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Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001827A
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00:03 It has been called the greatest document
00:05 in the history of humanity. 00:06 Whenever and wherever people have studied 00:09 and accepted its teachings, 00:10 they have discovered hope, 00:13 life, peace, 00:19 prosperity, and deliverance from tyranny. 00:25 Welcome to Romans. 00:31 We give you a great welcome today. 00:34 We welcome you here in our studio 00:36 in Southern California. 00:37 And also our terrific audience 00:40 across the United States of America, 00:42 across North America, Canada, 00:46 down into the Caribbean, in Australia, 00:49 and right around the world. 00:51 Now, we have been studying the Book of Romans. 00:57 And Romans has been called the greatest masterpiece 01:03 that the human mind has ever conceived or realized. 01:08 The greatest book ever written in the history of the world. 01:12 Today, this is Romans, part 2. 01:15 Now, I want you to put yourself in my shoes. 01:19 Number of years ago, quite a few years ago... 01:24 A young man in the great city of Melbourne, 01:30 earnest young man, 01:33 came under the influence of some religious teachers. 01:38 This is young man in the prime of his life in university, 01:45 a very sensitive young man and he's told, 01:49 unless you become totally and absolutely sinless, 01:54 you can't be saved. 01:58 And this is drummed into him. 02:00 You've got to be perfect and you've got to be saved 02:04 through coming to God and becoming so surrendered 02:09 that you are absolutely sinless 02:12 as Christ was sinless. 02:16 And this young man went into his garage, 02:21 in the family house, and got in the family car, 02:25 and turned on the car, 02:29 closed up the garage and killed himself. 02:35 Now I was the pastor of a great church in Sydney. 02:40 It was called the Wahroonga Church. 02:43 Wahroonga is northern suburbs, Sydney. 02:46 Beautiful place. Just gorgeous place. 02:50 And I had hundreds, and hundreds, 02:52 and hundreds of young people in that church, 02:55 most of them from the Sydney Adventist Hospital, 02:58 a great institution. 03:00 And they had come 03:02 under the influence of strong religious teachers 03:06 who were telling them, 03:08 they had to be sinless before they could be saved. 03:14 Now I put it to you, what would you do? 03:20 What on earth would you do? 03:22 Would you give in to pressure and go with the crowd? 03:27 What would you do? 03:29 I will tell you, my friends, what I did. 03:32 I preached the Gospel of Christ, 03:36 because the Gospel of Christ 03:41 is good news. 03:44 I want you to know this 03:45 because most folks don't get it. 03:47 But you're going to get it. 03:51 The gospel is good news and it's not good advice. 03:57 Advice is what you ought to do. 04:00 Advice is doo, doo, doo, cock a doodle doo. 04:05 And there's a million preachers who are preaching good advice. 04:09 The gospel is not good advice, it is good news. 04:13 Now news is about something that someone has done. 04:20 And the gospel is the good news 04:23 about what God in Christ has done for us. 04:28 Now this is the great difference. 04:32 It's not about me. 04:34 Look at Romans 1:1 and 3. 04:38 And if you and I can get this today, 04:40 it's going to be a great relief. 04:43 And some are you sitting here today, 04:45 all of a sudden you're going to get a revelation, 04:48 and you're going to say, I've never seen that before, 04:51 I've been terribly burdened, I've been terribly worried. 04:54 Romans 1:1 and 3, 04:56 "Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, 04:59 called to be an apostle, 05:01 separated to the gospel of God." 05:03 The good news of God. 05:04 And verse 3 says, 05:06 "Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, 05:10 who was born of the seed of David 05:13 according to the flesh." 05:16 Therefore, let this get down into our minds that gospel 05:22 is not about me, it is not about my performance. 