Is Allah the True God?

In an interview, former President George Bush stated, we had a person blow up our federal building in Oklahoma City, who professed to be a Christian, but that's not a Christian act to kill innocent people. That's a direct quote from an interview with President Bush, who many times talked about Islam being a great religion and that we all pray to and worship the same God. Pope Benedict XVI recently went to Turkey.

It was several weeks ago. Turkey is an Islamic nation, though they are more secular than most of the Islamic nations. And he, at the hour of prayer, turned and faced Mecca and prayed. Of course, the Catholic Church has been involved in ecumenism, trying to bring all the religions of the world together for many decades.

Today, we ask the question, is Allah the true God? When we see the world condition as it is, with Islam being the fastest growing religion in the world, with some 1.2 billion adherents, and it seems that most of all the troubled spots on the face of the earth are in one to one degree or another, somehow related to Islam. Now, that's not the case, of course, with North Korea. And it's not the case in some other areas of the world.

But it is generally the case. And do we really know much about the religion and where we are in some of the prophetic areas, going back even dealing with Ishmael and with Esau? So the question is, is Allah the true God? Is Allah the God of the Bible? Is Allah the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Well, Islam says that really they don't distinguish between essences of Allah and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They just say it's just using different names. But is that the case? Were the promises that God gave Abraham pass on to Isaac and Jacob or to Ishmael? First of all, we need to answer the question of how we come to know God.

How would we know the true God? And how do we know that a being who claims to be God is really who he says that he is? The Bible speaks of God being revealed. So let's look at the word revelation. What does it mean? First of all, go to 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 10, where the Apostle Paul declares very dogmatically that we cannot know spiritual things apart from revelation.

There is a field in philosophy that deals with the study of knowledge. It's called epistemology. How does man attain knowledge? Well, man can attain knowledge through reason. He can attain it through experience. He can attain it through his senses, the five senses called sensory knowledge. He can attain it to some degree through trial and error.

That's not the best way. And there is another way, and that way is the way of revelation, which the scientific world has rejected in most of the world. So how are you going to know spiritual things apart from revelation? In 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9, But as is as written, I have not seen, or hear, heard, neither have entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.

Now, let's briefly examine the word revelation. The English word here that's translated reveal is the Greek word apocalypsis. Apocalypsis means to lay bare, to make naked, to disclose the truth, to open up, to show openly. So to open up, to show openly, to reveal, to disclose that which is hidden. So spiritual knowledge comes by revelation according to the Word of God. And this Holy Spirit is the great enabler.

A person can have the Holy Spirit begin to work with his mind. A person can begin to become convicted of the Word of God before he receives the Holy Spirit of Begettle. Christ said, the words I speak, they are spirit and they are life. And it is through the Word of God that we can be convicted of the truth. For the Spirit searches all things, the deep things of God. But the Word and the Spirit work in concert. They work together. For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?

And even so, the things of God knows no man but the Spirit of God. So the Bible clearly says you cannot know spiritual things apart from revelation. We learn more about the process of revelation and to some degree it is a process and unveiling and unfolding and opening up to wood Revelation 1.1 in Revelation 1 and verse 1. Here we see the chain of revelation in the book of Revelation. Now some people say, well, it's the revelation of Christ.

That is not what the Bible says. The Bible says that this is the revelation of God. That he gave to Christ who gave it to an angel who gave it to John. So we'll read it, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him. So the revelation came from God.

God gave it to Christ. To show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass. And He said and signified it by His Angelos, His messenger. And there is discussion on this Angelos, whether Spirit or divine. Most people believe it was a Spirit being. Signified it by His Angel unto His servant John. So in the Bible, generally speaking, Christ is referred to as a revelator. But Jesus said, I didn't say anything that my father didn't give me to speak.

Now we go to Luke 10. And we see here that Christ is in the role of a revelator. In Luke 10, verse 21, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them, once again that word, Apokalupsis, the uncovering, the unveiling, the disclosure, and have revealed them unto babes even so, Father, so it has seemed good in your sight.

All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. So Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father, came to reveal the truth, and as in largely the role of revelator. In the Old Testament, the word revealed has much the same meaning. We'll look at one scripture there, Deuteronomy 29, 29. The Hebrew word is Higalah. The different pronunciation of it is Galah, G-A-W-L-A-W, phonetically.

