Participants: Shakeela Yasuf
Series Code: DOA
Program Code: DOA000015
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00:41 As-Salaam-Alaikum to our Muslim brother and sisters
00:45 and shalom to our Hebrew cousins, 00:48 peace be upon you to our Christian brothers and sisters. 00:50 Welcome once again 00:52 to the "The Descendants of Abraham." 00:55 I would like today to take this time to say a special welcome, 01:01 a greeting to Brother Angus, 01:08 Brother Angus is in Malawi 01:10 and he has been emailing us and he has been 01:13 blessed by the programs. 01:15 Brother Angus, we welcome you to the program 01:18 and thank you so much for your prayers and your emails. 01:22 And we pray that you will continue 01:23 to be blessed by these programs. 01:26 I would also like to take this time to say 01:29 Salaam-Alaikum to Sheikh Qasima. 01:33 I will not mention what country you are in but we are glad 01:37 and so happy that you are with us and we pray 01:41 that - that this programs will be a blessing to you 01:45 and that you will contact us if you have any question 01:49 and anything to share, we'll be more than 01:52 happy to answer those letters or emails. 01:58 Welcome Sheikh Qasima. 02:02 A Muslim brother who has chosen to follow the God of Abraham 02:08 who he believes to be Jesus Christ says this. 02:13 "As I began to examine the Scriptures, 02:16 I came across some revolutionary teachers. 02:20 In the excellent names of Allah in Islam, not one is love. 02:26 Not one is father. 02:29 But I read about a God who loved mankind so much, 02:33 even after they rebelled against Him, 02:36 that he made a way that we could come before Him 02:40 and call him Abba, Father." 02:46 I would like you to ask yourselves 02:48 brothers and sisters the God 02:51 that you worship is he a God of love? 02:56 Is he a God that says come and call me Father Abba, 03:03 daddy, papa is your God and the God 03:10 you worship an intimate God, 03:14 one that has a very intimate relationship with you? 03:22 Our Muslim brothers and sisters honor the name of Jesus 03:27 because the Quran states that He is a great prophet. 03:33 Our Jewish brothers and sisters claim 03:36 that He was just an ordinary man, no one special. 03:41 But everyone who has heard His name 03:45 does not deny His existence. 03:49 Yet today there are still too many people around the world 03:54 that who have never heard the name of Jesus 03:57 or what He has done for humanity, 04:01 all humanity, you and me. 04:07 Do you know that if you were the only person 04:11 on this rebellious planet, this very sinful world 04:16 that Jesus Christ would have come just for you, 04:21 just to rescue you from the bondage of sin and Satan. 04:27 This is a reason that He left His home 04:30 in heaven and came to this world. 04:33 When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden 04:37 and ate of the fruit, the forbidden fruit every man, 04:43 woman and child every one that was alive then 04:50 and all we know is that Adam and Eve 04:52 were the only ones alive then but afterwards 04:55 when the earth became popular did every single one 04:58 from that time on started to die because of the sin. 05:04 We are all facing the consequences of that sin. 05:09 Let's look at Genesis 3:6 it says 05:14 "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 05:17 that it was pleasant to the eyes, 05:20 and a tree desirable to make one wise, 05:23 she took of its fruit and ate." 05:29 Now God had given Adam and Eve instructions 05:32 about that forbidden tree and that forbidden fruit. 05:35 You know He taught them about the fall of Satan, 05:39 He warned them that this enemy will be lurking in the shadows 05:46 and will be looking to destroy them and to deceive them. 05:51 Well, Eve wandered away from her husband 05:56 and she went to the forbidden tree and that is where she came 06:00 face to face with Satan in the form of a serpent. 06:06 Eve believed what she was being told that the fruit 06:11 was good that she would not die, 06:14 that God lied and so she pluck the fruit and she ate it 06:21 and we know what happened after that. 06:26 God made us all free moral agent. 06:31 He did not forbid Eve or Adam to eat of that fruit, 06:38 He warned them, He gave them the instruction 06:41 and He said don't go there. 06:45 You know we - we read that's forbidden 06:48 and it was His instruction to say you don't want to go there. 06:52 This is not something you want, 06:53 it was a test of their faithfulness 06:55 and their obedience to God. 06:58 But they were free to go and to eat of the fruit. 07:03 They were free, God makes us 07:05 all free moral agent. 07:07 He does not, He does not force Himself on us. 07:12 He does not force us to worship Him, 07:17 He does not force us to worship anyone. 07:22 He shows us through His love 07:25 who He is and then He says, you make that choice. 07:30 If you want to come to me, follow Me, worship Me 07:33 or choose if you want to disobey and go your way. 07:38 But He does say there are consequences 07:41 because by disobedience the consequence 07:45 for Adam and Eve was death. 