05:28 Now people go, "That's what I heard." 05:29 No, the gospel is not about me, 05:32 the gospel is about God. 05:37 And it's good news. 05:40 Now last time I spoke, 05:41 I dealt with Romans chapter 1, 2 and 3. 05:46 If you missed that, 05:47 you can see it on Roku, go to our website, 05:52 watch it on Apple TV, see it on YouTube, 05:55 or Amazon Fire, and we have other stations too. 05:59 Today, Romans, this is going to be hard. 06:03 Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 so help me. 06:09 Romans chapter 3 says 06:11 that we are justified by the grace of God. 06:15 Look at Romans 3:23, 06:20 dear hearts and gentle people. 06:23 The Bible says, 06:24 "For all have sinned and fall short 06:27 of the glory of God." 06:28 This is a text most people don't understand. 06:31 It says all have sinned. 06:33 The Greek say and the English says. 06:35 This is continuous. 06:37 This is perfect continuous, not past tense, all have sin, 06:41 that's past. 06:43 But this fall short is what is happening now. 06:47 The Bible teaches 06:48 that every person except Christ, 06:50 every person is falling short of the glory of God. 06:55 Now you said, no, no, that's, 06:57 not if I've been a Christian for 50 years, 07:00 I've finally attained... 07:03 No, that's not true. 07:07 You can argue with me, 07:08 but don't argue with the scriptures. 07:10 The Bible says, 07:12 we continue to fall short of the glory of God. 07:17 Now the Bible tells us this, 07:18 that in Adam we have all fallen. 07:24 This goes against the pride of the human heart, 07:29 especially the people who are super religious, 07:32 some of the most dangerous people 07:34 on the face of the earth, 07:35 the super religious, the Pharisees. 07:37 The Bible says, 07:39 "We are falling short of the glory of God." 07:42 This graph tells you, 07:45 here we are humanity is falling into the flames of hell. 07:51 And there is only one person 07:54 who's gone across this great chasm 07:57 and that is Jesus Christ. 08:00 And so the first truth is this, 08:03 there are no people in the world 08:06 who are good enough. 08:08 Look at verse 24. 08:10 And if I can get no other truth preach today, 08:13 I'll be glad. 08:14 Verse 24, "Being justified freely 08:18 by His grace through the redemption 08:22 that is in Christ Jesus." 08:23 Now you got to see this. 08:27 The word justify here 08:28 is very much akin to the word righteousness 08:32 in the Hebrew and in the Greek. 08:36 But when the Bible says, justify, 08:38 it means not to make righteous, but to declare righteous. 08:44 People say, "Oh, there's no difference." 08:45 There's difference between heaven and hell. 08:51 I want you to see this. 08:52 The word justify does not mean in spite 08:56 of a thousand sermons to the country. 08:59 It doesn't mean to make me righteous. 09:04 It means that God declares 09:07 that John Carter a penitent sinner 09:10 because of Christ is righteous. 09:16 Now you've all heard 09:17 of Mother Teresa whom we all love. 09:21 This great Roman Catholic nun 09:27 loved around the world. 09:28 After she died, they discovered her letters. 09:32 Mother Teresa was taught by the Jesuits. 09:38 You say, "So what? They're great people." 09:43 Mother Teresa was taught 09:45 that justification means to make righteous. 09:50 And Mother Teresa was continually depressed, 09:53 and in despair, and suicidal. 09:56 And she said, "She never saw once in her life 09:59 the loving face of God." 10:02 Have you heard of the Council of Trent? 10:06 After the Reformation, 10:08 the Jesuits were in charge of the Council of Trent 10:12 and they taught 10:13 that justification, listen carefully, 10:15 because maybe you believe this. 10:19 I've met many, many so called Protestants 10:23 who believe Jesuit theology. 10:27 The Jesuits taught that justification 10:30 was the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul 10:35 to make me sinless, so I could see the face of God. 10:41 But the awful thing is this. 10:43 When does a person in this lifetime 10:45 ever come to the state of sinless perfection? 