It's a joy to see you all here this evening.
Please take your hymnals.
Well.
Please take your seats and find a hymnal close by.
It's on.
We'll begin with hymn number 14.
Oh, there we go.
OK, 14.
Kneel at the cross, number 14 in your books.
Sing it out with me on this verse, verse number 14.
Kneel at the cross.
Christ will meet you there, number 14.
Sing it out with me on this verse, verse together.
Kneel at the cross.
Christ will meet you there.
Come, while he waits for you.
List to his voice.
Sleep within your care and begin life anew.
Kneel at the cross.
Leave every care.
Kneel at the cross.
Jesus will meet you there.
Kneel at the cross.
There is room for all who would as glory share.
Lest their awaits are in every fall.
Those who are anchored there.
Kneel at the cross.
Leave every care.
Kneel at the cross.
Jesus will meet you there.
Kneel at the cross.
Give your idols up.
Look unto grounds above.
Turn not away to life's sparkling cup.
Trust only in his love.
Kneel at the cross.
Leave every care.
Kneel at the cross.
Jesus will meet you there.
Amen.
I've asked Pastor John Ball to open something to word of prayer.
So, Brother John, you lead us.
God, I thank you for this church and for your word.
Please help Pastor to preach to us boldly and help us to understand the preaching and apply it to our lives.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. Back to hymn number six.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, hymn number six.
Hymn number six, beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand.
Hymn number six, listen to these words as we sing hymn number six.
Sing it out on this verse together with me.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand.
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land.
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way.
From the burning of the new tri-heat and the burning of the day.
Upon that cross of Jesus, my die at times can see.
The very dying form of one who'd suffer there for me.
And from my splintered heart with tears to wonders I confess.
The wonders of his glorious love and my own worthlessness.
I take upon my shadow for my abiding place.
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his face.
Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss.
My sinful self, my only shame, my glory all across.
Amen.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, put up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
And this week we will be in Judges chapter 17.
We've got the soul-wanting times listed there below as well as
salvations and baptisms.
And then across the page, please join us next Sunday at 10 a.m.
for coffee and donuts before the morning service in honor of those
celebrating their birthday in the month of April.
And if your birthday or wedding anniversary has not already been
included in the bulletin, then just go ahead and e-mail us your
information so that we can put you in the database so that you'll be
listed when the time comes.
And then the ladies already had their coffee and tea fellowship
today at two o'clock, so that ship has already sailed.
And then we've got the list of ladies that are expecting so that you
can pray for them.
And Spanish night is coming up on April 8th.
Homeschool field trip on the 19th.
That's about it for announcements here.
And then let's go ahead and count up the soul-wanting from the past
few days, going back to Thursday the 25th.
All right, we've got two here.
This pen's not working very good.
Oh, yeah, we'll log the 40 from the mission strip over the course of
the week.
All right, we've got one here.
And then another one over there.
All right, anything else from Thursday?
Okay, how about Friday?
Anything from Friday?
Got it.
Okay.
And then what about Saturday?
Four, one, one.
Anything else from, ah, there we go.
All right, and then what about Sunday?
Okay.
We've got six with Brother Tilson's crew.
We've got one with Brother Madison.
Two.
All right, Scott?
Okay.
Anything else for today?
All right, very good.
Whoa, whoa.
For the West Valley, six.
All right.
And then where's the Taylor family?
Where are you?
I thought, Juja.
Taylors, where are they?
You said they were here.
Anyway, the Taylors are moving back east,
and so we wanted to say goodbye to them,
but I don't know if they're going to be here a little later,
but anyway, if you need their contact info or anything to say goodbye,
then just go ahead and get with me or my staff,
and we'll get that to you.
All right, and then that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
We're going to sing Psalm 126,
and your hymnals should find the insert of that psalm.
If you don't have one, please raise your hand,
and you'll get one, and we'll sing it on that verse.
Psalm 126.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,
we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing.
Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord had done great things for them,
the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad,
heard again our captivity.
O Lord, as the streams in the south,
they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord had done great things for them,
the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad,
he that going forth that we've been,
bearing precious seed,
shalt thouless come again,
shalt thouless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord had done great things for them,
the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad.
Amen. In your hymnals, please turn to hymn number 245.
The old account was settled, number 245.
On the last verse, the instruments will drop out,
so don't get scared what they do.
Let's just continue singing.
245, let's sing it on that first verse.
There was a time on earth when in the book of heaven
an old account was standing.
All together on that first verse.
