Well, good morning Crossing Church.
How are you doing this morning? Well, good morning Crossing
Church. How are you doing this morning
away? All right, man, I'm glad that
you're here. I'm glad to be here, and to be
able to share with you. And I've been really excited
about this series that were in called, if because, I think now
more than ever, we need to have a really good answer for the
hope that is within us. Like, do you know why you
believe what you believe? Leave do you struggle with
certain aspects of of what you believe and that's really what
this is. We launched it on Easter and
we're kind of moving out from there, answering some of the
difficult questions that some of you might have or maybe some
that you've received from other people.
And I really enjoyed what Clayton was able to share with
us on Easter and then to have Ken Ham last week, what a
blessing, that was absolutely incredible.
I don't know how many of you were able to go on Wednesday
night when he was we were really able to let him off the leash
and he went on for a couple of hours, it was just incredible.
The Crux of what he was sharing is the truth about the Bible,
particularly Genesis 12 Genesis 11 and he used that text to
define whether a person has a Biblical worldview or secular
worldview. And that was based on the
historical accuracy of God's word.
Now, there's a whole lot in God's word that you're expected
to put your faith in when you listen to Ken Ham and I want you
to think about this, okay, especially in the light of how
so many of you have been brought up in an educated in school and
in college. This is what the Bible expects
for you to believe that Universe was created in six days.
It differentiates humans from animals as God's children.
It describes a perfect world before sin entered it with no
death, it describes a single land mass and a single see.
It says that there were no animals that ate meat until
after the flood that there was no rain that God actually
watered the Earth in a different way than what we know is the
water cycle that there was no sickness and there was no aging
and there was no need for clothes because the climate was
so perfect and that there was no sin in the world.
It describes the fall of humanity, where sin and death
interred the world. Even though people at that, time
could still live nearly 1,000 years.
Did it describes this great flood, the destruction of all
mankind with the exception of Noah and his family?
And it describes this dispersion of mankind because of the Tower
of Babel and how they were gradually limited to have a life
span of less than 120 years. Now, all of that in Genesis 12,
11 would say, men that requires a whole lot of faith.
Like do I just what do I do? What do I do with all this other
stuff that I believe in? Then that science tells me?
What about Evolution, what about the Big Bang?
What about fossils? And what about dinosaurs?
And what about millions and millions and millions of years
and what about science? I was thinking about all of that
when I was listening to Ken Ham and it reminded me of being an
8th grade. Now, when I was in eighth grade,
we had, you know, different classes that we would go to one
of those classes with science class, right?
And our science teacher was mr. Guernsey, and in that class,
there was a girl that I kind of had a crush on her name was
Glenda. And, you know, I was trying I
was still really awkward when it came to girls in eighth grade
and and so I really didn't know how to do that.
And and and I really wasn't trying to do that but when mr.
Guernsey started teaching about Evolution and about the old
Earth. There was a lot of stuff, even
an eighth grade that I knew about that.
And so I took him to task on it and I started asking him
questions. And I said, well what do you
think about this or what do you think about that?
And there was a lot of that he had no answer for he was just
Teaching from the book. Now in eighth grade we used to
we got a a yearbook at the end of the year, had everybody's
picture in it things they were involved in and it was the it
was the thing to do back then to pass that yearbook around and
people could sign the yearbook. And I remember as I passed it
around, Glenda took ahold of that yearbook.
And you know what? She wrote in it, some to
somebody who believes the same way that I do about about
creation. Thanks for being so brave and
courageous. That's not why I did it.
But boy, it sure felt good. so that's what Ken Ham has devoted
his life to He's devoted his life to reversing that
understanding that we've been taught from childhood, that none
of the things I just mentioned her true.
And it's constantly reinforced by every media Outlet by every
nature Channel, by every science organization.
And that's why Ken Ham offers Answers in Genesis, the Creation
Museum, the ark encounter, all of the educational books and so
much more Because your mind does matter.
And there is incredible. Scientific proof for what the
Bible says, you're just not taught it.
