Peter Brandon emphasizes the contrast between the will of God and the will of man, illustrating God's patience and passionate desire for humanity's salvation, as seen in Jesus' lament over Jerusalem. He warns against the dangers of rejecting God's call, highlighting the consequences of desolation for those who turn away from His love. Brandon urges listeners to recognize the urgency of accepting Christ, as God's will is not only to save but to bless and protect His children. He passionately conveys that God longs for a relationship with each individual, calling them by name and inviting them to come to Him. The sermon serves as a loving reminder of the importance of responding to God's persistent call to repentance and faith.

We're going to read tonight from the second letter of the Apostle Peter and we're going to read from the third chapter from verse one. This second epistle beloved I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming? But since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of the God the heavens would have hold and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us would not willing that any should perish but it all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a peace in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Now would you turn back to Matthew 24 or 23 I'm sorry Matthew 23 and we shall read the last three verses in that chapter beginning at verse 37 Matthew 23 37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wing and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate for I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord and God will bless to us the reading of the Bible. I want to finish this series tonight on speaking on the subject the will of God and the will of man and we shall see from this narrative that the will of God is has been fully revealed in Jesus Christ and we shall see truly in this passage man's enmity against God in rejecting that will and I want to say right at the outset although this will be a loving warning I trust that no one tonight will be in that state of rejection. I trust that everyone tonight will have an open heart and an open mind for the truth of God. First of all then the will of God if you look at this text that I have given you tonight you will notice that the Lord Jesus said a very important thing turning to his own people who had rejected him he said how often how often and this shows to us that the will of God is patient and that's the first thing that I want to bring before your attention. If you read of the will of God in the Old Testament and if you read of the will of God in the New Testament you will always find that it's marked by unrivaled patience. You see the Lord Jesus came to his own people and he came to his own people with all the prophecies of scripture behind him concerning his birth, concerning his life, concerning his miracles, concerning his words, concerning his death, concerning his burial, concerning his resurrection and even concerning his ascension but they didn't receive him and with all those prophecies behind him he could say to this people how often. Again when the Lord Jesus came into this world we must remember this that God was speaking to that nation of Israel through the prophets and he was speaking through the prophets to the fathers to the children of Israel and some of these prophets and servants were stoned by them and when Jesus Christ came into this world he was God's last voice, God's last words not only to Israel but to the nation. There will never be another voice apart from the voice of Jesus Christ and therefore when our Lord Jesus came among them he came not only with the prophecies behind them but he came with remarkable miracles and every single miracle that he performed was a sign to Israel and to the world that he was the Son of God. They actually saw blind people who were actually born totally blind seeing immediately. They saw bodies that were totally paralyzed immediately being raised. They saw people whose bodies were deformed with leprosy so that they were full of leprosy having their features all lost and by one word from the Lord Jesus they were made completely whole. In fact on one occasion they saw a man whose body was in a state of decomposition so that the scripture says behold he stinketh and they saw that man actually being raised from the dead and he came out with his grave clothes and every miracle was basically saying that he was the Son of God and yet they received him not. He said how often and then he came to them with the passion of the cross and when he was on Calvary's cross he said particularly to his own people in the presence of God father forgive them they know not what they do and yet they didn't receive him and so he says how often but more. When the apostles came to the Jewish people and preached the gospel they just went to one nation and only one and we must remember this on the day of Pentecost Peter was basically saying this look the one in whom you have crucified the one that you have crowned with thorns the one that you have pierced is the very one that wants to save you and cleanse you and bless you and yet they didn't receive him and the call comes how often and then last of all he raised up one man whose name was Stephen and he lit his face up like an angel so that he had a supernatural manifestation because the law was given to them through the administration of angels and they heard a message my dear friends that was absolutely soul stirring it was the greatest message that any man will ever preach and the word of the Lord came to them as the very oracle of God and when they heard it they stoned Stephen and the patience of God was exhausted down came the shutters the door was closed to Israel and now judgment was going to fall upon them could there be someone like that here tonight can I describe the person right from this person's infancy he has heard the gospel and even as a child he knew that Jesus Christ drew near and stood upon the slummy doorstep of his life a knot and he knew it but he didn't receive him he reached the age of adolescence and then became a teenager and even in his teen years there stood before him through one message that majestic glorious savior calling him to be saved but he didn't receive him and then he moved into manhood he married a wife and somehow his wife became a Christian and she started to preach to a husband and he