10:50 Because you never know when you're good enough. 10:54 That's why so many people 10:55 I've met are depressed and unhappy 10:59 because they never know 11:02 they've been fed a lot of bad theology. 11:05 Now people get mad at me when I preach this sermon. 11:08 I say, "Don't get mad at me, get mad with Paul, 11:11 get mad with Christ." 11:13 Romans 3:25. 11:15 If you want to get angry, 11:18 get angry with your own thinking. 11:20 "Whom God set forth as a propitiation 11:24 and atoning sacrifice by His blood through faith, 11:30 to demonstrate His righteousness, 11:33 because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins 11:36 that were previously committed." 11:38 Now I don't have time to go into this. 11:41 It says that, "God might be righteous." 11:43 This is not a shrewdy. This is not a con job. 11:48 God cannot just forgive sin. 11:50 God cannot say, 11:51 "Well, look, you've all sinned." 11:53 Hey, forget about it. God's got to be righteous. 11:57 You know how God is righteous? 11:59 On the cross 12:02 He tastes His own wrath 12:06 against sin. 12:09 He pays the price. 12:12 He's a propitiation. 12:14 This word should not be translated expiation 12:16 as it is in some translation. 12:18 Propitiation. 12:21 So that He can be righteous 12:25 and I can be declared righteous. 12:31 It's almost too hard to believe. 12:33 That's why many people won't believe it. 12:36 Romans 4 says, "This is true. But it is not new." 12:42 Back in his day the Jewish people said, 12:44 "This is a big heresy. 12:46 This is the new theology. This is a new idea." 12:50 Remember, if it's new, it's seldom true. 12:53 And if it's true, it's seldom new. 12:56 And so now Paul says, 12:57 "Okay, I'm going to prove it to you 12:59 from the Old Testament." 13:00 Romans 4:2 and 3. 13:03 The first example, Abraham. 13:07 "If Abraham was justified by works, 13:10 he has something to boast about, 13:11 but not before God. 13:13 For what does the scriptures say, 13:15 'Abraham believed God, 13:16 and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'" 13:23 So this is not a poor lame doctrine in itself. 13:28 This is the very basis of the Old Testament 13:31 that we cannot be saved by law. 13:35 Romans 4:5, 13:37 the most radical text in the Bible. 13:40 I've had people get almost filled with rage 13:43 when I've quoted this text. 13:44 "But to him who does not work," 13:47 as far as salvation is concerned, 13:48 "but believes on Him who justifies..." 13:51 What does it say? 13:52 Tell me what it says? 13:54 It says, "Justifies the ungodly." 13:56 People who said, 13:58 "God cannot justify the ungodly if He justifies you." 14:02 That's what He's doing, because we are ungodly. 14:07 Unlike God, He justifies the ungodly, 14:09 his faith is accounted, accounted, accounted. 14:14 It's like God puts it to your account. 14:18 You're a pauper, got no money, 14:20 and God puts a billion dollars in your account. 14:24 You don't deserve it. 14:27 Ellen White said this, 14:28 "The prayers of true believers ascend, 14:31 go off the heaven, but passing 14:34 through the corrupt channels of humanity, 14:38 they are so defiled." 14:42 The prayers of true believers so defiled. 14:45 Then unless covered by the blood of Christ, 14:48 they worth nothing. 14:52 So the first truth that ought to sink down into our minds 14:55 is that we are ungodly, needing the grace of God. 15:01 Unlike God, then it brings us to David. 15:05 It's another case. Romans 4:6, 7 and 8. 15:09 Romans, "For just as David also describes 15:14 the blessedness of the man 15:15 to whom God imputes righteousness 15:18 apart from works. 15:20 Blessed are those 15:21 whose lawless deeds are forgiven, 15:23 and whose sins are covered. 15:25 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 15:27 shall not impute sin." 15:29 We're talking here about a murderer 15:33 and a adulterer. 15:37 You say it, "It's not right." 