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All right, amen, you're in Matthew chapter six. Matthew six, and we're just going to look at a few verses for now, Matthew six and from verse 16. Matthew six, 16, we read this. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. And the title of my sermon this morning is Islam, Ramadan, and Works for Show. Islam, Ramadan, and Works for Show. I would like to pray and then we're going to get going with the sermon. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for, well, the truths that you give us out of your word, Lord, are your preserved word. And we know that we can stand upon every word of this book, Lord, and it just, it makes it so clear. It just shines a light on all these false religions out there, and right now we're going to be looking at Islam, Lord. Help me to preach what I've been thinking about now for a few weeks now, and just in an accurate and a clear way, Lord, and in a way that people will be edified by it as well, Lord, and that we can just expose this religion for what it is. In Jesus' name I pray all of this, amen. So it's that time of year, if anyone's wondering why you preach about that now, well, it's maybe someone around people following Ramadan, but it's that time when these Muhammad worshipers in this nation and around the world are feeling particularly holy right now, I don't know if you've noticed. It started last week, Ramadan, which means that during daylight hours, okay, so during daylight hours most Muslims are avoiding food, drink, physical relations, tobacco products, and apparently sin too, although I don't know about that. But if you've been around these guys in the workplace or elsewhere, and many will have been around them, it's quite a lot in this nation, you're well aware when it's Ramadan is they usually make a bit of a song and dance about it, don't they, okay? So most people are very aware that they're observing Ramadan when it's Ramadan, and I suppose they have no reason not to, because it is just this massive public affair, isn't it? So they're just like, yeah, that's all they talk about, go on about, everyone knows about it, everyone's aware of who does and doesn't partake. Turn to Psalm 119, Psalm 119. Now today I want to point out a few maybe obvious points about Ramadan and Islam itself, and then what we can learn from Ramadan, okay, what we can learn. And you might be sitting there thinking, what we can learn from Muslims? Is it their zeal? Is it their holiness? Is it their holy outfits? You know, maybe we could just sharpen up a little bit. No, what they do is they give us a great real life example of exactly how not to behave. So they're a great example of how religious folks shouldn't behave, okay? And that's what they do, they can be a nice actual physical, proper example that we can look at and go, I don't want to behave like that. And that's what I'm hoping to show you today. I want you to walk away from this sermon with every time you're tempted to do any sort of arms, any sort of righteousness, any sort of works before men to be seen of men, I want you to walk away and get pricked by a mental image of a dress-wearing Muslim with a hey look at me hat blowing his trampoline going brr brr brr, look how holy I am, brr brr brr, because that's basically what they do, okay? So I want you to come away from this thinking, every time you get that little temptation, that little kind of inkling to just kind of say something, say a little comment so people think you're holy or something else and think, I don't want to be like one of those Muslims, okay? I don't want to be like a dress-wearing Muslim telling everyone that they're fasting, okay? And in case you're sitting here thinking, this is a bit strong, Pastor Taberna, and I think most people in this church are used to this sort of preaching, but in case you are, you go, aren't we supposed to respect all religions? Because people come out with that stuff, don't they? I go past different churches sometimes, they'll have things like slogans, you know, respect all religions and things like this. That's not what the Bible says. Tell that to the Holy Spirit-inspired Psalmist who said here in Psalm 119, 104, 119 of verse 104, through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. He said that God's precepts or commandments would say, give him understanding, which makes him hate every false way. So if you don't hate the false way of Islam, then maybe you need to read the Bible more and get some understanding. Perhaps you need to read the Bible a bit more, then you might start to hate Islam more, you bleeding heart liberals out there. And there's a lot of bleeding heart liberals out there who claim to be Christians if they don't hate Islam, they don't have understanding. Because if you believe the word of God to be right, then all of that Islamic nonsense is wrong. They don't marry up, it's just all wrong. Unless God's word is a pick and mix. Unless you kind of believe little bits, you like some bits, not others. Unless you don't really believe every word. Unless you've become the final authority. You've gone, well, I'll take this bit, but not that bit, because I just want to be able to say I respect all religions and not make a stand and just kind of, you know, have my arm around everyone in the world. But that's not what the Bible says. I'm going to go with the Psalmist who said in Psalm 119 and verse 128, Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, this is verse 128, and I hate every false way. You say, but aren't they all just different paths of the same God? Some people say that, don't they? You've heard that out there. It's all just a different path of the same God. I do agree with that statement, though. I do, it is a different path to the same God. Most religions are different paths to the same God. You're going, what on earth? Where does this come from? I'll tell you what the God's name is. The devil. All these religions out there, including Islam, are different paths to the devil. Yeah, to that same God with a small G, that false God. All of these various works, religions, are different paths to him. Because they're all going to eventually join him in hell for eternity. So yeah, they are different paths to that same God. It's the other God. It's a false God. It's the devil. 