knew that God was speaking to him through the wife but he didn't receive him in his midlife God dealt with him harshly because he loved him he had a serious accident he was on the bed that he thought could be the bed of death eternity was near the fear of a lost eternity haunted his soul and at that moment the Lord Jesus drew near again and stood at his life's door knocking but he didn't receive him and perhaps that man or perhaps that woman is here tonight and for two weeks you have listened to the gospel and every night you heard the gospel the Lord Jesus became closer near and you knew he wanted to come into your life and it's Sunday night Sunday night it's half past seven and he draws near again and he says to you how often no I'm not going to say dear friends that you're going out of this door and you'll probably be killed no I'm not going to use that drama nor am I going to say tonight at nine o'clock the Lord Jesus is going to come and you'll be left behind I won't say that but I will say this there comes a time in your life when God stops speaking so that he says this today if you will hear his voice harden not your heart as in the days of provocation Israel was given time after time an opportunity to repent and go into the promised land but they loved the material things more than God and the last voice was heard and they all died in the wilderness in Scotland in the year 1964 a man was in the meeting that heard the gospel many times and one night God came to him in tremendous power and the Lord Jesus drew near as he always does when a person is about to receive or to reject him and he stood before him in such power the man knew he was there and he went out and rejected him and God said how often he got on his bike he was cycling through the night and the voice of God came to him in such power saying how often and he got off that bike and this is what he said verbatim almost blasphemy but I must say it oh God get off my back and he did he did and that man is in desolation don't do that tonight he's saying how often secondly it's the passionate will of God you know I'm so glad that God's will is not just academic cold clinical utterly regular but God's will is marked with pathos and passion God never gives calculated lectures God moves out to people in demonstrations of divine love and this is what he says listen to it oh Jerusalem Jerusalem you will never find the word oh in your dictionary it's not basically a word it's just a letter it is totally indefinable but you will find it over and over again in scripture there was one man that realized that he was in sin and he needed the forgiveness of God and this is what he cried out create in me a clean heart note the word oh God see the desperation behind that word another man was praying for revival and he was in the presence of God and his name was Isaiah and this is what he says oh that thou wouldest render heavens that thou wouldest come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence he was caught up with divine pathos but this is not the oath from King David this is not the oath from Isaiah this is an oath from the Lord Jesus let's get to the meaning of the word we had a child we still have him bless him and when he was three months old he took a cold from his father who'd come home from mission went down with pneumonia and when he went down with pneumonia the great London fog stopped the whole of that city our Jewish doctor was coming in twice a day looking at the child shaking his head and we were slowly watching our little fella sinking kettles were constantly being bored in the room we were going round and round with the towel to give him breathing and the Jewish doctor turned to my dear wife and he said this Mrs. Brandon he needs oxygen but if I took him out he would die in the fog you realize your baby's in the wood and when he left I saw my lovely little wife pick up that baby never forget it and she just said this oh God oh God and that child was healed this is not an oath from Gwen this is an oath from the Lord Jesus and there on that cross everything all right perhaps we could sing a little chorus could we darling maranatha words our dear brother perhaps better we'll have a little prayer shall we just pray that the Lord will bless him Lord we just pray that thou will put thy healing hand upon our dear brother and just touch him we pray right now that he may feel so much better we pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Amen but this is an oath from the Lord Jesus but where did he say it do we see this passion revealed in his life yes but that's not the full passion of our Savior do we not see this passion when he raised Lazarus from the dead and just prior to the resurrection he wept human tears yes but it's deeper than that if I want to see the real passion of the Lord Jesus I look at the cross when I see Jesus Christ hanging on a Roman gibbet when I see the vile spittle of Roman soldiers dripping from those wounds that they had made in his lovely face when I see the heavens darken when I hear him saying on the cross as he bore away the sin of the world my God my God why hast thou forsaken me I bow my head and I say with the Apostle John herein is love not that we love God but that God loved us and sent his son to be a mercy seat for our sins my dear friends I love to say this when it comes to a matter of demonstrating love the Lord Jesus did it realistically he let frog over all expression jumped over all grammatical sentences came to us in the cross and when he hung on a Roman gibbet and bore our sins in his own body on the tree that's where he said oh but more he wasn't now talking to a city that was going to accept him he was talking now to a city that was going to crucify him and think of it the very people that were going to scourge him the very people that were going to crucify him those that were going to crown him with thorns he says oh Jerusalem Jerusalem but there's something more intimate than that I believe tonight dear friends in this room the Lord Jesus is not talking about a city he's not talking about a town he's not talking about a village he's not talking about a community of people I believe he's talking to individuals and there might be someone here tonight and he's saying something like this oh Mary Mary oh John John you see he doesn't call you by a number you will never be computerized by the Lord you are a name now look I wonder