Carter Report, The

Romans Pt 2

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: CR

Program Code: CR001826A


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 Welcome back.
00:32 We're talking about what some scholars have said
00:35 is the greatest masterpiece ever written.
00:39 We're talking about the Book of Romans
00:41 written by the great Apostle Paul.
00:43 In the last program, we dealt with Romans chapter 1,
00:46 introduction.
00:48 It says that the world of the unchurch,
00:50 the gentile, the pagan world is lost.
00:54 Now, we turn to Romans 2.
00:57 And the theme of Romans 2, here it is.
00:59 Not only is the pagan world lost
01:02 but in Romans 2, it says, "So is the religious world."
01:07 Romans 1, the unchurched. Romans 2, the churched.
01:12 I want you to come
01:13 to Romans 2:1 and 17.
01:20 Romans 2:1.
01:21 "Therefore you are inexcusable,
01:24 O man, whoever you are who judge,
01:27 for whatever you judge another you condemn yourself,
01:31 for you who judge practice the same things."
01:34 Have you noticed that
01:35 the people who are the most critical
01:37 are usually the people who are the most guilty?
01:40 And then if you come down, verse 17,
01:45 "Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law,
01:49 and make your boast in God."
01:52 And so when you study through Romans chapter 2,
01:57 it says something like this.
02:00 It says you think you're better than the pagans,
02:02 talking to the religious people,
02:06 talking to the religious, right?
02:09 You think you're better than the pagans?
02:11 Well, actually what the pagans do,
02:13 you do exactly the same.
02:15 And every time you point a finger at somebody,
02:18 every time you point a finger, have you ever noticed,
02:21 "Hey, you got three pointing back at you?"
02:26 Romans 2:23, 24,
02:30 Romans 2:23, 24.
02:33 "You who make your boast in the law,
02:37 do you dishonor God through breaking the law?
02:39 For the name of God has blasphemed
02:41 among the Gentiles because of you."
02:47 So the theme of Romans 2 is this.
02:51 The religious people who had the law of God,
02:53 that means basically the Bible.
02:57 The religious people had the Bible.
02:58 When it came down to reality, these people were no better.
03:05 So if you read this chapter, it says, you know,
03:08 you talk about people doing this,
03:10 the sins of Romans chapter 1.
03:12 Well, actually Paul says,
03:15 "You religious people do exactly the same thing."
03:19 And he says,
03:20 "The name of God is blasphemed
03:23 around the world
03:25 because of the religious people."
03:28 So this is the theme of Romans 2.
03:30 It's pretty hard to stomach.
03:32 He says, "The religious people are no better.
03:36 All are under the wrath of God."
03:39 We're talking good news, are we?
03:40 So far, there's no good news at all
03:44 because Romans 1, Romans 2 says,
03:47 "Everybody is under the wrath of almighty God,
03:52 a righteous God."
03:55 Then you come to Romans 3 that many scholars say
03:57 is the most important chapter in the most important book.
04:02 I want you to notice it with me please.
04:04 Romans 3.
04:06 This is the theme,
04:07 "All men and women are in a state of sin,
04:11 both Jews and Gentiles,
04:14 but God has provided a way of escape.
04:17 His solution is the great and the wonderful good news."
04:23 And it's not good advice.
04:26 Look at Romans 3:10. Now this is not real good news.
04:30 He's starting to make a summary now.
04:32 Romans 1, Romans 2, Romans 3
04:35 gives you the summary.
04:36 This book is written like a lawyer's brief.
04:41 It's full of great arguments. It's logical.
04:44 And it's not for superficial people,
04:47 it's for people who got hearts for God
04:50 and people who really want to get home
04:52 to the kingdom of God.
04:54 So Romans 3:10,
04:57 he says, "As it is written,
05:00 there is none righteous,
05:04 no, not one, not a single person."
05:06 And then verse 13, he describes the human race,
05:10 it says, "Their throat is an open tomb,
05:15 with their tongues they have practiced deceit,
05:19 the poison of asps, snakes, vipers,
05:23 is under their lips,
05:25 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."
