Participants: Pr. John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001617A
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00:13 Now, today,
00:14 we're talking about The Search For Happiness. 00:18 And in the last program we discovered 00:20 that the human race got the problem. 00:22 It's not basically psychological 00:25 even though we certainly need psychologist and psychiatrist. 00:30 It's not our basic problem, 00:31 neither is it economic or political, 00:35 as Karl Mark said. 00:37 Our problem is basically a spiritual problem. 00:42 And the Bible tells us 00:43 that the root cause of our problem is, 00:46 listen, wait for this, it's alienation from God. 00:52 Is that we're alienated from God, 00:54 where we seem to be alone in the universe 00:57 and the Bible teaches that the problem is called sin. 01:01 And the solution is the true gospel of Christ. 01:06 Now I want you to come in the Bible over here 01:08 to Roman 5:6 and onwards. 01:12 And I'm so glad to see you folks here today. 01:14 Romans 5:6 and onwards, the Bible says, 01:19 "For when we were still without strength, 01:21 in due time Christ died for who? 01:25 The ungodly. 01:27 The scarcely for a righteous man 01:28 will one die; yet perhaps for a good man 01:31 someone would even dare to die. 01:33 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, 01:36 in that while we were still sinners, 01:39 Christ died for us." 01:42 So the Bible teach us, 01:45 I want you to think about this, 01:47 in a way that most of us don't understand. 01:51 When Christ, 01:53 when God became a man in the person of Christ, 01:56 when He died on the cross, 01:57 somehow that would heal us of our problem. 02:03 It would serve 02:04 the greatest problem in the human raise, 02:06 the greatest problem in the universe, 02:07 which is the problem of sin. 02:10 I want you to come over now 02:11 to the gospel according to John, 02:13 some have said that this book is the most important book 02:15 that was ever written in the history 02:17 of the human rise. 02:19 John 1:1 says, 02:21 I want you to noticed these words 02:23 "In the beginning was the word, 02:25 and the word was with God, and the word was God". 02:31 Verse 3 says, "All things were made through Him, 02:34 without Him nothing was made that was made." 02:37 This is talking about Jesus Christ, 02:40 the word of God and it says, He made everything. 02:43 Verse 10 says, "He was in the world 02:46 and the world was made through Him, 02:48 and the world did not know Him." 02:51 I want you to think about this. 02:54 The Bible teaches that right at the very, very beginning. 03:00 We're talking about billions of years ago, 03:02 the Bible teaches there was the word. 03:05 Now the evolutionist like Dawkins says 03:08 the first thing you had chaos, 03:12 unintelligibility, randomness, 03:15 and then this bred the word, it bred intelligence. 03:20 But that's absolutely false, it's crazy. 03:24 The Bible teaches there were supreme intelligence 03:27 and the Bible talks about a person 03:29 and the Bible calls Him the word. 03:32 And that is Jesus Christ. 03:34 And the Bible says 03:35 that Jesus Christ made the universe. 03:41 Pretty hard for us, because we'll be done. 03:45 And I'm telling you, it's the truth, 03:47 we'll pretty done. 03:48 But the Bible teaches the Almighty God 03:50 who made all of this, all of this became incarnate. 03:54 In other words he became, look at this, 03:57 I mean, it's outstanding. 03:59 The God who made this who has called the word, 04:02 in the person of Jesus Christ became a man. 04:07 And Jesus Christ is not just a good man, 04:10 the Bible tells me 04:11 that Jesus Christ is the God-man. 04:14 So He's not half a God and half a man. 04:17 Some people say, well, he's half a God... 04:19 No, no, no, He's fully God and He is fully man, 04:23 He is the monogamous, He was the one 04:27 who is completely distinct and unique, the God-man. 04:32 And so the God-man comes down to this earth. 04:34 Now come over here 04:35 to the greatest text in the Bible, John 3:16. 