07:48 And you know, they started to make excuses 07:53 blaming each other, blaming the serpent 07:55 and so and so forth but God 07:57 does not accept excuses, only repentance. 08:03 So yes, we are going to sin, we are going to fall 08:08 but that's okay, because we need to get up 08:11 and repent of our sinful acts and God and ask for forgiveness 08:17 and our loving Father will forgive us. 08:21 When we choose to believe a lie, 08:24 we then choose to disbelieve the words of God. 08:28 And that's what Eve did. 08:30 She chose to believe the lie that Satan was telling her 08:34 instead of believing the truth that what God was saying about 08:39 staying away from the tree. 08:41 See God can not coexist with sin, 08:45 it just can't happen, He is pure, He is sinless 08:50 and so when Adam and Eve sin, 08:54 He had to be separated from us. 09:00 God through Jesus Christ is now calling us to dwell with Him, 09:06 He is reconciling us to Himself 09:08 because it is only through Christ, 09:11 that we can be reconciled to God, 09:16 never by ourselves. 09:19 We read in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, 09:25 but the gift of God is eternal life 09:29 through Jesus Christ our Lord." 09:33 There are laws in the kingdom of God. 09:36 It is so unfortunate that we as human beings 09:39 we want laws in our land, in our country, 09:43 even in our homes, in our schools, 09:45 in our government everywhere all around us we expect 09:49 that laws will be there but so many of us do not want 09:53 to believe that the God of heaven has laws 09:57 in His government, in His kingdom. 10:01 Eve thought it was all right to eat from the tree of life, 10:05 I'm sorry from the forbidden tree. 10:08 The fruit looked delicious and safe to eat. 10:11 She lingered at the forbidden tree and by doing so, 10:14 she invited Satan's temptation to pick and eat of the fruit. 10:20 And that one act of disobedience 10:23 can still be seen in our world today. 10:27 Eve deceived herself into thinking 10:31 that something so small, so insignificant 10:36 could get by God, that He won't be holding 10:43 her accountable for that. 10:46 How many times do we do the same thing. 10:49 We know in our hearts what is right and what is wrong 10:54 but we start to rationalize our sins away 10:58 and we can't do that. 11:01 So many people believe that God loves 11:03 so much that He would never destroy us 11:07 and God is not looking to destroy us. 11:11 He loves us, He wants to save us, 11:14 He wants us to dwell with Him in heaven. 11:18 So many choose their own God and their own way of worshiping 11:24 and then they believe that their way will get them into paradise. 11:30 This is very dangerous ground brothers and sisters. 11:34 Here is what our Creator says in Proverbs 14:12, 11:40 "There is a way that seems right to a man, 11:44 but its end is the way of death." 11:47 And we can also read in Malachi 3:6, 11:52 "For I am the Lord, I do not change." 11:58 Because our first parents Adam and Eve violated 12:01 the law of God and by doing so sinned against God, 12:06 the whole world became contaminated. 12:10 Men are teaching that we are released 12:13 from the obedience to God's law but this teaching 12:18 has weakened our moral obligation 12:22 to our holy God and open the doors 12:26 of sinful living in our world today. 12:30 For many people sinning has become 12:33 as easy as drinking water, but all is not lost. 12:39 Our Creator already had a plan instituted for just such a time, 12:45 the plan of salvation through Jesus the Christ. 12:50 We will take a look at a very tender 12:53 and compassionate Father 12:56 in the Book of Isaiah 59:14-16. 13:03 It says, "Justice is turned back, 13:05 and righteousness stands afar off, 13:09 for truth is fallen in the street, 13:12 and equity cannot enter. 13:15 So truth fails and he who departs 13:18 from evil makes himself a prey. 13:22 Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him 13:25 that there was no justice. 13:27 He saw that there was no man, 13:30 and wondered that there was no intercessor. 13:34 Therefore His own arm brought salvation 13:38 for Him and His own righteousness, 13:42 it sustained Him." 13:45 Isn't that beautiful. 13:47 God saw that there was no one in the universe 13:51 that was qualified to bring salvation 13:55 to a fallen man and so what did he do? 13:59 He stepped in, He became the sacrifice for our salvation. 14:05 What a great and glorious and awesome Father He is to us. 14:11 What love He has for you and for me brothers and sisters. 14:18 Jesus had to come to this fallen world 14:20 so that we can reconciled to our Father God 14:25 because when sin entered our world, 14:27 we became separated from Him, 14:29 that is the reason that Jesus the Christ, 14:33 the anointed one had to come here to reconcile us 14:38 to His Father and our Father. 14:43 This is what Jesus said to His disciples, 14:46 we can read about it in Mathew 18:11. 