Father, I thank you for helping us all be gathered here.
I pray that you fill our pastor with the Holy Ghost
as he preaches your word.
And please give us wisdom to help
us live better lives that please you.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Man, the title of my sermon tonight
is Historical Jesus, Historical Jesus.
So this is a movement out there that basically
seeks to apply the techniques of historians
to get at the real Jesus, you know,
the actual historical figure Jesus.
So basically they wanna reject anything spiritual.
They don't wanna believe that Jesus is the son of God.
They don't wanna believe the word of God,
but they seek to use history to figure out who Jesus was.
And here's the thing about this, it's totally impossible.
It's a fool's errand.
And the reason why this is totally impossible
is because there's no physical or archeological evidence
about Jesus, none, zero.
So if you're gonna reject the word of God,
you don't really have a lot to work with
looking for the historical Jesus,
since there is zero physical
or archeological evidence for Jesus.
Not only that, there's no one writing about Jesus
for the first hundred years AD, none,
except for what we have right here in this book.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Epistles of Paul, the rest of it,
that's all from the first century AD, nothing else.
So it's not like we could pull out,
oh, here are the court records.
This is where Jesus was arrested.
Or here's what Pilate wrote in his diary
about convicting Jesus.
There is literally nothing like that.
At the very end of the first century, around like 93 AD,
you have Josephus saying something about Jesus,
and pretty much everyone agrees that it's a fraud,
it's a forgery, not real.
But even if that were real,
Josephus wasn't even born until after the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ.
He's writing 60 years later.
There's nothing, and let me explain to you why
there is nothing because of the fact
that God wanted it to be that way
because he wanted the record of the life of Jesus
to be the record that God gave of his son.
If we wanna learn something about Jesus,
he wanted it to be from the source, from the word of God.
Now, don't misunderstand me, don't get me wrong.
No one believes that Jesus didn't exist.
Only, you know, you'll run into some bozo, bizarre atheist
that will make that claim,
but no actual historian believes that Jesus doesn't exist.
Everyone believes that Jesus existed.
Everyone believes that Jesus was a real person,
even if they don't believe in him, okay?
But what I'm saying is that there aren't any documents,
there's nothing written down,
there's nothing physical from the first century AD.
Everything that we have historically about Jesus
is from people who read this
and then said something about it.
You know, so if we're in the second century AD,
yeah, you have Roman historians talking about Christianity,
this, Christianity, that.
They've read the gospels and they're responding to them.
You know, they've read the New Testament
and they're responding to maybe something
that Paul wrote or whatever.
But to seek for a historical Jesus is a bogus quest
because of the fact that there is only but one Jesus,
and that's the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of faith,
the Jesus of Christianity,
the Jesus who is the son of God is the only Jesus there is.
There's not some other historical Jesus to find.
There's only one Jesus and he's the son of God
who walked on water and fed the 5,000.
That's who Jesus is.
Now look what the Bible says here in 2 Peter chapter one.
And by the way, the reason that even atheists
believe that Jesus existed is because number one,
more has been written about Jesus than any other person
who's ever walked on this earth.
It'd be kind of strange for everybody
to spend so much time talking and writing
about someone who never existed, number one.
But number two, the enemies of Christianity
in the 2nd century AD, none of them said
that Jesus didn't even exist.
In fact, they didn't even deny the miracles of Jesus.
If you look at what the enemies of Christianity said
in those olden days, they just said,
hey, Jesus was a magician.
He tricked you or used black magic.
They blasphemed him and said bad things about him,
but not even one person back then ever said
Jesus didn't exist.
So obviously, Jesus existing is a historical fact.
But how do we learn about Jesus?
How do we know what Jesus was like?
How do we get after the real Jesus?
The real Jesus is right here in the Bible.
It's the only Jesus that there is.
And I don't think it's a coincidence
that someone as important and influential
and popular as Jesus, okay,
and somebody whose words spread like wildfire
in the first hundred years.
Isn't it interesting that there's nothing written about him
at that time and no physical evidence?
That is not an accident.
That is God telling us, hey,
get your information from the Bible.
There's nothing else.
Now, look what it says in 2 Peter 1 verse 16.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables
when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
So Peter here is saying, look,
I'm an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory
when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard
when we were with him in the holy mount.
And of course, this is that mount of transfiguration
in Matthew chapter 17.
But then it says in verse 19, we have also,
so in addition to being there,
in addition to being eyewitnesses,
in addition to standing on a mount
and hearing the voice of God the Father say,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
In addition to that, we've got a piece of evidence
that's a little more certain than that.
Now, folks, that's kind of a tough act to follow.
You know what I mean?
Going up in a mountain and seeing Jesus transfigured
and glowing with brightness like the sun
and a voice from God the Father saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
That's pretty convincing stuff, right?
Who would have loved to have an experience like that?
But he says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy.
He said, we have something more certain than that to go on.
More certain than being an eyewitness
and being there in the mount.
He says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy,
where until you do well that you take heed
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts,
knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation.
So when he says in verse 19,
we have a more sure word of prophecy,
what's the prophecy he's talking about?
What's verse 20 say?
Prophecy of what?
The scripture.
So when he says we have a more sure word of prophecy,
he's saying we have the written word of God.
More sure word of prophecy right here.
Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost.
So the word of God is the reliable source,
the more sure word of prophecy that tells us
that yes, Jesus Christ is real.
Yes, he's the son of God.
Yes, he performed miracles.
He went about doing good.
He died, he was buried.
And on the third day, he rose again.
We know that because the Bible says,
oh, where's the evidence?
Hey, this is the evidence right here, the Bible.
Show me a source from the first century.
I just did.
The Bible.
And guess what?
There's nothing else.
And I'm glad there's nothing else.
Every once in a while, there's some bogus thing
that pops up on Facebook.
You know, oh, account of Jesus from 40 AD or, you know,
oh, contemporary account.
You click it, it's always fake.
100% of the time, nothing exists.