2 Corinthians 4, 4 says of the lost, don't you have to turn there, in whom the God of this world with a small G, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not less the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God with a big G, should shine unto them. And Islam is one of the worst of the bunch, isn't it? It really is. There are some bad false religions out there, but Islam has got to be down there, hasn't it? It's got to be down in the depths of false religions. But before we get onto that, just before we get onto why that is, why am I preaching on Islam today? So you might think, well, why? Because no one here is tempted to join in with Ramadan fasting, surely. Well, this is the UK, okay? Some might think, well, maybe there are more prevalent false religions. Well, it depends what stats you're looking at, actually. Okay, so in the 2021 to 22 census, the biggest religion in England and Wales was Christianity in inverted commas. And that's an umbrella term for all different types, including Roman Catholics as well. With over 27,500,000, 46% of the nation claiming Christianity, claiming to be Christians of some degree. With Islam coming in second, though, with just under 4 million, you go, well, that's a big difference, yeah? Making up just 6.5%. But amongst those Christians, like I said, you've got a load of Catholics, you've got all sorts, that if you ask them, because how often do you knock on the door and someone says, I'm a Christian? And you ask them what they believe and they don't really believe anything. They don't believe there's a heaven, they don't believe there's a hell, they're wondering if there's even a God, yet they claim to be a Christian. What they mean is I got christened or I got raised in some sort of nominal Christianity to some degree, but I'm not really a Christian. They're not a practicing Christian by any stretch of the imagination at all. But more appropriate and much harder to find stats on are of actual weekly attendance. What about people that actually follow a religion? Not people that just go, yeah, well, my mum and dad said we're Christians, so I'm going to call myself a Christian, but I kind of believe in reincarnation or if there is a God whatsoever, I don't really know, I don't believe there is a heaven. Well, okay, you're not really a Christian, okay? But what about weekly attendance, so as you practice a religion? Back in 2004, okay, and this is a long time ago, and by the way, these studies seem to be harder to come by. But back in 2004, there was this new study at the time which said a new study issued by Christian researchers found that the number of Muslims attending services at British mosques will double the number of Christians at church by 2040, reported the Telegraph newspaper. Now, of course, there's sensationalist sort of headlines and articles and things like this, but let's look at what they claimed according to the study. According to the study of the future of the church, around 930,000 Muslims attended a mosque at least once a week in 2004, just outnumbering the 916,000 regular churchgoers in the Church of England. So the study also, by the way, also indicated that the number of Christians attending Sunday service could see a two-thirds drop over the next three decades. The current 9.4% of the population currently in regular attendance at Sunday service expect to be under 5% by 2040. And by the way, the reason for that is because the vast majority of them are very old. Okay, there are old women and old men in churches, and there's not really a youth coming through, talking about a lot of these old C of E churches and things like that, especially. And you only have to be near a mosque on a Friday to witness this, don't you? Okay, this isn't, you're not going, I just can't believe this. I mean, where do they all come from? Really, where do they all come from? We were outside here the other day on a Friday. I was walking back into the church on a Friday, having popped out to get something to eat, and I mean, it's like something out of a zombie movie or something. Where are they all coming from? They're just coming out of every angle, coming out of every side road. It's like they're almost crawling out the gutters and stuff. You're like, what on earth? And I've seen this before in another place where I grew up. I remember I used to go to a karmic addict right by the mosque there, and on a Friday, it was almost like, they're just all coming right at us. You don't know which way to go, and you can't walk out against the stream either, okay? It's like, you're going to end up just getting accosted into the mosque, okay? It's like that, because a lot of them practice, don't they? A lot of them do. So I believe, by the way, with that in mind, so just bear in mind, with those stats, therefore, if you take, and Catholics, look, if you just went on the biggest denomination of Christianity, the C of E, back in 2004, there were already more regular church, regular, sorry, weekly attendees of a mosque amongst those that worship Islam than there were of the biggest Christian denomination by far in this country. And that's only increased in the last nearly 20 years now as well, by the way, okay? And I do believe that's one of the reasons why they're so unreceptive to the Gospel. You go, what do you mean? Because they're actual worshippers of the religion. So when we knock on a door and someone goes, oh yeah, well, I kind of go to church or something, I do believe in a God, they're people that you think, okay, this person could be receptive. When they go, I go every single week, three times a week to whatever false religion, already you're thinking this is probably going to be quite difficult then to get them saved. Because it's just being immersed in a false religion, okay? And having those teachings regularly and regularly, it's so much harder for them to then hear the truth, isn't it? So that's one of the reasons why they're so unreceptive. But also, half of their doctrine seems to be about trying to disprove Christianity. When you knock on a devout Muslim's door, they've already got all these, what they consider to be discrepancies in the Bible and disproves and anything, they're already all geared up for it. That's what half their religion seems to be about, trying to disprove Christianity. And look, you couldn't say that for many, many other religions, could you? Well, add the fear of being kicked out of the family, the mosque, the community, and the few that do listen to the gospel often refuse to get saved as well, you notice that as well. So I have had Muslim teenagers, I've had Muslims get to the point where they hear it, they go, I believe everything you're saying, but I couldn't do it. I can't, I don't want to put my faith in Christ because what's going to happen with my family, my family's going to hate me, I'm going to get kicked out or even worse. So it's a big problem because the reality of it is, if we went around this room, when how many legitimate salvations have you had amongst the millions of Muslims in this nation? And it would be very close to zero. It's very few, isn't it? Turn to 