14:49 He says, "What do you think? 14:52 If a man has a hundred sheep, 14:54 and one of them has gone astray, 14:57 does he not leave the ninety-nine 14:59 and go the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 15:03 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, 15:07 he rejoices more over that sheep than over 15:10 the ninety-nine that did not go astray." 15:15 And so He came seeking, this is why He left heaven 15:20 and left His Father and the angels, 15:23 the holy angels and why He left that perfect piece in heaven 15:29 to come to the sinful chaotic planet. 15:34 It is to rescue you brothers and sisters 15:37 each one of you and me, if we will allow him to do so. 15:42 If you were the only one, He would have come 15:45 to this earth, He is still seeking to reconcile 15:49 you to His Father our Father. 15:53 Here is what His disciples in the Book of John 1:1-5 tells us. 16:00 "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God 16:05 and the word was God. 16:08 He was in the beginning with God. 16:10 All things were made through him, 16:13 and without him nothing was made that was made. 16:17 In him was life and the life was the light of men. 16:21 And the light shines in the darkness 16:24 and the darkness did not comprehend it." 16:30 As we learned in the previous program, 16:33 Jesus here was beginning His ministry, 16:36 His earthly ministry lasted only three and half years 16:41 and in that short time He was working to show us 16:45 the character of our Father and His Father. 16:50 You see beginning in heaven and continuing 16:53 to our present day, Satan has been accusing 16:56 God of being unjust and unfair. 17:00 He managed to deceive a third of heaven's angels. 17:05 These are angels that were created by God 17:09 and that - that were face to face with him in heaven 17:13 and yet here is Satan 17:18 who managed to deceive them. 17:22 God could have destroyed Satan and these angels 17:26 but in His infinite wisdom, He chose to allow Satan 17:30 to reveal his character of sin. 17:35 The unfallen beings in God's universe will see first hand 17:39 that God is a God of love and forgiveness, 17:43 compassion and mercy. 17:47 When Jesus spoke of leaving the 99 to save the one, 17:51 I believe He was speaking of having to leave 17:55 the unfallen beings to rescue us. 17:58 He left heaven, He left the angels, 18:01 He left His Father. 18:04 And you know in this vast universe 18:10 should we be so pompous and arrogant to think 18:13 that we are the only planet 18:17 that God has placed life upon. 18:22 He is a Creator and I believe that may be just may be, 18:28 there are other beings on other planets 18:30 that He has created that are watching this rebellious planet 18:36 and watching this battle between God and Satan 18:42 playing out and they are seeing first hand what happens 18:46 when sin enters the heart. 18:51 I believe Jesus left all of these creations 18:54 to come and rescue us. 18:57 There are several verses in the Bible that supports 19:00 that and in a later day, we will look at some of those. 19:04 Lets look now at Luke 10:17, 18. 19:09 "Then the seventy returned with joy, 19:11 saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. 19:16 And he said to them "I saw Satan fall 19:19 like lightning from heaven." 19:23 What Jesus was saying to His followers is, 19:26 I have conquered Satan, I was there in heaven 19:32 and I saw him fall, I threw him out of heaven, 19:36 I saw him fall from heaven, I have conquered Satan. 19:40 I fought with him and the rebellion there is done. 19:47 It is all now happening on this earth, 19:50 but there is nothing for you to be afraid of my children, 19:54 none of you, do not be afraid of Satan. 19:58 Many people today will tell you that they believe in God, 20:01 ask a lot of people and they say, 20:03 do you believe in God? 20:04 And they will say absolutely yes and yet bad things happen, 20:09 when bad things happen they blame God. 20:12 Well, if we believe in God the Creator 20:16 and we believe in His love for us, 20:19 then we have to believe what He tells us 20:21 that there is an adversary that there is a devil known by Satan. 20:27 Satan is the one that wants to destroy us. 20:30 He is the one that brought sin into this world and destruction. 20:36 Why do we tend to blame God for the good and the bad? 20:42 God will allow us to go through trials that will help to shape 20:46 our characters and that will bring us closer to Him. 20:51 He also promises to be by our side 20:53 as we are going through these trials. 20:56 He never leaves us alone. 20:58 I can attest to that personally, but we can't blame him 21:05 for the sins of this world. 21:08 There is a devil and the devil Satan, he is to be blamed. 21:13 He loves to be portrayed with a - a red manned 21:17 with you know these, these horns and a tail 21:22 but that's not who he is he is a fallen angel 21:25 and he was beautiful, he was the head angel in heaven. 