It's always a fraud when you actually do
the fact checking of it.
So what's this search for the historical Jesus been like?
Well, in the early 20th century, this was a big thing.
This was a popular thing.
In the early 20th century,
they're looking for the historical Jesus, you know,
the scholars and experts and historians and so forth.
And so when they're doing this,
they wanted to take, you know,
an objective non-biased approach,
but of course they're always gonna be biased
because they're going into it saying,
well, anything that's a miracle, that can't be authentic.
Well, then you're basically going into it
with an anti-Christian bias saying
that Jesus is not the son of God from the get-go.
Saying, well, we're historians,
so we can't accept anything about a miracle.
But anyway, as they're searching for supposedly, you know,
the oldest or most reliable source,
back then they decided that that was the gospel of Mark.
They decided, you know what?
We think the gospel of Mark is the most reliable.
You know, the gospel of John, they rejected right away.
They even tried back in those days,
they tried to claim that the gospel of John
was written hundreds of years later.
They said that's from hundreds of years later.
Why?
Because it's so clear about Christ's deity
and it's everything that they don't want to believe in.
But then of course, later they dug up manuscripts of it
from like the, you know, just after 100 AD,
even in distant countries
and translated into other languages and everything.
It's very obvious that even the gospel of John
also goes back to the first century AD.
It's also authentic, even from their perspective.
So they decided that Mark is the one.
You know, they like Mark.
And they tried to claim that, you know, Matthew and Luke,
or, you know, they're just taking stuff from Mark
and Mark's the oldest, most reliable.
But here's the problem.
Here's what they found out though.
When they decided that Mark was their guy
and they decided, you know,
this is gonna give us the most accurate picture
of the historical Jesus, because the oldest,
it's the oldest of the four gospels, according to them.
And maybe it is the oldest, who cares, right?
It doesn't matter.
It's all written by God.
But they said it's the oldest.
But here's the problem that they ran into.
They started looking at the historical Jesus
and trying to construct the historical Jesus
from the book of Mark.
And you know what they found out
is that they didn't really like the historical Jesus
that they found in the book of Mark.
And here's why, because when they're going out
and looking for the historical Jesus,
they're looking for another Jesus is what they're doing.
Because if you put historical in front of it,
you're basically saying that the Jesus of faith,
the Jesus of Christianity is not the real Jesus.
You know, well, I get the historical Jesus.
They're looking for a different guy.
Think about that.
Okay, and here's the thing about it.
They're looking for a guy that's like them.
They're looking for a guy who's an enlightened liberal.
So they're looking around
at all these conservative Christians,
all these Bible believing Christians
to say, well, this can't be what Christ taught.
And how many times have you had people tell you,
well, you're not being Christ like
when you actually like quote them the Bible
or actually stand for something that's biblical.
And then they tell you, that's not Christian.
That's not, but Jesus taught this, you know,
and they have this Jesus that they've made up in their mind.
And then they want to condemn modern Christians
and they're like Gandhi, you know,
well, I'd be a Christian if it weren't for Christians
type of a mentality.
You Christians are nothing like your Christ or whatever.
But here's the thing about that.
You know, Christians today that preach hard on sin,
that stand up for what's right,
they have conservative morals and values
are actually following the Jesus of the Bible.
So they want a left wing historical Jesus
that they can get behind.
An enlightened liberal,
basically they want him to be sort of like
a gray pony tailed college professor kind of a guy.
You know, they want those,
they want Jesus lecturing like that, okay.
So here's the thing that, you know,
in the early 20th century is all about
the gospel of Mark for them.
But let's look at how the gospel of Mark portrays Jesus.
Go to Matthew, go to Mark chapter seven,
go to Mark chapter number seven,
because remember the quest for the historic Jesus
is not about finding the truth.
Because if you're actually interested in the truth,
the quest for the historical Jesus is gonna end real fast
when you realize there's zero evidence
from the first century AD except the Bible.
And then it's like, okay, well, this is what we got.
Here's Jesus, only one.
That's what any honest person would say and believe.
But they're on a quest to find a different Jesus
and they want him to be one in their own image.
But let's see what the Jesus in the book of Mark is like.
Let's see what he's like.
Mark chapter seven, verse 10, here's what Jesus said.
For Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother.
And whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
Now, it looks to me like Jesus is preaching to them
from Mosaic law that children who curse their father
and mother should be put to death.
That's what the Bible says.
The Bible also says that someone who hits their parents
should be put to death.
Someone who smites their parents or curses their parents
shall be put to death is from Exodus chapter 21.
Now, obviously that's not what they believe.
And Jesus is rebuking people for not believing that, okay.
Then if we go down to verse 24,
actually, let's jump over to chapter nine.
Let's go to chapter nine and let's look at the Jesus
of the book of Mark.
It says in Mark chapter nine, verse 43,
and if thy hand offend thee, cut it off.
It is better for thee to enter into life maimed
than having two hands to go into hell
into the fire that never shall be quenched
where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off
for it is better for thee to enter halt into life
than having two hands to be cast into hell
into the fire that never shall be quenched
where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out.
It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God
with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire
where their worm dieth not.
And the fire is not quenched.
So we see that Jesus of the book of Mark
is a hell fire and damnation preacher.
So not only is he affirming the Old Testament
and he's actually rebuking the Pharisees
for being the ones who are getting away
from the word of God and getting away from the Old Testament
and getting away from Moses.
He's saying, hey, here's what Moses said.
You guys have made the word of God of none effect
with your tradition.
So he's standing on the hard teachings of Moses
and the old covenant and so forth.
And then he's preaching hell fire and damnation
in chapter nine.
Look at chapter 10 verse 11
and we can see Jesus quote unquote moralizing.
Preaching a lot of do's and don'ts.
Telling people how to live their lives.
Look at Mark chapter 10 verse 11.
And he saith unto them,
whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another
commit adultery against her.
