Can We Be Sure of Eternal Life? — Peter Brandon

The Authority of Jesus Christ

Now our reading tonight is from John chapter 5, and these are the words of the Lord Jesus. And we're going to read from verse 17. And Jesus answered them, My father worketh, hitherto I work. Therefore the Jews sought the Lord to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God.

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickens whom he will.

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.

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 part from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.

They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of their nation. Now the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. The question has been put to me, and I believe it's an excellent question.

Assurance Through Grace Rather Than Religious Pride

Can we be sure now of eternal life? Now there's a proud way of looking at this. If a person were to say, well I've lived a good life, I attend a place of worship, I think I qualify. That would be a proud way of looking at that subject.

Or, if a person should say, I have been very religious, and I've been christened, confirmed, baptized by a merchant, take the communion, or perhaps take the mass, and therefore I believe I qualify. That would be a proud way of looking at it.

Now we want to eradicate that immediately. But if someone should come and say something like this, I realize that I was a worthless sinner, and I realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, and I receive forgiveness through his blood, and I receive the gift of eternal life, and it was all through his grace that I've been given eternal life.

Then that's the kind of assurance that we want to speak now. Now I was sitting down the other day, and I was thinking about this question, and four things came to my mind. If we are going to be sure of eternal life, not just life, eternal life, we must have absolute authority.

Not the authority from a brilliant man, not the authority of a church, something greater than that, real, divine, heavenly authority. Secondly, we must have true, genuine honesty. We must look at the word of God and say, now what does God say about me, and what does God say about his son?

And that demands a sense of honesty. Thirdly, if we are going to have life, an eternal life, you cannot give yourself life, and you certainly cannot give yourself eternal life. So it means that we've got to have total dependency on the giver.

And then lastly, can we be sure of this security that we have passed from death unto life, and now in this body we have eternal life. Real security. Now if we can get that, I believe all of us will get a blessing tonight.

“Verily, Verily”: The Divine Authority of Christ’s Word

So where's the authority? Now this is the scripture I'm going to share with you. Don't do it, because I shall be quoting it over and over again. John 5 verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Now we don't use that word verily.

If you went into a modern shop, any part of the western world, and you said to the man verily, verily, he'd open his eyes and say, where do you come from? He would think you would be a man from the moon.

It's old English. In fact it goes back almost two to three hundred years, and we don't use it today. The Greek word means amen. Amen. Now that's difficult. You will notice tonight, when I finish that prayer, I said amen.

What does that mean? Lord, grant it. And some of you said amen under your breath. Mind you, you should have let it come out of your breath, really, so that we're all together. So can you see, we make a petition and we say, Lord, grant it, if it is in accordance with your will.

God never does that. The Lord Jesus never spoke as coming from God. He always spoke as God. Now that's vital. Therefore he says, amen. Amen. What I'm going to promise, I will fulfill. Now that's authority.

And it's authority from heaven. The second meaning of the word is, of a truth, of a truth. Well that can be difficult. It can be paraphrased, truly, truly. Now you will agree with me when I say, it's very difficult for human beings to speak the absolute truth.

For instance, if I told you a story, and you repeated that story, you could not repeat that story verbatim, word by word. You would subtract or you would add. Not that you want to, but because of limitations.

There are no limitations with God. And therefore he is the very epitome of all truth. The embodiment of it. In him was the truth. And therefore when he speaks, he speaks with authority, and he says, of a truth, of a truth.

No one else can ever speak like that, but the Lord Jesus. And then you can actually translate the word, the scholars inform me, by saying, listen, listen. Sometimes when the Lord was speaking to the crowds, he would stop and he would say, now listen, listen, I'm going to say something that's vital.

In our family there were eight of us, five boys, three girls, all squashed in a small, three bedroom house in London. Four brothers in one room. And I could write a book what happened in that one room.

When we were going fishing, mother would call us, and she would do something like this. We would all be lined up, and she had rheumatism in that finger, and she would put it under our noses, and one eyebrow would go up, and one would go down, and she would say, listen, listen.

Now when mother said listen, we had to listen. Now that's exactly what the Lord would say. Listen, don't miss this, your life depends on it. So can you see now we're beginning to see what authority really means.

I say, well I was only thinking this afternoon the brilliant things that brilliant men have said. I remember at school having to learn quotes from Socrates, Aristotle, the great Greek philosophers, Plato, but I've nearly forgotten them all, and so have you.

Some of us can recall some of the stirring words of Churchill during the war, but most of his words have been forgotten. But here's the difference. The words of Jesus are more powerful today than when they were first spoken of.

More people are listening to Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history. His words are everlasting. You see he says, heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall endure forever. My dear friends, the elements of this book will be taken into heaven and this is an eternal book and that's why I want to sow his word right in your heart tonight.