04:39 John 3:16, 04:44 and the Bible says, "For God so loved the world." 04:49 He's not mad with the world. 04:52 "For God so loved the world 04:53 that He gave His only begotten Son, 04:57 that whoever believes in Him should not perish 05:00 but have everlasting life." 05:07 I'm dazed and amazed by this; 05:10 I didn't always understand this. 05:14 When I have studied astronomy, 05:17 I can understand why CS Lewis said, 05:19 your God is too small. 05:21 He's talking to people in the church, 05:23 your God is too small. 05:25 They got all the answers to everything. 05:27 They think they know how God made the universe. 05:30 They all really think they know how God made the world. 05:32 They've got all the answers. 05:33 When you meet a person who's got all the answers, 05:35 don't listen to him. 05:38 Most of this stuff we don't understand, 05:41 but the Bible teaches us, the Almighty God 05:43 who made all of this for nine months, 05:47 was cradled in the womb of a patient girl. 05:53 And when he was born with blood, 05:56 and pain, and crying, 06:00 and when Mary kissed the face of this little guy, 06:06 she kissed the face of God. 06:12 And the Bible says, 06:15 "He love the world so much 06:17 that God gave his only begotten Son 06:19 so that whoever believes in him should not perish 06:22 but have everlasting life." 06:26 This is the heart 06:27 of what the Bible calls the Gospel. 06:31 I seem to think that many folks who go to church, 06:33 may be most folks who go to churches 06:35 don't understand the Gospel. 06:37 They think the Gospel is the religion of do, do, do, 06:41 cock a doodle doo. 06:43 You got to do this, you got to do that. 06:45 Oh, no, you're not doing enough. 06:48 No, no, you got to do, do, do, do, keep on the doing. 06:51 But you are not saved by your doing. 06:54 You are said about what He did. 06:56 Amen. Amen. 06:58 And so the Gospel is not about me, 07:01 the Gospel is about God. 07:04 Now let me talk to you now 07:05 about the most important subjects 07:07 that you will ever hear, 07:09 The Mysterious Transaction Of The Cross. 07:17 Jesus didn't have white hair. 07:23 He was a young man. 07:26 When He was around 35 years of age, 07:29 in the prime of manhood, 07:32 the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. 07:35 He was strong and sun tanned, not a woos. 07:41 You know what a woos is? 07:43 Well, He wasn't that anyhow. 07:47 A woos is a wimp, you know. 07:51 Some people think when you become to be a Christian 07:54 you got to be sort of whimpy, you know. 07:57 It's got nothing to do with Christianity. 07:59 Christianity is a blood red religion, 08:03 it's made for revolution. 08:05 Yes, sir. 08:06 You see. 08:08 Amen. 08:10 And don't you get carried away there, 08:11 just because you're wearing that hat. 08:14 Okay, okay. 08:17 The tide of popular opinion turned against Him, 08:19 He was betrayed by the leaders of organized religion. 08:26 Don't forget it. 08:29 The Jewish hierarchy, 08:32 they passed him over to the Romans, 08:34 and the Romans had Him crucified. 08:37 Now what you got and understand is this, 08:40 there's nothing glorious about crucifixion. 08:46 A man or a women was nailed 08:49 and tied to a cross. 08:53 It is not high and lifted up 30 feet in the air, 08:58 it was so placed that people going by 09:01 could abuse the victims and spit in their faces. 09:07 And usually, they were nailed to the cross stuck necked. 09:14 The Bible says 09:15 "Curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree." 09:20 Think that's true sometimes. 09:22 Curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree, 09:25 that is a teaching of scripture. 09:30 A person could live on a cross for up to a week. 09:34 Oh. 09:36 Yes, yes. 09:39 But you say, Lord, have mercy, 09:41 but He never had mercy on Christ. 09:44 He never had mercy on Christ 09:46 because Christ had taken the place of us sinners 09:49 who don't deserve mercy. 09:56 The very act of breathing was reversed in a person 09:59 who was crucified. 