There was a time on earth when in the book of heaven
an old account was standing.
Her sins did not forgive.
My name was at the top and many things below.
I went to the keeper and settled long ago,
long ago, long ago.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago,
and the records fit today,
for he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago,
the old account was large and growing every day,
for I was always sinning and never trying to pay.
But when I looked ahead and saw such pain and woe,
I said that I would settle.
I settled long ago, long ago, long ago.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago,
and the records fit today,
for he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago,
when in that happy home,
my Savior's home above,
I'll sing redemption story and praise Him for His love.
I'll not forget that book with pages wide and so,
because I came and settled and settled long ago,
long ago, long ago.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago,
and the records fit today,
for he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago,
oh, Savior, trust the Lord,
be cleansed of all your sins,
through us He hath provided for you to enter in,
and then if ye should live a hundred years below,
up there you'll not regret it.
He settled long ago, long ago,
long ago,
yes, the old account was settled long ago,
and the records clear today,
for he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago.
Psalm 74, Psalm 74 in our Bibles,
as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse number one,
follow along silently with your brother Dan,
as he reads Psalm 74.
In Psalm 74, the Bible reads,
O God, why hast thou castest off forever?
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old,
the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed,
this Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
Lift up thy feet under the perpetual desolations,
even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations.
They set up their ensigns for signs.
A man was famous,
according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
But now they break down the carved work
thereof at once with axes and hammers.
They have cast fire into thy sanctuary.
They have defiled by casting down
the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
They said in their hearts, let us destroy them together.
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
We see not our signs.
There is no more any profit.
Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever?
Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand?
Pluck it out of thy bosom.
For God is my king of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength.
Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Thou breakest the heads of a leviathan in pieces,
and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Thou didst cleave the fountain in the flood.
Thou driedst up mighty rivers.
The day is thine, the night also is thine.
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth.
Thou hast made summer and winter.
Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord,
and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove under the multitude of the wicked.
Forget not the congregation of thy poor forever.
Have respect under the covenant,
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
O let not the oppressed return ashamed.
Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
Arise, O God, plead thine own cause.
Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
Forget not the voice of thine enemies.
The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.
Dear Lord, thank you for giving us the opportunity to come together to church tonight.
I pray, Father, that you'd fill Brother Raymond with your Holy Spirit,
that he would teach and edify and exhort us,
and I pray, Father, that you give us the ears to hear
and walk out differently as we came in.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. All right, I wanted to thank our pastor for giving me the opportunity to preach tonight.
This is a great honor and a great privilege.
And tonight I'm going to be preaching about me and Daniel Ryder's trip to Sierra Leone.
We were there for one week, and I'll be preaching about that tonight.
But I'd like to start off by just giving a brief testimony about what we did there,
just a brief overview, kind of in a compliment to what Daniel was saying this morning.
But first of all, the purpose of our trip was to meet this man named Albert.
He's been listening to our pastor for many years,
and we were there to basically teach him how to go soul winning and to encourage him.
And we accomplished that mission.
And I wanted to talk about Sierra Leone a little bit.
It's a very beautiful country. It's got the best weather that I've ever felt in my life.
And it's in West Africa. It's right off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
And the food was great, as Daniel was talking about.
And we stayed at a great hotel. It had a great beach.
And the people were very friendly, very nice.
And overall we just had a great experience.
And I'd like to go over a few soul winning experiences I had there.
We did some soul winning at the beach, but we didn't really like it very much
because it was more of a social atmosphere.
So there was a lot of drinking involved, a lot of loud music.
And we did get two people saved there. We went once.
But we also got into a long conversation with some Rastafarian people who did not want to get saved.
So we didn't go back to the beach.
But we did some other things. We went soul winning in the residential area.
So we went just knocking from door to door.
And that was a very eye opening experience just to see how they actually live.
Because it's one thing to see them whenever they're at school or whenever they're at work
or whenever they're at the market, but to see where they actually live.
Because Sierra Leone is a very poor country.
And they live in very poor accommodations.
Houses made out of dirt and mud.
And they don't have running water or electricity or sewage or sanitation.
So it was very sad to see that. It was a very eye opening experience.
I felt like Ezekiel, whenever he sat where they sat, and he sat astonished.
And I was astonished to see how they actually lived.
And they were just such a very humble people as well.
They invited us into their homes. We were able to preach the gospel.
We got many people saved doing that.
We also went to the market. And that was probably one of the best places that we went to.
We got many people saved there because there was a lot of hustle and bustle.
A lot of people moving through.