dear friends this is so vital would the door be closed I think someone's going to get saved tonight would the door be closed and no one else come in would you do that please those who are going out would you just go out and those who are um would the door be closed and let the others pray I think that will be better because if people are coming and going it's going to spoil the whole meeting and therefore he calls us by name notice what he said to Saul on the Damascus road not pjx 6 3 1 5 5 6 why do you persecute me what did he say Saul Saul he calls us by name and I believe tonight in a very real way in this building the Lord Jesus is calling some by name calling you now and he's putting behind it all the pathos of Calvary oh Mary oh John oh Andrew how often see the wonder of that but then I want you to look at the will of God and you will see something else how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not and therefore it's a parental will of God you see he's talking about children he's talking about an old mother hen and therefore it's the parental will of God now what are parents famous for they love to provide if you have children and grandchildren you will agree with me you long that they should have the best cot in which to sleep you long that they might have the best clothes to wear you long that they might have the best little home in which to live you long that they might have the nice toys for Christmas you long that they might have the best education if you've got a girl you long for her to have the best husband and if you've got a son you long for that son to have the best wife why do we do this because we have that parental instinct and we long to see our children blessed and God is like that please do not imagine that God is just like an old victorian victorial father that loves to thrash people it's not like that at all God is a God of love and I want to tell you what he wants to do for you he longs and yearns to forgive your sins through the blood of Christ that's why his son died he longs to give you the gift of eternal life so that you might have life everlasting he longs to put new life into your body so that you might be born anew and become a new creature he longs that you might so come into his family that you can actually say to God Abba father and it's not hyperbole exaggerated speech it's a fact but more he longs to make you an heir to all that he possesses so that when Christ comes you can reign with him in his second coming and when he builds the new heaven and the new earth he wants you to have a place with him reigning with him in glory he longs to bless you and I want to speak to people now who are outside of this building listen all those men tonight that I saw in the public houses scores of them he longs to save everyone all those tonight in the bingo dens gambling he longs to save them and bless them all those tonight perhaps who are in the entertainment places of this world and as they sit there perhaps even bored some of them he longs to bless them with eternal life but more there's someone here tonight that is longing to bless with salvation let him bless you tonight he longs to do it and parents love to protect now you must forgive me for this but one of my boys had a fight and I believe he had the worst of it and you know the old man in me wanted to go around oh you love to protect your children you know that and that's why he's talking about the instinct of a mother hen the fire's coming she can smell it and she clucks and the chickens come under her wings why she longs to protect friends can I give you a word of warning very shortly the world in which we live is going to have a terrible shock thousands will switch on their televisions and they will see a ghostly man saying this on your own screen millions missing what's happened the rapture the taking away of the church has taken place when the dead in Christ shall rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and then the wrath of God will begin and that wrath will begin in stages and in the finality of that wrath I want you to notice that one third of the marine life one third of the solar system one third of vegetation on earth one third of the world's population will be totally destroyed it will be a time of wrath so great if the Lord didn't shorten it all flesh would perish and the world is right for it but remember there's another wrath there's coming a time when every person will give an account of himself to God and God has the books open and he will say this February the 4th such and such a sin was committed February the 19th in the year 1936 the following sins were committed then he will go through your life meticulously and he will say on Sunday night March the 31st you heard the gospel you heard the word of the Lord and you rejected everything is tabulated and then you will see the righteous wrath of God depart from me thou cursed I never knew you but he wants to protect you and if I see the Lord Jesus here tonight I see him with his hands wide open and I hear him saying to this congregation with faith oh Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not but parents love to provide they love to protect but they love to pardon with one of our lads I'm not going to mention the name he did something and I had to punish him it was bad and I want to say this now truthfully when I did it my hand was shaking and I was broken and I went up into my study and wept and cried Lord please save that boy and I was waiting for that little boy to come up those lino stairs I was waiting to hear the feet pattering up those stairs but I couldn't hear and I couldn't study and then after about two hours of waiting I heard four steps on the lino floor on the lino steps and I thought he's coming he's coming but they stopped and would you believe he waited five minutes then I heard five more steps he's coming he stopped and he stayed there for another five minutes then would you believe it three more steps and I knew he was just outside the door but he wouldn't knock and I was waiting oh waiting and then all of a sudden I heard a little knock like this come in and in he came his head down he put his head on my knee and just wept and said sorry daddy and I just hugged him and we were reconciled God's been waiting for you like that you've been walking up the steps of repentance and faith and stopped shall I then you've been walking up and then stopped