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Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001838A
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00:01 Atheist must think that God is important
00:03 because they seem to talk about Him 00:04 so much of the time. 00:06 They're right, of course, God either matters a great deal 00:09 or He doesn't matter at all. 00:12 Science now shows 00:13 God's existence is highly probable. 00:16 If He really does exist, 00:18 then an intelligent understanding 00:19 of the original prime mover is immensely important. 00:23 Who is God? 00:25 Is He a person or just a blind impersonal force? 00:29 Was Jesus God? 00:31 Find out today on the Carter Report. 00:38 Welcome back. 00:40 We're talking about God. 00:42 What is God like? 00:44 Now the Bible says God is love. 00:47 We talked about this 00:48 in the last part of the program. 00:50 But if God is love, why is there evil in the world? 00:54 Why is there suffering? 00:56 This is one of the greatest of all problems, 00:58 one of the greatest of all questions. 01:01 But there is an answer. 01:04 Because God is love, He has given to every one of us 01:09 and to the spirit beings that are called angels. 01:13 He's given to them 01:15 the capacity of making choices. 01:20 Now if I couldn't make choices, if I didn't have freedom, 01:24 then I couldn't love. 01:26 You can't love somebody. 01:29 It's impossible to love somebody 01:32 if you don't have the capacity and the ability to love them. 01:38 That's all it is to it. 01:40 Now if you see a young couple 01:42 and they're very much in love, you know, they're in love 01:47 because they've chosen to be in love. 01:50 You imagine if they were robots... 01:56 They couldn't love each other if they were robots. 01:58 So God gave to us this very risky gift 02:04 of the capacity of choosing. 02:06 He gave it to Satan. 02:09 We're going to talk about Satan next week. 02:11 Now Satan was a being who was completely sinless, 02:14 he was always happy. 02:16 But God said, because I love you, 02:19 you're going to be free. 02:20 God is the God of freedom, God is not a dictator. 02:25 And so in some way that we don't really comprehend, 02:28 Satan became puffed up with himself, 02:31 and he chose to go against God. 02:34 There was a choice. 02:36 But that choice had to be there for Satan 02:38 to have the capacity to love God 02:41 and to love other people. 02:43 That's why there's evil in the world 02:45 because of the perversion of the gift of freedom. 02:50 I spoke about this when I told you 02:54 that tremendous story from the Russian, Dostoevsky. 02:57 You remember this, the old inquisitor. 03:02 He said we've taken away from these people freedom, 03:04 and now they're happy at last because I don't have to choose. 03:07 We make all the choices for them. 03:09 God gave to our first parents, my friends, the gift of choice. 03:16 And because they made the wrong choice, 03:21 suffering, and sin, and death, 03:23 like a tremendous tsunami poured into the world. 03:30 Suffering exists because of freedom. 03:34 And freedom exists because of love. 03:38 But the day is coming 03:40 when people are going to realize 03:41 that even though they're going to keep their freedom 03:44 and they're going to keep the capacity of choice, 03:47 they're not going to want to do bad things 03:50 because they'll realize that the happiest people 03:52 are the people who follow God and who keep His commandments. 03:59 So God is love, 04:00 but God is also infinitely powerful. 04:03 In Psalm 33:6-9, you read these really scientific words. 04:08 Psalm 33:6-9, 04:10 "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made." 04:14 He breathed it into existence. 04:16 "And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." 04:21 He breathed it, and there was a universe, 04:23 trillions of universes of galaxies. 04:26 "For he spoke, and it was done. 04:28 He commanded, and it stood fast." 04:32 Now these are absolutely astounding words. 04:35 Einstein taught us to believe this, 04:38 "Matter can be turned into energy." 04:41 And that's what happens when you have a hydrogen bomb. 04:44 So you take a little bit of matter, 04:48 and you can turn it into energy. 04:50 But Einstein told us, the equation can be reversed, 04:53 and therefore 04:55 energy can be turned into matter. 04:58 And God had so much energy and so much power, 05:03 infinite power that He spoke. 05:07 He breathed it. And there was a universe. 05:13 So He is infinitely powerful. 05:17 There's no limit to his power. 05:22 He's infinitely righteous and just. 05:27 He doesn't need an FBI investigation. 