And if a woman shall put away her husband
and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
That doesn't sound like an enlightened liberal there.
It sounds a lot like conservative Christianity in 2020.
Isn't that what it sounds like?
Hell fire, it sounds like being
in an independent fundamental Baptist church.
Hell fire and damnation,
preaching stuff from the Old Testament,
preaching about fornication, divorce, adultery.
I mean, Jesus preached all that stuff.
But not only that, you get to Mark chapter 13
and you find out that Jesus is preaching
a lot of doom and gloom about the end of the world.
He's preaching about the tribulation.
He's preaching this apocalyptic message
from the book of Daniel.
Look at Mark chapter 13 verse 14.
But when you shall see the abomination of desolation
spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
standing where it ought not,
let him that readeth understand.
Then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains
and let him that is on the housetop
not go down into the house, neither enter therein
or take anything out of his house.
And let him that is in the field not turn back again
for to take up his garment,
but woe to them that are with child
and to them that give suck in those days
and pray that your flight be not in the winter.
For in those days shall be affliction
such as was not from the beginning of the creation
which God created unto this time,
neither shall be and except that the Lord
had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved.
But for the elect's sake whom he had chosen,
he has shortened the days.
And then if any man shall say to you,
lo, here's Christ or lo, he's there, believe him not.
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise
and shall show signs and wonders to seduce
if it were possible even the elect.
But take ye heed, behold, I have foretold you all things.
But in those days after that tribulation,
the sun shall be darkened
and the moon shall not give her light
and the stars of heaven shall fall
and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall they see the son of man
coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds
from the uttermost part of the earth
to the uttermost part of heaven.
So again, we see that the Jesus of the Bible,
even in the Gospel of Mark,
the one that they were touting as being the oldest,
most authentic, didn't have the later Christian additions
that they're, you know what?
He's preaching an apocalyptic message
about the end of the world
and about the world going through a time of tribulation
unlike we've ever seen.
And he's talking about the second coming
and he's talking about all of these bad things
that are gonna happen on the earth,
wars, famines, all these different things,
sun and moon being darkened and so forth.
Look at chapter 14 verse 61
and we'll see more of his preaching on this.
Mark 14, 61,
but he held his peace and answered nothing.
Again, the high priest asked him and said in him,
art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed?
And Jesus said, I am.
And you shall see the son of man
sitting on the right hand of power
and coming in the clouds of heaven.
So all of this strong teaching on the second coming,
apocalypse, end of the world, tribulation,
this is what Jesus is teaching in all of the New Testament,
but it's even right here in the book of Mark.
So here's the thing.
So this search for the historical Jesus
in the early 20th century kind of fizzled out
because they're like, okay,
how are we gonna approach this?
And they had their strategy
and they got to the book of Mark and said,
okay, Mark's our guy.
And then they started looking at the book of Mark
and you know what?
They didn't like what they saw.
And they're just like,
let's just close the book of Mark
and let's just forget about this.
So the historical Jesus search kind of fizzled out.
In the middle of the 20th century,
kind of picked up again
and you had some scholars and historians,
they got some new ideas and new methods kind of fizzled out.
Well, now in modern times,
there's kind of a third wave
of the search for the historical Jesus
where now historians are doing this again
and dusting this idea off again and doing it.
But now they're using a different method
that they call source criticism
where they say, you know,
well, what we're gonna do
is we're gonna look at the gospels
and try to kind of figure out
which parts are authentic and which parts aren't,
you know, and kind of just discard this
and keep this and go through this.
And now their favorite gospel is the gospel of Luke.
Okay, that's their new gospel of choice
to do this historical Jesus thing.
And frankly, because it's the Jesus
that has the most stuff that they like about him.
Because the search for the historical Jesus,
it says a lot more about the people
who are doing the looking than it does about Jesus.
People are looking for a God in their own image.
They're looking for a Jesus in their own image, okay.
They're basically writing about themselves
and they want it to be about Jesus.
Now, here's what the historical Jesus was like.
He was kind of a lot like me, you know.
So now they like the book of Luke
and they have this criteria of what they're gonna keep
and what they're gonna throw out, okay.
Wait till you hear some of these criteria's.
One of the criteria's is multiple attestation, you know.
So they say, hey, we wanna get the same story
or the same preaching from multiple sources, you know.
Multiple independent sources, then we know it's real
if we can get two witnesses.
But here's another one, the principle of dissimilarity.
And here's what they're saying.
If something doesn't jive very well with Christianity,
we like it.
You know, if we look at mainstream Christianity,
if we look at what Christians believe
and something seems a little different,
let's go with that.
What?
But that makes no sense.
But guess what, this is the exact same strategy
that the modern version textual critics
that gave us the NIV and the New American Standard
and the ESV, whenever they find some manuscript
that says something that sounds weird,
this is what they say, well, no one would have done,
you know, no one would have changed it to this.
It's too weird.
This must be the original.
So that's why the modern versions
have so much weird stuff in them.
You know, you come to a place where, you know,
you just have thousands and thousands of manuscripts
saying the only begotten son, only begotten son, right?
And then you have two manuscripts, two corrupt manuscripts
that say only begotten God.
That's like only begotten God, that doesn't seem right.
Everywhere else it says, but then they're like,
yeah, but it's because it sounds so weird
that we know it's right.
It's a mistake, it's an error.
So that's one of their rules of textual criticism.
Go with the more difficult reading,
go with the weirder stuff,
go with the stuff that doesn't jive as well.
And then another criteria is embarrassment.
If the story is a little embarrassing,
it must be authentic, it must be real.
Otherwise, why would they tell it?
Again, these don't make any logical sense.
Folks, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
If it's so embarrassing,
then why was it ever written in the first place?
Why is it in all our Bibles if it's embarrassing?
It doesn't even make sense.
But these are the so-called experts and scholars.
And basically, it has nothing to do with seeking truth,
it just has to do with an agenda that they have
of wanting to say that the Jesus that we worship
in Christianity is not the real historical Jesus.