10:02 So He had to reverse the cycle of breathing. 10:06 And after time, 10:09 the body became poison and the blood sank to the feet. 10:14 And the crows would come 10:15 and pick out the eyes of the victim. 10:18 But the person could not die, 10:21 that's why they broke their legs, 10:23 don't you understand? 10:25 So they couldn't get down. 10:27 It is quite likely they put up the thieves on Saturday night, 10:33 after the Sabbath. 10:36 The crucifixion was the worst type of torture 10:40 that a human being could go through, 10:45 and the person hanging on the cross was the God-man. 10:54 So this teaches a number of great truths 10:56 that sin is a filthy, rotten thing 10:59 because they put Him there. 11:02 And number two, 11:04 God is indescribably loving and kind. 11:09 There are two great truths that we need to learn. 11:13 But we don't want to learn it 11:14 because of the pride of our hearts. 11:16 Number one, man is much worst, 11:21 then he ever feared to think. 11:28 Number two, 11:29 God is much better than He ever dared to hope. 11:36 Now I want you to turn to a text in Mathew 11:38 that describes the last moments in the life of Christ, 11:44 Mathew 27:45, 46, 11:50 He died after being on the cross for six hours 11:53 but normally, He would have lived there 11:55 for about six days. 11:59 Mathew 27:45-46, 12:03 "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour 12:05 there was darkness over all the land. 12:08 And then at the ninth hour at 3.00 in the afternoon, 12:10 Jesus cried out and says, My God, 12:13 My God why have you forsaken me?" 12:18 They never say that you would like to die as Christ died. 12:23 Never say He was the greatest Man 12:25 and the best Man 12:27 and therefore it would be wonderful 12:29 if I would get to die like Christ 12:31 because Christ did not die as a blessed Christian. 12:39 Can you understand this? 12:42 He did not die as a blessed Christian, 12:47 He died under the wrath of God. 12:50 And the Bible says, 12:53 He died as a prepetition. 12:58 And that's been taken out of some Bibles, 13:02 but it is the correct translation. 13:05 And the question we must ask again is, 13:07 who is this man who hangs on the cross 13:11 and in great pain and great sorrow, 13:15 he cries out to God? 13:18 Who was this Man? 13:19 He was the Man who made this. 13:22 Can you contemplate this for a movement, 13:24 and can your faith reach to believe this, 13:27 the man, the God 13:28 who made this is the man on the cross. 13:35 Have mercy. 13:37 And He cries out, 13:39 I hope when I die that I don't cry out and say, 13:41 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 13:46 That is the cry of a damned soul. 13:53 Now I want you to notice 13:55 The Mighty Transaction of the Cross, 13:57 we're going to put this on the screen 13:59 so you can see it. 14:01 Mighty Transaction of the Cross. 14:04 I want you to notice over here, here we have the human race. 14:08 And this is hard for us to understand and comprehend, 14:13 this is called as the scandal of the cross, 14:16 because sin makes us blind. 14:21 It also gives us a fair dose of stupidity 14:28 so that we cannot think straight 14:30 and we cannot see straight. 14:32 So we are born blind 14:36 and in need of the touch of God 14:38 so that we can see. 14:41 That is why we pray to the Holy Sprit 14:42 to come into our hearts. 14:44 The human race: sinful, guilty, unrighteous, 14:50 and deserving eternal death. 14:53 That is how I am without God. 14:57 I want you to think about it and ask God to give, 15:00 open your eyes and give you an understanding 15:04 of you condition, our condition. 15:09 And Nietzsche, 15:11 and all of these guys, Marx, Darwin, 15:14 you can go through all the philosophers, 15:16 I've read many of them. 15:19 None of them came to grips with this, 15:21 they said we have a problem 15:23 and therefore cycle analysis to give... 15:27 a sexual drives. 15:29 So we could only understand this... 15:32 and I'm not saying that all their views were wrong. 