05:30 And goes on and talks about the rest of the sins
05:34 of the human race.
05:37 Folks, it's almost too much to take in.
05:42 Romans 1, the world of the pagans
05:46 stands under the wrath of God.
05:48 "I don't believe in the wrath of God,"
05:49 people say.
05:51 Well, the Bible does.
05:54 Romans 1, the Gentiles are under the wrath of God.
05:57 And then it talks about the people
05:59 who've got the scriptures,
06:00 the people who are keeping the commandments of God.
06:03 At least, they think they are.
06:05 But it's all just a sham.
06:07 And the Bible talks about the human race
06:09 and it talks about people opening their mouths
06:13 and out comes the sewer,
06:15 the filth, the lies, the name calling.
06:18 Does this resonate with anybody here?
06:21 Does this sound like our society,
06:25 when people talk in politics?
06:28 You say, "You're getting too close,
06:29 now you're starting to meddle."
06:32 You turn on the television,
06:34 you hear a politician name calling,
06:36 lies, filth...
06:43 Under the wrath of Almighty God.
06:47 So Paul in Romans 3, says this.
06:50 Listen to this carefully.
06:52 We are all locked up in the prison house of sin.
06:56 The law of God is the jailer,
07:00 and He has turned the key.
07:06 In my work as a minister, I have met people who tell me,
07:09 "Oh, you don't understand.
07:11 I have never sinned.
07:14 I'm a perfect person.
07:16 I keep all of the commandments."
07:21 Such a person, the Bible says,
07:24 is totally spiritually deceived and deluded.
07:30 Romans 1, the Gentiles.
07:33 Romans 2, the people with the Bible.
07:37 Romans 3, everybody standing
07:41 under the wrath of almighty God.
07:44 Look at verse 19.
07:48 "Now we know that whatever the law says,
07:51 it says to those who are under the law,
07:55 that every mouth may be stopped."
07:56 Notice the words.
07:58 "And all the world may become guilty before God."
08:04 Have you noticed today?
08:05 I'm not talking about the prosperity gospel.
08:10 This is not just a little baby talk.
08:12 I'm not saying,
08:14 "Well, God just wants you to be wealthy.
08:17 God wants you to drive a Rolls Royce.
08:19 And if you send me money,
08:21 you're going to be tremendously wealthy."
08:23 That's not the religion of the Bible.
08:27 The Bible tells us that we are all locked up
08:31 under the wrath of God
08:35 because of sin.
08:37 Charles Wesley understood this.
08:41 The brother of John the great preacher,
08:43 Charles was a great hymn writer.
08:45 He wrote: "Long my imprisoned spirit lay
08:49 Fast bound in sin and nature's night
08:54 Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
08:57 I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
09:03 My chains fell off,
09:06 my heart was free
09:08 I rose, went forth, and followed Thee
09:12 My chains fell off,
09:13 my heart was free I rose, went forth and followed Thee"
09:17 I'm going to give to the audience
09:19 a little warning today.
09:22 There is a great danger
09:24 in coming to Christ too quickly.
09:28 In a superficial sense, well, people say,
09:31 "Hey, I'm saved, I've just come, and I'm saved."
09:37 And they have no sense of the righteousness of God
09:40 and their own defilement and their own sin.
09:46 It's only when we know that we are great sinners
09:50 that we will cry out for a great savior.
09:55 And the sin of our present age in America, Australia
09:58 and other places
10:00 is the utter superficiality of our religion
10:04 which is a mile wide and this deep.
10:10 The wrath of God.
10:13 I was the pastor of, at that time,
10:15 the largest Adventist Church in Australia, Wahroonga,
10:18 great church.
10:19 And hundreds of young people in that church.
10:22 One morning 4:00 a.m., there was a banging on the door
10:25 and then a banging on the window.
10:27 There was a young man.
10:29 I've been preaching this sort of stuff,
10:32 and people were getting blessed
10:34 but it was causing a lot of people
10:36 to get uncomfortable.
10:38 And he said to me,
10:39 "I can't believe what you're saying."
10:41 He said, "I've got to be perfect."