2 Timothy 3. But it's not just that they're so unreceptive to the gospel that makes this religion such a problem. Now that's a problem because it's what a shame there's this big group of people that's so unreceptive to the gospel. It's not their attempted evangelism that's a problem, which is pretty unsuccessful amongst anyone pretty much that's not born into the religion, okay? The truth of the majority of their converts is summed up in this old article from the British Muslims monthly survey, it says this. Researchers revealed that the bulk of 10,000, 20,000 new Muslim converts in Britain are women. The Islamic Academy in Glasgow is among many to report a noticeable surge in the number of white women attending conversion class in the last two years. In the United States, women converts outnumber men by four to one. Dr. Elizabeth Syria of Leeds University said, ''I do feel this is quite a wide phenomenon. ''There's very much a trend in West Yorkshire and London, ''which I'm certain is reflected ''in other parts of the country.'' Why is that? Why is it women? Well, 2 Timothy 3 warns of these types of religious reprobates, these false prophets targeting women. It says in verse five, ''Having a form of godliness, ''but denying the power thereof from such turn away, ''for of this sort are they which creep into houses ''and lead captive, silly women laden with sins, ''led away with diverse lusts, ''ever learning and never able to come ''to the knowledge of the truth.'' It's silly women laden with sins, lusting after some Muslim guy, and it's pretty few and far between really. It really is, okay? It's pretty rare, but that's what you see. It's someone who ends up converting because they want to marry some guy they've fallen in love or probably lust to some degree with, okay? Add a few fake prison converts for safety reasons in prison because there's large gangs of them in prison and people, they just claim to become a Muslim because it's safer for them. Add a few of those, and that's pretty much the extent of Islamic evangelism in this nation. The growth is due to being born a Muslim and due to high birth rates and high immigration. That's the growth of Islam in this nation. It's got nothing to do with evangelism. It's pretty much borderline zero to do with it. Most normal people in the West aren't really so attracted to that particular style of work salvation. So it's just another version of the other religion work salvation, but that style, those sort of funny outfits and silly hats and all that kind of dodgy halal meat and everything, for most normal people are looking at that going, ''No, thanks. ''I'll go with a different style of work salvation.'' You know, I don't really fancy wearing the funny outfit. I'll just go and watch the Catholic priest wear the funny outfit instead. I'll go down the Church of England church and watch the vicar dress up in the dress. At least I don't have to get into it. You know, whereas Islam, it's obviously that you see them and they're all dressing up in this funny stuff and wearing silly hats and everything else and eating dodgy meat. Okay, some will look at, obviously, the humming and chanting as well and just feel like, no way. They'll prefer to hum and chant where they kind of understand what the humming and chanting is. So when you're humming and chanting stuff, you don't even know, that's off-putting, isn't it? Go to normal people, to people that grown up in this nation. No, for me, the biggest problem, okay, with this growing community, like I said, through immigration, birth rates, that are so unreceptive to the gospel is that there are massive danger to children. That's the biggest problem is that there are massive danger to our children and other children around this nation, around the world. Verse eight said, ''Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, ''so do these also resist the truth, ''men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.'' This is talking about religious reprobates, okay? They have corrupt minds. Now, this is from the liberal newspaper, The Independent, in 2017. It says, ''A think tank has claimed that 84% of people ''convicted of child grooming gang offences ''since 2005 were Asian.'' In a new study, William says its researchers discovered differences in the way paedophiles from different backgrounds operated. It said, ''White offenders often acted alone, ''while child abuse from Asian backgrounds ''were more likely to work in so-called grooming gangs.'' The organisation, which usually focuses on counter extremism said it found 222 of 264 or 84% of people convicted of specific grooming gang crimes in the UK since 2005 were Asian. Now, just to make it clear, this isn't because of their so-called race, okay? The worldly construct of race. Those 84% are grooming gangs, almost entirely Pakistani Muslims. That's what they are. They're Pakistani Muslims. That's the point. Why Pakistani? You go, why Pakistani? And there are famous cases such in, you might have heard of in Rochdale, Rotherham, Telford, places like this, Huddersfield. Well, around 91% of Pakistanis are Muslims in this nation. And with 2.4 million in the UK, that's over 50% of the 4 million Muslims being Pakistani. So they make up the vast majority of Muslims in this nation. When I say they make up the majority, and then bear in mind that that's one, one national background amongst all of them. That's a lot of them, yeah? That's a lot of them being just, being Pakistani. Now, this isn't a racial problem so much as a religion problem, okay? You say, but there are paedophiles from all backgrounds. Indeed there are, okay? And amongst all false religious types too. But to get together as a large group of friends, a large gang of friends, that's what these grooming gangs are. They're not people that have kind of linked up a line. They're just buddies. Yeah, they get together as a large group. In Huddersfield, a total of 41 have been convicted so far from one gang. 41 men that knew each other from these Pakistani Muslim communities. That involves a level of involvement, tolerance, and openness that is unrivalled in other communities of regular folk, isn't it? It's unrivalled. But what normal people in any other area just all just faulty-odd of them convicted, let alone the ones that weren't convicted, who are just happy to chat about and plot and plan to groom young what is mainly English girls. And it's not just in the UK, okay? The only difference is that they get arrested here. That's the only difference. According to an article in The Guardian, in Yemen, more than a quarter of girls are married before the age of 15. It went on to describe 12-year-old brides dying, okay? And you can only imagine why. In the case of a 