Participants:
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001816A
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00:01 Welcome to a new Carter Report series,
00:03 The Game Changers. 00:05 These rare individuals appear once in a lifetime. 00:09 Like a blazing meteor across the night sky, 00:12 they change the course of history. 00:15 They show us the way forward. 00:18 Welcome to The Game Changers. 00:26 Welcome back. 00:27 We're talking today about the game changes 00:29 and this is one of the greatest game changes 00:32 in the history of the human race. 00:34 His name is John the Baptist. 00:36 Now we're picking up from where we left off. 00:39 I'm going to turn now to Luke 1:16-17, 00:43 I want the studio audience to look at the text. 00:46 "He will turn many of the children of Israel 00:48 to the Lord their God. 00:50 He will also go before Him," 00:52 and get this, 00:54 "in the spirit and power of Elijah, 00:59 'to turn the hearts of the fathers 01:01 to the children, 01:02 and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, 01:05 to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.'" 01:09 So when he came, 01:10 he came with the spirit and the power of Elijah. 01:15 He was a special boy with a special mission. 01:19 I believe that God calls each one of us 01:23 to do something special. 01:25 But this special little boy 01:28 had a most extraordinary mission 01:30 to tell the people that Christ was going to come. 01:35 Now when you get back to the story of his birth, 01:37 Zechariah doesn't believe, he's dumb but the baby is born 01:43 and Zechariah doesn't call him Zechariah as he wanted to, 01:46 he calls his name John. 01:49 And this little boy grows up not in the city, 01:55 not over the bright lights but in the desert. 01:58 Look at Luke 1:76 and 80. 02:02 Verse 76, "And you, child, 02:05 will be called the prophet of the Highest, 02:09 for you will go before the face of the Lord 02:11 to prepare His ways. 02:14 So the child grew and became strong in spirit, 02:18 and was in the deserts till the day 02:20 of his manifestation to Israel." 02:22 I mean, that's sort of a throwaway verse. 02:26 But that tells you that for about 30 years, 02:31 John the Baptist, wasn't John the Baptist then, 02:34 but John was out in the desert. 02:38 Why? 02:39 I was watching the Ten Commandments 02:41 with Charlton Heston the other day. 02:43 I love that movie. 02:44 Did you know that Charlton Heston 02:46 was actually born... 02:47 This is truth, John Carter, 02:51 if you didn't know this, you go Google it. 02:53 It's the truth and this is not a joke. 02:54 He was born John Charles Carter. 02:57 I'm John James Carter but John... 02:59 And then his mother remarried 03:02 and she married a Mr. Heston. 03:05 And they called him not Charles but Charlton. 03:09 In this tremendous movie, 03:11 there's a voice-over that says 03:13 that Moses is driven by the Spirit of God 03:16 into the desert. 03:17 And the words are, 03:19 "He's driven into the dust from which he came." 03:21 Moses is down in the desert, in the dirt, in the sand. 03:26 Then the voice-over says 03:28 "The metal refined is ready for his Maker." 03:33 I've got something to tell you that's pretty hard 03:35 to tell people from Hollywood, 03:36 and from Los Angeles, and from Sydney. 03:40 If you want to be used by God, 03:43 you got to go to the desert. 03:45 If not physically, I recommend physically too 03:48 but go there spiritually 03:50 where you can hear the voice of God. 03:53 You need to get away. 03:55 We need to get away from the city, 03:56 we need to forget our... 04:00 Cell phones, our iPhones, all the rest of this stuff, 04:05 our tablets. 04:07 Need to forget all of this stuff. 04:09 We need to get away from our televisions. 04:11 Did you know that people who are continually on 04:15 these devices suffer 04:18 a deterioration in their IQ? 04:22 That is why we are becoming the dumbest race 04:26 in the history of the world. 04:28 It's true, the dumbest race. 04:30 And that is why we find it so hard to study. 04:34 "Oh, I can't understand that." 04:36 That's why we have elections on sound bites, 04:39 you know why, because we go, 04:42 two or three words. 04:44 That's what we can remember because the mind 04:47 is being destroyed. 04:53 I have a book called Desire of Ages, 04:55 page 103, it says, 04:57 "He looked upon the king in his beauty 04:59 out on the desert, 05:02 self was forgotten," 05:04 goes for a walk along the beach, 05:06 "he beheld the majesty of holiness 05:11 and felt himself to be inefficient and unworthy. 05:15 He was ready to go forth as heaven's messenger, 05:19 unawed by the human, 05:22 because he had looked upon the Divine. 05:26 He could stand erect and fearless 05:29 in the presence of earthly monarchs, 05:33 because he had bowed low before the King of Kings." 05:38 That's why God sent him into the desert. 05:40 Elijah went into the desert, 05:42 Moses into the desert. 05:46 He was not trained in earthly institutions. 