But can I can I trust it? Can I trust this book?
How do I turn my back on? What seems like?
Almost everybody else believes and turn toward the Bible to
believe what it says do. Do I have to just turn my brain
off and accept this impossible story in order to have faith?
You know, it's so hard for us to trust anyone with anything
today, right? Because everyone is spinning.
So how do I put my trust in God's word and while I'm at it,
how do I know that God's word is something that I'm reading that
I can actually rely on? And that's what this sermon is
about if the Bible is accurate, if this is accurate Then it
literally changes, everything doesn't.
So, I want to welcome all of our locations, all around this area,
to be able to learn and to worship together.
And if your Insider online, we're thankful for each and
every one of you as well. And we're going to dig down into
this truth today. The Apostle Paul taught Timothy
that he could trust God's word. He said it in second, Timothy
chapter 3, verses 16 and 17 and it's right before.
All of us that go into pastoral Ministry were ordained into
pastoral Ministry and part of being ordained is to have a
charge read to you and it is from 2nd, Timothy chapter 4.
It's in the Versus right after this.
So to understand what we're charging to do, to preach the
word to be, you know, prepared in season and out of season, all
those words that are are spoken over, us are precluded, with
these words. All scripture Paul says, is
god-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking correcting
and training in righteousness. So that the servant of God, may
be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
God breathed. Hmm.
What does that mean? Some of the older translations
of the Bible? Use a different word that you
use, a single word for those two, that that hyphenated word
and it's the word inspired. Some of you may have heard the
word inspired. All scripture is inspired by
God. It comes from a Greek word,
which is theou, noose dose. It literally means the very
Breath of God, like the air that comes out of the mouth of God.
What does it mean, though? Well in 2nd Peter 1:21, Peter
describes it to us and this is what he says for prophecy.
Never had its origin in the human will.
So just stop right there before I go on.
It means that this is not something that somebody was
thinking and just decided to share that with you because this
was this was his understanding and his will that he wanted to
teach you with says no. Prophecy ever had its origin in
the human will. So, there's no agenda here,
right? But profits through, though,
human spoke from God as they were carried Along by the Holy
Spirit. So they were speaking the words
of God carried Along by the Holy Spirit.
Now, the two people I've just quoted Paul and Peter.
They should know about this. Why?
Because they were inspired writers.
They personally experienced this Supernatural reality called
inspiration where God and His holy spirit worked in them to
breathe that out of them. So when they wrote all this down
that they were reading, they were writing the actual words of
God. But you might say, well, that's
what the Bible says about the Bible.
Couldn't it have been changed over the years?
How do I know that? It was copied?
I mean, it's accurately. I mean, it's 2,000 years old.
I mean, the, the, the last writings in the New Testament
are nearly 2,000 years removed for up, from from us, and the
printing, press wasn't invented until over 1,000 years later.
So, how do I know that it was copied correctly or more
accurately? I mean it's pretty old.
So I mean it could have been manipulated and people could
have used it for their own purposes.
And I think those are all. Valuable questions and I'm going
to answer them today. Okay.
So let's just and some of this is going to be a little nerdy.
OK. Some of you are going to feel
like I'm going to school here but it's okay.
It's okay to do that and it's okay to take notes and it's okay
to be reminded about the truth of these things if you already
know them. All right.
Here's number. One reason.
Number one that I believe you can trust this book, the
biblical manuscripts have been reliably transmitted from the
author's to us. Today that means what the
authors wrote down, you have that exact information.
That's a big statement to make, isn't it like, wow, I mean, how
do you know that Jerry? How can you you can't go back?
2000 years? Well, you kind of can and and
I'm going to explain that about five years ago, Alice and I had
a great opportunity and that was to travel on vacation to London
and to Scotland to England and Scotland.
And before we ever left, I had done a lot of studying the
things that I wanted to see. And It a lot of things that
other people would like to do. But, you know, I'm a little
quirky and there was some things I wanted to see the other people
probably would never think about now.