15:35 And Marx said, Marx, the German Jew said, 15:39 "We need a new Gospel, 15:41 " said Marx, we need a new Gospel. 15:44 Because he said, the old Gospel is failed. 15:47 It failed because he rejected it. 15:51 But here it is sinful, guilty, unrighteous, eternal death. 15:54 But Christ over here, Christ was sinless, 16:00 never let anybody tell you that 16:01 He was some how treated with sin. 16:05 He was sinless, guiltless, He was righteous 16:09 and His destiny was eternal life. 16:14 But the Bible teaches that on the cross 16:18 the almighty created God came and stood over here. 16:23 This is where He stood. 16:27 And in the sight of a righteous God, 16:31 He became sinful, guilty, unrighteous 16:34 and He tasted eternal death. 16:38 Now unless Jesus comes, 16:39 we are all going to taste death. 16:41 But God forbid that you should taste eternal death, 16:45 because eternal death is held with all it's terrors. 16:51 It is the separation of the soul from God. 16:56 And at the very last day, after Armageddon, 16:58 at the very end, the lost will cry out, 17:01 "My God, my God, why you have forsaken me?" 17:05 That will be the cry of the lost world. 17:09 But Christ on the cross cried out, "My God, my God, 17:12 " because He took this, He assumed this. 17:18 So that by his grace, 17:21 if I truly believe in Him with all my heart 17:25 I shall be accounted 17:29 sinless, guiltless, righteous 17:32 and be given eternal life, not because I deserve it 17:36 but because of His sheer mercy. 17:38 Amen. 17:39 That is called the Gospel. 17:43 There was a Russian nobleman, hopelessly in debts. 17:49 One day he wrote out the list of his debts, 17:52 then he wrote across the bottom, 17:54 'Who will pay all my debts?' 17:57 A true story. 17:58 Peter the great was his friend, 18:01 and Peter the great came visiting. 18:04 The man had fallen into a restless sleep 18:07 with depression, 18:08 he was unconscious when Peter came. 18:10 He didn't expect the czar of Russian to come. 18:13 When Peter came, he walked into his room, 18:15 he saw his friend sprawl across the table 18:18 and he saw there the words, 'Who will pay all my debts?' 18:22 And there was the list of all the debts. 18:25 And Peter picked up a pen and he scrolled across it, 18:28 "I, Peter the great will pay all your debts." 18:33 And Christ on the cross opened up his veins, 18:39 and He wrote over the scroll of a personal indebtedness, 18:45 'I, Christ will pay all your debts." 18:49 And He did, and that is the Gospel. 18:52 And look at Romans 5:1. 18:55 Now we talk about the search for happiness. 18:58 Romans 5:1, it says, 19:03 "Therefore, having been justified by faith, 19:09 we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 19:14 When you are justified you have peace with God, 19:20 listen carefully. 19:22 Peace is what we want. 19:27 When it says 'justified', 19:29 it means 'declared righteous'. 19:35 This is what it means. 19:36 It doesn't mean, I want you to hear this, 19:39 it doesn't mean as our beloved friends 19:43 in the Council of Trent taught. 19:45 To make righteous, it means to declare righteous. 19:51 The good news of the Gospel, 19:54 that God would take a stinking sinner 19:58 covered with filth and shame, 20:02 and the movement he truly believes in Christ 20:06 he is declared righteous, 20:09 not because he is but because God is. 20:13 That's the Gospel, 20:15 and that is the source of happiness. 20:18 How can I accept this gift? 20:20 Come over here to John 3. Come over here. 20:24 Do you understand what I am saying? 20:26 John 3:14, look at this, 20:30 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 20:34 even so must the son of men be lifted up, 20:37 that whoever believes in Him should not perish 20:40 but have eternal life." 20:42 Then in the next verse goes on to say, 20:46 "For God so loved the world 20:47 that He gave His only begotten Son, 20:49 that whoever believes in Him should not perish 20:52 but have everlasting life." 20:56 And this is something many people 20:57 have never come to grips with and they don't understand it. 21:03 Why? 21:04 Tell me, why? 21:07 Would the Bible say, 21:09 that as the serpent that is lifted up in the wilderness, 21:12 even so must Christ be lifted up? 21:17 Would it not be more appropriate to say, 21:19 as a lamb was lifted up? 21:23 The serpent was filled with poison. 