We're gonna tell you who the real historical Jesus
is based on history.
But here's what's funny, is that they have all these rules
about what should be included
and what should not be included.
But it's interesting, they all wanna include
the story of the prodigal son,
and they all wanna include the story of the good Samaritan.
Even though they're only in the Gospel of Luke,
they're not in any other Gospels,
so there's no multiple sources or anything like that.
It doesn't even follow their own rules,
but it's stories that they like.
The good Samaritan story, everybody can get behind that.
Everybody can get behind the story of the prodigal son.
But when Jesus preached in hellfire and damnation,
what about in the book of Mark when Jesus
casting out demons in literally like almost every chapter?
They don't wanna get behind that,
or the miracle after miracle after miracle that Jesus did.
Now go to Romans chapter one, if you would.
Romans chapter one, you might have heard
of the Thomas Jefferson Bible.
So one of our founding fathers in the United States,
he was also the third president of the United States,
he was the author of the Declaration of Independence.
There used to be a giant statue of him.
I don't know if BLM has torn that down yet,
but there used to be a giant statue of Thomas Jefferson.
Is it still there?
So far, so good?
Well, we'll see if Trump gets elected,
it might not last long.
But anyway, if he gets reelected,
because they're probably gonna burn it all down
the next day.
But anyway, Thomas Jefferson, he's burning in hell.
Because I'll tell you right now, he's a reprobate.
Thomas Jefferson was a reprobate.
Say, well, how do you know he's a reprobate?
And look, hey, you know, hey, I appreciate
the Declaration of Independence as much as the next guy.
But the way that I know that Thomas Jefferson
is for sure a reprobate, is that he published
his own Bible called the Thomas Jefferson Bible.
And when he published this Bible called
the Jefferson Bible, here's what he actually did.
He basically went through, and this is what he said.
He said, it's obvious when you're reading the New Testament
that parts of the New Testament
came from some truly great minds
and some truly enlightened people
and a really divine inspiration.
And then other parts are just so base and ignoble
and you know, so he said, it's real obvious
that some of it's really good
and some of it's not that good.
So he decided that he's gonna go through and pick
what belongs in there and what doesn't.
So he's just basically just removing from God's Word.
Well, what does the Bible say
if you remove from God's Word?
In Revelation 22, it says, if any man shall remove,
he said, if any man shall add unto the words
of the sayings of this book,
I'll add unto him the plagues that are in this book,
and if any man shall take away from the words
of the prophecy of this book,
God shall take away his part out of the book of life
and out of the holy city and of the things
which are written in this book.
And so that's proof that Thomas Jefferson was a reprobate
because he removed from God's Word
and published a Bible purposely omitting things,
purposely removing and deleting things from the Bible,
saying, nope, this is not God's Word, this is God's Word.
And you know what?
Basically, he thought that he was God.
I mean, what kind of a person can sit there
and stand as judge over the Bible?
Well, I'll decide what has merit here of the Bible.
And he goes through and chops up Matthew, chops up Mark,
chops, and it's not like he's deciding
which books are divinely inspired.
That would actually make sense.
That's what Christians did throughout history
because they read a book like the Gospel of Thomas
and they know it's bogus.
The Holy Spirit's telling them that though.
That wasn't their own intellect.
That was just obvious that it's not God's Word.
And we see that these books are God's Word
because the Holy Spirit testifies of that.
But to sit there and chop up each book,
take out the parts you don't like,
keep the parts you do like from Matthew, Mark, Luke, etc.
So he published this book called the Jefferson Bible
that just purposely deletes God's Word.
Okay, now what does the Bible say
in Romans chapter one, verse 21?
It says because that when they knew God
and knew there means they were aware of him.
It's sort of like if I said, I know that guy.
What I mean is we're acquainted.
It doesn't mean I'm trusting him as my savior.
It just means I know him, right?
I know of him.
I know who he is.
I've gotten to know him.
This would be, in other languages,
there's more than one word for no.
Like in Spanish, this would be conocer, right?
That kind of no.
Not saber, no, but conocer, no, for those who speak Spanish.
When they knew God, they glorified him not as God.
Neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations
and their foolish heart was darkened.
This is what Thomas Jefferson was, right?
He's vain in his own imagination.
He's so puffed up and prideful
that he is going to be the one who decides what is truth.
He's gonna be the final authority to redact God's word.
And Thomas Jefferson is setting himself up as a God
and deciding this is what the word of God is.
It's what I say it is.
And he's basing on what he likes and what he doesn't like.
So basically he's creating a God in his own image.
He's creating a Jesus that matches him.
And so he became vain in his imagination.
His foolish heart was darkened.
Verse 22, it says, professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools.
These are the so-called experts and scholars
that wanna tell us about the historical Jesus.
And they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God
into an image made like to corruptible man, right?
So they are making God into the image of corruptible man.
And specifically that corruptible man is themselves.
You know, they're making a Jesus that matches them.
I mean, how many times have you heard people say,
well, the God I believe in X, Y, and Z.
Well, the Jesus I believe in X, Y, and Z.
And it's not what the Bible says.
It's just stuff that they believe.
Now stop and think about this.
If you're just gonna constantly say,
well, I just think that God, this, this, this.
I think God, and isn't it funny
how everything that you think God should do
is all the stuff that you believe
and all your opinions and your ideas
just happen to match up with the God of the universe.
So here out of 7.4 billion people,
people coming from all different cultures and backgrounds,
different time periods, different opinions,
isn't it amazing how so many people's God
just happens to agree with American 2020 culture?
Isn't that interesting?
Because if these people were living in the 1950s,
they would have totally different views
and totally different opinions.
But apparently God,
we're at a very interesting point in time
because we've finally caught up
to exactly what God believes in 2020 America.
For thousands of years, thousands of years,
we're totally different than God on things,
totally different opinion,
totally different opinion on so many issues.
But now all of a sudden in 2020,
we finally figured out how God feels about homos.