We were able to catch people on the street, preach to them.
And we got many people saved there.
But on day three in the morning was basically a turning point in our trip
whenever we started going to the universities, to the college campuses.
Because not only do they speak a better level of English there,
but they're also much more receptive and they have more time to talk to you as well.
So we got many people saved at the universities.
We went to three different colleges.
We went to the Milton Margai Technical School and the I-POM Technical School
and the Farab Bay University, which is the oldest and most prestigious university in the country.
We got many people saved that day. So that was wonderful.
And another great opportunity that we had was to go to the secondary schools,
which would be our equivalent of a high school.
And we got to go to two different schools, the SOS Secondary School and the Halbert Academy.
And at SOS we went from classroom to classroom and we went to 11 classrooms.
So all three of us, me, Daniel and Albert, we got to switch off from classroom to classroom.
And that was a lot of fun to preach to those kids.
And then we went to Halbert Academy where they assembled all the children into a big audience
and we got to preach to them there as well.
But unfortunately, you know, we went at the worst possible time.
This was their week of their final exams for the year.
And so the principals were not able to give us very much time.
They said, you have about five minutes.
And so we took that about and we made it stretch as long as we possibly could.
But it was great. So we got to preach there.
And all together we got 40 salvations for the entire trip.
So it was a very successful trip. It was a wonderful trip.
And I love Sierra Leone. It was one of the best places I've ever visited in my life.
But there's one big problem with Sierra Leone.
And this is basically what I want my sermon to be about today.
And that is that Sierra Leone is not a Christian country at all.
It is a predominantly Muslim country.
It has a very high Muslim population.
And we know that Islam is a very bad, very wicked, very evil religion.
And you're there in Psalm 74 and this is the verse I'd like to focus on.
It says in verse 20,
Have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
And Sierra Leone is a spiritually dark place because of the Islamic influence there.
Because Islam is a very dark religion.
Islam is a very cruel religion.
And Islam is a destructive religion.
And Islam is a very corrupting religion.
And the title of my sermon tonight is The Corrupting Influence of Islam.
The Corrupting Influence of Islam.
And basically what I want to do is I want to use Sierra Leone as a case study to show how damaging Islam is to a nation and to a people.
Now turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 1.
Now our friend Albert, he told us a story of a time whenever Sierra Leone was not like it is today.
He told us of a time whenever it was a Christian country.
And I looked it up online and he was correct.
In fact, in 1960, the Muslim population there was only 35%.
And it grew to 60% by 2000.
And then 71% in 2008.
And then to 78% in 2015.
And it continues to climb and grow larger.
And to use Albert's words, you know, it's an Islamic invasion.
The heathen hordes are coming in from the north and basically just migrating there and taking over the country.
It is a takeover.
And I want to make this clear.
You know, we love Muslims.
We want Muslims to be saved.
You know, the individuals.
But we hate the religion of Islam.
You know?
And we hate the false prophets who are propagating it to the people, to the masses.
And so this religion of Islam is coming into Sierra Leone and it has been corrupting it for a very long time.
And I have four points tonight about how it's corrupting the country of Sierra Leone.
And point number one is that it's corrupting the education of Sierra Leone.
So you're there in Proverbs chapter 1.
I want you to look at a few verses.
Beginning in verse 1, it says the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel,
to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding,
to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment and equity,
to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
A wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
And Islam is a religion for fools because it does not promote the fear of the Lord
and it despises wisdom and it despises instruction and it de-emphasizes education.
And I'd like to give you some statistics.
You know, Sierra Leone is one of the countries with the highest illiteracy rates in the entire world.
The new education policy for Sierra Leone maintains that 69.3% of the male population is illiterate.
They cannot read or write.
And not only that, it gets worse while 80% of the female population is illiterate.
And so that is a, that's a huge amount of people.
And so, you know, and I want to be fair about that as well.
It's not just about Islam but it's also because they have, they had a huge civil war back in the 90s
and also there's a high poverty rate as well and they can't really afford to go to school.
But Islam is definitely a factor in it as well.
And, you know, it's no coincidence that about 70 to 80% of the population is Muslim
and about 70 to 80% of the population is also illiterate.
That's not a coincidence at all.
You know, Islam promotes, you know, being ignorant.
And, in fact, we saw this firsthand because, see, the principals and the teachers at those, at those schools,
like I mentioned before, it was exam week.
They didn't have to let us come and preach for them but they did
because the principals and the teachers, they were all Christians.
You know, they wanted us there.