05:33 He hasn't been doing any crooked little deals. 05:37 He hasn't been conspiring with the enemy. 05:40 He's completely righteous, 05:41 and that is why it's going to be a judgment. 05:45 He's infinitely wise. 05:48 Now wisdom is more than knowledge. 05:53 God has got huge amount of knowledge, 05:56 but He makes no mistakes because He's infinitely wise. 06:00 And if you want to get some of His wisdom, 06:02 read the book of Proverbs, read it through, 06:06 read it slowly, the wisdom of God. 06:08 He's infinitely all knowing. 06:11 That means God knows everything about everything all the time. 06:16 He knows what you're thinking now. 06:19 And how does that make you feel? 06:20 God knows what you're thinking now, 06:23 God knows what you were thinking 06:24 last night, 06:26 He knows what you're thinking tomorrow. 06:31 All knowing, He knows all about us. 06:33 He's infinitely redemptive. 06:37 That means, He's got a heart that is so big 06:39 and so full of love that is infinitely redemptive. 06:44 Now here's a great text 06:45 in Philippians 2:5, 6, 7, and 8. 06:50 And I want to read it too, and I want you to read it also. 06:53 "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 06:58 who, being in the form of God," He was God, 07:01 He was in the form of God," 07:03 did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 07:06 but made Himself of no reputation, 07:09 taking the form of a bondservant 07:12 and coming in the likeness of men. 07:16 And being found in appearance as a man, 07:18 He humbled Himself 07:20 and became obedient to the point of death, 07:23 even the death of the cross." 07:26 Listen to me, some of the viewers 07:28 may find this so hard to believe 07:30 they're not going to believe it, 07:32 but others are going to believe it, 07:33 they're going to make the right choice. 07:37 The Bible says 07:40 that the Almighty God... 07:44 The Almighty God, 07:46 who made the universe became a baby, 07:49 and became a man, 07:51 and died for our sins on the cross. 07:53 There's nothing as important as that, 07:57 nothing as important. 07:58 I see people all the time getting at their cell phones 08:01 because they're addicted, you see. 08:02 It's an addiction. We know this. 08:04 Psychologists tell us it's hurting their brains. 08:07 But the more they brains are hurt, 08:09 the more they're... 08:10 You know why? 08:14 The people who make those things 08:15 know how to turn them on. 08:18 It's a science. 08:19 And millions of people 08:21 are being brainwashed all the time. 08:23 They can't even come into church with a... 08:27 Why? 08:32 There's this need 08:35 deep inside them to be loved. 08:40 There's this need for some warmth in their lives. 08:44 Their lives are generally so shallow and so empty 08:48 that they've got to have something. 08:51 But the Bible teaches that God is so loving 08:56 that He became a human being. 08:58 John 8:56-58. 09:01 This is one of the great texts. 09:03 John 8:56-58, Jesus said to the Jews, 09:07 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, 09:10 and he saw it and was glad. 09:12 Then the Jews said to him, 'You are not yet 50 years old, 09:16 and have You seen Abraham?'" 09:17 Look at these words. 09:18 "Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, 09:22 before Abraham was,'" not I was, but "I AM." 09:27 The Bible says, 09:28 the Jews being logical and understanding 09:33 the consequence of His teaching, 09:35 they took up stones to murder Him 09:37 because they said this man is claiming to be God. 09:41 Jesus said, "Before Abraham was born," 09:45 didn't say I was, he said I am. 09:50 Always there, I am. 09:53 This person... 09:55 When I discovered this truth as a boy, it's stunned me, 09:59 it thrilled me, and overwhelmed me, 10:01 it immersed me in its grandeur and greatness. 10:05 This Almighty God whose name... 10:09 We're hesitant to say this word, 10:11 the Tetragrammaton. 10:12 Y-H-W-H, it is translated in the Bible by the words, 10:17 LORD in caps, LORD. 10:22 Rather poor translation is Yahweh, 10:24 but it's not bad. 10:27 But the real translation is YHWH. 10:31 Jesus said, "Before Abraham was born, 10:37 I am." 10:41 I want you to think about this 10:43 then everything gets in its true perspective. 10:47 I want to describe if I can His birth. 10:51 He was born in a shed 10:53 at the back of motel six 10:58 because there was no room for Him in the end. 11:02 Who's this person? 