21:29 But through his pride he fell, fell from grace and he is now 21:35 here to take us with him. 21:37 You know the old adage misery loves company, 21:41 he doesn't want to go on his own. 21:43 He wants to take each one of Gods children 21:46 so that they will be destroyed also. 21:50 Let's take a look at what the Holy Scripture 21:52 tells us in 1 John 3:8. 21:57 "He who sins is of the devil, 22:00 for the devil has sinned from the beginning. 22:02 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, 22:06 that He might destroy the works of the devil. 22:10 Jesus came, brothers and sisters to set us free from the bondage 22:14 of Satan and to ultimately destroy Satan 22:18 which He will do at the end of this age. 22:22 And we read in 1 Peter 5:8. 22:27 "Be Sober, be vigilant, because your adversary 22:31 the devil walks about like a roaring lion, 22:35 seeking whom he may devour." 22:38 Right here in this verse we can see that the devil is our enemy. 22:42 As our enemy Satan is out to destroy us, 22:45 all of us, he is out to destroy you and me, 22:48 his whole life work has been to separate us from God 22:53 and he is accomplishing that unfortunately. 22:57 His fear is that we will turn to God in prayer 23:01 and we will repent of our sins and that we will confess 23:05 and come to God and be saved. 23:08 Our creator shows us how to resist Satan in James 4:7. 23:14 "Therefore submit to God. 23:16 Resist the devil and he will flee from you." 23:20 This is a wonderful promise, submit to God, resist the devil 23:25 and he will flee from you. 23:26 God will give us the strength and protect us in this. 23:31 Brothers and sisters if we are not living 23:34 in sin Jesus Christ would never had have to come 23:38 to this earth to face shame and suffering. 23:41 He has given up so much for us for you and for me. 23:46 He came to reveal to us the true nature of our Creator God. 23:52 In 1 John 3:12, we read, "Cain was of the wicked one 23:58 and murdered his brother. 24:00 And why did he murder him? 24:02 Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." 24:06 When bad things happen to good people, don't blame God. 24:11 There is evil in this world of course 24:13 there is and the one responsible for you for this is Satan, 24:18 so let's put the blame where it belongs. 24:21 The 9/11 attacks, the innocent lives 24:26 that are being destroyed around this world, 24:29 the murders that's going on, the terrorism, 24:32 there is an evil one behind it all and that is Satan. 24:39 In John 1:1-5 we read, "In the beginning 24:46 was the word and the word was with God 24:50 and the word was God." 24:52 He was in the beginning with God. 24:54 "All things were made through him, 24:56 and without him nothing was made that was made. 24:59 In him was life and the life was the light of men. 25:04 And the light shines in the darkness 25:06 and the darkness did not comprehend it." 25:09 Brothers and sisters, His light is still shining 25:13 in this wicked world and many 25:16 are being brought out of darkness into light. 25:19 Please choose, do not stay in the darkness. 25:22 Allow the light to shine in your hearts, in your mind. 25:27 Ask God, pray to Him and ask Him to guide you 25:31 into His truth not mine, not anyone else's but His truth. 25:36 And I promise you, He will do that. 25:39 He will guide you into truth, into the truth 25:44 of the true God of Abraham. 25:48 We will be right back. 25:51 When you get to the Descendants of Abraham, 25:53 you can be sure that you're lighting the way for all 25:56 in search of the Creator God and His message of love 26:00 and forgiveness to all nations. 26:02 Thank you for your support and for your prayers. 26:05 All contributions are tax deductible. 26:08 Please visit us online today at www.descendantsofabraham.org 26:13 or write to us at the address you see listed on your screen. 26:17 All correspondence will be kept confidential. 26:21 Listen to what the young disciple John 26:24 has to say about Jesus throughout his ministry 26:29 as he was here on this earth and after Jesus was crucified. 26:34 Let's look at John 21:24, 25. 26:40 "This is the disciple who testifies of these things, 26:44 and wrote these things, and we know 26:46 that his testimony is true. 26:48 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, 26:52 which if they were written one by one, 26:55 I suppose that even the world itself could not contain 26:59 the books that would be written. Amen." 27:03 What reason could these men have 27:07 to lie brothers and sisters, 27:09 many of my Muslim brothers and sisters believe 27:11 that they Injil the gospels were corrupted but I have to ask 27:16 this question and I would like 27:18 you to ask yourself this question. 27:21 When was it corrupted and by whom? 27:25 Can you please open your hearts to the true God of Abraham 27:29 and He will teach you all things, 27:32 allow Him to guide you into the path of His righteousness. 27:37 I will be praying for you and I pray 27:40 that next week you will join us again. |
Revised 2014-12-17