I wanted to go to the British museum because the history of
the world is in the British Museum and there's incredible
things to see there. But there was one particular
thing I wanted to see in the British Museum and that is I
wanted to go to the surge on RIT Blatt museum inside the British
Museum and some of you are going the what?
And I said yeah The Surge on RIT Blatt.
Museum is actually inside there. When you first walk in, it's
over to your left. Okay, what's in there?
Well, Priceless things are in there, like, if you want to see
the original copy of Alice in Wonderland, it's in there.
You want to see the original copy handwritten copy of
Robinson, Caruso, it's in there. If you want to see, like, the
original Masters that like, handle and Grieg and Chopin and
and all of the, all the great musical Masters, all their stuff
is in there handwritten notes. Like that the notes on the page
that they wrote by hand or in their, if you're into the
Beatles and Beatles music all of the original manuscripts that
they wrote on the back of like, birthday cards and stuff, for
all of the songs they they're in there, you know, if you're into
Emily Dickinson and you want to see her writing desk and her
original manuscripts, they're in there.
There's all kinds of stuff that's in the surge on RIT black
museum inside of the British museum.
But I didn't go there to see that even though it was very
cool to see that. I went there because the two of
the three oldest manuscripts of the New Testament are in there.
now, some of you may have read in your Bibles like if you go to
the Book of John chapter 8, And you look up at the top there
will be a like a little note, and it'll say, the earliest
manuscripts do not contain. The first verses from John
chapter 8, and you go what, right?
The earliest manuscripts refers to three.
There were three of them. One was found in a monastery at
Mount Sinai. One was found.
Interestingly enough in a crocodile. because in Alexandria
Egypt, there was a mummified crocodile and they used
parchment Vellum parchment from a torn up New Testament to stuff
the crocodile And that's where they found the second one.
The third one is in, in a vault in the basement of the Vatican.
And they have big long names, codex, sinaiticus codex,
vaticanus codex, Alexandra, Eunice.
Yeah, but basically, that's what they are.
The three oldest compilation, manuscripts, handwritten
manuscripts of the New Testament, and it was amazing to
be able to go into that room. And look down through the in
the, into the glass case and see The oldest manuscripts going
back to the to hunt second. The third century.
Ad. So we're talking about 1,700
years and do you know what's amazing about that?
You look at those earliest manuscripts, and you compare it
to what you have in your Bible or on your phone app and it's
the same It's the same, it's in the original language.
It's in koine Greek, which is pretty hard to read.
Because koine Greek is all capital letters, no spaces
between words and no punctuation marks.
That was how they wrote back then.
But in the original language, it's the same.
It's exactly the same. The reason that those are so
important, those two copies of the New Testament are.
So important is that they prove that the Bible has been copied
carefully and correctly over 1,700 years but they are not,
the only ones. Those are the ones that are
compilations of the whole new testament.
There are fragments and manuscripts over 24,000 of them
all over the ancient world of the New Testament and some of
them date within 30 years. Years.
Of the original writings. And all of these can be checked
against the Bible that you and I hold in our hands today.
And what it does is it proves to you and proves to me that we are
holding exactly what was originally written.
On top of all this Jesus taught us that there was an eternal
quality to God's word. He said in Matthew 24:35, he
said these words Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my
words will never pass away. It means that God is protecting
the purity of his word so that we hold the truth in our hands.
He also said four simple words in John 17:17.
And this is important, because this is right before Jesus went
to the Garden of Gethsemane where he was arrested, and then
crucified, the next day, and when he was praying with his
disciples, he said these words, sanctify them means set them
apart for a holy purpose. That's what sanctify means,
sanctify them by the truth. And then these four words, your
Word is truth. Jesus, testifying to the truth
of God's word. Today, what we call this, we
have a big word for this. Is called plenary.
Verbal plenary inspiration. Or inerrancy.
It means that the Bible that you have and its original language
is without error, it's true. Some people will say that, the
Bible contains the word of God. That's a lie.
It doesn't contain. It it is The word of God.
And you've got it. You have it, you've got all
these different translations of it.