05:49 He was not trained in the theological seminary. 05:52 God didn't want him to get his mind messed up 05:56 by all the garbage of those days. 06:00 He was not ordained by man but by God. 06:05 In my church, I seem to think 06:07 we put too much emphasis upon 06:10 the ordination procedure, 06:13 and our church has been almost split over ordination. 06:17 There is something far more than the ordination of man 06:20 and that is the ordination of God, you see. 06:24 If you've got the ordination of God, 06:26 you've got everything you need. 06:29 One great man said, 06:30 "Christ the Son of God has sent me, 06:33 all the widespread lands, 06:36 Mine the mighty ordination, 06:39 of the nail pierced hands." 06:43 Now, that's really the ordination that counts, 06:48 not all the pomp, and the prestige, 06:51 and the ceremony. 06:53 When he's around 30, just a young man, 06:56 he's called to preach the Word of God. 06:58 Matthew 3:1-2, 07:02 "In those days, John the Baptist 07:04 came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 07:07 and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom is at hand."' 07:11 He was not a pastoral psychologist, 07:15 he was a preacher. 07:17 And verse 3 says, verse 3, 07:21 his message was, turn from sin. 07:25 "For this is he who was spoken of 07:27 by the prophet Isaiah, saying: 07:29 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness. 07:33 Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."' 07:38 And when he went out, 07:40 he had a message 07:44 that was hot from the heart of God. 07:49 He didn't mouth useless, pious platitudes. 07:58 The voice of God, his message was turn from sin, 08:02 repent of your sins. 08:05 And after he preached, people couldn't sleep at night. 08:09 That's the mark of a good preacher. 08:13 Matthew 3:4-6, 08:17 "And John himself was closed in camel's hair, 08:21 with a leather belt around his waist, 08:23 and his food was locusts and wild honey. 08:25 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, 08:28 and all the region 08:29 around the Jordan went out to him 08:31 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, 08:34 confessing their sins." 08:37 People tell me, 08:39 God doesn't believe in public evangelism. 08:43 I would tell them, 08:44 God doesn't believe in their ideas 08:48 because God believes it. 08:50 And here is a man who was on fire for God. 08:53 And when a man is on fire, 08:55 people will come and watch him burn. 08:59 There was a church once on fire, 09:02 they're not in my notes, 09:04 I'm telling people today. 09:05 A church was on fire and people rushed to put out 09:08 the fire at night time. 09:11 And the pastor saw an atheist there and he said, 09:14 "What are you doing at church? 09:15 You don't even believe you're an atheist." 09:18 He said, "I'm here because it's the first time 09:20 I've seen the church on fire." 09:23 And if the church were on fire, 09:26 people would go to church. 09:29 People want to hear John because John was on fire. 09:34 He came in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, 09:36 a clear loud certain voice with divine authority. 09:40 He reminded the people of Elijah. 09:43 He preached with the Spirit of God. 09:45 His words cut through the pretended piety 09:50 of all the religious leaders 09:53 with their robes. 10:00 Look at Matthew 3:7-8. 10:04 Matthew 3:7-8, 10:08 "But when he saw many of the Pharisees 10:11 and Sadducees," the leaders of the church, 10:14 "coming to his baptism, he said to them, 10:16 'Brood of vipers!"' 10:18 Goodness, brood of vipers, 10:21 You bunch of rattlesnakes. 10:24 "Brood of vipers! 10:26 Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 10:29 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance." 10:32 He said all your talk counts for nothing, 10:36 it is what you are. 10:39 You see. 10:43 We got to do more than talk to talk. 10:47 We got to walk the talk. 10:50 This man called for radical change 10:53 in the way people lived. 10:55 That's what the gospel does. 10:57 The gospel takes us just as we are 10:59 but the gospel doesn't leave us just as we are. 11:03 The gospel brings about a radical change 11:07 in the life or else it's phony. 11:10 Matthew 3:11. 11:14 Matthew 3:11, 11:16 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, 11:21 but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, 11:25 whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. 11:28 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit 11:31 and with fire." 11:34 So he said, 11:37 "I'm only the voice, 11:41 there's one coming and I'm not worthy 11:43 to carry His sandals." 11:46 The climax of John's life, what was it? 11:49 It wasn't his death. 11:51 It's recorded in Matthew 3:13-14. 11:54 Matthew 3:13-14, 11:57 "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan 12:01 to be baptized by him. 12:03 And John tried to prevent Him, 12:05 saying, 'I need to be baptized by You, 12:07 are you coming to me?"' 12:09 You know, 12:10 Jesus just before this was up there 12:13 in Galilee of the Gentiles. 