In Deuteronomy 29 and verse 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, the Galah, those things which are revealed belong unto us, to our children, forever, that we may do all the words of the law. And once again, this word means to uncover, to disclose, to make open, to make known, to reveal. So the words are basically the same in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christ is the living Word of God.

We have the written Word of God, and Christ states that the words He speaks, their spirit, their life, John 663. The Holy Spirit is the Great Enabler. The Holy Spirit is analogous to a key that removes the lock, as it were, on our minds, and opens it in some way that we don't completely understand, so that we can understand the great mysteries of God. Now, I wish I had that key. Don't you wish you had that key? So that every mind of every person on the face of the earth's mind could be unlocked by God's Spirit.

But the Word of God works in concert with the Spirit of God. I'm sorry, works in concert with the Word of God. And of course, that's one of the reasons for the Church. Christ said, Go ye therefore into all the world, disciple all nations, teach them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you, so that the Word of God and the Spirit of God work in concert.

And one of the great missions of the Church is to send people out to preach the Word. There are not many people converted who haven't heard the Word. In fact, I don't know of any. So the Word of God and the Spirit of God work in conjunction with each other. Let's go to Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3. Now, why are we covering these Scriptures?

Because how do you come to know the true God? We're talking about today is Allah the true God, and how do you know the true God? Is the true God the God of the Bible of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Well, the Muslims would say Allah is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well.

In Ephesians 3.1, For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, or to the nations, the ethnos, if you have heard of the oeconomia, the dispensation, the period of testing, of the grace of God which has given me to youward, how that by revelation, how did Paul come to know it? That by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in a few words.

Now, one of the greatest mysteries is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The greatest mystery of all has to do with when human beings are born into the family of God, and the great mystery of how human beings can attain to sonship and godship on the God plane at the resurrection.

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in a few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of man.

Let that sink in. Think about it a moment.

As it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirits, or of these spirits, not spirits, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel.

Now in 2 Peter 1.

So how did Paul come to know the things that he learned? Paul was one of the most educated men of his day. He had studied the Greek philosophers to read about in Acts 17. He was able to have discourse with the learned ones on Mars Hill and Athens, Greece, the cradle of Western democracy and education, as they call it.

2 Peter 1.19.

But Paul didn't come to understand the things that he understood about the great mystery of God and who the true God really is through his intellect or through his great education.

It was through, as we have read, revelation.

In 2 Peter 1.17.

For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, this is talking about the transfiguration, in whom I am well pleased.

And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount, the Mount of Transfiguration. We have also, Peter had, and Peter, James, and John had this witness, they were with Christ and saw him coming in glory, the Mount of Transfiguration. Then Peter says we have another witness as well. Not only did we see that, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well, that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is.

That's amazing, that word. That word is not the usual Greek word that's translated, is.

The usual Greek word for is is en, meaning to exist. This word is gionomahy.

Gionomahy means to come into existence, to bring about, to come to pass.

In fact, it's translated 255 times in the Bible as come to pass.

Others is to be made, to be done, to become.

So, knowing this verse, that no prophecy of the Bible had its existence or came to pass of any private interpretation. In other words, a man didn't dream it up. Now, I know we've oftentimes turned to the Scripture to try to prove that the Bible interprets itself, which it does.

Perhaps the greatest rule of exegesis is the Bible interprets the Bible.

But in this particular case, that's not what it's talking about, though we use it. I've used it.

You can look at the, in your concordance, you look at that word gionomahy, it means to come to pass, to bring about, to be known.

So, the Scripture didn't come to pass. It wasn't given to us by any private source. That's what this is talking about. As you see in the next verse. For, the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So once again, they received it.

How? By revelation. Through the Holy Spirit.

So, in summary, we can say that God is known only through revelation, the true God.

You can philosophize all you want to, but how do you know it for sure through revelation? And of course, there's an element of faith in coming to believe in the true God.

So then, how do we know that God is who He says He is?

Let's notice Isaiah 46 verse 5.

I read this first time I have read in a long time.

Isaiah 40 through 46.

Some of the commentaries say that Isaiah is divided into different books, and a new book begins with Isaiah 40.

I would encourage you to read Isaiah 40 through 46 this coming week, because there, God really declares who He is.

And it's very inspiring.