So you can see now we're beginning to see authority. The word you is lovely. It can refer to a crowd but I'm not interested in crowds. It can refer to group society and families. That's lovely. But it can refer to an individual.

And I would like to think there's someone sitting here tonight and the Lord is going to speak to you personally and he's going to have a word for you just as you sit there. Now listen to the beauty of it.

Verily, verily I say unto you, you, you. He that heareth my word. Now the words of the Lord Jesus are divided into two. There are the light words. You say what do you mean by that? The truth words and the love words.

Facing the Truth About Human Sin

Now it's the truth words that frighten us. Someone said to me in England, an old Methodist, he said, Brother Brandon, none of us like the truth. Now that's right. Now can I give you a proof of that? I was once staying with a theologian called Wilcox and he said to me on one occasion, would you like your photograph taken Peter?

I said yes. So I went into his studio and he said I've got a brilliant German camera. And you know the idea. You look everywhere and think you'll get a good one. Well when those pictures came back I was shocked.

Now first of all I want to tell you it was the absolute truth. But it brought out these bushy eyebrows, the bags under my eyes, the mole here and I've got a small mole there and it was just like me. But I didn't like the truth.

We were having tea with another lady and I shan't mention any names now. And we were talking about this theologian and she said, we used to be great friends. But he took my photograph. Then she went to the drawer and I could see she was infuriated.

And she lifted the photographs and she threw them on the table and she said, do you think that's like me? Well it was a beauty. She had everything. But you see, I didn't like the truth. And she didn't like the truth.

Now I want to put a question to you. Do you think God could tell us lies? Could those penetrating eyes of Christ ever use exaggeration? Therefore when he takes an x-ray of the human family, it's absolutely exact spot on.

He looks at our hearts, the thoughts, the root of our being and he says, that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So that we get to the truth. Who would like their thoughts exposed?

Not one of us. Every single one of us has a lot to cover. And when God looks right at us, he sees our secret sins and he sees the principles behind them. In fact he sees the root of them and he says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Then he looks at our actions through the lens of the Ten Commandments and he takes off all the commandments we have broken and this is what he says, there's none righteous, no not one. Then he makes a sentence and what a sentence it is.

He says, the whole world guilty before God. Now dear friends, I do not want to say this brutally. I want to say this in love. It hurts me to say. But if ever you die in your sins, it will be an unsurpassed tragedy.

You will move into the realm of outer darkness forever. Now before a person can be made right with God, he's got to hear that, hear the scripture saying to him, the wages of sin is death and he's got to accept it.

Now some people can't face up to the truth. I was feeling unwell. Then the doctor sent me for an x-ray. Then I went to Canada. Then I had to come back and see the doctor. I never forget this. And he looked at the x-ray and he said, you need an immediate operation.

I almost fainted in the chair thinking I was fit. I said, sir, is it major or minor? He said, major to me, minor to you. Can I have a few hours to think about it? Only a few hours. Now friends, I've walked the streets of Bedford as a day's man.

I wasn't jumping for joy. But then my dear wife said, have it, face up to it. And I went and faced up to it and that's why I'm standing here. Now dear friends, if you're going to be right with God, you've got to face up to it.

Christ’s Sacrifice and God’s Love

And that's the first part of the truth, but all the love words. You listen to this. God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here's another scripture. Here in His love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be a mercy seat for our sins.

That means when Jesus Christ came into this world, He came into this world to die and on that cross, instead of us bearing the punishment of our sins, He bore the punishment and exhausted it and said, finished.

And the work is done. And here's a beautiful scripture. Listen to it. Once in the end of the age hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. No one will ever have the ability to love you like Jesus Christ.

He loved you unto death and bore your sins in His own body on the tree. But we mustn't leave Him there. This is what I love. This is what causes me to rejoice when I preach. God has raised Him from the dead.

Now let me say this again. I have been lecturing on the resurrection of Christ in most of our universities in Britain and I've never heard a good argument against it. The resurrection isn't a fairy story.

It's a glorious fact and therefore Christ has been raised from the dead and He is the universal Saviour and His longing to forgive you and come into your heart tonight. That's the hearing part. Now let's get the believing part.

Moving From Head Knowledge to Heart Faith

And believeth on him that saith it. Now here's a strange thing. Do you know in my own country I know people who have heard those facts for 30 years and they've never really believed. If you went up to them after a meeting and spoke to them and said don't you believe that you're a sinner?

Oh yeah. Well don't you understand that if you die in your sins God can't have you in heaven. You're lost. Oh yeah. Don't you realize that Christ came into the world to save you from sin? Yes. You believe that?

