Peter Brandon emphasizes the profound nature of salvation through Jesus Christ, explaining that Christ's sacrifice allows for the complete forgiveness of sins and the power to overcome sin in our daily lives. He illustrates the importance of recognizing our own sins and the need for repentance, highlighting that salvation is available to all who come to God through Christ. Brandon passionately urges listeners to accept this gift of salvation, emphasizing that Jesus is the only one capable of saving us from the consequences of sin. He shares personal anecdotes to illustrate the urgency of coming to Christ and the joy that follows true repentance and faith. Ultimately, he calls for a simple step of faith to receive salvation, encouraging everyone to respond to God's invitation.

I want to share with you a lovely verse, it's from Hebrews chapter 9, and we'll read from verse 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are a figure of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now back to the seventh chapter, one verse, verse 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make an intercession for us. For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heaven, and the Lord will bless to us the reading of the Bible. Outside a London school two boys were fighting, a great crowd were round them, and I stepped in to stop them. Nearly got a whacking myself, and then one boy said to me very violently, Mister it was his fault. And the other boy if I may use his language said, he's telling lies, it was his fault. And I learned very quickly where there was a problem, there were always two Sarai. And that's just like the gospel. First of all we have God's glorious salvation, and then we have man's responsibility. And the text I'm going to give you is one that I love. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost, that's his salvation. All that come unto God by him. We don't use very often the word saved today, and I think we ought to. The word is mentioned 300 times in the Old Testament, 69 times in the New Testament, and every time we say the word Jesus we are saying Jehovah the Saviour. And what kind of Saviour would he be if he didn't save people. The word simply means to be saved from the facts of sin. I don't know if you're being plagued with sin in Australia, but we are in Britain. I was brought up in the heart of the east end of London, and in those days no one locked their doors at night. You could walk down the streets without the fear of being mugged. When someone died all the blinds came down, and for two streets there was a collection to help to pay for the funeral. But all the difference now. Ladies are afraid to go out at night. Everybody is bolted in. No one cares about their neighbours. Why? It's that ugly thing called sin. But this is our problem. I can look out of my window and can see the sin in the druggie. I can see the sin in the alcoholic. Sometimes I look out of the window and I see the sin in a prostitute. But what about my own bad temper? What about my own irritation? How through is the old book when it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now being saved means to be forgiven of your sins but more. Now I know this is a little cruel but I'm going to mention it. Everyone in this room has got a besetting sin. And in your own strength you can't master it. It was Tennyson the poet that says, oh for a man to rise in me that a man that I am might cease to be. He felt it. Now being saved not only means being saved from the facts of sin but being saved day by day from the power of sin. Now here's some good news. I'm so glad that God will never allow sin in him. We see how sin has messed up this little green terra firma of ours. Wouldn't it be a tragedy if the almighty God would allow one sin in heaven. Therefore over the portals of glory there is this statement not that the files shall ever enter in. But here's the flash point. If a man dies in his sins and I want to baptize this in deep love it will be an indescribable tragedy. Out there in the mystery of the infinite abyss there is the reality of hell. And if we die in our sins we're lost. The wages of sin is death. That's why we need to be saved. And I do trust that should there be any of our friends whom we love and you're not saved you won't go out of this square of the building until you're right with God this morning. But you see look at the ability of the savior. He is able to save. What does that mean? There's only one person in the universe that has the ability to save from sin and that is Jesus Christ because of four reasons. There was only one man in the human race that came into our world and lived and never sinned. Now you will agree with me it's impossible to describe perfection and yet four men looked on one man one of them by hearsay and they wrote a description of a perfect man and forgive my excitement that's the only description in literature of perfection. You can't invent that. Jesus Christ was perfect. There was only one man that could claim to be co-equal with God and did it by demonstration and that was Jesus Christ. But when he went to the cross the greatest thing in the world took place. We human beings we can understand the pain of his physical torture when he was scourged. We can understand the pain of crucifixion up to a point for that was the worst form of torture that man ever invented. But from the sixth to the ninth hour may I say this intellectually we're all beaten. God brought the sin of the world together measured meticulously its judgment and friends my spirit is