10:42 He said, "I'm up at two in the morning,
10:45 I'm praying, I'm agonizing,
10:46 I'm reading, I'm studying, I'm doing this."
10:50 He said, "I've just got to become sinless.
10:52 And if I don't, I'm going to be damned."
10:56 So I explained to him the good news
10:58 that we're getting to.
10:59 He said, "I can't believe it."
11:03 And later on committed suicide.
11:08 So you better get this straight and ask God to lift us
11:12 out of the world of superficial religion
11:15 that we have fallen into.
11:18 Romans 3:20,
11:21 "Therefore by the deeds of the law
11:24 no flesh will be justified in His sight,
11:27 for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
11:30 We are not saved by the law. Oh, I am.
11:34 No, you're damned by the law.
11:37 You are not saved by your obedience
11:39 because your obedience and my obedience,
11:42 they are not just enough, not good enough.
11:46 There are no sinless people.
11:49 I work for a time in an area where they grew sugarcane.
11:53 The sugarcane farmers would come in,
11:55 covered with a thick syrup of the sugarcane.
11:58 Burn the sugarcane,
12:00 then they'd go out and cut it down.
12:02 When the farmers came in,
12:03 they had a little room outside the house,
12:06 most Queensland, where there was a bath,
12:09 and there was a mirror.
12:10 And the farmer would look at the mirror
12:12 but the mirror didn't make him clean.
12:16 The law does not make you clean,
12:19 the law tells you that you are a sinner
12:22 and you need a bath which is the blood of Jesus.
12:25 You see.
12:27 And the reason people think
12:29 they are sinless and better than others,
12:32 it is because they've never seen themselves
12:38 as God does and other people.
12:42 What I need is good news.
12:45 Romans 1, pagan world, Hollywood world is lost,
12:50 the world of Washington D.C. under the wrath of God.
12:56 Here again, the Bible talks about
12:58 the righteous wrath of God.
13:01 God is not of teddy bear,
13:04 God is a great awesome God,
13:08 and He is holy.
13:10 And because of His holiness,
13:13 He demands righteousness.
13:17 What a dilemma.
13:19 What I need is not more platitudes
13:23 and not more sugar-coated sermons,
13:27 what I need is good news.
13:31 Romans 3:21, "But now..."
13:35 Look at it. Read it.
13:37 Escape from spiritual laziness, read it.
13:41 "But now the righteousness of God apart
13:43 from the law is revealed,
13:46 being witnessed by the law and the prophets."
13:49 Look at that word, the righteousness of God,
13:53 what does it mean?
13:55 I'll tell you what it means.
13:58 Look at me and I'll tell you if you dare.
14:02 God demands righteousness, complete holiness.
14:08 Twenty four hours of the day, seven days a week,
14:13 perfect love, perfect obedience.
14:17 Put up your hand if you are that sort of person.
14:23 Nobody is that sort of person.
14:25 When Martin Luther saw it,
14:28 read about the righteousness of God,
14:29 He said, "I hate it."
14:32 Now Luther had a brain.
14:36 He was a great theologian, he wasn't a superficial person,
14:40 and he didn't come to Christ in a flood of emotions.
14:43 He said, "I hate it."
14:44 And the old confessor said, "Martin, you can't hate God.
14:47 You can't hate His righteousness."
14:48 He said,
14:49 "God is righteousness, I am a sinner.
14:53 God hate sin, unrighteousness, therefore God hates me.
14:57 And if God hates me, then I hate Him too."
15:01 That's logic but not the gospel.
15:07 Perfect love, perfect faith, perfect obedience.
15:10 People say, I've met people...
15:13 When I pass the big churches, little churches, they say,
15:15 "Oh, but we're like that, we actually attained it."
15:22 Try not to spend a lot of time with people like that
15:25 because they'll be terribly critical
15:27 and self-righteous, very hard to live with.
15:32 And I tell them this,
15:33 "If you make the moon low enough,
15:37 any old cow, any old cow
15:41 can jump over it."
15:46 But we're not going to lower the moon,
15:48 you know what the moon is?
15:49 The righteousness of God.