shall I but may it be tonight that someone will come to the door of grace and knock and you'll hear the savior say come in and oh what a welcome he'll give you the welcome that he gave to the prodigal son will be nothing like the welcome that he'll give you he'll hug you and tell you that your sins are forgiven through the blood of Christ and he'll tell you tonight you've been born again of the Holy Spirit if you come but what was the result I wouldn't he wouldn't he kept coming wouldn't he came to them at the cross wouldn't came to them through the preaching of the apostle Stephen wouldn't think of the times he's been to you think of those messages that you've heard from the Lord think of that time when he said to you look all day long I have stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient gainsaying people and he comes again but what happens there's this constancy of rejection then I want you to go a little deeper what was the cause of the rejection well my dear friends when they heard the word of the Lord they were basically saying something like this well we're religious we're moral we're good but we don't accept him as the Messiah they did not reject religion they did not reject morality but they rejected Christ and there are lots of people my dear friends when they hear the gospel and when they hear of the forgiveness of the Lord's love they say well I don't need that I'm good I'm moral I'm religious my dear friends no matter how moral or religious you might be you need that forgiveness then there are other people no doubt when the Lord comes to them the old devil dangles before them the entertainments of this world the glass of beer the cricket bat the tennis bat business all the luxuries of life they come before you you see Satan can use anything and everything to bring you from Christ and you look at those things and you say ah I'd sooner go in for those things than for eternal things now dear friends something happened in this meeting tonight that's serious but I want to say this supposing you went out of this meeting tonight and you dropped dead what would religion do what would mechanical morality do what would entertainment do what would the riches do they would mock you and oh dear friends I believe tonight there are some who are constantly rejecting in spite of the pathos of God's love but then what was behind the cause of this rejection shall I tell you behind it there was a sinister power in the heart of Africa there are plays that are being seen at this moment that are merely educational and thousands of African people are seeing these plays but behind them is still the sinister power of Moscow and they are gradually teaching the people the works of Marx and Engels and Lenin the plays look innocent but little by little they are going to propound the doctrine of Marxism behind these innocent things that cause us to reject the Lord Jesus there's a sinister power it's the power of the devil and this is what the scripture says the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel the image of God should shine out of them in this building tonight there is not only the power of God there is the power of Satan operating here tonight trying to frustrate the preacher out of darkness don't do it tonight friends learn the lesson now I want you to note the consequence of the rejection behold your house is left unto you desolate that is the most stunning statement in scripture what does it mean to be desolate let me explain if you've ever been in my country there are some lovely mansions who are still owned by aristocratic people and there is a beautiful mansion and a castle in a place called Deddington and the person who lives there is a high title lady and this lady was once with a husband the governess of Victoria and she is closely related to her majesty the Queen and when I first went into that lovely castle I shall never forget it I was struck by the awe and discipline and beauty of the house a butler greeted me then I saw these rare French tapestries hanging from the walls of the passage then I went into the lounge and I saw these beautiful oak floors with pure silk Persian carpets on them then I looked on the wall and I could see genuine Reuben van Dyck constable paintings and the whole house was one of beauty why the lady was resident now I want you to imagine this lady Duggan of Victoria moves out and the house is left and we go back to that house after five years and we're shown in and what a shock first of all the place reeks with dampness in fact it's so dank it's haunting we look at the walls and they're bare and the plaster has come off showing the old-fashioned bricks we look at the lovely Italian ceilings and they're in pieces we look all over the floor and all we see is the dirt of burning we go through the rooms and even our voice seems to haunt us and then all of a sudden out flies an old owl and across our feet there runs a rat and then we shout and all we hear is the haunting echo of our voice and we say one word desolate forsaken that's hell my dear friends it is a place without Christ without God without hope without a Christian and where there's no mercy that's why it's called out of darkness it's desolate and just like Titus came in 70 AD and made the whole of Jerusalem desolate and so this particular prophecy was fulfilled what will it be if a man dies without Christ desolate do you know dear friends I can hear the groanings of people in hell now crying for mercy but it's desolate and I want the Lord Jesus to come again and say through his weak servant tonight I would the patient will oh Jerusalem the passionate will how often would I gather thy children together even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings the parental will will it be would not would not would not now friends I don't want to frighten or bully people into heaven but I must say this if tonight you can leave that seat after singing the closing hymn and if you can move up the aisle if you can get to the opening door if you can pass the preacher and shake his hand without Christ still in your sins you deserve to be desolate you deserve it when the Lord Jesus the mighty Son of God has come so close and opened up his passionate heart because he wants to save you wouldn't it be lovely right now if someone received someone would say right now it will not be any longer would not but I will God helping me I will be wholly thine