hurt when I say this upon that sinless son came our judgment. So realistically was he made sin for us that he cried the language of a man in hell my God my God why hast thou forsaken me. And when he had completed doing that great work of becoming the massive sin bearer for the whole world he said in triumph finished complete and the work was done. Then on the third day something happened that was mind-boggling. Great men live but they all die. Jesus Christ lived he died but listen he was raised again from the dead. Now can I say this to you after cuffs. I have been lecturing on the resurrection now in most of our universities in Britain and I'd never yet heard a good argument against the evidence. We Christians can say and raise our heads we have not followed cunningly defied fables when we made known unto you the majesty of Christ. Why because the resurrection of Christ is an indisputable fact. So much is he there so much is he risen that very soon he's going to come again and the whole world is going to see his glory. That's why the Jews have gone back to Palestine and that's the universal savior. And when he saves he always saves immediately from the penalty of sin so that you can have peace. Then day by day he saves you from the power of sin as you look to him and then his salvation is so complete that when you are saved you cannot cannot be lost. He says I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. Now I know what you're saying well brother Peter how do we get saved? Explain the way to come to Christ in a down-to-earth way so that we can understand. Well first of all if you're going to be saved you've got to come to and it means to come with your knees. In the city of Glasgow a few years ago they had mass x-raying for TB and they x-rayed one and a half million people within four weeks. There were these mobile x-raying machines on every other street corner and after the x-ray they found that 6,000 people were walking the streets of Glasgow with active TB many of them chronic TB and they didn't know it. Can I tell you something? Well there are thousands of people in the western world walking about with active sin with judgment over them and they don't know it. That's why you have to come to a service like this and God in all his love gives you a spiritual x-ray and he shows you very carefully and lovingly that you have broken the ten commandments and therefore you're guilty before God. Now when that x-ray comes don't switch off. Do you know what hurts me is this? Everyone knows the deadly seriousness of this. It's staring at us in the face. We know with all these broken marriages that we're messing up society. I went to a British school just before I came here and saw a line of boys and girls lining up before the headmistress and I said to the headmistress what is this? She said they're lining up for a cuddle. She said they come for broken homes. Now ladies and gentlemen is that right? You see we are spoiling society but this is the problem when it's directed to us personally we get irritable. Now don't be like that. Face up to the point of sin and then it's coming to God. It's not just coming to Christ it's coming to God. Now this is what I want to do. I'm going to forget the congregation for that would be hypocrisy and I'm going to talk to myself. When I sin I damage my own personality. For instance if I lose my temper I look like a maniac and I'm never the same person again. If I get irritable then I get a nasty person and I'm not the same person again. If I tell a lie then that's damaged my soul. You see sin damages the individual but when I lose my temper my wife suffers. When I tell a lie someone else can suffer. So it affects society but when I sin all sin is against God and it wounds the heart of God far more than it paralyzes us. And when David committed sins this is what he wrote Against thee the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Now when a person is coming to the Lord to be saved he comes in real repentance. He comes to God and he tells God that he's sorry that he has committed so many sins. Where we live there was a man who was an expert decorator and he spent three months decorating his lounge. Then he had a little party and brought in all his neighbors and they were all patting him on the back saying it was a masterpiece and so it was. Three days later the little girl got in with a reed paintbrush and she was having a lovely time. There she was beautifying her father's work with a brush and when she was doing it she was singing. In came her mother and she just did this. Oh no! Oh yes! When he came home can I use his own words? He says I was infuriated and heartbroken. It was all smiles. We sing a whistle when we commit a few sins it wounds the heart of God and when we come to be saved we come in penitence. But how can we get to him? Through the Saviour. You see there in the presence of God there is a universal Saviour and he's been in the soul saving business for two thousand years and he's never lost the case and all over the world he's saving thousands. May I say this to the westerner? Don't think because there's a shortage of salvation that God is hard out for souls. In the east there are millions being saved. God is working there in mighty power. It's us foolish westerners who are turning our backs on the great backs of Christianity but the Lord is saving and there is a Saviour that can save fully and completely all that come unto God by him. When we were boys in London and there were eight in our family. Five boys, three girls, four boys in one bedroom just