Turns out he loves them.
Turns out they're great.
Isn't it amazing how the God of so many people
just fits in perfectly with mainstream 2020 American culture?
Whatever America in 2020 thinks is right,
that's what the new God thinks is right,
that people have made in their own imagination.
And Thomas Jefferson made a God of his own imagination
back in 1700s.
And people today are making a God of their own imagination.
And that's what people have always done.
And that's what people always will do
because when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God.
And they say, we will not have this man to rule over us.
They don't love God, they don't embrace God.
And you say, well, the God you believe in
agrees with you on everything.
That's not true because you know what?
I had a lot of different opinions before I read the Bible.
Even growing up in a Christian home,
I had a lot of different opinions.
And when I read the Bible for the first time,
I had to change my view on a lot of things.
I had to make a decision like,
okay, here's what I think, but what does the Bible say?
And I had to adjust my thinking and say,
well, I must be wrong about that.
And I remember at the time thinking and saying
as a teenager saying, you know what?
I'm just a product.
My mind is just a product of what my parents have taught me,
what I've watched on TV.
And you see those statistics about people watching TV
for seven hours a day and stuff.
I contributed to that statistic when I was growing up.
I'll just come out and say it.
I was one of those guys that was contributing that.
I grew up watching a lot of TV and I knew and understood
that my opinions that I think are so unique to me
and so intuitive and just so obvious,
you know where my views and opinions came from?
They came from my parents.
They came from churches that I grew up in.
They came from TV that I watched, books that I read,
magazines that I read, schools that I attended.
Everybody's telling me things.
That's where my opinions are coming from.
And here's the thing.
At some point I got in the word of God
and started studying the Bible for myself.
And as I read the Bible,
I realized that some of my views were wrong.
Some of my beliefs were wrong.
Some of my opinions were wrong.
And at that point I had to decide,
am I just right about everything?
Or am I maybe wrong about some things?
And I need to adjust to what the God of the universe
has written in his word.
And that's the choice that everybody has to make
when they read the Bible.
And a lot of people just say,
well, that just doesn't seem right to me.
That just doesn't seem right to me.
Okay, but since when are you the arbiter
of what seems right and what isn't right?
You know, look, a lot of things that I read at Exodus
the first time I went through Exodus,
I'm looking at some of those laws and judgments of the Lord
and thinking that doesn't seem fair.
That doesn't seem right.
That's because I was wrong.
It's because I'm being taught things that aren't true
outside of the Bible, you know?
And look, thank God, most of what I was taught
by my parents is true.
Most of what I was taught in church was true.
Most of what I was taught in school was true
because I went to, most of the time, Christian school.
But you know what?
Not everything I was taught was true.
A lot of worldly stuff I was taught was wrong.
The stuff that was coming in from the TV
was a lot of wrong things.
And there's no way that stuff's not gonna affect you.
And so you have to understand that your brain
is a composite of everything that's been coming in
your whole life, right?
What your parents taught you, what school taught you,
what church taught you, what the media taught you,
what books have taught you.
But at the end of the day, though, you're not God.
And I'm not God.
And we need to submit to the word of God.
If we believe that this is God's word, which we do,
and that this is the final authority,
then at some point we have to defer to this and say,
you know what?
I'm wrong, the Bible's right.
That's not what, but see, guys like Thomas Jefferson,
when they're confronted with the word of God,
they say, you know what?
I'm right.
And in fact, I'll alter the Bible to make it
how I want it to be.
That's what's going on today.
That's what a lot of people are doing.
Even if they don't do it so explicitly and obviously
as Thomas Jefferson is openly saying,
this is what I'm doing.
That's what a lot of people are doing in their own mind.
And they're editing the Bible in their own mind
and deciding which parts they're gonna accept
and which parts are not gonna accept.
But the Bible is a package deal.
It's all or nothing.
You've got to accept the whole word of God.
And you've got to accept the Jesus of faith,
the Jesus of the Bible,
because he is the only Jesus that there is.
It's not choose your Jesus.
There's one Jesus.
He's the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
He's the son of God.
He walked on water.
He fed the 5,000.
He raised the dead.
He healed the sick.
He preached hell, fire and damnation.
And he preached Moses and everything else.
And he died on the cross for our sins
and was buried and rose again.
Any other Jesus is a fraud.
He's a fiction, didn't exist.
The only Jesus is the Jesus of the Bible.
So it says here in verse 24,
wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lusts of their own hearts
to dishonor their own bodies between themselves,
who changed the truth of God into a lie
and worshiped and served the creature
more than the creator who is blessed forever.
Amen.
He changed the truth of God into a lie
and worshiped some creature, some fiction,
some animal or some human being or even themselves
instead of the God of the Bible.
Now go to Luke chapter 16.
Let's go to the favorite book of modern historical Jesus.
The Gospel of Luke.
Luke chapter 16.
How about this one?
Luke chapter 16 is a great passage
about the rich man and Lazarus.
And of course the rich man goes to hell
and is begging for mercy from Father Abraham and Lazarus.
But it says in chapter 16 verse 19,
there was a certain rich man,
which was clothed in purple and fine linen
and fared sumptuously every day.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,
which was laid at his gate full of sores
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs
which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass that the beggar died
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried.
And in hell, he lift up his eyes being in torments
and see if Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me
and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger
and water and cool my tongue
for I am tormented in this flame.
I wonder if the historical Jesus crowd
is gonna include this.
I wonder if this is in the Thomas Jefferson Bible.
Now I've never held the Thomas Jefferson Bible in my hand.
I've glanced at it online.
I haven't really done a conclusive study on it.
But you know what?
I'd be willing to bet like $1,000
that this is not in Thomas Jefferson's Bible.
That's just a wild guess.
That's not even an educated guess
because I don't even know what he chose to include
or not to include.
But I think it's a pretty safe bet
that a reprobate like Thomas Jefferson
isn't gonna include this in his Bible.