15:53 God will accept nothing from you
15:57 than perfect righteousness.
16:03 But the gospel is apart from the law.
16:06 Good news, we don't need good advice today,
16:09 we don't need platitudes,
16:11 we don't need to be told how to do better
16:16 because none of us have done better.
16:19 And the religious people are the worst.
16:21 Romans 3:22, Romans 3:22.
16:26 Here it is.
16:28 "Even the righteousness of God,"
16:31 this unblemished perfection, the righteousness of God,
16:34 "through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who,"
16:40 work their hearts out, no.
16:41 "Who believe. For there is no difference."
16:46 The righteousness of God is not by attainment,
16:50 it is by atonement, His atonement.
16:56 Now this is good news.
16:57 At last, righteousness is God's gift.
17:01 I do not attain unto it.
17:05 Look at Romans 3:22 again.
17:08 It's so good.
17:09 "Even the righteousness of God,"
17:11 this complete perfection,
17:13 "through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe,
17:18 for there is no difference."
17:23 If this is so, which it is,
17:27 I can be right with God right now
17:31 which is what the gospel is, good news.
17:37 And what you do with this will determine
17:39 how you're going to spend this life
17:41 and how you're going to spend eternity.
17:45 And don't think you know it
17:47 because you were brought up in the church.
17:50 Romans 3:23 to 25.
17:54 "How can God save me, a weak, trembling, unworthy sinner?"
18:00 Now these are some of the most amazing words.
18:03 Some people say this is the Everest experience
18:07 of all scripture.
18:09 Other people who are very superficial say,
18:11 "But I don't read it.
18:13 Too hard.
18:14 I just want to watch the Kadarshians.
18:16 I just want to..."
18:20 The tragedy of tragedy
18:22 that people are going to be lost
18:24 because they watch the Kadarshians
18:26 and didn't look to Christ.
18:29 Let it sink down into your ears.
18:32 Don't run away from it.
18:34 "For all have sinned," all of us,
18:37 "and fall short of the glory of God."
18:39 Notice that. It says, fall short.
18:41 The Greek says, "They continue to fall short."
18:45 None of us are good enough,
18:47 we fall short of the glory of God.
18:51 Every moment we're falling short of the...
18:53 "No, no, no," says the perfectionist,
18:55 "I am attaining."
18:56 No. You are falling short.
19:00 Your problem is,
19:01 you just don't see it but others can.
19:04 Ask your family.
19:07 "Fall short of the glory of God, being justified,"
19:11 oh, "being justified freely by His grace
19:15 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
19:17 whom God set forth as a," look at it,
19:20 "propitiation by His blood, through faith,
19:25 to demonstrate His righteousness,
19:27 because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins
19:31 that were previously committed."
19:33 Memorize that, take it to heart.
19:36 Learn it off by heart.
19:38 Say it over and over again until it sinks down.
19:45 What is it saying?
19:46 It's saying that Christ took my place.
19:50 God in Christ, Christ was God in the flesh.
19:55 God in Christ bore my sin.
19:58 He became my propitiation. What on earth does that mean?
20:02 Some translations have changed it
20:05 because it is too offensive to their delicate ears.
20:10 They substituted the word expiation.
20:14 I won't go into the Greek, put up argument,
20:17 but the correct rendering is propitiation.
20:21 He suffered my condemnation and judgment.
20:25 Let me talk about propitiation.
20:29 Ask God to give you now revelation.
20:34 It's hard to understand
20:36 except if you get a revelation from God.
20:41 God is righteous and holy,
20:44 and demands righteousness and holiness.
20:48 And the world, all of us are under His wrath
20:51 because we've broken His commandments.
20:53 If we die outside of Christ, we die under His wrath.
20:58 People say, "I hate this." "Well, I'm sorry.
21:00 I never wrote it." It's scripture.
21:07 But Christ, on the cross, took the sin of the world.
21:16 And Paul said in one place,
21:18 "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree."
21:20 He suffered the righteous judgment of God.
21:27 Romans 1 talks about the righteousness of God
21:30 upon the wicked.
21:32 He took the righteous judgment of God upon the wicked.
21:38 He, on the cross,
21:40 took the righteous judgment of God,
21:43 the vengeance of God upon the wicked.
21:49 Why do you think He died so quickly?
21:53 Why do you think He gasped out, "My God, My God,
21:55 why have You forsaken Me"?
21:56 The cross didn't kill Him.
22:00 You'd say, "Yes, I did." No!
22:05 It was the wrath of God
22:07 directed against His Son...
22:14 Who had the essence of God.
22:18 And sometimes, we use the illustration,
22:20 He took His own medicine.
22:22 A mother wants a child to take some medicine,
22:24 the child doesn't want to,
22:26 so the mother takes the medicine.
22:29 God didn't just push His Son out
22:31 into the arena and say, "Do it all.
22:33 I'm going to sit on My throne."
22:35 God, in Christ, became a man.
22:39 And on the cross,
22:42 God took His own medicine...
22:49 And suffered His own wrath
22:53 against His righteousness.
22:57 This word, justify,
22:58 you need to get into your heads.
23:00 It doesn't mean to make righteous
23:03 as been taught by our friends, the Catholics.
23:06 And many Protestants believe it,
23:08 even in my church.
23:10 It means, justify means to declare righteous
23:14 as opposed to making righteous.
23:17 Because of Christ's propitiation,
23:21 if I trust fully in Christ as a penitent sinner,
23:26 He declares that I'm righteous,
23:31 as righteous as Jesus is.
23:36 He says, "You can't believe that?
23:38 That's why it's called the gospel."
23:45 That's why it's called the gospel.
23:49 People say, "No, it's got to be a sham."
23:52 No, it's not a sham. The text says,
23:54 so that God Himself can be righteous,
23:57 God is righteous because the righteous God
24:00 goes through the wrath of hell to atone for my sins,
24:06 He becomes a propitiation, so that legally,
24:09 He can declare me a sinner righteous.
24:15 The moment I believe in true faith.
24:20 Who could have thought that up?
24:23 He also changes the life.
24:26 This is called regeneration.
24:28 Simultaneously, it happens with justification,
24:32 He puts a new life in the soul,
24:35 and I become a born-again person.
24:40 It is this teaching that liberates men and women
24:45 and makes them joyful
24:47 and takes away from sour church members
24:50 the sourness.
24:53 And takes away from harsh people,
24:55 critical people,
24:56 legalistic people, takes it all away.
25:02 It breaks the heart.
25:06 Listen: He left His Father's throne above
25:11 So free,
25:13 so infinite His grace Emptied Himself of all but love
25:19 And bled for Adam's helpless race
25:23 'Tis mercy all, immense and free
25:25 For, O my God, it found out of me
25:30 'Tis mercy all, immense and free
25:33 O my God, it found out of me.
25:35 What love! What mercy! Oh, what a God!
25:41 Oh, what a God!
25:44 Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin
25:49 and nature's night
25:51 Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
25:54 I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
25:59 My chains fell off,
26:01 my heart was free
26:03 I rose, went forth and followed Thee"
26:08 This is the true gospel.
26:12 In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
26:15 Amen and amen.
26:23 Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me
26:26 in heaven and on earth.
26:29 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
26:33 baptizing them in the name of the Father,
26:35 and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
26:41 John Carter reports,
26:43 "We have seen God's power as the gospel of Christ
26:46 has been proclaimed in Africa,
26:50 India, Russia,
26:55 Ukraine, Cuba,
27:01 El Salvador, and many other places.
27:04 We invite you to partner with us
27:07 in proclaiming Jesus Christ."
27:13 To God be the glory.
27:16 Great things He has done.
27:21 Write today
27:22 to the Carter Report, P.O. Box 1900,
27:26 Thousand Oaks, California 91358.
27:31 That's the Carter Report, P.O. Box 1900,
27:35 Thousand Oaks, California 91358.
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27:42 write to the Carter Report, P.O. Box 861,
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27:51 That's the Carter Report, P.O. Box 861,
27:55 Terrigal, New South Wales 2260.
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28:05 May God richly bless you.
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Revised 2018-11-05