12-year-old girl being married to an 80-year-old man in Saudi Arabia. And that's socially acceptable, by the way. And by the way, it's not just young girls, because a lot of people go, well, at least the Muslims hate homos. That absolute reprobate clown, Andrew Tate, was going, well, at least the Muslims are standing up against the homos. Well, the same article says this. Men who sodomize young boys are not considered homosexuals are pedophiles. Can you believe this? The love of young boys is not a phenomenon restricted to Afghanistan. Homosexual pederasty is common in neighboring Pakistan. It describes a documentary called The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, which I'm not gonna go into, and you can only imagine. The article goes on to say this. So why is the practice of child marriage sanctioned in Muslim countries? Let alone the sodomy, because that's sodomy, okay? The only thing is is that instead of going for men, they just go for the kids, because that's okay. Unfortunately, ultra-conservative religious authorities justify this old tribal custom by citing the prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha. That's why they justify it, because of their prophet. And this is the worst part of this religion. Their top prophet, okay, the man responsible for the extra biblical revelations, in inverted commas of the Quran, the doctrines of devils, was a pedophile. He's a pedophile. By any normal standards, he's a pedophile. Pure and simple, he married his friend's daughter, Aisha, when she was six years old, and consummated the marriage when she was nine. With friends like that, who needs enemies? His buddy's daughter, I mean, goodness knows what he would have done to his enemies, kids. And this is just common knowledge. Now, they've tried more recently to find ways out of this. Oh, well, no, no, see, what it was was actually she was a bit older, and they were a bit confused. The fact that it talks about her playing with dollies, you know, it's just because, you know, she was just a bit older playing with dollies and stuff. Actually, she must have been like, no, they've all known, they all know it's true. And if you've ever, you've pulled up a muzzah on this, I had one once who got so angry, because they lie, they'll just lie about it, got so angry, it's like, she was 12! Honestly, honestly, out soul winning in, I think it was Grey's at the time, is shouting, she was 12! Because the person I was with had brought this up. Probably wasn't a good idea, okay? What on earth? And then they go, well, back then, sorry, what was different back then? Because I tell you what, now, there's a lot more hormones in the water and stuff like that where they probably mature even younger now. Regardless, who looks at a six year old and goes, yeah, that's the woman I want to marry. She ain't a woman, you weirdo. He was a paedophile. And verse nine here in 2 Timothy 3 says of reprobates like Muhammad, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. Now, this should have been the end of it for Muhammad, shouldn't it? His folly was manifest to all. Everyone knows this. Any Muslim knows this. They know that he married a six year old child bride. He's a nonce, that should be the end of it. His folly has been manifest. Yet you have 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide still following this pervert. Turn to Revelation 22. Not just a pervert, not just an open pervert, a pervert who clearly added and took away from the preserved words of God 600 years after God said, don't mess with my words. God said, don't mess with my words. So Muhammad literally just chopped him up, took away this, added that, made a complete mess of it all, and they go, oh yeah, no, no, no, this is actually the true revelation. That's why I have so little time for this. That's why I'm not into Muslim and Christian debates, complete vain janglings, complete waste of time. I'm not into all this soap boxes in wherever it is they go, speaker's corner, and try and disprove Islam. He disproves it. Just him. Muhammad disproves the whole lot. It's done. There's no argument. There's no debate. You're just actually fueling. You'll make out like there's some sort of debate to have. There is no debate. It's nonsense. It's foolishness. They're following a pedophile. Revelation 22 says, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. This is verse 18, sorry, Revelation 22, 18. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. That's exactly what Muhammad did. He took away, he added, he took away, he added. He's a Bible-messing, child-abusing reprobate who's still being followed by approximately 2 billion people worldwide. And it's not just that they follow him, by the way, as some sort of sinful guy that they reckon received revelation. They're not, oh, well, yeah, we follow him, but he just kind of, he got the revelation in a way that we'll listen to what the prophet said in the Bible, but we understand that, yeah, but they're not sinless guys. The debate among Muslims, this is the debate among them, is was he completely sinless, which a large amount of them think he was? Was he completely sinless or did he have minor humane shortcomings but no purposeful sin? That seems to be the two options in Islam. Was he completely sinless or was he just human but he had a few shortcomings but he never purposely sinned? Yet these same people universally accept that he had a six-year-old bride. So let's get in the head of a Muslim for a second. They don't think that's sin. Not just, they don't, forget how wicked it is, they don't even think it's sin. They consider, they name their kids after him. They name their kids after him. I don't know what the percentage is. I should have looked this up, but there's a lot of guys called Muhammad out there. This is the equivalent, honestly. Most of you know, I have a son called James, yeah. We call him Jimmy sometimes, yeah, as one of his nicknames. If you said, this would be the reality. If you went, why'd you call your son Jimmy? I'd say, named him after my hero, Jimmy Savile. That's how bizarre it is. That's how messed up it is. They're naming their kids after this pedophile. They think he's sinless. It's a complete mess. And this is a lot of people. What would you be thinking if I did that? I was like, oh yeah, no, we're going to name our next son middle name, Gary Glitter. He's my hero. He's who I follow in life. He's who I want him to, because when you name your kid after someone's name, a lot of the time, because you want them to live up to that, don't you? That's kind of their role model. That's who they, you want them to be like the next one of those people. So what are they doing? They're naming their kids Muhammad. Knowing