And even the president is a Christian and Albert told us that many of the politicians,
most of the politicians are Christians as well.
And so basically any job that requires an education, it's totally run by Christians.
And, in fact, we can attest to this, me and Daniel,
we ran into many Muslims who do not speak very good English at all.
You know, in Sierra Leone they speak English but it's an English Creole language
and, in fact, it's called Creo, K-R-I-O, that's what they call it.
And there's different levels of Creo.
You know, there's some Creo that's very similar to English.
It's just pronounced a little bit differently.
You know, me and Daniel, we could understand maybe 90 to 95% of that.
But then there's deeper levels of Creo that is very difficult to understand.
And basically the more educated that you are, the more that you go to school,
the better that you speak English.
And we ran into very few Christians who do not speak very good English.
But we ran into a lot of Muslims who do not speak very good English at all.
And that's because primary education, like elementary school, middle school,
it's not compulsory there.
Or it is, but it's not enforced.
And this is not only a fact in Sierra Leone that Muslims are less educated,
but it actually correlates all around the world.
And, in fact, I have right here a list of the top 11 countries in the world
with the top illiteracy rates.
And see if you can think about whether these are Muslim places or not.
So number one is South Sudan.
Number two is Afghanistan.
We know that that's a Muslim place.
Number three is Burkina Faso.
Number four is Niger.
Number five is Mali.
Number six is Chad.
Number seven is Somalia.
Number eight is Ethiopia.
Number nine is Guinea.
Number ten is Benin.
And number 11 is Sierra Leone.
Now out of these 11 most illiterate countries, eight of them are predominantly Muslim.
And two of the others, it's worth mentioning that the Christian majority is by a small margin.
So it's only by 55, 60 percent.
So is this a big surprise that Islam and its illiteracy go hand in hand?
Absolutely not.
Because they glorify their prophet, which was an illiterate pedophile.
You know, a total weirdo who never learned how to read or write.
And I'm sure that if we went around and we asked Muslims, you know,
is the education important, is that important, all of them would say yes.
You know, it's very important.
We should learn how to read and write.
But think about it.
If they're going to their mosque all the time, you know, every week,
and then they're glorifying this guy who's illiterate,
then of course the children there are going to think,
well, if Muhammad is illiterate, then why do I have to learn to read and write?
You know what I mean?
It's going to de-emphasize education in their mind.
Because I'm sure that everybody in here, you know, we're Christians.
We want to be Christ-like.
You know, that's our goal is to be more like Christ.
And obviously we're never going to attain to that because Jesus was perfect.
You know, Jesus is God.
Jesus is God.
But we try our best every day.
And so I'm guaranteed that a lot of Muslims, they want to be like Muhammad as well.
So, you know, they glorify him.
And basically by glorifying him, you're glorifying illiteracy.
And you can see that for yourself.
You can look at these numbers for yourself if you'd like.
Now I'll turn to you, if you would, to Mark Chapter 10.
Mark Chapter 10.
So not only does Islam corrupt education, but it is also corrupting marriage as well.
Now in Sierra Leone, many people practice polygamy.
And I'd like to talk about this from a biblical standpoint first.
In Genesis Chapter 2 and verses 23 through 25, the Bible says,
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife.
And they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Matthew Chapter 19, Jesus brings us into the New Testament.
He talks about it in verse 4.
He says, And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female?
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife.
And the twain, that means two, shall be one flesh.
Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
And Ephesians 5 verse 31 says, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife
and they too shall be one flesh.
And then Mark 10 where you're at, go ahead and look at verse 6.
Once again it says pretty much the same thing.
It says, But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
And they twain shall be one flesh.
So then they are no more twain but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
So look, all these passages said the exact same thing.
Two becoming one.
Not three, not four, not five.
Because that's what Islam teaches is that one man could have four wives.
That's five coming together to one.
No, that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says two become one.
And I'll give you a statistic.
37% of married women in Sierra Leone were in a polygamous marriage in 2008.
37%.
That's like two out of five women.
That's crazy.
And 29.7% of married girls aged 15 to 19 reported that their husband had more than one wife.
And another article that I read said, Though polygamous marriages are illegal in Sierra Leone,
the government basically turns a blind eye to the practice.
So they basically turn a blind eye to it.
They just let it happen.
And, you know, in Mark 10, 6, where you're at, it says, From the beginning of the creation.
So it's always been this way.
It's never been any different.
It's always been just one man, one woman.
They come together in marriage.
It's always been like that.
You know, before David, before Moses, before Abraham.