You have all these, you know, different variances of it right
there on your app for free. Everything you need is right
there and it is absolutely true and dependable.
That's reason number one. The biblical manuscripts have
been reliably transmitted from the author's to us today.
Reason, number two, I'm going to give you is there is no motive
on behalf of the author's to cause us to distrust what they
said to de-stress their testimony.
In his book cold-case Christianity, Jim Warner Wallace
who was a Los Angeles. Cold Case homicide.
Detective describes how you establish a credible and
reliable witness. There are four critical areas
that are examined before you trust a witness in a, in a
criminal case. Number one was the witness
there. Did they see it?
Did they personally experienced it?
Second have? They been accurate and honest in
the past? You don't want to bring a
witness forward, you know who lies about everything else
because you know it's likely that they're going to be lying
about this as well. Do an honest in the past number
three is there a dip additional evidence?
That corroborates what they're claiming and number four.
Do they have a motive to lie? Now under the motive to lie, the
three greatest motives to lie are these two lust power or
greed? Now, there is no evidence that
the authors of the New Testament had any of these motives.
Matter of fact, all evidence to the contrary less power and
greed is not and it's something any of them received anything
like that, for writing what they wrote in the New Testament.
In fact, I had everything to lose and nothing to gain and
they did lose everything. In giving their testimony.
Some of you may be familiar with this book, it's called foxes
book of Martyrs. It Was Written hundreds of years
ago, by John Fox. And he did painstaking research
on what happened to the original Apostles and then other church
leaders beyond that. So it has historical accounts of
what people were willing to do because of their faith in Jesus
Christ. But we're going back to the
original Witnesses. We're going back to the
original. Authors write.
And there was only one of the 12 disciples that did not die in
wasn't martyred killed because of his testimony.
And that was John. John who wrote the last book of
the New Testament. The Book of Revelation did not
have to die in a horrible way. Of course, there was a lot of
other things that happen to him, like being banished to the
island of Patmos and things like that.
But he did not die in that other way.
However, the rest of them did, And their stories are pretty
graphic and pretty gruesome. One of them are always affected
me was. John Mark, the one who wrote the
Book of Mark. He was dragged.
Tied to the back of a chariot and dragged through the streets
of Alexandria and he survived it.
And they left him there, all night, and then dragged him
again the next day, he still didn't die and then they stoned
him to death. Wow.
I mean, you could read about Peter who was crucified upside
down, because he didn't think he that he was worthy to die.
The same way that Jesus did or Thomas, who was speared by a
Hindu Shaman, because he was in prayer.
All of these stories relate to people who are willing and in
fact did give their lives. For what they believed.
There was nothing to gain from their testimony.
And it was because of their testimony of Jesus Christ that
they died that way. Simply that two weeks ago
Clayton was speaking on on Easter and he said, how
ridiculous it would be to die for something that you knew was
a lie. And the apostles would have
known. It was a lie.
If in fact it was a lie that Jesus rose from the dead.
Why in the world would you die for that?
People who died for a noble cause they believe it's the
truth. But they would have known that
it was a lie. And it's obvious to us today
that that's not the way any kind of normal person would ever
behave. So there's no motive on behalf
of the author's to cause us to de-stress their testimony.
That's that second reason, the third reason is the books of the
Bible are the ones, the earlier, the earliest followers of Jesus
considered authoritative. Now, I'm going to nerd out a
little bit so some of you are going to go.
Okay, you're losing me here because we don't necessarily
really find a lot of interest in history.
But I think it's important for you to know it.
Because if you want to put your faith in that book, this book
right here, I think you need to have good solid answers.
People love to speculate about the Lost gospels or like, you
know, the Gospel of Judas or the gospel of the Hebrews and and
and or single, a single Source called they call Q That was
supposed to be copied by everyone, but the actual truth
is right in front of you. All you have to do is go back to
what the earliest, Christians believed, what they trusted and
what they passed along. As God's word, there are over a
million quotations of the biblical text by those early
church leaders, the people that were immediately after the
apostles, there's enough of those quotes to nearly
completely reconstruct, the New Testament in themselves.