12:15 He was in a little town by the name of Nazareth. 12:18 He was working as an honest carpenter. 12:22 He made the best chairs. 12:24 He made the best tables because He was the best person. 12:30 And He heard about this firebrand 12:33 out in the wilderness 12:35 and he's preaching his heart out 12:37 and he says, "Father, the hour has come." 12:43 He goes down to the John, 12:44 He goes down to the Jordan. 12:46 John helps him down the muddy banks, 12:50 and he says, "I can't baptize you, 12:54 you need to baptize me." 12:55 Jesus says, 12:56 "Do it to fulfill all righteousness." 13:05 The greatest honor ever given to man, 13:09 apart from the honor of being the mother of our Lord, 13:13 to baptize Christ and present Him to the world, 13:17 the climax of his life. 13:20 It'll be good if I could finish this talk today 13:23 by telling you that John went on 13:26 and did greater, greater, greater things. 13:32 But from that time on, 13:34 it was all downhill in the negative sense. 13:37 The crowds fell away. 13:40 There was a new and a better preacher in town. 13:48 He'd been the most popular person 13:50 in the whole nation. 13:51 People by the tens of thousands had come to hear him. 13:56 Now the crowds fell away. 13:59 And in John 3:30, John said this, 14:03 "He must increase, 14:05 I must decrease." 14:11 This is the mark of greatness. 14:14 Then came imprisonment, 14:17 loneliness, and doubt. 14:22 John was not without his falls. 14:26 Very understandable, he's in this rotten prison, 14:30 probably damp, musty, 14:33 nobody's come to save him. 14:37 And he gets two of his disciples, 14:39 and they come to Jesus, and they say, 14:41 "Are you the one who is to come 14:42 or should we look for somebody else?" 14:44 And Jesus doesn't answer them. 14:46 He just goes on healing people, 14:49 feeding people, saving souls, 14:53 preaching the gospel. 14:56 When the long day comes to an end, He says, 14:59 "Go tell John what you saw, and say these words, 15:03 'Blessed is he who is not offended in Me."' 15:08 Amen. 15:10 And John hears the message and it's enough. 15:15 What do you think of when you think of John? 15:18 Solitude, the desert, powerful preaching, repent, 15:23 giving glory to Jesus, great courage before Herod, 15:28 a lonely death, no big funeral, 15:31 no choir singing 15:35 but a place with Jesus in glory. 15:39 So this life is not all there is, 15:42 our death is not the end. 15:47 Here is a spear 15:49 from the South Pacific. 15:53 A very brave young man, 15:55 Brian Dunn with his wife Val 15:59 went out to the Solomons. 16:02 He was a graduate 16:04 of our great Sydney Adventist Hospital. 16:07 He went as a John the Baptist 16:11 to tell people of the coming of Christ. 16:17 That part of the world is very precious to Australians 16:22 because the Japanese were coming down 16:25 to take over Australia. 16:29 And the Australian Navy supported 16:32 by the might of the great American Navy 16:34 met the Japanese. 16:38 We lost a huge number of ships. 16:43 We're always thankful to God for America. 16:47 There would be no Australia if there had been no America. 16:51 I say to modern day Americans, 16:55 listen up, 16:57 we owe a great deal of gratitude 17:01 to the United States of America. 17:04 And Brian Dunn 17:05 and his bride went out there to the Solomons, 17:10 a medical missionary. 17:12 He's healing people, he's preaching the gospel. 17:17 This is just like it was, this is a replica. 17:23 And a native controlled by evil spirits came 17:26 and drove it through him. 17:31 We did all we could 17:34 but nothing could be done for him. 17:40 But Brian Dunn 17:44 was John the Baptist, 17:48 will be with Christ in glory. 17:50 Amen. 17:55 And I want to say this to you, listen to me, 17:59 if you will come to Christ, not just talk 18:04 but in the heart, in here, 18:07 if you come to Christ and if you say, 18:12 "I am a sinner, Lord, 18:14 and I ask You to come into my life 18:19 and I accept Your death for my sins." 18:23 Jesus will do just that. 18:28 And with John, 18:32 and with Brian, 18:35 and with God's people down through the ages, 18:39 and with the dying thief, 18:43 you will be with Christ in paradise. 18:46 Amen. Amen. 18:48 This is the word 18:51 of the Lord. 18:54 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 18:59 and of the Holy Spirit, 19:03 amen and amen. 19:15 People risk their lives to be baptized 19:17 in croc infested waters. 19:21 Hundreds break down the doors to hear the gospel. 19:26 And thousands are baptized all over the world. 19:33 Religious leaders and governments threatened 19:35 to shut down any ministry. 19:38 The Carter Report team is surrounded 19:40 by security guards on missions throughout the world. 19:44 These are the challenges 19:46 and the miracles of the Carter Report, 19:49 which remains 19:51 an international gospel driven ministry 19:53 supported by fact and science, 19:56 not blind faith. 20:01 The Carter Report 20:02 has been an inspired evangelistic ministry 20:05 for over 50 years reaching over 35 countries 20:09 in over 22 languages 20:11 around the world. 