It's always been like that.
And, you know, good men of God in the Bible, they made mistakes.
But the Bible clearly teaches that, you know, teaches against polygamy.
So go if you would to Luke chapter 17.
Luke chapter 17.
So we talk about how the Islamic influence, it corrupts a nation and it corrupts its education
and it corrupts its marriage practices.
But it also corrupts the children as well.
And I want to talk about this.
So whenever we were there, I saw a guy and he had a t-shirt on and I pointed out to Albert
and I thought it was a bad t-shirt at first.
It said, stop early marriage, is what it said.
And, you know, in our country and in the West, basically, you know, we have a strong agenda
pushing for men and women to wait until their 30s to get married and, you know, commit a lot of fornication,
wait till they're married in their 30s and then maybe have a kid or two if they want to.
And so I pointed out that shirt and I said, man, that's a bad shirt.
You know, I like early marriage, like 18, 19, 20, 21.
That's great.
And then Albert explained to me, he said, that's not what that means.
No, that's talking about like 11, 12, 13 year old kids getting married.
And I was just blown away by that.
I had no idea that that was so prevalent, but in fact it is.
You know, pedophilia is rampant in Sierra Leone today.
I'll give you some statistics.
It says Sierra Leone is one of the most high risk countries for child marriage.
And, you know, I'm very thankful for this, that the government is actually really trying to fight against,
you know, early marriage, child marriage, pedophilia.
You know, it's trying to fight against that.
If they're going to turn a blind eye to polygamy, might as well just, you know, fight against this pedophilia, you know.
And so I'm glad for that.
But I'll give you another statistic because it says in Sierra Leone the rate of marriage under 18 had dropped from 56% in 2006 to 39% in 2017,
a major achievement in the eyes of child protection activists.
Then COVID-19 hit, schools closed in March and child marriages accelerated as many village girls who had been attending classes in nearby towns returned home to their parents.
So basically how this works in the rest of this article, it says that basically if a family hits on hard times,
then they basically sell their daughter off to some rich Muslim guy who wants to add her to his harem of other women or whatever.
And so it's very wicked, you know, and it's horrible, it's disgusting.
And this next statistic makes me the most mad, but it says as stated by UNICEF's The State of the World's Children 2013 report,
18% of Sierra Leonean women are married by the age of 15.
18%, that's a lot.
That's one out of every five girls are married by the age of 15 in Sierra Leone, but it gets worse, it gets worse.
While 44% of them are married by the age of 18.
As of 2017, Sierra Leone was ranked by UNICEF as the 19th nation for the highest rates of child marriage.
She'll get that.
One out of five women are married by the age of 15 and they barely even make it to the top 20 list of the worst nations for pedophilia.
I mean, that's incredible.
That means that 18 other countries are even worse than Sierra Leone.
Pedophilia is rampant today.
And you know, I didn't look at the other 18 nations or anything like that, but I guarantee a lot of them are Muslim nations.
You know, I guarantee that it has to do with that influence coming in.
You know, and look, pedophilia is vile, it's disgusting, it's sick, it's abominable, it's reprobate.
That's what it is.
And you're there in Luke 17 and look at what Jesus said about it.
It says in verse 1,
Then said he unto the disciples, it is impossible but that offenses will come.
It is impossible but that pedophilia will come.
It is impossible but that these wicked people will come.
But woe unto him through whom they come.
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones.
It would have been better for Muhammad to have a millstone wrapped around his neck than for him to have married Aisha.
And it's better for these pedophile Muslims to die than to marry the children.
You know, and the Sierra Leone government, you know, they're trying to fight against it and everything but they just need to put the death penalty on it.
Every single pedophile just needs to die and go straight to hell.
Turn if you would to John chapter 20.
So, you know, we talked about the corrupting influence of Islam.
We talked about how it corrupts education, marriage and then children which is horrible.
But, you know, this one, this last point is by far the worst.
It's even worse than the children one.
But it's the fact that Islam corrupts souls.
It sends people to hell, you know.
Millions and billions of people are going to hell as a result of Islam.
And in Sierra Leone it's not just the Muslims but it's also the Muslim influence that's reaching the Christians as well.
You know, and Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone is one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world.
So Islam and Christianity get along very, very well.
And there's a big mixing of religions.
You know, just a few weeks ago our pastor preached about this and he talked about religious syncretism, right.
And me and Daniel got to see that first hand.
Right after he preached it we got to go there and we got to see the mixing of Christianity and Islam there.
And we heard a lot of, you know, statements that people made on both sides, Muslims and Christians.