21:30 On the cross, 21:33 the poison of the serpent of sin 21:37 was placed on Christ. 21:41 He borrowed our sin and our guilt, 21:46 He took our place. 21:48 Now, I have a property in Australia 21:51 and I go out there on some occasions, 21:54 because I'm not often there 21:57 and there's a lot of bush there, 22:01 the snakes are there. 22:03 Normally, they would not be there. 22:05 Well, out in my property I have 22:07 what its called the Eastern Brown Snake, 22:11 there he is. 22:13 He is the second most venomous snake in the world, 22:17 don't mess with him. 22:21 Because if he bites you, you only got a very short time. 22:28 If a person is bitten by the Eastern Brown 22:32 he needs to take the medicine, not discuss it. 22:39 We've been bitten by the serpent of sin 22:42 and there is a fountain filled with blood, 22:45 drawn from Immanuel's fangs. 22:47 That is the medicine that cures the bite of the serpent, 22:52 and we need to do it now. 22:54 Now, listen, I'm not going to even give you this text, 22:57 I'm just going to tell you the story. 23:00 Sin has ruptured a legal status 23:03 and it has also ruptured our relationship with God. 23:07 The breaking of our relationship 23:09 with God is the course of our malaise. 23:12 In the Bible, we're told the story of a boy 23:15 who runs away from home. 23:16 You know the story. 23:19 He's called the Prodigal, he runs away from home. 23:23 He's a selfish young waster. 23:25 'Give me, give me, give me, 23:26 ' that's the cry of the human heart. 23:27 'Give me, give me, give me, ' that's the cry of sin. 23:33 He commits to himself, 23:35 when he goes back his father is waiting for him, 23:37 down the road. 23:39 The old man runs to meet, took this, 23:42 pictures like this in Hermitage in St Petersburg by Rembrandt, 23:47 the Prodigal, are the most famous paintings. 23:50 The old man is waiting for the boy; 23:52 the old man does something 23:54 that an old man in those days would not do. 23:56 He runs to meet him. 23:59 Forgets his dignity. 24:00 He grabs the boy, he hugs him, 24:03 doesn't kick him, he kisses him. 24:06 Puts a robe over him, sandals on his feet, 24:09 and a ring on his finger. 24:12 He says, kill the fatten calf. 24:18 He says, my son was dead, he's alive again. 24:21 Amen. 24:23 Now this is a picture of the restoration 24:27 of a lost relationship. 24:31 This is the picture of restoration. 24:36 When you are justified and when you come to Christ, 24:40 He not only does something legally for you, 24:44 He takes you back in, 24:48 and He hugs you, 24:50 and He accepts you. 24:53 And when He accepts you, 24:57 you are immediately happy, 25:01 because you've come home. 25:05 That's the answer. 25:09 Therefore, believe. 25:13 Stop your unbelief, that's stupidity. 25:15 Believe, accept, accept. 25:22 Say, sorry. 25:25 That's something people find so hard to do, 25:27 that's why we got more attorneys 25:29 than any other country in the world. 25:31 Can't say sorry 25:32 because it strikes at our hearts, full of pride. 25:35 Say sorry and come home, 25:41 because when you come home the father takes you in. 25:47 And when you are in the presence of the father, 25:54 you've ended your search 25:57 and you have found happiness. 28:07 For a copy of today's program, 28:09 please contact us at P.O. Box 1900 Thousand Oaks, 28:13 California, 91358. 28:17 Or in Australia contact us at P.O. Box 861, 28:22 Terrigal, New South Wales 2260. 28:26 This program is made possible 28:28 through the generous support of viewers like you. 28:31 We thank you for your continued support. 28:34 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2016-06-16