Who thinks I'm probably right?
I don't think anybody wants to take me up on that bet
and I don't gamble anyway.
That's just a figure of speech.
I'm saying, look, you know it's not in there.
And if I'm wrong, sorry, I got it wrong.
But I believe I'm right.
That's not gonna be in there.
And I guarantee you no historical Jesus advocate,
but I'll bet you the Good Samaritans
in the Jefferson Bible.
And I'll bet you the prodigal sons in there.
Those are pretty safe bet.
But here's the thing.
If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong.
But I don't believe that he included it.
Because this isn't the kind of stuff
that people want to include.
Now, what's the criteria to include or exclude this
versus the Good Samaritan or the prodigal son?
It's just what people like.
Now, I like this story.
I like all of it.
I like the whole Bible.
I like the whole New Testament.
If somebody had handed me a New Testament
and said, here, take a Sharpie
and cross out everything you don't like,
I'd just hand it back and say, I just did.
Actually, I'd cross out all the little notes in the column
where they're like, another translation would be.
I'd cross out all the parts
where people have added their own commentaries and so forth.
But you know what?
I like all of it.
And people that are actually saved,
they actually love the word of God.
But unsaved people,
they don't like God telling them that they're wrong.
They've set themselves up as a God
in their own mind in many cases.
And you know, and this is a little bit of a rabbit trail,
but I just want to go off on this for a second.
We live in a generation where people refuse to admit
that they're wrong about anything.
That's right, yeah.
And let me just prove that to you.
I've got proof, okay?
The Mandela Effect.
Now, let me explain to you the Mandela Effect in a nutshell.
The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon
where people are so unwilling to admit
that they were wrong about something
that they will say, the entire universe has changed.
I'm right, it's the universe that's wrong.
That's what the Mandela Effect is.
Who knows what the Mandela Effect is?
I just explained it to you.
That's what it is.
So what it is, people remember something wrong,
they remember it wrong.
Because guess what?
We're human.
Look, we remember things wrong all the time.
Have you ever gotten with somebody,
you were both somewhere and you both tell a story
and you both know that your version is right,
but the versions conflict?
And you're like, no, that's not how it was.
And the other person's like, I know it was like that.
And you know what?
Every once in a while, someone will pull out
actual hard evidence that proves that you're wrong.
And it's shocking.
Like, there have been things
that I knew it was a certain way.
And then somebody's like, no, because look.
And I'm just like, well, then the universe has changed.
No, at that point, when somebody pulls out a hard evidence
and says, no, Pastor Anderson.
You know, because like,
let's say I have a date wrong or something.
You know what I mean?
And then they'll pull out a calendar and say like, look,
here's the date.
Can you imagine how bizarre it would be for me to just say,
there's been a disruption in the space time continuum
because I know that I was right.
Instead of just saying, okay, yeah, turns out, wow,
I can't believe I was wrong about that.
Wow, I'm so shocked that I was wrong.
I could have sworn that I was right about that.
And look, we've all had things where we could have sworn
that it was a certain way.
And then it turns out, because why?
Because our memories are not accurate.
As human beings, we remember things wrong.
It's just how we are.
But the Mandela effect,
it just shows what kind of a generation we're living in.
Where people will literally, and it's like movie quotes.
People remember movie quotes wrong
and they say the movie has changed.
They remember Bible quotes wrong
and they say the Bible changed.
Like, I know for a fact, the Bible never said bottles.
It said wine skins.
Yeah, in the NIV.
All of these things where these people pull out
this Mandela effect about Bible verses,
it's usually because they're just on the wrong version.
Virtually all of them are like another version
says it that way.
Or pastors constantly say it that way.
Or people remember a movie quote wrong
and then they're just like Mandela effect.
But you know what, to me,
the important thing to note about the Mandela effect
is that it doesn't say anything
about the universe we're living in.
Here's what the Mandela effect does.
It shows us what kind of people are living in 2020 America,
that they're so unwilling to admit that they're wrong.
They'd rather believe that we've shifted
into another dimension than to just say,
hey, Bernstein is spelled with an A.
The Bernstein Bears has always been spelled with an A.
Bernstein, S-T-A-I-N.
I just blew your mind right now, didn't I?
The Bernstein Bears is spelled B-E-R-E-N-S-T-A-I-N.
But now the Mandela effect people say,
no, we used to be living in the E universe.
They literally named an entire universe
after the Bernstein Bears.
We used to live in the E universe
and at some point we shifted to the A universe
where Bernstein is spelled with an A.
So go home, everybody, pull out those books
and look at them and then you'll know
which universe we're in.
If we're still in the A universe
or if we've gone back to the E universe.
Folks, it's just always spelled that way,
but our brains, we didn't want it to be spelled that way.
We wanted it to be Stein
because we were familiar with Einstein
and so we wanted to be Bernstein
and we wanted it to be spelled that way.
So our brains, did you know you can see things
that aren't really there?
I mean, who has seen something and it wasn't there?
But you saw it, of course.
I mean, you'll see something
and it's like you knew it was there.
In fact, did you know that our eyesight,
like we see this unbroken image, right?
But do you know that scientifically
there are actually blind spots in our image
and our brain just fills in the gaps?
Our brain just kind of photoshops in whatever.
I'm not kidding.
Did you know that everything we see
actually comes to our brain upside down?
And our brain flips it over and fills in gaps
and normalizes everything and it will fill in gaps
of things that we aren't actually looking at
or seeing right now.
Now, I know that sounds weird, but that's the truth.
If you talk to someone who actually has studied biology,
they'll confirm.
Yeah, that is true.
There are blind spots in our vision
that our brain fills in whatever it just expects to be there
and people hallucinate all the time.
And that's why Peter said we have a more sure word prophecy.
That way 20 years later, I don't start doubting
what did I really see on that mountain?
20 years later, was that real?
Was that a dream?
Was I in a trance?
But hey, the Word of God's always here.
The Word of God doesn't change.