11:03 He's God. 11:06 You know why we find it hard, 11:07 I said it to you, love, charity, kindness, 11:11 the reason we find it hard to understand truth 11:14 is because we have been brainwashed by the foolishness 11:19 and the superficiality of this age. 11:22 This is why we've got to be on these things 11:24 all the time to fill the hole in our hearts. 11:29 It is a symptom of our sickness and a symptom of our despair. 11:35 It's a symptom of our loneliness. 11:37 And that is why some people 11:38 always have their phone ringing, 11:40 so they're saying to people, I'm important. 11:45 Somebody's calling me, I'm important. 11:47 You may not know, but I'm important. 11:50 My phone is ringing all the time. 11:55 It's a symptom of our despair. 12:01 When He was born, there were no marching bands, 12:04 no choirs, 12:05 no delegations from the Sanhedrin 12:07 of the church up the road. 12:10 Apparently, God has not pompous 12:12 or ostentatious. 12:14 You get that? 12:15 He's not pompous or ostentatious. 12:18 Why did he come? 12:20 He came to show us what God is like. 12:22 He was totally unlike 12:24 the religious people of His day. 12:28 He didn't become 12:30 when He was born a church leader, a pope, 12:33 a president, a King, a businessman, 12:37 but a baby born of a peasant girl, 12:41 and His job when He grew up 12:43 was a carpenter. 12:47 What is God like? 12:50 Not like most of us, not like any of us, 12:55 totally unpretentious, not pompous, and not churchy. 12:59 God thinks differently. 13:04 When He's around 30 years of age, 13:05 He becomes a preacher and a healer, 13:08 the two most important professions in life, 13:11 a preacher and a healer, two most important jobs. 13:16 Not a politician, no. 13:18 Never put down preaching. 13:20 Moses and Elijah, John the Baptist, Paul, 13:23 John, Wesley, all great preachers, why? 13:27 It's the most important thing 13:28 to communicate the grace of God to the world. 13:31 Nothing else is important. 13:33 And healing is a close second. 13:36 Why did they show Billy Graham so much honor at his death? 13:40 Why was his body taken to Washington, DC? 13:44 Why did the President come whether they make the speeches? 13:49 Because He done more good for America 13:51 than all those politicians put together. 13:54 That's the reason. That's the reason. 13:58 Even those carnal men sow greatness. 14:00 Jesus was a preacher. 14:05 He told stories, many stories to show what God is like. 14:10 In Luke 15, 14:12 it's one of the greatest chapters 14:13 in the Bible. 14:14 Luke 15:1-2, 14:17 "Then all the tax collectors and the sinners 14:19 drew near to Him to hear Him. 14:21 And the Pharisees and scribes complained," 14:25 religious people always moaning, 14:27 "saying, 14:28 'This Man receives sinners and eats with them.'" 14:31 And Jesus said, guilty. 14:35 Yes, I do because the goodness of God 14:39 is that He likes sinners. 14:43 How can He like sinner who are so defile 14:46 and He is so righteous? 14:47 That is His love. 14:49 This is the miracle of the gospel. 14:51 This Man goes and He eats with sinners. 14:55 And Jesus said it dead right. Absolutely. 15:00 Then He told a story of the lost selfish 15:05 naughty little boy. 15:07 Luke 15:11-12. 15:10 Look at it, Luke 15:11-12. 15:15 "Then He said, 'A certain manner two sons. 15:17 And the younger of them said to his father, 15:19 'Father, give me, give me, give me, give me, 15:22 give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' 15:25 So he divided to them his livelihood.'" 15:28 Don't have sympathy for this boy. 15:32 He's an ungrateful young larrikin. 15:37 He takes his father's money before the old man's dead. 15:42 The Bible says he goes into a far country, 15:45 that's where every sinner goes. 15:47 You may be there in the far country. 15:49 Why are people continually drinking alcohol, taking drugs? 15:55 You know why, 15:57 because of the emptiness inside. 15:58 There in the far country. 16:00 But they're so blind, they don't know it. 16:05 The Bible says he wastes everything. 16:07 He's a Jewish boy. 16:09 He wastes everything, 16:12 spends his money on prostitutes, 16:15 and he ends up a Jewish boy feeding the pigs. 16:20 And he gets so hungry, he eats the pig food. 16:23 Let me tell you, if you're away from God 16:27 and if you're in the far country, 16:29 you're living on pig's food. 16:32 "Oh, I've got to go to this movie. 16:34 I got to do this. I got to see this. 16:36 I can't wait for another second." 16:37 You're living on pig's food? 16:42 Why don't we wake up and realize 16:44 that the devil is dancing on us. 16:47 The Bible says after he's lived on pig food 16:50 for long enough, he comes to himself, 16:53 and he makes his way home thinking the old man's 16:56 going to smack him around the head. 17:03 Look at Luke 15:20-21, Luke 15:20-21, 17:07 "And he arose and came to his father. 