Hello, and welcome to my lecture.
Hello friends, it's good to greet you again.
Another program of Times of Refreshing has been
prepared, and on behalf of the Voice of
Melody Victoria, this is your Christian friend Ralph
Taylor, looking forward to sharing this half hour
with you.
This is the final program of our five
part series, where our special guest Peter Brandon
has been sharing thoughts on that wonderful verse
found in John chapter 5 and verse 24.
And Peter will be with us again today,
in just a few moments.
Long, long ago, in a far away place,
Rocks raised to the sky, there hung a
man.
Leaning proud, to think of the proud, Moves
me now, it should have been me, it
should have been me.
He put an end to my guilt and
despair, Rocks
raised to the sky, there
hung a man.
Leaning proud, to think of the proud, Moves
me now, it should have been me, it
should have been me.
Instead I am free, I am free, I
am free, I am free.
So I'll cherry lay
down, I will cling to the
old rugged crown, Let change
it some day.
It's the
last part of that great verse this morning.
Authority truly, truly I say unto you, Honesty
he that heareth my word, Dependency believeth on
him that sent me.
True eternity hath everlasting life, And now real
security shall not come into condemnation, But is
passed from death unto life.
My dear friends, we do need that security.
But let me say just a little word
about that word condemnation.
The fact of judgment.
We don't hear the preaching of judgment today,
Because people are afraid to offend.
But if you really love people, You will
tell them the truth.
Let me explain what I mean.
A mother will warn her children of dangerous
risks.
A mother will warn her children of the
danger of deep water.
In fact if you listen to a good
mother, She is constantly warning her children.
Warning her children about accidents, High potential electricity,
In fact everything that's dangerous.
Now why?
Because mum really loves her children.
Again with the authorities you will notice this.
If you're driving and there's a dangerous bend,
They will give you a real warning.
And sometimes they'll put up very dramatic posters,
In order to frighten you, So that you
might heed the danger.
Now why do they do it?
Because they love you.
Now in the Bible there are warnings.
For instance we read in the scripture, The
wages of sin is death.
We read in the scripture, He that believes
not the Son shall not see life, But
the wrath of God abideth on him.
Now why does God do this?
Simply because he infinitely loves us.
You see hell was never made for human
beings.
It was made for Satan, And all the
influences of evil.
And it's going to be a great day,
When the Lord will finalize and isolate, Sin
and evil once and forever, In that sphere
which he calls the lake of fire.
But this is the tragedy.
Men and women do not accept Christ.
And Christ is the only saviour.
There's no other saviour apart from the Lord
Jesus.
The word of God says, Neither is there
salvation in any other, For there is none
under name, under heaven, Given among men, whereby
we must be saved.
And therefore dear friends, The Lord Jesus came
into this world to be our saviour.
And he is the only spiritual life belt
that we have.
And that is why the Lord says, Truly,
truly I say unto you, He that hears
my word, And believes on him that sent
me, Has everlasting life, And shall not come
into judgment.
Now may I give you, dear friends, a
loving warning.
If you go on in life in your
sin, If you go on breaking the commandments
as we all do, And you do not
accept Jesus Christ as your saviour, And you
die, It will be a tragedy.
And that hurts me to say that.
Dear friends, the only thing in life that
really matters is That you get your sins
forgiven and saved.
The Lord Jesus said to his own people
with tears, You will not come to me
that ye might have life.
And I feel like that just now.
I want to plead with you people To
put your trust in the Lord Jesus So
that you might be saved from condemnation.
What a tragedy it is.
When the saviour is available, When the saviour
is there, Longing to come into your heart
and life, That people neglect and reject him.
Don't do that.
Heed the warning and turn to Christ now.
So the fact of judgment is there.
Now freedom from judgment.
Shall not come into condemnation, But is passed
from death unto life.
The moment a person comes into saving faith,
Now that is the faith that comes from
your heart.
The faith that throws itself upon Christ.
The faith that really receives Christ into the
heart and life.
Immediately that takes place.
You pass from death unto life.
It's a wonderful word really.
It's like someone in a burning building And
a fireman comes.
And they step out of the window into
his arms.
They pass from death to life.