15:40 It is the righteousness of God 15:42 because God took upon Himself in Christ, 15:45 the adulteries and the murders of King David. 15:51 What is it called? Grace. 15:55 This tells me, there's hope for the sinner. 15:58 If you feel that you're a sinner, 16:00 there's hope for you. 16:01 If you feel that you're better 16:03 than other people at this time in your life, 16:05 there's no hope for you 16:08 unless you become enlightened. 16:11 Jesus is the friend of sinners. 16:15 Glory, glory. 16:18 That's why Tyndale called the Book of Romans good, 16:21 glad, and merry tidings 16:23 that makes a man's heart to sing for joy 16:26 and his feet to dance. 16:28 Let me tell you, 16:29 there are two great mountains in the Bible, Mount Sinai. 16:34 You'll never get to heaven climbing up 16:36 the quaking sides of Mount Sinai. 16:39 You can't do it. 16:42 There's another mountain on which Christ hangs? 16:48 That's grace. 16:51 The Romans 5 is a controversial chapter 16:54 because it says we are lost in Adam and people say, 16:59 "It isn't fair." 17:01 You think Christ dying for you is fair? 17:03 We're not talking about fairness. 17:06 Romans 5, "We're lost in Adam, but we're saved in Christ." 17:11 Now I've done a whole series, 17:13 verse by verse exposition on this. 17:17 But today, we're doing a summary. 17:20 We're trying to compress the ocean into a thimble. 17:25 So look at Romans 5:12, 17:30 "Therefore, just as through one man 17:34 sin entered the world, and death through sin, 17:38 and thus death spread to all men, 17:41 because all sinned." 17:45 I have people in the church in Sydney, 17:48 they would come to me and they'd say, 17:50 "No, we don't believe this. 17:51 Don't believe what you're teaching." 17:52 But will you believe? 17:54 I don't want to believe that either. 17:56 Through one man sin entered the world. 18:03 Adam was driving the vehicle. He was driving. 18:10 We were in the back seat. 18:13 And when the car went off the road with Adam driving, 18:17 we went off the road with him. 18:19 You say to me as some people have said, 18:21 but I wasn't in the back seat. 18:23 I was not in Adam, I am me. 18:28 I am me, here. 18:31 If you weren't in Adam, let me ask you this. 18:36 Did you come from another planet? 18:40 Where did you come from? 18:45 Now the Bible tells us 18:49 that our Lord 18:51 was in the loins of King David. 18:54 Wasn't He? King David was his father. 18:59 When Adam sinned, 19:01 we spiritually and generically were in Adam. 19:08 Adam was the head of the human race. 19:13 He was the spiritual head. 19:15 He was the genetic head of the human race. 19:20 When Adam sinned, we were in the back seat. 19:26 I was there. 19:30 And when he went off the road, 19:32 the human race went off with Him. 19:35 The Bible says, "For all sinned." 19:39 If you wish to go and read a good commentary 19:42 like our own SDA commentary, 19:46 it says, this is not talking about individual sins. 19:52 Oh, not? 19:54 No, it's talking about the fact that when Adam sinned, 19:59 we sinned in him. 20:02 People say, "Well, no, no, I'm not a sinner 20:07 until I do this and that 20:11 and do something bad like King David." 20:13 No, we are born 20:16 with the black blood of Adam coursing 20:20 in our veins. 20:22 We are born in need of a Savior. 20:28 That is why we ought to train our little children 20:32 when they're tiny to say their prayers. 20:38 I ask the mothers and the fathers, 20:40 "Do you see a little children propensities 20:43 or tendencies to sin?" 20:47 "Oh no, I've never seen." 20:50 You ever see a baby show signs of bad temper? 20:55 Where does it come from mothers? 20:57 The fathers, yes. 20:59 No, we know where it comes from. 21:01 It is born in them. 21:05 That's why Spurgeon referred to it 21:07 as the black blood of Adam coursing in our veins, 21:11 that's why Jesus said, "You must be born again." 21:17 What does this mean? 21:18 Well, we're born with this fallen nature 21:24 and we need to be born again. 