Like we heard, you know, we all worship the same God, therefore we're all going to heaven.
You know, and that's pretty common.
We hear that here in America as well.
But we heard a lot of Muslims say, you know, I believe in Jesus.
You must believe in Jesus to go to heaven.
And just things like this I've never heard Muslims say before.
But the reason is because they're trying to mix the two religions.
And of course whenever they say believe in Jesus they don't mean it the same way that we mean it.
You know, they mean that they believe that he's a, you know, a good prophet.
And ultimately they're still trusting in their good works and everything like that.
So they don't mean the same thing that we mean.
But it's just this mixing of religions.
And, you know, it's due to this influence that's coming in, this Islamic influence.
Because we also ran into a lot of Christians who did not believe in the Trinity.
Because once again they're trying to mix the two.
You know, they didn't believe that Jesus is the Son of God or that Jesus is God.
And they called themselves Christians.
But, and I even heard one Muslim say that the only thing you had to do is believe in Jesus and you'll be saved.
But of course I question him more and that's not what he meant, of course.
But, and you know, a lot of Muslims in Sierra Leone are hardened to the gospel, unfortunately.
You know, and I wish it wasn't so, but out of the 40 salvations that we got none of them were Muslims.
All of them were the fake Christians and things like that.
And in fact a lot of the time, a few times anyway, we were there.
And a Muslim would come up and basically, you know, we're preaching the gospel.
Muslim would walk up and derail the conversation.
You know, show me where the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God or whatever.
And I want to give you an example of this.
I want to give you a story about this.
So we were preaching at Halbert Academy.
So that was the big audience of several hundred students that we got to preach to.
And then after we had many students come up and ask us questions afterward.
We were able to get two students saved after that.
So praise the Lord for that.
But there was this one guy that I was preaching to and he was very smart.
He was very knowledgeable about the Bible.
And I was thinking I was going to get this person saved.
But then this Muslim kid, this Muslim teenager just walked up and just basically got right into our conversation
and said, hey, whenever you preached up there I heard that you said that Jesus is God.
Show me that in the Bible.
And this kid was not going to leave us alone unless I showed him something.
So I showed him, you know, 1 Timothy 3.16, that's my favorite verse about that.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.
But he wouldn't let that go though.
He just kept wanting to disturb our conversation.
So then I took him to John 1 where it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
And the word, in verse 14, and 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.
And he still didn't like that.
But this is the cool part right here.
The guy that I was originally preaching to, the receptive kid who was about to get saved,
he was really knowledgeable about the Bible and he reached into his backpack and he pulled out a big King James Bible
and he flipped it open to Isaiah chapter 9 and he showed the guy, he's like, see look, right here,
it says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
So it says the Mighty God.
And he showed him that and then that other teenager, that Muslim kid, he got mad and he like stormed off.
But right after that, the Isaiah 9 kid, unfortunately, he had to go home.
His parents were calling him and everything.
But we got his phone number and Albert's going to do some follow up with him and hopefully get him saved.
So yeah, that's the last major corrupting influence I could think of about Islam
and that's the most damaging as well is that the fact that it's just sending so many millions of people to hell.
And to turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 10 and I'll wrap up the sermon with Romans chapter 10.
Now, what was the purpose of me preaching this sermon?
You know, am I warning you to never go to Sierra Leone?
Thank you, Raymond. Now I'll never go, you know.
No, that's not at all. In fact, that's the exact opposite of my intent.
I wanted to preach this sermon to show you that Sierra Leone is a very dark place and it needs the gospel.
It needs us to go there and preach to them.
Because there is a great door and effectual open unto us in Sierra Leone.
The people there are very receptive, you know, except for the Muslim people.
But, you know, this door is not going to be open forever.
You know, look at the trends, you know, 1960, 35%, 2000, 60%, 2008, 71%, 2015, 78% and rising.
You know, pretty soon Sierra Leone is going to be like all those other countries in North Africa like Libya and Algeria and Chad and Niger.
And Mali where it's dangerous and it's unreceptive and it's illegal to preach the gospel.
You know, pretty soon if things continue it's going to be like that.
So, but the thing is that Sierra Leone is not like that yet.
And so that's why we need to go now. Sierra Leone is receptive to the gospel now.
And Sierra Leone, it's legal to preach the gospel there now.
And Sierra Leone is safe. It's very safe right now.
And so we need to go now. To go preach the gospel there now before it's too late.
