless Despite the fact that Adam was made sinless, God did not make that condition permanent simply on the basis of the fact that Adam was made sinless.

Despite the fact that Adam was made sinless, He had a sinless nature.

Characters are not created the same way Adam was created.

In contemplating what is sin we have to understand that nature is something we don't choose.

That is not an expression of a free moral agent.

But God needed to put Adam in a position where he now could exercise his free moral agency and choose whether to remain or retain that sinless nature or to choose contrary to God's will for him.

God waited to see how Adam would choose, how this man with a sinless nature would choose and so initiate the process of developing a character.

You and I were born with a certain nature.

It is a nature that if not controlled, would sin interminably.

The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

In the same book chapter 13 verse 23 can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then me also do good who are accustomed to do evil those 2 texts combined And then we add the third verse Romans chapter 8 verse 7 because the carnal mind is enmity against God For it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be that's the way we are born with a nature leaning away from God But that nature itself is not a conscious choice we make.

I must stress this tediously because it is fundamental to understanding sin.

God does not judge me based on what I inherited through the genetic stream.

He judges me based on the decisions that I make.

Let's observe that Genesis is the book where we find the definitions of all fundamental concepts within the context of salvation and the life of a child of God.

We learn for instance in Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 and God said let there be light and there was light.

We learn from that that God's Word is absolutely reliable whatever God says comes to pass exactly as he says it and so the Bible says and God said let there be light and there was light that's God's Word whether creating a world or creating righteousness in you and me whatever God does he does it through his Word We learn from Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and there shall be 1 flesh.

We learn that a marriage is a man and a woman 1 man 1 woman not 1 man and 1 man or 1 woman and 1 woman 1 man 1 woman.

We learn the definition of a marriage in the early chapters of the book of Genesis.

Genesis chapter 2 verse 15, And the Lord God took the man which he had formed and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

We understand that people should have something to do with their time.

Genesis 2, 16 and 17, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

That's a difficult concept to swallow in a nation where we feel we have the freedom to do whatever we like.

But for perfect people God put restrictions of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof Thou shalt surely die we discover that God places Limitations even on sinless people How much more limitations on sinful people?

Let's look at verses 16, 17 again of Genesis chapter 2 in the light of our subject, what is sin?

And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

This is clear, indisputable, crystal clear information.

For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

And we have in these 2 verses of verse 17 the great law of cause and effect.

For those of you who are not Seventh-day Adventists, I want to recommend an author to you that will fascinate you more than John Grisham, Michael Crichton or Crichton, whatever his name is or Stephen King or Shakespeare or any other of those writers or Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner or Virginia Woolf I recommend to you a woman called Ellen G.

If you read them, you will sit back in consternation and wonder, how is it a woman with Little or no education can write with such profundity.

33 She wrote a book called Patriarchs and Prophets 34 which deals with this subject.

35 If you have Seventh-day Adventist friends, they should fall over themselves to get you a copy at no cost to yourself.

She said to parents, when raising your children, teach them to reason from cause to effect.

People need to learn that for every action, you scientists finish it for me, there is an equal and opposite reaction it is a biblical principle in the day thou eatest thereof that's the action thou shall surely die That's the opposite and equal reaction perhaps far more devastating than the action itself.

Listen to me let me digress briefly at 22 minutes after 12.

Cause and effect operates in all areas of life.

It is a principle that functions in the cosmos from 1 end of this unfenced universe to the next.

If you study hard and in an organized way, you will get academic results.

If you earnestly study God's Word, you will lose your taste for the things of this world you will develop a refined taste for spiritual things If you keep yourself according to the will of God, your influence will be wholesome on those who operate in your sphere of influence.

God said, In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

What God gave to Adam was plain and simple information with which and on the basis of which to make a choice.

Now animals have no moral structure even though physiologically animals and we are virtually the same thing.

The Bible says the life in us is a life in an animal.

Ecclesiastes 3.19, for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts.

Genesis 2.7 we read at the beginning of this presentation what is sin and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.

Genesis 2 19 and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the earth and every fowl of the air.

Ecclesiastes 3.20, all are of the dust, all return to dust again.

At a physical, physiological, non-moral level there is no difference between me and a cow.

When that cow dies it decomposes whether in the ground or in my stomach.

But God made human beings with something the animals do not have.

And that is the capacity to make moral choices.

And a moral choice is not necessarily a reflex action it is a conscious activity of the will and so God said to Adam if you eat this if you choose to eat it in the light of this information clearly given to you, if you make that choice, that is the consequence.

Sin will occur as a result of your choice.

And so Genesis tells us that sin is a choice.

The real truth about sin is our subject for this evening, as it was this afternoon when I called it, What is Sin?

I'll tell you briefly what we talked about at our 12 o'clock service.

I stressed that sin is fundamentally a conscious choice to go contrary to God's will.

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Series

Restoration 2005: To The Point

Are There Degrees in Heaven?

Transcript

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