Or it's like being on a burning ship.
And a lifeboat comes alongside.
And the ship's burning, it's sinking.
And you take one jump from the burning
ship onto the lifeboat.
You pass from death unto life.
Now the Lord Jesus comes alongside you.
And he's doing that now.
And he wants you to trust him.
And you pass immediately from death to life.
Why?
He bore your judgment.
Therefore God can't punish you again.
Why?
Christ has borne your judgment.
And when you believe, you are linked with
him.
I just want to relate a little story
before I close.
I was actually in a place called Wollacombe.
And I was the swimming instructor.
And the swimming policeman.
And the job wasn't very nice really.
You had to swim out about a quarter
of a mile.
And none of the young people were allowed
to pass you.
They were all early and late teenagers.
The reason was that there at Wollacombe, there
are about five tides.
And every year there are fatalities where people
get swept out in the sea and they
drown.
And because of this act, every time we
went into the water there would be two
swimming policemen.
And I was swimming backwards and forwards, getting
a bit cold.
And there were three men crying for help.
Now I thought really they were playing a
practical joke.
Because they had a large inflated ball upon
which they were holding.
And they were secured to it.
Eventually I turned round and there was just
one man.
And then I looked and I saw him
sink.
And then I knew he was in jeopardy.
Eventually I went out to him and I
could see he was in the last stages
of drowning.
And I tried to call him.
He was a massive man.
And he was trying to grab me.
Now of course you will know that it's
foolish to go in and try and save
a man who is still strong.
You wait until he gets a little exhausted.
And then you render him powerless and bring
him back.
So I started to swim around him.
And then I looked up and I had
the biggest shock in my life.
I was in a current.
And I must have been then a half
a mile from the land.
Another friend came up and joined me.
And he realized the predicament that we were
in.
And I tried to make it for sure.
And I couldn't.
The current was too strong.
And then I went back and gave the
other swimming instructor just a wink.
And we both realized that we were in
a mess.
We were caught in a powerful current.
And we were being driven out to the
seventh current.
And we knew that was fateful.
And my dear friend, that was an awful
moment.
Now lots of people are in the current
of sin.
And it's got hold of them.
And it's driving them to perdition.
And there's no hope for us.
And all of a sudden, I saw a
head.
And then I saw a man swimming toward
us.
And I cried out, Don't come, we're in
a current.
But he came on.
And when he got near us, he was
a lifesaver.
Attached to him was a wire rope.
And that was attached to a Land Rover.
And when he got near us, forgive my
emotion, I could have kissed him.
It was wonderful.
I knew then that we were saved.
Now my dear friend, in these addresses, the
Lord Jesus has come to you.
You can't see him, but in the power
of the Spirit, he's there.
And he's really there.
And he's come to you.
He turned to me and he said, You
tried to make it, didn't you?
I said, Yes.
He said, No swimmer in Britain could beat
this current.
He said, Now look, quickly.
He said, I'm going to inflate this buoy.
And he turning to the man that was
in difficulty, He said, I want you to
grab it.
He said, And I want you two men
to grab the inflated handle.
And then hold my hand.
So he pulled this valve out and the
thing immediately inflated.
And the drowning man, I shall never forget
it, his hands open wide and he grabbed
that life buoy and he nearly squeezed all
the air out of it.
And immediately he grabbed it.
You could see peace, tranquility, a sense of
security coming back.
Oh, it was a wonderful sight.
And then we grabbed the handle and we
both grabbed his hand.
And we knew we were safe.
Wouldn't it be lovely if someone took a
step of faith and said, Jesus, I'm going
to trust you to forgive me and save
me and come into my life.
And then we started to be pulled in
by this big wire rope.
Never forget it.
The bottom part of us was going out
to the sea because we could feel the
current.
The top part seemed to be being pulled
in.
And when we really got halfway, I started
to lose grip.
And I was too proud to shout for
help.
And eventually I said, I'm sorry, old chap,
I can't hold you any longer.
He said, I know you're slipping.
He said, but don't let go.
Wait until a big wave comes and that
will throw you on me.
Then let go and I'll grab you.
So I let go when the wave came
and I was thrown on him and he
grabbed me by the wrist and I held
on to his wrist.