And so I'm proud to announce, like Pastor mentioned this morning, that we're planning on going on a mission trip to Sierra Leone this October.
That's about six months from now.
And I'd like to encourage you to come.
You know, if you've never gone on a mission trip before, I think that this would be a great one to go for your first time.
And maybe you're a veteran for mission trips. Maybe you've gone on a whole bunch of them.
I would encourage you to come to this one as well.
You know, this one has, going to Sierra Leone, I think that this has the makings of being the best mission trip we've ever had.
You know, I think that we're going to get a lot of people saved.
And I'll make you this promise. You know, if you go, you will not regret it.
Because you will get people saved.
You know, the people there, they're ready to hear the gospel. They're ready to get saved.
And look down, if you would, at Romans chapter 10 and look at verse 14.
Because the Bible reads,
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
And this October, you know, we're going to be sent to Sierra Leone.
We're going to preach in Sierra Leone.
And they're going to hear the gospel in Sierra Leone.
And they're going to believe in Jesus Christ in Sierra Leone.
So mark your calendars and get ready for that.
So let's pray.
Lord, thank you for this opportunity to preach.
This was a great opportunity.
And I pray that you would help us not to be ignorant about the wicked false religion of Islam.
And its damaging effects to the entire world.
And I pray that you would please bless the mission trip that's going to come up.
And please help us to get many people saved at that time, Lord.
It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Amen. What a great sermon.
I just want to make a couple comments since we've got a little bit of time.
Excellent job, Brother Raymond.
And great work, Brother Daniel.
I'm really glad that you guys were able to get over there.
But what a powerful challenge at the end there to go now because of the fact that the door is open now.
And this is our philosophy on missions.
You know, I call it common sense missions.
And it says go to the places that are receptive.
Go to the places where they speak English.
Go to the places where it's safe.
Before you start beating your head against the wall in some difficult place, you might as well do the easy stuff, the low hanging fruit.
But as Brother Raymond has said, you know, this is a place that basically there's a window or an opening and they're kind of at the end of that opening.
And so we've got to get in there before that door shuts.
And so this year is going to be a great time to get in there.
Excellent work.
You know, if you would quickly turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 7.
I just want to comment on a few other things that he preached tonight.
But, you know, you hear this garbage from Muslims where they try to defend that disgusting practice that Raymond told us about where they're marrying children over there.
You know, they're marrying 11-year-olds and 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds and all this stuff.
And not only that, we know, of course, that the Muhammad, the prophet himself, you know, married a 9-year-old.
I mean, he married her when she was 6 and consummated when she was 9.
It's filthy. It's disgusting. It's an abomination.
And that alone just shows us how satanic Islam is, just that alone.
But when you talk to these Muslims, they'll try to justify this by saying stupid things like,
oh, well, you know, Mary was 12 years old when she gave birth to Jesus or, you know, oh, people did that all the time back then.
That was normal back then.
Let me tell you something. That has never been normal.
And I've even had some of them challenge me, you know, well, show me in the Bible where it's wrong or something.
Well, look at 1 Corinthians 7, verse 36.
If anybody ever challenges you to show them where this is wrong, it's right here in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 36.
It says, but if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself uncumbly toward his virgin, watch this next phrase,
if she pass the flower of her age and the needs shall require, let him do what he will.
He senteth not, let them marry.
So the Bible is clear that there's a prerequisite to getting married that she must pass the flower of her age.
Now, some people will try to make the bizarre, stupid, unscientific, ahistorical claim that somehow girls were going through puberty
at the time of Muhammad around, you know, 9 years old, 10 years old, 11 years old.
That is garbage. That is not true.
Now, let me just give you a little science behind this, okay?
When you are malnourished, when you're not getting the perfect diet, that's going to push puberty back later, if anything.
Okay, people that are very well nourished and very well fed, their body is more likely to want to reproduce
than somebody who's not that well nourished and not that well fed.
Their body is not like, hey, let's support another person.
You know, hey, let's get pregnant.
Okay, that's just a little bit of the science behind this, okay?
So, in modern times, in 2021, if anything, young people are going through puberty sooner now than they did in history.
Nowadays, they go through it sooner because, number one, there's a lot of junk in our food, a lot of hormones and stuff,
number one, that could also, you know, push that earlier.
But not only that, we are very well fed in America.
I mean, we are getting our produce shipped, you know, in the winter.
We don't go through some period in the winter where we don't have a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables.
I mean, we're just shipping it in from Chile and Argentina.
We have all the vitamins, all the minerals.
You think people throughout history are taking a multivitamin and they're eating all these fruits and vegetables.
So, because we have a much higher level of nutrition, that's also why puberty comes sooner today, okay?
But let me tell you something.
Living in the desert, you know, around 1300 years ago, no.
Just no, okay?
But even so, even if someone did go through puberty at a young age, a nine-year-old is a child.
And you have to be a complete idiot to think that a nine-year-old is not a child or that an 11-year-old is not a child.
That is pedophilia, okay?
They are not fully grown.
They are not fully developed.
They're not going to be able to get pregnant and give birth normally.
I mean, how do you think it's going to go when an 11-year-old goes to give birth?
Oh, that's going to work out great, right?
That's garbage.
It's filth.
It's nonsense, okay?
And so it's a pedophile religion.
I don't know who the idiot was that came up with some fake tradition about Mary being 12, but he was probably a pedophile too, okay?
Because that's not in Scripture.
No normal Christian believes that, okay?
And so Islam, it's destructive.
It's a religion for idiots.
It's a religion for the illiterate.
It's only stupid people who would be stupid enough to follow this pedophile Mohammed and that would be stupid enough to think that the Quran is actually a great book.
And you say, hey, you need to be respectful toward Islam.
Hey, you know what?
To hell with Islam and their prophet Mohammed may piss me upon him.
And you know what?
I'm not going to pull any punches about it.
I'm glad that Brother Raymond didn't pull any punches about it because let me tell you something.
When you have 18% of the girls in Sierra Leone being married off to some pedophile, some dirty Muslim when they're under 15 years old, you know what?
That ought to make you mad, okay?
It's horrible.
It's disgusting.
It's evil.
And so, no, I don't have any tolerance for Islam.
Doesn't mean that I don't love the individual Muslims that are deceived and want to get them saved, but you know what?
That is a wicked disgusting religion and the practitioners of it, the promoters of that, they are going to burn, okay?
But you know what?
We need to get over there and preach the gospel while we still can because those bunch of Muslim devils, you know what those devils are going to do?
They're going to make it illegal to go soul winning.
So right now, we need to get as many people saved as we can while the doors open, while it's safe because they turn every country that they take over into a hellhole.
So we want to get over there while it's still a relatively nice place and while we can, you know, do something great for the Lord.
You know, I just wanted to talk about that because it just gets me so mad, just gets me fired up to hear those statistics.
And I wanted to give you the scripture that you need, you know, because these Muslims, they love to confront you and demand a verse.
You show it to them, they don't care.
But it's good to have this 1 Corinthians 736 in your arsenal to show them, hey, the Bible is saying you've got to pass the flower of your age before you're ready to get married.
And so that's talking about being fully grown, fully developed.
The word means fully ripe is what that means, okay?
It does not mean – so if some girl goes through puberty early, she's still not passed the flower of her age because she's still not fully developed.
It's like a word that you would use about fruit or something, right?
You know, it's a botany in our English Bible.
It's a reference to a flower, a botany.
You know, it's something – it's a plant that reaches its pinnacle, its full development.
And so, you know, if they're not fully grown, if they're not fully developed, if they're not an adult human, then they are not ready to get married.
And it's just – it's horrible.
It's amazing that this happens in our world.
But, you know, thank God we live in America because as weird as America is, man, there's some worse places out there.
Wow.
Well, thank you very much again, brother.
That was an excellent sermon.
Really appreciate it.
And at this time, let's go ahead and sing our closing hymn.
Would you come lead us?
All right, hymn number 11 is where we'll be.
Hymn number 11, He Died for Me.
Hymn number 11, I Saw One Hanging Honesty and Agony.
And we'll really focus on these words as we sing hymn number 11.
Oh, can it be upon the tree The Savior died for me
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think He died for me
Sure never till my latest breath Can I forget that look
It seemed to charge me with His death Though not a word He spoke
Oh, can it be upon the tree The Savior died for me
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think He died for me
My conscience felt and owed the guilt And plunged me in despair
I saw my sins His blood had spilled And helped to nail Him there
Oh, can it be upon the tree The Savior died for me
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think He died for me
Alas, I knew not what I did But now my tears are vain
Where shall my trembling soul be hid For I the Lord have slain
Oh, can it be upon the tree The Savior died for me
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think He died for me
A second look He gave me said I freely all forgive
This blood is for Thy ransom pay I die that Thou may slip
Oh, can it be upon the tree The Savior died for me
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think He died for me
Oh, can it be upon the tree The Savior died for me
The Savior died for me
Thanks for watching!