imagine that and I must say this the Brandons were real boys. We were allowed out after doing our homework and in those days we didn't have the toys like children have today. We used to make them and we made a cardboard boomerang and 15 boys in the street used to line up and we chose Mrs Jones house for it had the tallest chimney. One by one we would step forward and we would throw the boomerang and the idea was to get it round the chimney down to your feet and the one that got it nearest to the chimney and nearest to his feet won the competition. I was the last boy and I wanted to win and I took care for aim and I kept on and you know what the boys go on go on we're not here all night. I threw it and miscued and it went through a policeman's window. Well that was the end of the world in those days and I was round the corner before you could say Jack Robinson. Next day I went to school and I had just tuppence and that was a lot of money in those days and I went into our sweet shop a man by the name of Smally and I said I want a half a pound of toffee. He says where did you get the money from? I said I got it from my old pillar box money box. All right Brandon he said and he gave me a bag of sharp toffee and when I saw the policeman's son I stuffed him with these toffees. Then we came to the playground and I gave him some more and when his mouth was bulging I said you've had a broken window. Yes he said my dad's mad. Who was it? I gave him two more and then I said I did it. I said now would you go and plead for me? He says all right I don't know if I'll be able to get you off. So he went and pleaded for me. I shall never forget it. Out came the big London policeman still in uniform and he looked down at me. So he says Brandon you did it. Why did you run away? I took his black gloves as they did those days and whacked me right across the ear. He says don't do it again and then his boy looked up with his pleading eyes as though to say dad you promised to forgive him and he says because of him I'll forgive you. There's a man in the glory called the Lord Jesus and he wants to take you right into the presence of God and plead your cause. He wants to say something like this. Look at my wounded hand. Look at that blood stained mercy seat. I died for that person and because of his intercession as a saviour God must forgive. Now I can imagine someone saying and with this I close. Peter I know I've got an aid. Good. I see that my sins are against God. Splendid. I can see that Jesus Christ is there and he wants to save me. That's excellent. But I'm sitting in this building and you're standing on the platform. You can't save me. No I can't save you. How do I get to Jesus Christ right now? I'm sitting here. I want to be saved. I've been longing to be saved for weeks. But how do I get to him right now in this service as I'm sitting here? You need a simple step of faith. It's coming saying Lord I believe that you're there and I'm going to ask you to save me now. Please forgive my sin and save my soul right now. Fred Elliot was probably one of our greatest preachers in the last century. He went to Aberdeen in 1925 and had a mission in Holborn Hall and there were 300 saved, 300 baptized, 300 added to the assembly and from 60 there were 360 at the end of the fifth week and that was repeated all over Britain. He was having a mission in a place called Coombram and there was a couple coming every night for two weeks and still they weren't saved. On the third Sunday he preached on the word come. I can't do it as he did it but he used to lean over the pulpit and with sweat pouring from him he used to plead with the people to come. The lady of this little family that was coming every night turned to her husband and she said I'm coming tonight John and she came out of the inquiry room almost jubilant with joy and she hugged her husband and she said I've come and I've been saved. He pushed her away and he said this, Mary you go your way I'm going my way and that's it. There wasn't a break in their marriage but there was a break in their friendship. The whole church meant for a night of prayer to pray for him but he didn't come to any more meetings. It was Sunday night and they felt sure that God would answer their prayer and bring him but he didn't come and he was alone with their little girl who was only five. Never despise a child. And the little girl said to her daddy, daddy can we play schools? He says all right and then he says I'll be the teacher and he knew she didn't like sums. He says we'll play sums. Two and two, four, four and one, five, five and four, oh it's her, nine, good 100%. Now let me be the teacher and she got up on a little stool and this is what she said. Say this after me daddy. Just as I am without one plea, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee and that thou bidst me come to thee. O Lamb of God I come, I come. They were silent. O Lamb of God I come, I come. They were silent. And then she says daddy, O Lamb of God I come, I come. He grabbed hold of her, took her upstairs without washing, changed her, put her in bed and she said this. Daddy you gave me a hundred percent. I can't give you a hundred percent. He went downstairs and he was reading the news of the world. And suddenly he threw it down and on his knees he cried out, O Lamb of God I come, I come. And he was gloriously silent. He went upstairs and disturbed the little girl and said, O Lamb of God I come, I come. She said a hundred percent daddy. Would you mind if I pointed? Would you like to come? Would you? Would you? And trust him now.