full well he had a six year old bride. That's Islam. And sometimes they're known as, you might've heard the term Mohammedans, because really they're Mohammed worshippers. They're Mohammedans. They don't follow God. They don't follow the God of the Bible. They follow Mohammed, the nonce. And that's what they're known as. And right now they're currently showing how holy they are. These people are right now around the world and in this station showing how holy they are with their daytime fasting. It's a joke. Well, apparently not. Now turn back to Matthew six, Matthew six. These fine upstanding religious folk are currently trying to earn their way to heaven with a bit of public fasting. That's what they're currently trying to do. The Ramadan is one of the pillars of Islam. Now this is a joke, okay? Their version of God is so unrighteous, their version of God, that their filthy rags of righteousness can somehow offset their sin. Their wicked sin. Apparently their filthy rags of fasting in the daytime is apparently going to pay for their sins. These guys think they're getting up early to stuff their faces. This is the reality of Ramadan. They get up early before sunset. Sorry, before dawn, before sunbreak, yeah? Before the sun rises. And they absolutely stuff their faces. Then they don't eat or drink in the day. Then at night, they stuff their faces. And apparently that is enough to pay for their sins, along with some other silly pillars of Islam. And by the way, what they do, this stuffing their face and all that stuff, is a lifestyle choice for, which is a growing lifestyle choice for millions of people worldwide. It's called intermittent fasting. They eat a load and then they have a long break, then they eat a load more. Apparently this pleases a righteous God enough to get you a buy when it comes to being judged for your many sins. The only, but the reality is what? The only payment, worthy enough, complete enough, capable of paying for our sins is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your filthy rags, your works of rightism is filthy rags. Your stupid daytime public fasting, which apparently they're having to pay for, which apparently they have all these, I was looking at some of this stuff, they have all these articles come up around Ramadan, how not to gain weight during Ramadan, how to stay healthy during Ramadan, because it's just a massive feast. It's just this big feast and they just avoid food in the day and stuff their face at nighttime. By the way, which is why they reject the Lord Jesus Christ, because they're just like the Pharisees of Jesus day to whom he said, you don't have to turn to Luke 16, 15, he said unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. And as you read Matthew six, okay, that we're going to now, no wonder Mohammed and the gang chopped up and discarded almost all of the Bible, because just so much of it is just the opposite to their ridiculous religion. Now we look briefly at verses 16 to 18, but in most of the chapter, okay, the son of God, yet a son of God is reproving this kind of self-justifying religious behavior. The title is Islam, Ramadan and Works for Show. And in Matthew six from verse five, we see this. We're going to look from verse five. It says, and when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Now, isn't that the public praying of Islam all over? Isn't it? Public prayer time, praying to be seen of men, turning to Mecca during their employer's time. Oh no, don't worry, we're going into a restaurant once, an Indian restaurant for a takeaway. I didn't know they were Muslims. And I'm looking around like, where is the guy? I'm waiting for my food. And I was already a few minutes late as well. I'm thinking, my feet's getting cold. Where's this guy? He's on his knees praying. I couldn't even see him. And then I'm like, look, he's ignoring me. Well, I'm saying, hello? Anyone there? Hello? And he's, while my food's getting cold. Yeah, he's on his knees praying. That's my time, isn't it? Oh, because, oh no, you've got to do it in the middle of your workplace in front of everyone, don't you? And there were people sitting in the restaurant and he's on his knees behind the counter somewhere. Praying to be seen of men. I had a guy outside my old house once. And we lived, we used to live kind of in the woods. Yeah, and there was just this guy outside just on his knees praying. And then we had one neighbour right next to us. It was a funny place where he lived. It was like a cottage next to us. And the guy said, he said, what are your lot out there? Because I used to coach a few of these guys. I used to come to, I used to have a gym there. And I said, what are you talking about? He said, there's some guy praying outside your front drive. And went out and the guy's on his knees praying, turning to Mecca, apparently, in the middle of my, right outside my front drive. What's the point? And you know, in his head, he's like, I'm looking real holy now. Because even in the middle of the woods where, because when I spoke to this guy, he'd walked somewhere, he didn't have a lift. He didn't, it was a bit of a kind of hard place to get to and back from and stuff. Time to pray. It's time to pray now. Well, it's not just the public prayers. It's walking down the street in special holy outfits. They love that stuff, don't they? Let me tell you what that is all about. It's all about being seen of men. That's what it's all about. Wearing some like long, long dress over whether they wear trousers underneath or not, is to be seen of men to look holy. And the irony is lost on them. That they're wearing something which God said in Deuteronomy 22 five, the woman shall not wear that which pertains unto man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so, abomination unto the Lord our God. They're an abomination to the true God. While they're standing in their dresses, some of them, it's not the trousers underneath and there's no debate, well, it's just kind of a long outfit over the top. Some of them, it's hairy legs underneath and they're wearing a dress, they're wearing a skirt. It's like, what are you wearing? And they think they're so holy, the long beard that's down to here, it's all to be seen of men. The stupid hats. It's all to be seen of men. It's all about how we just look so holy and people walk by, oh, whatever they say. Salaam, whatever. Oh, look at this. Salaam Kamara, is that right? Oh no, that was that queer that came here and tried to get us to take videos off our YouTube channel. No, sorry, I got confused. What do they say? Salaam, what do you say again, anyone? Say again? Salaam Malikim. Salaam Malikim. And they're walking around, oh, so holy, Salaam Malikim. And they're long flowing. It's