Yes. And don't you realize that He died on the cross for your sins? Oh yes I believe that. Well why don't you trust Him and receive Him? Don't know. You see they're so near. They believe it all but they've never come to the heart meaning of this word.

Now forgive me worrying you with the Greek it worries me sometimes but the word believe comes from a brilliant Greek word called pisteo and it has three meanings. To know what you believe so that when you become a Christian you never commit intellectual suicide.

You know the facts. You trust what you believe and then thirdly you are totally abandoned to the thing that you believe. With both our boys we had trouble with swimming and our first holiday was at a place called Frinton.

Frinton on sea. Lovely sand there. Not as good as yours but a lovely place. It was Monday morning and we couldn't get to the sea quick enough. We had a little beach hut. You don't see many of them here but crowds of them in England.

And we undressed and the boys were rushing to the sea. Now would you believe it before we went on holiday they were showing their mother all the strokes they were going to do in the sea. They got the life belt they put it round them and then they got their tummies on a chair and they were doing the breaststroke then the crawl and then they would turn round and do a backstroke and it all looked good.

You see they knew all about it but when they got to the water old father Neptune and it's cold there I can assure you you need to take a hot water bottle in with you and when they got to the water fear gripped them.

I could see it. Come on boys the life belt was all around them they knew all the strokes then I said come on boys and we got them thigh deep, chest deep now I said take your feet off the bottom and all I could hear was no no no no no no.

Do you know we spent the whole holiday trying to get them to take their feet off the bottom knew all about it the life belt all around them but wouldn't give themselves to it and then I did something that was wrong now in my family there's a streak of Jewishness.

I offered them a half a crown to do it and they wouldn't do it for that. I couldn't understand it. Well the next holiday we went to Frington and would you believe it. We had the same kind of agony and we saw our boys sitting on the circumference of the sea with the life belt all around them and all the other children splashing in the water.

Why? They wouldn't take their feet off the bottom. The third year I didn't worry about them and I was sitting in an old fashioned deck chair. You don't see them in Australia. I don't think reading CHM on Genesis.

It was lovely there I was in this book and all of a sudden I saw my elder boy running up the beach. Now you know when a child's excited his hair speaks, his eyebrows speak, everything speaks and he was dancing around me like a charismatic and he was saying done it!

I said whatever you've done he said I've taken my feet off the bottom and it works. The thrill of it. The last holiday we had together was in Lux my wife and I went out a quarter of a mile. Well that was our distance and our two boys went all the way to Millport three and a half miles and it started when one took his feet off the bottom.

That's it. There comes a moment when you stand before the Lord Jesus in all his risen power the one who hung upon the cross for your sin and he calls you to believe. He doesn't want head nodding knowledge.

He wants this heart faith where you say Lord I'm going to trust you now to forgive me and come into my life. And it's that act of faith taking your feet off the bottom that brings you into eternal life.

Now could I stop and ask a question. Are you prepared to do that now. Don't wait for the end of the meeting. Now would you mind if I spoke to certain individuals I won't call the name but there are individuals here almost there.

I believe there's a young woman here tonight and you've had this head knowledge all through your life. But you've never taken your feet off the bottom and trusted him. You may be even breaking bread but you've just got this head knowledge.

It's not this heart faith. Get right tonight. Now there's some of you who have come every night and you're almost there. What he wants you to do now switch off from me. Bow your head and say Lord Jesus at this moment I'm going to ask you to save me and come right into my life.

I'm going to trust you. I'm taking my feet off the bottom and right there God will meet you and give you eternal life. And then lastly and with this I'll close and believe it on him that sent me has everlasting life.

Eternal Life as Christ’s Indwelling Gift

Now what does that mean. Now already we have dealt with the subject of life and we have noticed that eternal life is the life of the Lord Jesus in him was life and the life was the life of men again. John 17.

This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And therefore when a person comes into possession of eternal life it's the Lord Jesus living in them.

Now we come to a problem. How can the Lord Jesus as a man at God's right hand live within us. That's what some ladies said to me in the heart of London about two years ago. How can he be up there and down here.

Well he has sent the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit of God is in this building tonight. Now please do watch this. What God wants to do in your life right now is to cleanse you. And he wants to cleanse you through the precious blood of Christ.

That doesn't mean to say he takes you and washes you in blood but through the cross of the Lord Jesus. This gives God the right to righteously forgive you. And when he forgives you he forgives you on the grounds of what Jesus did on the cross.

So it's a once and for all forgiveness. And once you have been forgiven into your life there comes the Holy Spirit and you have within your life eternal life. And that's the greatest gift of all. You know when I look at Christians here there are at least 80 people here tonight who will never never die physically they may die but the person within them will go on living forever and absent from the body present with the Lord.