20:16 Millions hear the gospel 20:17 from the second largest 20:18 satellite network in the world. 20:23 Numerous radio stations broadcast 20:25 the Carter Report with 24-hour programming 20:29 and it's accessible 24/7 on the Internet. 20:32 It's also available on Apple TV, 20:35 Roku, Amazon, and YouTube. 20:40 Offices are operating in India, 20:42 Australia, and California. 20:49 Many orphanages have been visited 20:51 in Russia, India, El Salvador, and the Ukraine. 20:59 Several schools are supported in multiple countries. 21:05 And over 100 churches 21:07 have been started around the world. 21:14 The largest evangelistic event in Carter Report history 21:17 is held in Papua New Guinea reaching hundreds of thousands. 21:25 In El Salvador, the soccer stadium 21:27 is filled night after night to capacity. 21:36 Communism falls 21:37 and what follows is the largest baptism 21:40 in Ukraine and Russian history. 21:50 Hundreds of thousands of Bibles 21:52 are given away across the globe. 21:56 Throughout this ministry, 21:57 countless individual lives have been changed forever. 22:01 Thank you, Pastor Carter, for your program. 22:04 It has changed my life completely. 22:06 In 1992, I came to your meetings 22:09 to listen to English language spoken. 22:12 That was the only reason. 22:15 Now what other message is there in the world 22:21 that would work on Skid Row 22:24 and on Opera House halfway around the world? 22:28 John Carter preaches a plain simple message 22:34 about the grace of God. 22:37 And because of Elder Carter, 22:39 we've raised this center and we've done it together. 22:42 And hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people 22:45 that have heard the gospel 22:46 through the preaching of a man 22:49 who is sold out to Jesus Christ. 22:52 Solomon Islands, 22:53 when you see 10, 000 or more stand 22:56 and come forward in response to a call, 22:59 that is mind-blowing. 23:01 And then you see them baptized in a crocodile-infested river. 23:06 It started in Avondale College, 23:08 where a theology student met a young woman 23:11 with a heart for medicine and helping others in need. 23:14 What began with bringing the Word 23:17 throughout small Australian country towns 23:19 grew to the largest secular meeting 23:21 of non-religious persons 23:23 ever assembled in Sydney, Australia. 23:27 I have also been blessed 23:29 with the opportunity of visiting orphanages 23:31 in every city that we have worked in. 23:33 I'm very thankful for the help of friends here 23:37 in the US and in Australia. 23:39 Through your support 23:41 we've been able to buy clothes, food, 23:42 school supplies, and medicines. 23:45 We were able to obtain 23:46 24,000 pounds of medical supplies 23:49 which was then flown in to Kiev, 23:51 the capital of Ukraine, 23:53 by US military Hercules plane. 23:59 One thing has never changed over all this time 24:02 and that is to simply bring the good news of the gospel 24:06 to all corners of the earth. 24:11 Along the road, 24:13 several important people have helped the Carter Report 24:16 stay true to their mission. 24:39 There are 10 truths 24:40 that John Carter still believes in 24:42 after 50 years of teaching. 24:47 Number one, it is better to please God 24:51 than to please man. 24:52 Amen! 24:54 Number two, the truth is not for sale. 24:59 Number three, human popularity 25:02 is very fickle and should not be sought. 25:07 Truth number four, 25:09 with God all things are possible. 25:13 Number five, honor duly, 25:18 integrity, decency, 25:22 and loyalty still matter 25:25 in today's twisted society. 25:31 Truth number six that I still believe, 25:34 we have the God-given right 25:37 and a responsibility to serve God 25:42 and to think for ourselves guided by the Holy Spirit. 25:47 This is a heart of Christianity 25:51 and the soul of America. 25:55 Truth number seven that I believe still, 25:58 people are more important than big organizations 26:02 or little organizations. 26:04 Truth number eight that I still believe, 26:07 family and friends are precious gifts 26:12 from God that are irreplaceable. 26:17 Truth number nine that I believe, 26:19 there are more reasons now to believe in the Creator 26:23 than at any previous time in the history of the world. 26:26 Number ten, 26:29 the gospel is still the power of God 26:33 for the salvation of all who believe. 26:37 As I look back through the good times 26:40 and the dark days, 26:43 through the opposition, through the tears, 26:48 through the threats upon my life... 26:56 I say, wait for it, 27:01 to God be the glory. 27:04 Great things He has done. 27:07 The most important number is the number one. 27:11 People all over the world are hungry 27:14 for the truth. 27:16 They are breaking down 27:17 the door to get in to hear the gospel. 27:20 Will you hold the door open for them 27:23 as they rush to enter the kingdom? 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Revised 2018-06-18