And a lot of it has to do with His love, care, and concern for Israel and for Zion, and of course, Zion, the symbolic of the church. In Isaiah 46 and verse 5, and one of the main thrusts of these six or seven chapters here at Isaiah is God is telling Israel, here's how you can know that I am who I say I am.

It's also a large part of how we can know that God is who He says He is.

Now, Isaiah 46 verse 5, to whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we may be like?

They lavish gold out of the bag and waste silver in the balance, hire goldsmith, and He makes it into a God. They fall down. Yes, they worship.

They bear Him upon the shoulder. They carry Him and set Him in His place, and He stands from His place, shall He not remove? Yes, one shall cry unto Him, yet can He not answer nor save Him out of His trouble. Can those idols made of wood, hay, stone, stubble, or gold or silver or precious stones, can they do anything?

No, they can't.

Remember this and show yourselves, men. Bring it again to mine, all you transgressors.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God. There's none else. I am God. There's none like me.

And here's one of the main ways, declaring the end from the beginning. Of course, we talk about fulfilled prophecy.

And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

God has a plan that He's working out here below with the sons of men, and no man, no thing, can stand in its way. That plan is going to be worked out and it's going to come to fruition.

My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

Now, here's a very specific thing in verse 11 that we can point to how God shows that He is who He is.

Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel from afar country. Yes, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.

You go back to Isaiah 44.

Isaiah 44 and verse 27.

Here, Isaiah prophesies that a person named Cyrus. Isaiah prophesied long before Judah went into captivity, but Isaiah prophesies under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by revelation that a man named Cyrus would come on the scene. And Cyrus was a Persian emperor who came on the scene and issued a decree in 538 BC that the Jews would be able to return to Jerusalem and build the temple after the Babylonian captivity.

So Isaiah 43 verse 27.

I'm sorry, it's 44, I said. Isaiah 44 verse 27.

That says to the deep, Be dry and I will dry up your rivers. That says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built. And he issued that decree in 538 BC. This prophecy was long before that. The person is even called by name.

Of course, the skeptic critic could say, well, they came back with a redaction later, inserted the name.

But I don't believe that. There's no evidence of that.

You shall be built.

You shall be built to the temple. Your foundation shall be laid. Thus says the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus.

Anointed means it's appointed in this case, whose right hand I have holden to seduce nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him. Two leaven gates.

See the night that Babylon was destroyed. The gate shall not be shut.

Well, as that gets into how Babylon was destroyed after the days of Cyrus, that they came in through those gates, they had drained the the moat or the river down low, and came in and conquered the city.

So, once again, I encourage you to read chapters 40 through 46.

The proofs of God's existence of who he is, that he is who he says he is, being the number one proof of God's existence in my mind, along with the revealed Word of God, is nothing else makes sense. There is nothing else that makes sense.

This includes all the rational arguments about the existence of God.

You know, we had a book called Seven Proofs of God's Existence, a very fine little booklet, and it's a booklet surely worth reading. Of course, the skeptic has always got a question. For example, first cause, and then the skeptic would ask, well, who caused the first cause? Well, God is uncaused, and he is the cause of the first cause.

The argument from design, design demands a designer, and so the skeptic says, well, who designed the designer?

But when we get to first cause, we want to talk about that just briefly.

That is, who initiated the laws of physics and chemistry? That would in any sense account for matter.

Creation demands a creator. Of course, they can always ask, well, who created the creator?

Design demands a designer, and so on, that we've already mentioned. Now, we hear that the universe is ever expanding.

Some of the recent scientific discoveries affirms that the universe is ever expanding.

It is not static.

If the universe is in a state of continual expansion, should not one go back in time to that which could be called the initial moment, the moment in which that expansion began?

Of course, they say it's a big bang, but big bang starts with laws of physics and chemistry and matter.

But whatever the theory adopted concerning the origin of the universe, the most basic question cannot be avoided. The universe in constant movement demands a cause, which in giving it being has communicated to it this movement, and not only do you have the universe expanding, it is also sustained.

It doesn't collapse in on itself, and the Earth continues to revolve around the sun. It's 67,000 miles per hour, and the Earth continues to rotate on its axis every 24 hours, and it's tilted away from the sun. The precise number of degrees so you don't burn up in summer.

Without such a supreme cause, a world and every movement in the world would remain unexplained and afflicible, and our intelligence would not be satisfied. So the human mind can receive a response to its questions, but only by admitting a being who has created the world with all its dynamism, and who continues to maintain its existence.