One of the most wonderful things I've ever seen was to see old Grandad Tryon die. He was the first man to lack rupuns and win it for Napier. And he did that for 7 years running and then in a crash he called on the Lord to save him and he became a beautiful Christian.

And at the age of 86 he knew he was going and we watched dear Grandad Tryon and it was lovely to see him passing out of his body right into the presence of the Lord. Why? He had the gift of eternal life.

So can you see the beauty of this? He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life and it's a gift from God. But now I must close. I believe there are some here and you've been leaving the service because you've been nearly every night you have been home and you have been pleading with the Lord to save you but you haven't got through.

Trusting Christ’s Word Rather Than Feelings

Isn't that right? And then you come again and you hear the message and it stirs you and you say right I'll try again. And you kneel down and you ask the Lord to save you but you don't get through. Well about 15 years ago I was having house meetings in Glasgow and most of the people were from the Church of Scotland.

And may I say this. They were delightful people. Now can I repeat that? They were delightful people. And I was there for about 4 Tuesdays and one day I spoke on sin. The next time I spoke on the Lord Jesus and the cross.

And then I spoke on the resurrection. And then I spoke on reception whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then the mission went on. And so I had another Tuesday so I said I want all those people to come next week who really do want to believe and give the Lord this heart faith.

And four turned up. One lady had to go. One man was the elder in this local church. The other lady was his wife. And there was another lady that we might call a VIP and she came to this meeting. And then I said to them I'm not going to speak to you.

I want you to tell me how you reacted to my message. So the elder was the first one to speak. He said when you spoke about the fact that we were all sinners and we had broken the commandments. I was upset but he said I did my homework.

I got out the 10 commandments. And as you said I looked at the sermon on the mount and I discovered you were right. We have sinned many times and I realise I'm guilty before God. And inwardly I said praise the Lord.

You see you can't become a Christian till you understand that. Then he said the night you spoke on the cross. Well he said it was like a revelation. I said what do you mean. Well he said I've been helping the minister with the Holy Communion.

We have it 3 or 4 times a year. And I've taught the people Christ died for our sins. But he said it dawned upon me he died for my sins and my sins put him there. I said do you understand that. Yes he said I understand it.

Now forgive me saying this inwardly. I didn't tell him. I said hallelujah. That's divine revelation. But he said Mr. Brandon I've got a problem. He said when you gave me that verse whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.

I went home asked the Lord to save me. Nothing happened. And he said I've been calling upon the Lord all the week to save me. Now I felt sorry for his wife. She looked and she said Herbert why didn't you tell me you were going through this.

I've been through it and I've been calling upon the name of the Lord. In a separate room I didn't want to upset you but nothing happened. And would you believe it. This other lady chipped in and said well I can't understand this.

This is what I've been going through she said. And I've been asking the Lord to save me. But nothing seems to happen. And so I got a little excited and I said this you're almost there. You probably may be in but two things are vital.

You've got to trust Christ and trust his word not your feelings. His word. I said would one of you like to read the scripture. Well the lady that we're going to call a VIP she said I'll read it. So she took off her glasses and she put on her reading glasses and she read this verse just like this.

Verily verily I say unto you would that refer to me when I read it. You he that heareth my word. Well we've heard that haven't we. And believeth on him that sent me. Oh I see it. What's that. My faith isn't great enough.

No I said it's not a great faith in a little saviour. It's a little faith in a great saviour. Oh believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. And she turned to the elder and she said this. Well I do hope I've got eternal life.

I said you haven't got it dear. Why not. Well his saying has you're saying hope you're not believing him. Oh she said can I read it. I said if you like so back went the glasses and she read it like this.

Verily verily I say unto you I've got that. Then she looked up and said could that refer to me. Yes he that heareth my word I've heard that and believeth on him that sent me. I do believe hath everlasting life.

And she turned to the elder and said well I do sincerely hope I've got it. And he was staring. I said you haven't got it. Dear the Lord is saying has. And you're contradicting him. You're making him a liar.

He says has now. I said it's not the word that saves you. It's the Lord Jesus that saves you. And you've got to get hold of him. And I said you've got to believe his word. Do you know what she said. Would you let me read it again.

I said if you like back went the glasses and she almost stared through the pages. And this is how she read it. Verily verily I say unto you that's clear. He that heareth my word that's clear and believeth on him that sent me Lord.

I do believe has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. And with a long face she said to the elder according to Jesus I've got it. I said say that again with a long face according to Jesus I've got it.

I said say that again according to Jesus I've got it. Thank God. She says I've got it now have you got it. She trusted him and his word and passed into everlasting life. And so did the elder and so did his wife.

The room was filled with holy joy. Oh may God bring you all into that blessing right. Now.