17:10 But when he was still a great way off," 17:13 think of this, "his father saw him, 17:16 had compassion, 17:17 ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." 17:20 He doesn't kick him, he kisses him. 17:23 "The son said to him, 'Father, 'I've sinned against heaven 17:25 and in your sight, 17:27 am no longer worthy to be called your son.'" 17:30 You know, what the father says? 17:32 Don't say anything more. 17:37 What is God like? 17:43 Verse 22 and 23, 17:46 "The father said to his servants, 17:47 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, 17:52 put a ring on his hand.'" 17:53 Goodness me. Puts a ring on his hand. 17:56 Oh. 17:58 "Sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf," 18:02 it gets worse, 18:04 "bring the fatted calf here and kill it, 18:06 let us eat and be merry." 18:09 You know who this old man is? 18:12 This is God. The old man is God. 18:16 Not at all like the Pharisees, not all like these stiff, 18:21 stuffy, and obnoxious religionists. 18:26 The Father's got a heart as big as the universe. 18:29 You know why, because He made it. 18:35 It has been said, there are two great truths 18:38 that we are slow to learn. 18:39 Oh, here it is. 18:42 "Man is far worse than he ever feared to think. 18:45 That's us. 18:46 We're worse than we've ever feared to think. 18:50 "But God is far better than he ever dared to hope." 18:55 God is far better than he ever dared to hope. 18:57 You know this painting? 18:58 It hangs in the hermitage. 19:01 When Beverly and I have gone there 19:03 to St. Petersburg on many occasions, 19:05 we've stood there, and we've looked 19:07 at the wonderful painting of the prodigal son. 19:15 The prodigal son was blessed 19:17 because he had a prodigal father. 19:20 Did you know that? 19:21 You know what prodigal means? 19:23 Extravagant, abundant, over and beyond. 19:29 This boy is over and beyond in his sin, 19:33 but the old father is over and beyond in His love 19:35 and His grace. 19:40 That's what God is like. 19:44 Jesus was the special friend and defender 19:47 of sexually exploited women. 19:52 Anybody who was down on women is an enemy of God, I tell you. 19:57 John 8:3, 4, and 5, 20:03 "Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman..." 20:05 Not a man, didn't bring a man. 20:09 You know why they didn't bring a man? 20:11 They would have had to bring themselves. 20:14 "Scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman 20:19 caught in adultery. 20:20 And when they'd set her in the midst, they said to Him, 20:23 'Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 20:27 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us 20:29 that such should be stoned. 20:30 But what do You say?" 20:32 You know the story, don't you? 20:35 Got down, He wrote in the sand 20:38 the dirty secrets of their dirty lives. 20:41 Then He said to the woman "Has anybody condemned you 20:44 because those cowards just ran away?" 20:48 He said, "Neither do I condemn you, 20:49 go and sin no more." 20:52 This is what God is like, the friend of sinners, 20:57 the friend of sexually exploited women. 21:05 And finally, the God-man took all the sin 21:09 of the world upon Himself. 21:11 It's almost too hard to believe that the God-man, 21:15 the Creator of the cosmos would take 21:17 all the sin of the world upon Himself. 21:20 Why? 21:22 Almost too hard to believe. 21:23 John 3:14-17, one of the strangest text, 21:27 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 21:30 even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 21:32 that whoever believes in Him should not perish 21:35 but have eternal life. 21:37 For God so loved the world that He gave 21:39 His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him 21:42 should not perish but have everlasting life. 21:45 For God did not send His Son into the world 21:48 to condemn the world, 21:49 but the world through Him might be saved." 21:53 Now where does the serpent fit into this? 21:55 You ever thought about that? 21:58 Doesn't say, as Moses lifted up the lamb 22:00 in the wilderness, he lifted up the serpent. 22:04 And the serpent became the symbol of Christ, 22:08 why, because the serpent is the symbol of sin, 22:13 and on the cross. 22:15 Christ took our sin upon Himself. 22:21 What is God like? 22:27 He's better than we can understand or comprehend 22:30 on the Roman cross, don't forget it. 22:36 He felt all the pain, the despair, the sorrow, 22:41 the agony, the repression of a lost world. 