And then I knew I was really safe.
I wonder, is there a backslide and you
feel you're letting go?
You can't hold on any longer.
Well, let go and let Christ get a
grip of you.
That's what he wants to do.
Take over your life.
And when we got in, I shall never
forget it, there was a great crowd there.
And when this lifesaver crawled out of the
water, he was six foot four.
He must have weighed about 17 stone, a
massive man.
And two of us just gripped him by
the hand and we kept on thanking him,
thanking him.
What a day it will be when we
get home to heaven and we see the
mighty savior with the marks of the cross
in his body.
And we'll go on thanking him for eternity.
May God help someone to take that step
of faith and trust him.
Let's pray.
Lord, help someone right now to quietly, sincerely
trust the savior and pass from death unto
life.
In the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
There a precious fountain free
to all the yearning stream flows
from Calvary's fountain In the
cross, in the cross be my
glory ever Till my
raptured soul shall hear
the cross and watch and wait
Hoping justly ever
Till I reach the golden
strand Just beyond the
river In the
cross, in the cross be my
glory ever Till my
raptured soul shall find rest
beyond the river rest
beyond the river My
dear friends, warning after warning has fallen from
the mouth of God to sinners about judgment
and the result of sin.
We are warned, be not deceived.
God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap.
Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7.
But not all the reaping is done in
this life.
God will call men and women, unsaved, unrepented
men and women to judgment.
There they will reap what they sow.
There they will receive their just and public
sentence and depart to a Christless, hopeless and
peaceless and last eternity.
This, my dear friends, is a striking and
a terrible thought.
Sinners must face God.
No wonder the scripture says, It is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment.
Hebrews 9 and verse 27.
But my sinner friend, you do not have
to wait for that awful day, thank God.
If you will trust in Christ, you can
escape that judgment.
God loves you.
Trust Him for forgiveness and mercy today and
you will not come to this awful judgment.
Christ was judged for your sins on the
cross and when He cried out just before
He died, it is finished, He meant that
every sin of yours and mine was paid
for.
Every one.
Thank God.
You can have mercy now instead of justice
if you will trust in Christ.
During the past five programs, we have heard
that if you will trust in Christ, you
will have no judgment and no condemnation, but
instead, life everlasting.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my word and believeth on him that
sent me hath everlasting life and shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death
unto life.
John chapter 5 and verse 24.
Christ will answer for you my friend on
that judgment day if you trust Him.
He bore your sins, He took your place,
He is even now at the right hand
of the Father to intercede for those who
trust Him.
He is one lawyer who never loses a
case and one physician who never turns his
back on his own.
Today is the last of the series of
programs with Peter Brandon and Peter has faithfully
presented to you the message of salvation in
a very clear and simple way.
If you have listened, God will hold you
to account for the decision that you make
today.
Will you now confess your sins and trust
Christ to forgive you?
Will you claim Him now as your Saviour?
My dear friend, turn to the Lord Jesus
Christ right now and be silent.
Friends, Times of Refreshing is a radio missionary
outreach of the Christian Brethren Assemblies of Victoria
and is made possible by God's provision through
His people.
Would you like a copy of today's program
on cassette?
Free to you and to post free?
As this is the final program of a
series of five which Peter Brandon has presented
from John chapter 5 and verse 24, you
may like perhaps to have copies of the
complete series.
If this is the case, we would be
pleased to send them to you also.
Remember they are free and post free with
our Christian love to you.
When writing, be sure to state that the
number of the cassette for today's program is
858, cassette number 858.
And if you wish to have the series
of tapes, make that plain in your letter
also.
Our mailing address is Times of Refreshing, Post
Office Box 66, Lillydale, 3140.
Times of Refreshing, Post Office Box 66, Lillydale,
3140.
And the cassette number again is 858.
Now until next we meet.
On behalf of our guest Peter Brandon and
all your friends here at the Voice of
Melody Victoria, this is Ralph Taylor saying goodbye,
God bless you, and remember, keep looking up.
Call on the Lord while you may be
found He will wipe away your tears He
will wash away your sin He will wipe
away your tears Voice
of Melody