And I'm just going to give you three of them.
Okay, Ignatius Jesus was a church leader in ancient
Antioch, modern-day Syria and he considered the four gospels that
were being circulated. He considered them authentic and
wrote about that in 115 ad. Why is that important?
Well, the last Bible book, The Book of Revelation was written
about 95 ad. So you're talking about 20 years
later, 20 years later, all four gospels were had been written
and they Were being widely circulated and the head of the
church in Syria. At that time.
Antioch. Where the Apostle Paul started?
His missionary Journeys, said that those four gospels were
authentic 115 ad by one, 70, AD, tation combined, the four
gospels into what was called the DIA tests are on.
And it was handwritten and it was, it was sent out to all the
churches by 1 80 ad Arena satcher Church leader in ancient
Europe, recognized the books of the New Testament and considered
them well-established. You see what?
You've been taught, you've listened to Dan Brown and you
watch The DaVinci Code. And you think well this all
happened in these, these councils like the canonization
councils like the nice Ian. In Council in 325 ad, if you if
you think about it you've been thinking that but the truth is
that the Bible had been used for 225 years. before anybody got
together and said, yeah, These are actually real.
All that those canonization things were doing was that where
they were adopting things that were already.
Generally affirmed in the early church, they were already being
widely used as biblical Authority, there was nothing new
that was offered in those councils and there was nothing
removed they were simply recognizing what was already.
The general practice of the churches and anything that would
seek to discredit that and there were people writing things to
discredit that That were immediately put down and
discredited. Why am I telling you all that?
So you survived the nerd moment. Okay.
I'm telling you that because the bottom line is that the Bible is
accurate. If the Bible is accurate, it
changes everything. And I can tell you that, the
Bible is accurate. What you hold in your hands.
If the same words that the earliest Christians heard, these
are the words that God breathed into those who wrote them down,
even willing to give their lives for it, as our Lord, and savior,
did God kept his word and protected.
What he wanted us to read, what he wanted us to know what he
wanted us to 0. Obey in order to build a life
that was pleasing to him. It has withstood the test of
time, it has withstood, countless criticism and there is
no shortage of proof for that. It's right there for you.
To look at the real issue, isn't that?
The real issue is Faith. Your faith, your faith in the
one who gave it, And right now you might be thinking well Jerry
I need some more faith. No, you don't.
It's not how much Faith you have.
It's who your faith is in. You don't need more faith, you
need more Jesus. That's what I need.
Just more Jesus. And this is where I find out
about him. This is where I come to
understand him. And when I have Jesus, and I
have his word, I have everything I need.
If I can believe that Jesus rose from the dead, come on, I can
believe the rest of it, and when I do it changes everything.
It changes everything. You know what I read in here?
Just indulge me. I read.
That he's my breath. And my Builder, my banner, my
bridegroom, my bread of life. I I read that he's my Creator
and my comforter, my counselor, my confidence, my cornerstone,
my commander, my coming King, I read that, he's My Hope, and my
horn, and my healer, my Holiness, my high priest, in my
Hiding Place. I read that, he's my gate, my
grace, my glory, my Indescribable gift, I read that,
he's my light. My life.
From the Lamb of God and the Lord Of Love.
Come on. Now, I read that, he's my maker,
my master, my Messiah, my mediator, my Merciful Savior, My
Morning Star. I read that, he's my peace, my
power, my prince, my Potter, my provider, and my Passover, I
read that he's my Rising Sun and my Radiance in my Ransom, my
Refinery, my refuge, my rock, my ruler, my righteousness, my
resurrection and my reward, I read that he's My, my seal my
shield, My Savior, my shepherd, my stronghold, my sustainer, My
Sanctuary, my shelter, my sure, Foundation, my support, my song
and my source. I read that, he's the son of God
and the son of man, the alpha, the Omega, the beginning, and
the end, the first, and the last.
And when I read this book, with all of my unending questions, I
find that he's all my answers. and when I put my faith in him,
Then this word. Ghost from here.
Into here. And when this word, Goes from
here into here. He finds his forever place.
Because the human heart. Is the throne that he wants to
rain from. This is his forever place.
We're moving to a time of decision just because we live in
a world on a culture that's been secularized doesn't mean that
what you're learning or what you've heard or what you thought
is true. It's just been secularized.
I would really encourage you to Dig Down Deeper if you're a
scientific person, if you want to know more about what that
means. Dig Down Deeper, it can take it.
Many of the greatest scientists of the world were believers.
Don't think for a minute, that Satan doesn't have an agenda to
keep you from that knowledge. It's just a fact because it
strengthens your faith and Satan wants no part of that in your
life. so I would encourage you to take the time and to do the
work to understand it more, but even if you have all the answers
even if you know, The answers to all these questions.
It's still really doesn't matter.
Until you make it your own until you step out of being a
spectator. Of looking at truth or trying to
understand it from a distance you know just stepping out of it
to actually stepping into it. And being in relationship with
Jesus Christ. Because that's what he's calling
you too. He's just saying that all these
other things don't need to trip you up.
They don't need to push you away from that knowledge.
What I'm calling you today is not too knowledge.
I'm not calling you today to accept a certain criteria.
What I'm calling you today is to come into relationship with
Jesus Christ. One that's intimate and personal
because that's what it boils down to.
That God Almighty. Who created the universe
created? You Loved you enough. before you
were ever thought about by anyone else, but him To send his
one and only son Jesus to come to this earth. 41 Express
purpose to pay the debt of your sin and mine on the cross.
So that God would remain true to himself.
Adjust all powerful, God, that demands payment for sin.
But a loving God. Who pays the price himself.
And here we are right now. Children of God, some of us
recognize it, some of us, don't some of us have never allowed
Jesus to come into that relationship with us.
We've never opened our heart to that possibility, let alone the
introduction of that relationship.
But when you do, It changes everything all that this sermon
was designed to do was to push away the stumbling block.
To realize that you can trust him.
That he made your mind, he doesn't want you to turn it off.
He wants you to use it. But what I'm calling you today
is not so much of a mind thing as it is a heart thing.
Because that's where relationships are.
That's where love is. It's in here.
If you don't have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. Today, there is nothing standing
in your way except to you. There's going to be somebody
right over there by that baptistery would love nothing
more than to talk to you about next steps.
Pray with you about where you are right now.
And this could be. The most wonderful day of your
life. Many of you are here today and
you've made that decision for Christ, but you know, stuff
Creeps in. Doesn't it where we start to
doubt him doubt his presence doubt, the truth constantly
inundated with all that stuff. Maybe today is a day where you
say, you know what, Lord, I do believe in you.
I do. I believe you.
You didn't lie to me. You told me the truth, I accept
it and I accept you all over again.
To just be how he recognizes you.
Because when God looks at you today in this room, you know
what he sees? A lot of little kids.
There's no grown-ups in this room spiritually.
Just a lot of children. Now, i-i've got grandkids in a
lot of times grandkids, they like to fake being grown ups.
And there's some of you that are faking being grown up right now.
But Jesus said if you want to come to me you have to come like
a little child because in fact spiritually that's what we all
are. So, I want you to take this
moment right now. I mean there may be things in
your life that are just overwhelming.
You just crushing you, the lower story is dragging you down.
And I want you to know that up here on your knees.
There's a place of peace. A place of reassurance.
Place of hope. And the one person.
Who has the answers? Would you stand with me?
Heavenly Father. I'm so glad that we don't just
have to say almighty God or Ancient of Days, but we can use
this familiar pronoun. And just call you father.
Because we are your children and I know that we're not always
good children. I certainly am not always a good
child. And I know there are times I do
things that would never make you proud.
But I'm so thankful that your patient with me.
And with all of us here to love us.
Until you finish your work in US.
And I pray right now. That your Holy Spirit would work
unfettered in this place among your children.
Forts in Jesus name I pray. Amen.