If the Bible is Accurate, It Changes Everything Today | Jerry Harris

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

John 8 · chapter mention

will be a like a little note, and it'll say, the earliest

manuscripts do not contain. The first verses from John

John 8 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 24:35

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.

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.

Forts in Jesus name I pray. Amen.