The Word of God always has power.
The Holy Spirit always bears witness with our spirit
to the Word of God.
And so it says in Luke chapter 16,
so again, why do I bring that up?
Because I'm talking about these people
who they don't like who Jesus is,
so they wanna make a new Jesus and they hide behind the,
well, we're just looking for the historical Jesus.
No, you're looking for the hippie Jesus.
You're looking for the liberal Jesus.
You're looking for the academic Jesus.
You're looking for the enlightened Jesus
because that's what you are and you want him to be like you.
That's really what you're doing.
It's just like these Mandela effect,
people who wanna change the whole universe to fit them.
They wanna change God to fit them.
They wanna change Jesus to fit them.
They wanna change the Bible to fit them
instead of letting the Bible change you.
Don't you change the Bible.
Let the Bible change you.
Now it says in Luke chapter 16 here,
I'm tormented in this flame at the end of verse 24.
But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime
receiveth thy good things.
And likewise, Lazarus evil things,
but now he's comforted and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you,
there's a great goal fixed
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot,
neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray therefore father
that thou would ascend him to my father's house
for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them.
Lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham sayeth unto him,
they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And he said, nay father Abraham,
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And here's the key, verse 31, don't miss it.
And he said unto him,
if they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead.
And of course one did rise from the dead
and many people were not persuaded.
But listen, you could insert anything into that blank
and it would also be true.
Not changing the word of God.
Obviously this is what the word of God says,
but you know what?
If they won't hear Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded though,
you could fill in anything you want there.
And I'll tell you why,
because of the fact that there's only one way to get saved
and it's through the word of God.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
So if you're not gonna get saved
through Moses and the prophets,
you will not get saved through any other route.
So here he says, well look,
they're not gonna be persuaded though one rose from the dead
because Lazarus brings up and says,
well no, if one rose from the dead, they will repent.
So then he answers that and says,
nope, they won't be persuaded if one comes to the dead.
But you know, what if Lazarus would have said,
if they would see some historical evidence
of a historical Jesus, they'll repent.
You know, he could have said, nope,
not even the historical Jesus can make them repent.
Well, if they could get some archeological evidence,
they'll repent.
If they could get the right fossil, they'll repent.
Nope, neither if they get the right fossil will they repent.
If they won't hear Moses and the prophets,
if they won't hear Moses, then nothing will convince them.
Let me tell you something.
If the word of God isn't enough to get someone saved,
they will never be saved.
Because why?
There's only one way to be saved
and that is through the word of God.
Because what saves us?
Faith.
Faith is what saves us.
Where does the faith come from?
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
The Bible says, of his own will begat he us
by the word of truth.
The Bible says, receive with meekness the engrafted word
which is able to save your souls.
Acts 11, 14, he shall tell thee words
whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
It's the word of God that saves us.
And so if they don't hear Moses and the prophets,
which is talking about the word of God,
whatever else they see isn't gonna persuade them.
History, science, logic, philosophy,
nothing else will work if the word of God doesn't work.
Why?
Because they are not saved
because they don't believe the Bible
and it's not like, well, if somebody comes from the dead,
that's gonna convince them.
I mean, is this true or not?
I wonder if there's somebody here
that might think to themselves,
well, I think if somebody did come back from the dead,
I think they would get saved.
I bet there'd be some people in their heart
that might have that opinion if they thought about it
and thought about, hmm, you know,
I'm thinking of some unsaved people I know
and I think that maybe if someone came back from the dead
and told them, I think maybe they would get saved.
But what did the Bible say though?
The Bible said it wouldn't work.
It's not gonna work.
Now, it might cause them,
let's say somebody comes back from the dead
and visits them, you know, the ghost of Christmas,
whatever comes and tells them, hey, I'm here to tell you,
you gotta believe in Jesus, you gotta get saved,
all right, see you later, right?
And they're like, whoa, now I've seen evidence.
I'm not an atheist anymore.
Let me ask you a question.
Does not being an atheist make you go to heaven?
Because there was a guy that I interviewed,
if you remember that long-haired transhumanist atheist guy.
And I interviewed that guy, he was a nice guy.
We had a good interview.
It's one of my favorite interviews
that I've done when that guy interviewed me.
And we did this interview,
it might be a little too weird and sci-fi
for some people of an interview,
but the guy was into transhumanism and all this stuff.
So we're talking about this stuff.
And here's the thing, the guy was an atheist,
but then like six months later or a year later,
the guy changed his mind and said, I believe in God now.
I'm not an atheist anymore.
And then he even started saying, I even believe in Jesus.
But he said, you know what though?
He said, it's not salvation by faith though.
You gotta do the work.
You gotta be a good person.
You gotta follow the commandments.
And he just started believing
this hardcore workspace salvation.
Not even close, like not even iffy, not even questionable,
just all the way works, hardcore workspace.
Folks, so now instead of going to hell compartment number one
he's gonna go to hell compartment number two.
Because he's no more saved than he was before.
Okay?
And people say, you convinced this guy.
You talked to this guy and you convinced him not to be.
I'm thinking, that's not my convert.
I didn't convince that guy.
Because you know what?
If I convinced that guy,
I was using the word of God to do that.
Cause I, and I talked to him off camera as well
and preached to him and gave him the gospel.
And I talked to him and had good conversations with him
in addition to what's on the interview there.
But here's the thing, you know what I was preaching to him?
I was preaching to him, Christ crucified.
And I was preaching to him salvation by grace through faith.
I wasn't like, you've got to believe
that there's a Supreme being.
You've got to believe in God.
Don't be an atheist.
Now I was preaching the gospel.
Okay.
I hadn't, I don't believe that I had anything to do
with that guy embracing some form of God or whatever.
And, and let's say I did, you know, then, you know,
there's nothing to glory in that.
Yes, I got him from hell compartment number one
to hell compartment number two.
Score.
And in fact, I think the guy's probably further away
from getting saved now than he was then.