22:47 And He went to the cross because He loves you. 22:52 Some say, "Oh, I couldn't do that for God. 22:54 It's too much." 22:57 God would say, "Get a life." 23:01 And realize that hanging on the cross 23:04 was the creator of the universe. 23:15 There's an old skeptic who was dying, 23:18 young man went across to see him was a Christian 23:20 and took his Bible. 23:22 Then old skeptic said, "Get out of here 23:23 and never come back again." 23:25 He came home and he told his wife, 23:28 but the old skeptic had said, "I don't want your old Bible." 23:32 Now the little girl was only five or six, 23:35 and she just received her first Bible. 23:37 So she thought, "Well, 23:39 if he doesn't want daddy's old Bible, 23:41 maybe he'll have my new Bible." 23:43 So she went to see him, and she took her new Bible, 23:48 and he read it. 23:49 And as he read it, he found the story of Christ. 23:54 After his death, they found this poem 23:57 that the old skeptic had written. 23:59 Listen to it. 24:01 "I've tried in vain a thousand ways, 24:04 my fears to quell, my hopes to raise. 24:08 But what I need, the Bible says, 24:10 is ever, only Jesus." 24:13 My soul is night, my heart is steel, 24:15 I cannot see, I cannot feel. 24:19 For light, for life, 24:21 I must appeal in simple faith to Jesus. 24:25 He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads. 24:28 There's love in all His words and deeds. 24:32 That is all a guilty sinner needs 24:35 forever more in Jesus. 24:39 Then the old skeptic wrote, "Though some should sneer, 24:43 and some should blame, 24:46 I'll go with all my guiltand shame. 24:51 I'll go to Him because His name, 24:54 above all names, is Jesus." 24:58 And Jesus is what God is like. 25:03 He said in John 14:6, 8, 9. 25:08 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, 25:09 the truth and the life.' 25:11 No one comes to the Father except through Me. 25:14 Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, 25:16 it is sufficient for us.' 25:17 Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, 25:20 and yet you have not known me, Philip? 25:23 He who has seen Me has seen the Father. 25:26 How can you say, 'show us the Father'?" 25:29 Do you want to know what God is like? 25:32 I can tell you. 25:33 Want to know what God is like? 25:36 Look at the cross. 25:38 Look at the man hanging on the cross. 25:44 The hands that flung the stars in space 25:51 with the hands that were nailed to the cross. 25:55 What is God like? 25:59 God is like Jesus. 26:02 Believe, and you will see the glory of God. 26:08 Amen, and amen. 26:18 There's only one thing 26:19 that really counts in this lifetime, 26:22 your relationship to Christ. 26:24 And then if you have a right relationship 26:26 with Christ, 26:28 you want to tell people about Christ. 26:31 That's why Jesus said, "Go into all the world 26:33 and preach the gospel to every creature." 26:37 By the grace of God, we're going to do that, 26:40 we are doing that. 26:42 That is why we're going back to Cuba 26:45 to this communist land to preach Christ. 26:49 We're accepting an invitation to go to the vast, 26:53 huge city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, 26:57 been there before, but by the grace of God, 27:01 we're going back. 27:02 Please support us. 27:04 Please stand with us in the preaching 27:08 of the everlasting gospel. 27:09 You say, "How do you do it? Who pays the bills?" 27:13 We do. 27:14 Do you get any financial help from the church? 27:17 No, my friend, we don't. 27:19 But we get a lot of help from God and from His children. 27:23 Please support us in the preaching 27:26 of the everlasting gospel. 27:28 It's the most important work in all the world. 27:31 Everything else is almost trivia. 27:34 So would you please write to me, John Carter, 27:39 Post Office Box 1900 Thousand Oaks, 27:42 California 91358. 27:46 Do your best for Jesus, do your best for the gospel. 27:50 And in Australia, write to me at Terrigal. 27:54 And we promise you this, every dime, 27:58 every dollar is going to be used to win souls 28:02 to our Lord Jesus Christ. 28:04 Please write to me today. 28:09 Thank you and God bless you. 28:19 For a copy of today's program, 28:21 please contact us at PO Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, 28:26 California 91358 or in Australia 28:31 contact us at PO Box 861, 28:34 Terrigal, New South Wales 2260. 28:38 This program is made possible through the generous support 28:42 of viewers like you. 28:43 We thank you for your continued support. 28:46 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2018-12-30