all completely contrary to how God wants us to behave. God doesn't want us behaving like that. It's true, he doesn't. Keep a figure here. Turn to Matthew chapter 23. I don't care how holy they claim to be, it's cross dressing. It's cross dressing. It's not holy. God doesn't tell you to wear dresses. He says the opposite. Don't wear women's clothing and women don't wear men's clothing. And by the way, covering themselves all the way up to here in a pair of trousers is an abomination. They're wearing ninja outfits in trousers. They're wearing men's clothing. It's men's clothing. It's an abomination. And they think, oh, look how holy are women. I know they're dressed as men. Because you couldn't tell the difference. Could you? The whole point is you're meant to see the difference. In a world that they claim, oh, it's so wicked and everything else. And they call it Christian culture, don't they? They love to just pin it all on the Christians in inverted commas. Oh, look at all these women dressed as, you know, dressed as whores and all of this. Your women are dressed as men. It's a unisex outfit. It's a unisex ninja outfit. It's ridiculous. And I can hear how traditional they claim. Any of that stuff is, it's cross-dressing. It's cross-dressing. And it's the same stuff that the Christ-rejected work-salvationist Pharisees were doing, by the way. It's all the same stuff. Funny, they seem to hate the Jews so much, but they do so much of what these Jews are doing back in Jesus' day. Matthew 23 and verse five says, But all their works they do for to be seen of men, they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. Now the borders of their garments is the bottoms of their clothing. They enlarge it. Basically, it's all clothing for show. It's having these long, flowing dresses for show. And love the uppermost rooms and seats and the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. The old Salam Kamar in the market, yeah? It's all about the greetings. It's all about the, look at me, look how holy. Just on my way to the mosque. Just on my way back from the mosque. Just on my way back to my fifth prayer. It's all about show, being seen of men and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. That's what the special hat's for. That's what the long beard is for. That's what the dress is for. But back in Matthew chapter six, he said this in verse six. He said, but thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet. And when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret. And thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. And that is Muslim prayer time, isn't it? Vain repetition, recited words of the Qur'an. It's heathen, it's heathen vain repetition. It is though, isn't it? Sorry, it's gonna make me chuckle the jokes. Because it, but it is, it's just vain repetition. And I've been in churches where they do this with the Lord's prayer, okay? So I'm not saying this is only amongst the Muslims. But do you know what happens when they do this? So in the CRV church, when I was young and going to this CRV church as a young kid, they're all just repeating the Lord's prayer. And do you know what you don't do? You don't actually pay attention to any of the words. You can memorize them. You can say, oh, Father, which I didn't hear, which is funny because it's right after that in this passage. It actually gives an example of pray in this manner, not repeat these words verbatim. But that's, but this is Islamic prayer all over. They repeat things multiple, multiple times. It's vain repetition, vain repetition. No one's paying attention to the words. It's heathen vain repetition whilst trying to sound holy. Empty vain repetition. He said, be not you therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. After this manner, therefore pray ye. That is basically, it's like saying in this way, similar to this, don't repeat these words, but pray like this. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And because it's all the same, it's all like these same people, or like whether it's the Catholic, the Anglican, wherever it is, just repeating it, the Muslims just doing the same. It's all just heathen prayer. He then gives us this example. Then he goes on and says this in verse 16. Verse 16, moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward, which is most Muslims I ever knew during Ramadan. When I grew up and in the workplace, everything else, that's all the Muslims I've ever been across. They make their face of a sad countenance. You know, they're like walking around, just so hungry. Like this, they have a sad countenance. They disfigure their faces. You know, it's just like, like this, you know, the old drawn look and everything else, even if they're 20 stone. That they may appear unto men to, even though they've literally just stuffed their faces all morning, it's just been a nonstop feast. Then some of them, they get up, stuff their face, and go back to bed. If they haven't got anything else to do. And then get up later in the day. Oh, just so hungry. Like waddling around after that humongous feast. And then it's like maybe have an afternoon nap as well. Oh, look how holy I am, it's nighttime. Time to crack open more food. But they have the sad countenance. They disfigure their faces. It may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. And this is the thing, the whole thing is, it's not a fast, it's a farce. The whole thing's a farce. And you've got people, you've got these crazy non-Muslims around going, oh, well, happy, whatever, you know, aid, or whatever they call it at the end. Oh, and you know, isn't it great? You know, and let's really think about our Muslim, you know, friends here, while they're fasting through Ramadan. It's just a complete joke. That's not a proper fast. A biblical fast isn't announced to all in sundry. A biblical fast isn't where you talk about it all day, every day to everyone you come across. A biblical fast isn't where you'll get together and stuff your faces to make it easier beforehand and then afterwards. That's not a biblical fast. It's a month of farce. That's what it is. Let me tell you what their reward is. The recognition of their, hey, look at me buddies. That's what it's all about. The validation from everyone who's aware of this fast. That's what it's all about. Interesting. Said in verse 17, but thou when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. So the fasting should be private between you and God, okay? But of course that would require access to God through faith in Jesus Christ that they don't have. But back to the original point in the sermon, okay? What can we learn from Muslims to then avoid doing this? To avoid behaving like Muslims. They're a great example of what not to do, okay? Of how not to please God. So the title is Islam, Ramadan and Works for Show and I wanna give you just a few things we can look at and then do the opposite too. So point number one is rather than what they do, focus on pleasing God, okay? So point number one is focus on pleasing God. Said in verse five, And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as a hypocrite, sir, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. So how about us in our lives? So we can laugh, we can mock, we can, and understandably, right? You know, and we see people doing that. We see Jesus Christ mocking the Pharisees. We see people, because these are wicked people, okay? And when I say wicked, I'm talking about every average Muslim. But they're the people that are teaching this stuff. They're Imams, all these religious reprobates, all these perverts. These are wicked people, okay? So there's nothing wrong with mocking them. You saw, for example, Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal. And you know, these are bad people that sometimes need a bit of mocking, okay? But what can we learn? Because we don't want to mock these people. We don't want to point out all the ridiculousness of it, the hypocrisy, and then just behave the same in our own way. Are you dressing to be seen of men? For example, when you go to church in the morning, is it right? Well, how's brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so? How are my friends in church gonna view me? Or is it, how does God want me to dress? Anyway, there's nothing wrong with being respectable. There's nothing wrong with saying, yeah, I don't want to look like some sort of joke to people because I'm representing the Lord. But is it about the Lord Jesus Christ, or is it about how you're seen of people? Are you going to church to be seen of men? Women, are you going to church to be seen of men? Are you going to church and focusing on how you look to the men in the church, or are you going to church and focusing on how you look to the Lord God above? Is your Bible reading, for example, to be seen of men? Are you going to church and just happening to sit down and that's your, apparently your Bible reading times in front of everyone at church, you know? And we don't really have that here, but I've seen that in churches before, where people, they get there early and they're just sitting there reading their Bible because they're so holy, you know? They just always, any moment they can, you know? And you're thinking, you didn't even read it this morning, buddy. You're just reading because it's in front of people and you could think of a hundred different things that so many people are doing to be seen of men. Are you going soul winning to be seen of men? Are you going soul winning because it's about what other people think, or is it because you want to pull people out of the fire and because you want to serve the Lord your God? And we need to get our hearts right with that, otherwise are we much better? Are we any better than the Muslim? Are we any better than the dress wearing, magic hat wearing Muslim? Point number two, the majority of your prayer life should be personal with God, okay? The majority. Said in verse five, and when thou prayest, thou shall not be as a hypocrite, so after they love to pray, stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men, verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, when thou shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. So does your prayer life consist of just church and meal times? And some people, sadly, it probably does. Now, just a point on this, there's nothing wrong with praying in church or with your families, but who is your focus on when you do? Are you thinking, oh, how can I sound holy to everyone here, or are you thinking, I'm talking to God right now? Are you thinking, how can I say the best prayer for my family to think I'm sounding really holy right now? Or is it, what am I praying to God? And obviously, when we pray in church, it should be like that as well. There's nothing wrong with praying in church, but aside from those times, the majority of our prayers should be private with God, shouldn't they? So if the majority of your prayer time is in church or in front of other people, you know better than the Muslim. The majority of your prayer time should be about you with God, and never should your prayer time be about how other people view you. Shouldn't be about looking holy in front of people and anything like that. Our prayer time should be about our personal relationship with God. Point number three, think about what you pray. Think about what you pray. It said in verse seven, but when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. So do you just repeat the same prayers? Do you just have a prayer that you repeat at bedtime? There are a lot of people that do that, don't they? Do you just have a prayer that you just repeat when you eat a meal? Do you have a prayer that you just repeat? You just tick the boxes in the prayer? Or are you thinking about what you're saying to the God of this world? You have access to the true God. He delights in your prayers. He wants to hear your prayers. So are you making use of that, or are you just kind of just repeating the same thing that you say every time? Are you speaking personally to God? No, there's nothing wrong with maybe starting your prayer and finishing it in the same way. There's nothing wrong with maybe praying for specific things at specific times, but you really think about those words. You think about what you're personally saying to God. Are you just being like another Muslim and just repeating, repeating, repeating the same stuff? And number four, when you fast, fast in private where possible. Okay, it said in verse 16, moreover, verse 16, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward, but thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and washed thy face, thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Now I say where possible, because those with families might end up offending someone if they fast in private every time. So have you got a wife that cooks you dinners and stuff, and you don't tell her you're fasting, she might get a bit offended or upset if you just kind of refuse to eat her food. I'm not telling you why, I just don't want it. I don't want that food that you've slaved over for two hours, you know, that's not a good thing to do. So obviously there are times when you need to tell people. But notice that he said here, when you fast, he said, when you fast, didn't he? It's a given that we will fast. And by the way, he's talking about after he's gone as well, because he said, you know, he said in another passage about not fasting whilst he's there. Okay, while the bridegroom is there, but when he's gone, then there'll be a time to fast, right? And it's a given that we will fast. So we are expected to fast. Why do we fast? Well, for me, there are three main categories of fast in the Bible, and I've gone through this a few times. There's something I studied a few years back that I found quite interesting. Number one is that we fast when seeking forgiveness. Okay, so we fast when we need forgiveness for something, when we're trying to get right with God. Sometimes you might've been well out of line, you're out of God's will in one way or another, and you're fast to bring yourself back into line with God. Okay, so we see many examples of that in the Bible, fasting when seeking forgiveness from God. Another time we fast is when suffering tribulation. So when you're going through tribulation life, whether it's chastisement or not, and a lot of the time it's not when you're just going through the trials and tribulations of life, sometimes there can be some pretty serious tribulations. We see an example in the Bible of people going, right, I'm going to fast and pray. And the fast can be anything from, it could literally be a daylight fast if you wanted to. It can be with water, without water. It could be for 24 hours. It could be for 48 hours. You know, if you've never fasted before and you think, yeah, actually, yeah, I've never fasted, and I can see times when, yeah, I understand, that this is when people fast. Well, try fasting, you know, try maybe a day first, and fast, and maybe still drink water. But focus on prayer during that time. So for example, when suffering tribulation, when going through hard times. And then a third time we see fasting is when serving God, and specifically, when about to do something big. You know, when about to go and do something big for God, you're about to do something, there's a big change happening in your life, some sort of step you're taking for God, that's a good time to fast, okay? Fast before that time or during that time to, again, you're denying the flesh, and a lot of the time you'll be led more by the Spirit when you deny the flesh in that area, and you're going to be more in prayer and more in the things of God at that time. There are times to fast. But in all of those situations, it's rare that we would need to announce it to all and sundry, okay? Yeah, there are now and again, you might see collective fasts in the Bible, but it's pretty rare. Majority of fasts is people individually fasting. And yeah, there might be a time when everyone says, okay, we need to fast, but not some set just once a year fast because that's going to get us into heaven. I mean, it's so far removed from biblical fasting. So four things to think about, okay? Number one, focus on pleasing God. And we're just going to use this joke, kind of bad version of biblical Christianity, because that's what they are. They're kind of like a just a version, their Quran is just like a fake Bible, isn't it? Their religion is just this fake Abrahamic religion. Yeah, it's just a joke. They take Bible stories, get them completely wrong, mess them up, and then try and act like that's the true teachings and all things. It's just another work of salvation. Just another work of salvation. Yawn, repeat, here we go. What do you have to do in your work of salvation to work your way to heaven? Oh, right, you've got to once a month, once a year for a month, stuff your face in the morning and evening and just avoid some food and drink in the daytime. Oh, you know, great. It's just all works, it's all works. But we can use them, we can use them to remind us of how we don't want to behave. We want to focus on pleasing God, not men. We want to focus on not to be seen in men. Number two, we want to focus the majority of our prayer life on being personal with God. Number three, we want to focus about what we pray when we pray. Number four, we want to focus on fasting in private where possible. And you can add it to all areas of life. So everything we're doing, whether it's, you know, whether it's just whatever it is, when we're in front of people, we should just push that away, that fleshly temptation to try and impress those around us. Because that's what they're all doing. And we, you know, God forbid that these people should be doing that as well. When we see this bad example, we see people that are following a paedophile behaviour like that, that's a good reminder and a good kick up our bum to go, don't behave like them. Don't behave like that lot. Okay, don't think, oh, you know, how can I make my parenting look even better in front of everyone? How can I make my love for my wife or my love for my husband look even like, how can I appear like this? How can I, during church and around church, people look even more holy and look even more this or less that? If that's your motivation, you just like the Muslim. You just like the Muslim. If it's about how you look to others, you got it all wrong. You know, but in fact, you could say, I'm not talking about the Nazi ones, but you're worse because you have the Holy Spirit and you have the word of God. Where's they're following a joke? I mean, what do you expect? So next time you do get tempted to seek an accolade or impress someone with your holiness in all areas of life, think about the Muslim, think about the Muslim and how far away from God that sort of behavior really is. That was Islam Ramadan and works for show. And I hope, hopefully you've got something out of that. On that, we're gonna finish in a word of prayer. Thank you for your word, thank you for, well, just the clear instruction you give us, Lord, which is contrary to how all these different false religions behave, all these different fake religious types help us to just behave how you want us to behave, Lord, help us to focus on how you want us to live, how you want us to behave, focus on you, focus on loving you, focus on praying to you, focus on following you and not on how we appear to men. Lord, help us to use the bad examples as a way to spur us on to live better, to get these areas cleaner in our lives, to not be tempted to try and impress those around us. Lord, help us to get out this afternoon and find people that wanna hear your gospel, Lord, to not be distracted by those, like, sadly, so many Muslims do that wanna just pull us into debates and long, fruitless conversations where what we should be doing is finding those that wanna hear your gospel. Help us not to be distracted by this stuff, help us to just go out and find those that wanna hear your word and get many saved and to return for this evening's service. Jesus' name, pray all this, amen.