Now how about this?
Maybe me preaching the gospel just pushed him over the edge
into being a reprobate.
You know, and just now, cause now, cause here's the thing,
believing in nothing is not as bad
as preaching a false gospel.
Preaching a perverted false Christ
is worse than being an atheist.
Cause guess what, you know, you know,
hell compartment number two, it's actually hotter
in compartment number two than it is
in compartment number one, it turns out.
You know what I'm saying?
People who preach lies and preach false doctrine,
preach work salvation, they're in a hotter compartment,
that's my opinion, than the people who are the atheists.
He just went one circle lower.
So if they won't hear Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded the one rose from the dead.
Here's why, it's a heart problem.
It is a heart problem why people aren't saved.
It's pride that keeps them from being saved in most cases,
and pride loves workspace salvation,
cause hey, I'm gonna do it all myself,
I'm gonna get to heaven cause of how good I am.
That's pride talking.
Humility says Jesus paid it all.
It's by grace through faith.
I'm unworthy, I'm a sinner, I don't deserve it.
It's all through faith in Jesus, he did everything.
That's humility.
And so they will not be persuaded by anything
if they're not persuaded by the word of God.
So don't get sucked in to people trying
to give you historical evidence about Jesus,
or don't get sucked into,
oh, I gotta provide historical evidence for people.
Let me explain something to you.
If you feel like you have to convince people
of Jesus using history, you're in trouble,
because there is literally not one piece
of physical evidence, and not one piece
of archeological evidence from Jesus' life,
or from the apostles' lives, doesn't exist.
And you say, well Pastor Anderson,
you're getting up and saying that there's no evidence
for Jesus, there's no historical evidence,
there's no archeological evidence,
why would you say that as a Christian?
Because I don't care, number one, because it's true,
and it's always good to just speak the truth,
and number two, because my faith has found
a resting place not in device nor creed.
My faith does not rest on a history book,
or some document, or whatever.
Let's say you found some document
about some carpenter named Joseph.
Let's say tomorrow one of these bogus Facebook articles
actually turn out to be true, which it never will,
but I'm just saying.
Let's say we found some document tomorrow that said,
hey, there was a carpenter named Joseph,
he made me a chair, here's the receipt for the chair.
He's married to a woman named Mary.
They've got kids, James, Joseph, Judas, and Jesus.
Would that prove that Jesus is the son of God?
What if you found some document of some guy that said,
hey, I saw Jesus feed 5,000 people today
with five loaves and two fishes,
and you found a piece of paper like that.
Dear diary, what a day it's been.
I ate the same fish that everybody else was eating,
because it just kept on coming.
Would that prove anything?
Would you be like, well, now I believe the Bible.
You don't even know who that is that said that.
Who is that guy?
How do we even know that that's even valid?
Think about this.
What if you found a piece of paper from some guy
who's writing in 33 AD or whatever saying,
I saw Jesus after he rose from the dead.
Well, it's settled.
Atheism's over, folks.
You know, we've got the proof.
Folks, we have, did you know that,
what if I told you I have a document
that says that Jesus fed 5,000?
That someone wrote who was there.
What if I told you I got a document written by somebody
who saw the resurrected Christ?
Does everybody believe it?
Everybody in this room believes it.
But let me tell you something, the people out there,
they're not gonna believe it
if some other random document's found.
So look, I agree with God's decision
to just make sure nothing survived.
I love it.
I think it's great.
I rejoice in the fact that there's no archeological evidence
and no written documentary evidence contemporary with Christ
from the lifetime of Christ
where people are writing this stuff down.
Because you know what?
I'd hate for people to keep bringing that out
and be like, hey, look what this guy,
I'd say shut up, this is what Jesus did and said.
Right, because look, if we found some random scrap,
I don't know about you,
but I'm not gonna staple it into the back of my Bible.
Would you?
We don't know where it came from.
If we found, hey, here's some account
that was written in 32 AD by a Roman soldier.
You know, he was there at the crucifixion.
I'm not stapling that in the back of my Bible.
You know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna throw it in the trash.
Because I believe that God gave me everything
I need right here.
So once you stop and think about this,
you realize how silly it is
to look for these historical proofs or documents
or at least something about somebody.
It's meaningless, it's vain, it really has no value
once you actually stop and think it through.
And we should just rejoice
that we've got everything right here.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for giving us everything we need.
Lord, you've given us your word
and we don't live by bread alone
but by every word that you gave us, Lord, in the Bible.
And so we're thankful that we have all this evidence, Lord.
We have Matthew, we have Mark, we have Luke, we have John.
And Lord, we know that the people
that are out looking for something else,
it's just because they have a problem with their heart, Lord.
And I pray that many people would come to Christ, Lord.
I pray that through my preaching,
many people would come to Christ.
I pray that through the soul winning of our church,
many people would come to Jesus Christ.
I pray that many people that are atheists today
will become born again Christians tomorrow
and not just believe in a supreme being
but that they would actually get saved, Lord.
And so help us to preach Christ crucified
so that people can get saved
through the power of the gospel.
And Lord, let's just hang all this historical Jesus junk.
And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Amen, we're gonna do one more song in your song book.
Song number 87, Just When I Need Him Most.
Song number 87.
Song 87.
Just when I need him, he's less than fear.
Just when I falter, that's when I fear.
Ready to help me, ready to cheer.
Just when I need him most.
He's less than fear to comfort and cheer.
Just when I need him most.
Just when I need him, Jesus is true.
Never forsaking all the way through.
Living for her in pleasures of new.
Just when I need him most.
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer.
Just when I need him most.
Just when I need him, Jesus is strong.
Bearing my burdens all the day long.
For all my sorrows, giving us some.
Just when I need him most.
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer.
Just when I need him most.
Just when I need him, he is my all.
Answering when upon him I call.
Tenderly watching, lest I should fall.
Just when I need him most.
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer.
Just when I need him most.
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer.
Just when I need him most.
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer.