There's just one little phrase I want to
share with you and I want to speak
on the subject of faith.
It's a word given to us by John
the Baptist and he says, he that believes
on the sun has everlasting life and he
that believes not the sun shall not see
life but the wrath of God abides on
him.
Just that first clause, he that believes on
the sun has everlasting life.
Someone threw the question at me the other
day in London and said this, can you
expect modern people living in a scientific world
to have faith?
Man is now exploring space, the whole world
is being computerized.
Can you expect people who live in this
scientific age to have faith?
Well my dear friends I want to say
this as clearly as I can, a baby
would not walk without the principle of faith.
It would be impossible for parents to release
their children to go to school if they
did not believe that they were going to
return.
Children could not sit an examination, neither could
students, if they did not have some kind
of self-confidence.
It would be totally impossible for two people
to marry if they didn't have confidence in
each other.
And even in the realm of business, a
businessman could not possibly sell his wares if
he did not have faith in the product
that he was selling.
And even in the realm of science, an
astronaut would never go into the region of
the unknown if he did not believe that
his capsule was going to return to earth.
And so you can see by those citations
that faith is one of the main ingredients
of living.
Now I must say this in order to
be honest with biblical facts, there is a
difference between natural faith and the faith of
the bible.
The word belief comes from a brilliant greek
word, pisteo, and it means three things.
One, to know what you believe.
Two, to trust implicitly what you believe.
And three, to be abandoned to the thing
that you believe.
That is why when we understand the new
testament principle of faith, we can say with
certainty it's impossible for a person to be
an uncommitted christian.
Because the word faith means you're abandoned completely
to Christ.
Now what I want to do just for
a few moments is to go over these
facts of faith because the word without faith
it's impossible to please God.
So we can see if we're going to
bring pleasure to God we must have faith.
Now first of all faith is personal.
Now someone might begin to argue as a
man said to me quite recently he says
do you believe that there's one God?
Yes.
He says do you know the number of
people on this earth?
I said no.
He says there's now nearly five billion.
Now this was his problem.
How can one God be personally interested in
five billion of us?
He says that's utterly impossible.
Do you know where he went wrong?
In the back of his mind he was
saying how many people can I be interested
in?
No more than a hundred.
How can God be interested in five billion
of us?
The answer is quite simple.
Because God is greater and bigger than man.
In fact he is five billion times bigger
than what we are.
You see there are more than five billion
stars swinging in space and he's interested in
every orbit.
Ah but you say brother Peter a star
is bigger than a human being.
Do you think so?
Maybe bigger in size but a star never
creates.
A star never thinks.
A star never sings.
You see there's something about man that's small.
There's something about man that's vast.
And this is how the Lord measured him
and valued him.
What shall it profit a man if he
gains the whole world and lose his own
soul, his own personality?
But then you will say to me and
rightly so because quite frankly people are asking
serious questions now in my own country.
There seems to be a turn in the
tide when they're beginning to think all over
again and this is what we're hearing.
How can you prove to us in a
down-to-earth way that God is interested
in us personally?
Now my dear friends if you can leave
this building tonight knowing that God is interested
in you personally you will never never be
the same again.
Think of it.
The almighty God the creator of heaven and
earth interested in you.
If that grips you you will never be
the same again.
God was so concerned that we should know
this that he became involved.
You say involved?
Yes.
He came into this world with a body
and that is what the scripture means when
it says great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh and therefore
when Jesus Christ was with us they gave
him a brilliant name.
His name shall be called Emmanuel which means
God with us.
Now when he came we must ask now
some questions.
Was he interested in the milling crowds?
Yes we often find him with the five
thousand.
Was he interested in group society and family
society?
Yes we find him with the apostles and
in families.
Now the question was he interested in individuals?
He walked 40 miles on foot through a
burning wilderness to speak to a prostitute, a
Samaritan woman.
He went 19 miles on foot to a
despised place called Jericho to speak to a
tax gatherer that was hated by the community.
When he was actually doing his dying he
took the trouble to say to a penitent
thief today you shall be with me in
paradise.
When he went back to heaven he saw
a son of Africa an Ethiopian who was
searching for God with every fiber that God
had given him and do you know what
he did?
He took one man all the way from
Samaria where he was seeing a mighty revival.
He put him down in a desert called
Gaza in order to speak to that one
man.
Now ladies and gentlemen I want to say
something that's perfectly true.
I know you may feel it's an exaggeration
but this is perfectly true.
God may have sent me all the way
to Australia for one soul and that could
be you, could be you, could be you.
And for one soul it would be worth
it.
Can I go further?
God would send one of his servants seven
times around the world just for one man
and you can be that one man tonight.
Let me say this to you from my
heart God loves you and God will dog
your footsteps until he finds you.
That's why he says he that believes.
This is a personal matter and when you
become a Christian you can't have proxies for
your children.
It's an individual faith and they too must
have an individual faith in the law.
Now what about the meaning of this word
faith?
Now I've been looking at you and I
think now my assessment is right.
If we had a cup of tea together
and we were sitting in your dining room
or your lounge whatever you call it and
I said to you do you believe in
God?
You would all say yes.
Good.
Then if I said to you do you
believe in Jesus Christ who was the son
of God?
I think you would say yes.
Then if I went further and said do
you believe the Easter message that he died
upon the cross for our sins?
I think you would say yes.
Then if I went a little further and
said do you believe that he was raised
again from the dead?
I find it hard to understand but I
believe it.
Then if I said to you do you
believe there's only one person in the world
or the universe that can put our world
right and that is Jesus Christ?
I think you would say yes.
So that makes you a believer.
I'm afraid not.
You know James says something that rather upset
me when I first read it years ago.
He said this.
You believe in God you do well the
devils believe and tremble.
That's hard isn't it?
That means if we could see a demon
sitting on this chair and I said to
the demon do you believe Jesus is the
son of God?
He would say yes.
Do you believe that he died on the
cross for the sins of the world?
He would say yes.
And if I said to him now come
on do you believe that God raised Jesus
from the dead?
He would say we all believe that and
tremble.
You see they just believe academically.
Now this word belief is a belief that
comes from the heart.
Let me quote you the scripture.
Romans 10 and 9 says if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and
believe in thine heart that God has raised
him from the dead thou shalt be saved.
Now what does it mean to believe in
the heart?
A little woman came to the Lord Jesus
who had been to all the doctors with
her blood disease she was no better but
rather worse and she took one look at
him and she said that man can heal
me.
And you know what she did?
She put her hand right the way through
the crowd and clutched his garments and Jesus
said who touched me?
The disciples nearly went mad with bewilderment.
Why they said they're all touching you.
He says someone has touched me with our
faith.
Peter was in a boat and it was
almost about to sink and the Lord Jesus
came near to them in the storm and
he blurted out Lord if it's you bid
me come and he said come.
When he looked down at those dangerous waters
they said listen Peter the law of gravity
says if you put your feet on this
water you will sink like a stone.
The law of faith said all things are
possible only believe.
And he stepped out and trusted Christ and
did the impossible.
That said there comes a moment when you
really trust Christ to save you.
I shall never forget the first time we
took our boys to the sea and may
I say this your sea is lovely.
In fact the first time I went in
up there in the coast of Queensland it
was too warm for me.
It was like a bath never been in
water like it.
Our waters you go blue you go in
red and you come out blue.
Well our little boys were very young and
they used to put their tummies on the
chair and they would show their mother all
the strokes they were going to do in
the sea.
And they were going to do the breaststroke
and they were going to do the crawl
and then they were going to do the
backstroke all on dry land with their tummies
on a chair and sometimes with their.
Well Monday morning came and we took them
to the sea of Frinton-on-Sea.
It was a lovely day and the moment
we got the water their teeth shattered.
They had the belts all round them.
They had the knowledge in their heads and
so we steered them out mind you it
was cold and when it was thigh deep
I said now boys take your feet off
the bottom and trust the life belt and
all they said nervously was no no no
no no no.
And do you know for 14 days I
worked on them but I couldn't get them
to take their feet off the bottom.
They had the knowledge in their heads they
had the life belt all around them but
they wouldn't trust it.
Now there's a streak of Jewishness in our
family and you will see it how I
move my hands like that and I took
from my pocket a half a crown.
I've never done this.
I said boys would you do it for
that and they wouldn't.
Now that shows there was something seriously wrong.
Well the next year we went to Frinton
and we had the same experience and I
saw my two boys sitting on the circumference
of the sea watching all the children splashing
in the water and they wouldn't go in
and take their feet off the bottom.
The third year we went there again and
I didn't bother with them and I was
reading a book in one of those old
-fashioned deck chairs.
I'll tell you what I was reading CHM
on Genesis and it was tremendous and then
I saw my elder boy bounding up the
beach and you know when a boy's excited
the hair speaks the eyebrows speak everything speaks
and he came around me like a dancing
charismatic and he said this I've done it
I've done it.
I said what have you done dear I've
taken my feet off the bottom and it
worked.
The last holiday we had together was at
Luggs there at the pencil and Gwen and
I we went out a quarter of a
mile that was our limit and my two
boys nearly went to the other side of
Millport nearly three miles and it all started
when one boy took his feet off the
bottom.
Dear friends I want to pray this in
you right from my heart.
There comes a moment when you say Lord
Jesus I've heard that you died for me.
I've heard how that God raised you from
the dead.
I've heard how that you can forgive sins
and save souls and now I'm going to
take my feet off the bottom and I'm
going to trust you.
Wouldn't it be lovely if someone did that
right now?
Don't wait to the end of the meeting.
Switch off from the preacher.
Get to the Lord and trust him.
But then someone will say something like this
but how do we get that faith to
take our feet off the bottom?
One lady speaking for all the others that
were in her home whom she invited in
for a coffee morning there in London said
this.
Mr Brandon you're lucky you were born with
a religious spoon in your mouth.
We're down to earth people.
We're in the midst of smoke.
That's London.
How can people like us do it?
Well I said my dear I can assure
you I wasn't born with a religious spoon
in my mouth and I said people who
are right down to earth who know the
nitty-gritty of life these are the people
that he wants.
But she says how can we get the
faith?
She says if I could get that faith
it would be everything to me.
I says well my dear I'm going to
help you.
You'll never get faith looking inside you.
The moment you look inside your inner life
all you'll see is failure, failure, failure, disappointment.
You've got to look away from yourself.
You've got to look to the Lord and
this is what the scripture says.
He that believes on the sun.
You see lots of people believe it's faith
in faith.
In other words you're believing in your faith.
That's not it at all.
It's believing in the sun.
Now who is the sun?
There was only one man who ever lived
that never sinned and that was Jesus Christ.
There was only one man who ever lived
that could claim to be co-equal with
God.
That was Jesus Christ.
There was only one man who ever lived
that could die for the sins of the
whole world and bear them.
And hallelujah oh this thrills my heart.
He not only came and said he could
deal with the sins of the world.
He actually bore them in his own body.
And when Jesus Christ suffered on the cross
there on the cross he was bearing the
sin of the world because he loved us.
And when he said with a mighty voice
finished the scriptures is this.
Behold the Lamb of God which takes away
the sin of the world.
But more.
There was only one man who ever lived
who died and here it comes who was
raised again from the dead never to die
again.
Never.
You see there's a man in the glory
and I want to say this with holy
excitement who is genuinely infallible.
He cannot blunder.
And I want to say this right from
my heart.
There's only one man that's never lost the
case and that's the Lord Jesus.
The best surgeon that ever lived has blundered
in surgery.
There's only one man that is completely infallible.
That's Jesus Christ and this is what the
scripture says.
I want to worship as I say it.
He that believes on the sun.
Forgive me using common parlance but it's getting
the claws of your faith in the sun.
Have you done that?
And the more you hear about the Lord
Jesus the more it will stimulate and provoke
faith.
Let me give you a case in point
to help you.
Being bred and born in the east end
of London I got to know them.
And the old cockneys were dead scared of
hospitals.
In fact they used to call the operating
table the slab.
And I even heard my own mother say
they'll never get me on the slab.
There was a lady and she was in
great pain.
She should have seen the doctor years ago
but it was only the pain that drove
her to see old Dr Mitchell.
After a very superficial examination he sent her
to Bath to be examined to see a
brilliant surgeon.
And all the time she was in the
bath she was saying to her George a
very quiet man they'll never get me on
the slab.
If she said it once she said it
twenty times.
There wasn't an ounce of fat on him
because they usually say in London a nagging
wife will strip the flesh of your body.
Well she got into this particular surgery and
she he started to count the patients 14.
And he thought I've got almost an hour
and a half listening to my girl.
And she was saying as everyone came out
they'll never get me on the slab.
The 14th bell went in went and she
went in and then she was sent for
x-rays and there were blood tests and
she came up radio and this is what
she said.
Don't worry George I'm going to have the
operation on Thursday.
I'm going in on Wednesday and it's going
to be all right don't worry.
You say what caused the transformation?
Note she met the surgeon.
Friend when you meet that lovely son when
you meet the Lord Jesus by faith he'll
stimulate that.
Now with this I close.
I can almost hear someone saying well how
do I know if I've got this real
heart faith.
If faith is absolutely essential for salvation.
It's right that I should have the right
faith.
Now may I say this carefully to you
in love.
Yes it is.
Now I want to close this in love.
I'm absolutely sure when the Lord comes lots
of evangelical Christians.
They just had this awful thing of a
mechanical faith.
That's why you never see any joy in
their life.
They haven't got the real thing.
So can you see it's absolutely sure that
we should have if I may use the
Greek word this pisteo faith.
This heart faith.
Now how can we tell.
The moment you believe that Christ died for
your sins you will have a.
You will say oh dear how serious it
is that Christ should die for my sins.
Now this needs an illustration.
There was a young man that was given
a sport car before he reached the age
of responsibility.
May I say this the parents if you
have money be careful what you do with
it.
This young man was warned over and over
again that there would be a fatality.
He was driving along a feed road to
the M1 and felt a bang on his
right wing and still careered on.
When he came home about half past nine
at night he was met by a London
policeman and asked him if this was his
number.
He said yes.
He said were you moving along this road
at such a time.
Yes.
Didn't you feel a bang on your wing.
Yes I hit a bird.
He said not a bird a little child
and he fatally injured a little girl.
Foolishly he went to the funeral and when
he saw 200 people sobbing and a mum
and dad that were broken to smithereens around
that sacred hole and when he knew indirectly
that he was the murderer he will never
drive again.
His mind went.
When you stand at the cross and you
see Jesus Christ dying there for your sins
you will say Lord Jesus did you die
for my bad temper.
Yes.
Did you die for my private lust.
Yes.
Did you die for my irritations.
Yes.
Did you die for my worldliness and materialism.
Yes.
Forget the drama it will hit you like
that.
You'll say this oh my god I never
knew sin was so serious.
Supposing now this didn't happen.
That mother bought a gold watch and went
to the boy that had indirectly caused the
death of their child and said look I
want to give you this to show that
there's no acrimony in my life and I
still love you.
That would even break him more wouldn't it.
When you look at the cross you see
God's love for you for you for you
not with mechanical words but in the glorious
reality of Calvary's love and that's how much
he loves you.
And so there's shock there's surprise and then
there's surrender.
You see he doesn't ask us to surrender
to force he asks us to surrender to
love.
During the war and I was in the
navy there were a group of our boys
in France when they were evacuating from France
and a German officer came up for they
were in a circular trance and held over
their heads a grenade and said I'll give
you 10 seconds.
Unfortunately they surrendered but it was the grenade
that did it.
The Lord never does that.
He opens his hands and shows you that
they're pierced.
He pours aside as it were his garment
and shows that his side is pierced.
And in the presence of divine love he
says surrender and there comes a moment in
the quietness of your heart where you kneel
before him and you say that lovely prayer
just as I am without one plea but
that thy blood was shed for me and
that thou bid'st me come to thee O
Lamb of God I come.
Would you mind if I asked a question?
Is there someone there that would like to
take their feet off the cross?
Is there someone there?
And there?
Come right now and quietly trust him and
you'll find that God will give you immediately
the gift of eternal life.