21:27 That's what Jesus said. 21:32 Read those verses in Romans 5. 21:36 "Don't disregard them, but think about it." 21:40 What I'm telling you is solid theology. 21:45 Verse 19. 21:48 This is what the greatest scholars 21:49 have ever taught, and our greatest scholars, 21:53 "For as by one man's disobedience," 21:55 what does it say? 21:57 "Many were made sinner." Who is it talking about? 22:00 Adam. 22:02 "For by one man's disobedience, 22:04 by Adam's disobedience many were made sinners... 22:12 So also by one man's obedience 22:15 many will be made righteous." 22:19 Listen carefully. 22:22 We are born in a state of sin and rebellion. 22:27 You don't need to go to the theological seminary 22:32 to learn how to be a Pharisee. 22:37 We are born rebels. 22:39 We are born Pharisees. That's what we are. 22:45 And the greatest sin of all is a failure 22:49 to recognize Christ and who we are. 22:54 And it's the greatest of all sins. 23:00 We're born in the state of sin and rebellion, 23:03 but Jesus has redeemed Adam's failure. 23:08 Therefore, believe in Jesus now, 23:12 and become complete, and saved in Him now. 23:17 A person can pass from death to life now. 23:22 People say, "No, no, it's a process." 23:25 Thank you for the Jesuit contribution. 23:29 We're not talking here about a process. 23:32 We are talking about believing 23:35 with all our hearts as penitents in Christ. 23:42 Romans 5:20, dear hearts and gentle people. 23:49 "Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. 23:55 But where sin abounded, 23:58 grace abounded much more." 24:03 You see. So in Adam, all is lost. 24:09 In Christ, all is saved. 24:13 The law came in... 24:14 You think the law came in and made us look good. 24:18 You think when God gave the commandments, 24:20 it made us look good. 24:22 Where sin did abound, 24:24 we see ourselves lepers. 24:29 Now if you haven't had that experience, 24:32 you haven't become yet a Christian. 24:35 You may be super religious and super pious. 24:39 The people you've got to be suspicious of are the people 24:43 who are over religious 24:45 because they're probably using religion 24:48 as a cloak to cover their sins. 24:52 So sin comes in like a mighty plague, 24:55 like a mighty flood. 24:58 But when sin comes in like a flood, 25:04 God sends the creator of the universe. 25:09 Almost too hard to believe this. 25:11 The Creator of the cosmos comes 25:16 and He becomes the propitiation 25:19 for my guilt, and my sins, and all of my infidelities, 25:24 and everything else. 25:26 And therefore, what can I do? Amazing. 25:32 Nothing in my hand I bring, 25:35 simply to your cross, I cling. 25:39 And we will continue this in just a moment. 25:43 More amazing truths to come 25:46 about the Redeemer just moments away. 26:08 The antichrist is in the temple of God. 26:14 I will read you the actual words 26:16 of the great Roman Catholic Church. 26:20 More than a billion people pray to the dead. 26:26 But the Bible talks very plainly 26:27 about good angels and bad angels. 26:34 Why on earth were you 26:37 and I born? 26:42 This DVD series from John Carter will be yours 26:45 with a gift of $50 US or $70 Australian, 26:49 write to us at the address on the screen. 26:51 Visit cartereport.com. 26:52 Your home for inspirational teaching. 27:09 1.3 billion people live in India. 27:20 Two hundred million of these are Dalits. 27:24 Dalits formerly called untouchables 27:27 are the lowest members of the caste system. 27:31 One hundred percent of your gift will go 27:33 to fund projects for Dalit girls 27:36 as an alternative to slavery and prostitution. 27:40 Your gift of $600 will educate, clothe, 27:43 and feed one Dalit girl between 5 and 15 years of age 27:49 for one year. 27:53 Go to cartereport.org or to the address on the screen 27:56 to send your gift of $600 27:59 and change the life of one Indian Dalit girl 28:03 for one full year. 28:12 For a copy of today's program, 28:14 please contact us at P.O. 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Revised 2018-11-05