Now, let's go to Hebrews 1, and we'll see in summary these very words with regard to why the world doesn't go spinning off and how it can expand and still not collapse on itself.

In Hebrews 1, God in different ways, different times, spoken times past, the fathers by the prophets as in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son, who in the appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world. The Bible, of course, is not the only place that declares that God is the Creator, who, being the brightness of His glory and express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power.

How is it done by the word of His power?

When He had by Himself purged our sins and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

See how the world's framed? They think they're getting close to identifying what matter is, where it came from, and they're tracing it back to energy.

Now, you look back in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, and verse 3, through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed, how? By the word of God, so that things which are seen were made not of things which do appear.

Were not made of the things which do appear.

How do we know that God is who He says He is? The historical record of Israel. It's not only recorded in the Bible.

Israel was a nation that existed.

Some have even doubted the existence of David. Recent archaeological discoveries have indisputably shown that David is a real historical figure.

Fulfill prophecy, messianic prophecies of redemption. Jesus Christ came on the scene, recorded from the Bible and secular sources.

The work of God in our lives.

The fact that we can understand spiritual things, that you're sitting here today.

You understand certain spiritual things. Now, some of you may be here just because of family or culture or whatever other reason, but most of you are here because you understand certain spiritual things have been revealed to you.

So you have some spiritual understanding.

I know the understanding that I have is not because of anything with regard to my whatever, you want the name.

God has revealed these things to us. God is true to His Word. He keeps His promises. He's always consistent. He's no respecter of persons. He's fair and He's just. He's love, He's righteousness. He cannot lie.

So, I am very confident that God is who He says He is. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of the Bible.

Now let's compare the five pillars of Islam.

The five pillars of Islam are as follows.

The first one and the most important one according to them is what is called the testimony of faith.

If you want to convert to Islam, and Islam literally means submission to God. So supposedly those who embrace Islam submits to God and Muslim is closely akin, it means one who has surrendered to God. If you want to convert to Islam, all you have to do is to repeat what I'm going to say in just a moment to two Muslims. And you have to do as they say from the heart. And if you repeat it from the heart and you have the witness of two Muslims, then you've been converted to Islam. The saying, La ilaha illa alla Muhammada resulul alla. Not in the Arab world would understand that, but it means there is no true God but Allah.

No true God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God. That's it. You say that to two witnesses and you have converted to Islam.

Now with regard to Allah, according to this first article, God is not begotten, neither does he beget. So, Muhammad is not the Son of God, doesn't claim to be.

He is a prophet, though they talk about him ascending to heaven from Jerusalem.

And that's why they built the Al-Asqah Mosque, which literally means the father is mosque. And there's a statement in the Quran about something about the father is mosque. So they made up the story, my words, and I believe that's what they did, that he ascended to heaven from Al-Quds, or what they call Jerusalem, from the Al-Aqsa Mosque. So the first pillar is his testimony of faith. You believe that Allah is the only true God and that Muhammad is his prophet. The second pillar is prayer.

Muslims are supposed to perform prayer five times a day, once in the morning, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and at night. Some combine this three times a day, but they're supposed to pray five times a day, short prayers, and if at all possible, they're supposed to face Mecca. Mecca is a city in Saudi Arabia.

The third pillar of Islam is giving sakat, Z-A-K-A-T, which means support of the needy. Reading here, they write, All things belong to God, and wealth is therefore held by human beings in trust. The original meaning of the word sakat is both purification of the word, both purification and growth.

Giving sakat means giving specified percentage on certain properties to certain classes of needy people.

The amount that they give annually is about two and a half percent.

And a person is also free to give voluntarily as much as he wants. The fourth pillar of Islam is to fast during the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the 12th month in the Islamic calendar.

And from sunset, or sunrise, actually, from sunrise to sundown, they're supposed to abstain from food, drink, and sexual relations.

And the fifth pillar of Islam is to make at least one pilgrimage in your lifetime. If you can at all, possibly, I don't know why I keep turning it over. If you can possibly afford it, make one pilgrimage to Mecca. Mecca is considered the most holy site in Islam.

Muslims claim that the Qur'an contains the entire revelation of God.

But at the same time, Muhammad was the one who came and brought the revelation, and Muhammad, by their own admission, was not begotten of God and is not God.

Muslims attempt to use the Bible in support of their claim that Muhammad is God's prophet.

This claim is based on Deuteronomy 18.15. Let's go to Deuteronomy 18.15. One of the great Messianic prophecies.

Deuteronomy 18 and verse 15.

The Lord your God will raise up unto you a prophet from the midst of you of your brethren like unto me.

And they make a lot out of that like unto me. That's key if you want to remember it.

Unto him you shall hearken.

According to all that you desire of the Lord your God and horrib in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see the great fire any more that I die not.

And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto you, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Now, here is how they interpret Deuteronomy 18.15 and Deuteronomy 18.18.

This cleric writes, The Bible prophecies on the advent of a prophet Muhammad are evidence of the truth of Islam for people who believe in the Bible.

Now, on the one hand, they say that the Quran is the complete revelation of God. Then they will say that we're going to prove that Muhammad is that prophet that is spoken of in Deuteronomy 18.15 and 18.18. Of course, you can see the contradiction. How can you proclaim the first of the five pillars and at the same time appeal to the Bible for support? Because the first article states there's only one God and his prophet is Muhammad.

So here is a brief summary of how they interpret that.

There were hardly any two prophets who were so much alike as Moses and Muhammad. Both were given a comprehensive law and code of life. Both encountered their enemies were victorious in miraculous ways. Both were accepted as prophets and statesmen. Both migrated following conspiracies to assassinate them. Analogies between Moses and Jesus overlooked not only the above similarities, but other crucial ones as well. These include the natural birth, the family life, and death of Moses and Muhammad, but not of Jesus. Moreover, Jesus was regarded by his followers as the son of God and not exclusively as a prophet of God as Moses and Muhammad. So this prophecy refers to the prophet Muhammad because Muhammad is more like Moses than Jesus. So that's their proof.

Now let's look at the Bible for its proof in Acts. What does the Bible say about Deuteronomy 1815 and the identity of that prophet?

In Acts 3, in verse 21, of course the preceding verses, you look at verse 20, shall send Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of the holy prophet since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yes, in all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus. So who is that prophet? It's Jesus Christ. Sent him to bless you and turning every one of you from his iniquities. The Muslims claim that the promises were given to the descendants of Ishmael, but the Bible clearly states that the promises were given to Isaac and Jacob. Let's go to Genesis 21. Genesis 21 and verse 12. Now, the life of Ishmael is very interesting in Genesis 16. Well, maybe I won't get ahead of the story there like that. In Genesis 21 and verse 12.

Here is where Ishmael is sent away. Genesis 21 and verse 12. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in your sight of the lad, and because of the bondwoman, in all that Sarah has said unto you, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall your seed be called. And also, Christians are referred to as the seed of Isaac as well. Do you know why? And also, the son of the bondwoman, I will make a nation because he is your seed. So Abraham rose up. He made provision for Ishmael and Hagar, and they took off out into the wilderness. They went a certain distance, and they were out of water, out of food, and Hagar thought this is the end. But God came along, and He helped them.

Notice in verse 19.

Well, let's read 17. God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called Hagar out of heaven, said unto her, What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad, where he is.

Arise, lift up the lad, hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle of water, and gave the lad to drink. And God was with the lad.

Read that? God was with Ishmael. So the life of Ishmael was sustained and maintained, because the sons of Ishmael play an important role in end-time events, especially as you currently see, because of the descendants of Ishmael.

See, Muhammad came from the Arabs, and Muhammad is the inventor of the Islamic religion.

God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

And he dwelt in the wilderness of Puran, and his mother took him, a wife, out of the land of Egypt.

Later on, Ishmael married not Ishmael, but one of Ishmael married one of the sons. Ishmael married one of the daughters of Esau, and so you have a close relation between the Arabs and the Edomites, because Esau is Edom.

Notice in Genesis 28 verses 8 and 9, we'll notice that quickly. Genesis 28 verses 8 and 9, here we'll see where Ishmael married, I keep saying Ishmael, Esau married one of the daughters of Ishmael. You can say it either way. In Genesis 28 and verse 8, and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan, please not Isaac his father. Remember Jacob and Esau, that Rachel and Jacob deceived Isaac and the birthright went to Jacob.

And Esau hated his brother Jacob. And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan, please not Isaac his father. Then when Esau unto Ishmael and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nehaboth to be his wife. So Esau married his half-brother's daughter.

Married his half-brother's daughter. You like marrying, I guess, your half-niece. She's got a half-niece. But anyhow, so a very close relationship developed between Ishmael and Esau.

As time went on, the dwelling place of both Ishmael and Esau were adjacent to each other.

The homeland of the Arabs is what we call today Saudi Arabia. It is one of the few countries of the world from which the original inhabitants have never been expelled. The Arabs have been in Saudi Arabia for centuries. Now, on the northwestern side of Saudi Arabia is Mount Seer or Petra, and that's where the Edomites dwelt. And from the Edomites came Herod the Great. Herod of Edomia was the Herod that was ruled from about 44 BC down to the time of the birth of Christ. It was this Herod who issued the decree that all the children under two years of age would be killed so that he would have no because the wise men had said that this one has been raised up to be the king of Israel, that is, Jesus. So, the Edomites and the Ishmaelites have continually worked together to thwart the plan of God and to bring it to nothing, to bring it to ruin. You'll notice in Malachi 1, verse 4. Well, we need to read verse 2. I have loved you, says the Lord, yet you say, Where any of you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord, yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage ways for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom said, and Esau is Edom, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. See, the Jews came back into what is now called Palestine as a result of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Turks, had controlled Turkey and the Middle East for about 400 years. And so the Jews came back in and became a nation in 1948 after the 48th war with the Arabs. They shall build, but I will overthrow. They shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. So the promises that are made to Abraham will ultimately be fulfilled in Christ. And we can rest assured that we are worshiping the only true God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. Let's notice now Genesis 12.3. And I'm going to give a follow-up sermon, I don't know when, with regard to, we'll title it the Olive Tree and subtitle the Israel of God.

But this will serve as an introduction and some background here today in Genesis 12 in verse 3.

We'll read 2 as well. I will make of you a great nation promising God to Abraham and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless them that bless you.

And many of the fundamentalist charismatic preachers of today like John Hagey over in San Antonio and many others make this into a literal physical thing. We shall see what the Bible says. You can believe the Bible or you can believe somebody else. I'm going to believe the Bible.

Of course, the nation of Israel and the blessings and promises that went with Abraham are great, but that's not how all the nations of the earth are blessed. The Koreans, the Japanese, and you could name the Indians, you could name those in outer Mongolia, you could name basically many of the Russians, Indonesia, just go on and on. And of course, you have to go back all the way through history. How will all the nations of the earth be blessed?

And I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curses you. And in your siege shall all the families of the earth be blessed. How?

Are we going to believe the Bible? Are we going to believe the revealed word of God? The Apostle Paul? Galatians 3. And as I said, we need a full sermon on this, but this will give you some food for thought in addition to understanding the promises who they were really given to and who the real seed of Abraham are. The real seed of Abraham do not belong to any ethnic group.

In Galatians chapter 3, I mean the spiritual seed and the one to whom Genesis 12.3 refers to.

Galatians 3.14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations.

See in your siege shall all the nations be blessed.

That the blessings of Abraham might come on the nations. How? How would it be through great national prosperity?

Well, ask the people of Bangladesh if they have great national prosperity.

Are many of the struggling, dying tribes in Africa?

That the blessings of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ.

That we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

As Paul explains in Galatians chapter 4, see, we are of Isaac. Why are we of Isaac? Because Isaac was born of faith. We are the children of God by faith, no matter what our ethnic origin is.

The Jews, the Arabs, and basically all nations of the world try to zero in on their great national posterity and ignore and stumble over the great stumbling block as he's called in Romans, Jesus Christ.

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant. Yet if it be confirmed, no man, this annulge, or adds there too. Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made. He said not unto seeds, but to Abraham and his seed as of many, but as not as many, but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ.

Now, in Galatians 3, verse 26, For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many as you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. That's the Word of God.

Now of course, that is not to diminish the physical blessings that went with the birthright and all those things that we talk about, but how all the nations of the earth will be blessed. It is through Christ. So is Allah the God of the Bible? No, Allah is not the God of the Bible. Is Mohammed God's prophet? No. This book was sealed a long time ago. Mohammed came along in the 600s AD. Is the Quran the total and final revelation of God? It even says that the Quran corrected many of the mistakes that are in here. This is the infallible Word of God. Brother, I hope that we all believe the Word of God and worship the true God.