Honesty (Times of Refreshing Radio) — Peter Brandon

Hello friends, this is Harry Venton speaking and it's my pleasure on behalf of the Voice of Melody team to extend to you all a very warm welcome to our program today. It is good to be with you and we are pleased you have tuned our way to enjoy 30 minutes of Christian Radio Fellowship.

Our esteemed friend Peter Brandon is with us again and later on the program he will share with you the second of his devotions on that wonderful verse in John chapter 5 and verse 24. It is our prayer and we trust through this presentation of times of refreshing that God will speak to your heart and you will be uplifted and spiritually blessed through the ministry we share with you today.

Let's listen together now to our first musical selection featuring David Will with the song You're the Only Jesus.

If not in you I wonder where. Will they ever see one who really cares. If not from you how will they find. There's one who heals the broken heart and gives sight to the blind. Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see.

And you're the only words of life some will ever read. So let them see in you the one who's all they'll ever need. Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see. And if not you wonder who will Show them.

Love and love alone can make things do. How will they learn hopelessness for joy in reading.

How true are the words of that song we have just listened to and how vitally important it is for the born again believer to live a life that bears testimony to the power of the gospel in their lives. In the book of Philippians chapter 1 and verse 27 we read of the Apostle Paul giving a word of encouragement to a group of Christians he had the joy and privilege of leading to Christ.

He said to them let your manner of life be as becometh the gospel. You see friends it was through hearing and believing the message of the gospel that brought them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

So therefore it is important that they demonstrate the effect the word of God had in their lives. My Christian friends are you a convincing witness to others? Do they see Jesus Christ living in and through you?

You know a living Christ in a living Christian is a living sermon. To witness effectively to the power of the gospel there must be union with the risen Christ. This union and vital relationship with him comes through an exercise of faith which makes his life and power available to us.

An intimate acquaintance with your Lord and Saviour is cultivated and maintained by spending time reading the word communion with him in prayer and obeying him in your daily life. Friends if you want your neighbours to know what Christ can do for them let them see what Christ has done for you.

There is a story told of a man who was referred to as being ignorant. However despite his intellectual handicap this man was saved through the revival in Ireland in 1859. He could do nothing more than tell what the Lord had done for his soul.

He went over to Scotland to work in some mills there and in the factory where he worked 1 ,300 people were employed. So great was the impression made upon them by his simple testimony that no less than 600 were led to Christ.

Friends let's be reminded of the words in 1 Timothy 4 .12 Be thou an example of the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith and in purity. Remember a Christian's life is the world's bible.

Now after we listen to our next recording Peter Brandon will share his devotion with you.

Let me introduce you to Jesus. He's the kind of man you've never met before. I believe your misconceptions will leave When they greet the man of freedom at your door Filling water when I'm dry Living breath to satisfy Life and truth and the way until I die Before we leave.

Don't you try to make it on without Jesus. Take a look at your ever-growing company. Such a crowd could never miss reality. But where's the love you seek from them? Where's the peace you've lost again?

Where's the answer you believed was with your friend?

Thank you again dear friends for the opportunity of speaking to you. You remember we took up that great study of authority, the words of Jesus Christ. Truly, truly I say to you. Now we're going to take up today the thought of honesty.

We all really like the truth but I'm sure sometimes we're afraid of it. Therefore the scripture says, and these are the words of Jesus, He that heareth my word or put in modern English He that hears my word.

Now some people in the scripture when they heard the word of God and when they heard the preaching they opened their ears. For instance we read of Lydia whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things that were spoken by Paul.

Then we read in scripture there were some people who heard the gospel especially when Paul was preaching and they heard him partially. They had an open ear until he mentioned the resurrection from the dead and then they switched off immediately.

Then there were those that heard Stephen preaching and he preached with such tremendous power and when he came to the end of his message he turned mainly to the Jewish people and they shut their ears.

They didn't want to hear anymore. Now my dear friends may I say this to you as kindly as I can. Have an open ear and the Lord will bless you. Hear says the scripture and your soul shall live. Now he says he that heareth my word.

You will notice they are the words of the Lord Jesus. They are not my words. They are not the words of a particular denomination. They are not the words of Parliament. They are the words of the Lord Jesus.

Now his words were divided into two. There were the light words and there were the love words. Now it's the light words that make us a little afraid. Let me give you a case in point so that we can see how sometimes we are afraid of the truth.

I remember staying with a man who had a brilliant German camera and he wanted to take my photograph. So I went into his studio and I looked in all different kinds of ways and he was clicking, clicking, clicking.

You know what they do in the studio. And then he said when the photographs are complete I'll send them to you. And it wasn't long before a letter came through the post and I opened this letter and inside were these photographs and when I saw them I got a shock.

Now first of all I must say it was just like me. But it brought out my bushy eyebrows the wrinkles under my eyes the two little moles that I have on my face and I was a bit disappointed. You see it was the absolute truth and I didn't like it.

Well we were having tea with a lady in England and we were talking about this particular good man and she said we used to be great friends but he took my photograph. And she went to the drawer and she threw the photographs on the table and she said do you think that looks like me?

Well when we looked at the photographs it was quite frankly an exact expression of her physiogamy. But she didn't like the truth in fact. That picture almost broke a friendship. You see I didn't like the truth this dear lady friend didn't like the truth.

And yet there it was a true picture of our physiogamy. Now dear friends could you ever imagine God telling lies about us? Impossible he wouldn't be God would he? And when God looks at the human heart that means when he looks at the seeds of our thoughts the seeds of our motives our principles he says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who would like their thought light expose? None of us. Then when God looks at our morals and we must remember he does this through the lens of the ten commandments and he looks at our life and he ticks off all the commandments we've broken he says there's none good no not one.

There's none that does righteousness. We've all gone out of the way. Now we may not like that but that's the truth. And then when God looks at our lives he pronounces a judgment he says the wages of sin is death that simply means he could not possibly have in his presence nor could he have in heaven people who were sinners.

Why? That would be perpetuating sin in heaven. So he has to separate sin from himself and he has to separate sin from that fear that he calls heaven. Now before we can become Christians we must accept those light words.

And when we're prepared to do that he comes in with his love words and those love words are beautifully portrayed in the Roman. And this is how Paul puts it that God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Now that is tremendous. Immediately we realize that our hearts are sinful immediately we realize we've broken the commandments and that we are guilty before God then God provides an answer. He tells us that he doesn't love our sins but he loves the sinner.

And he loves the sinner so realistically so down to earth that Christ died for our sin. When the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross he hung there for six hours. I find it hard friends to speak about the cross without being moved.

And three hours he suffered before men and three hours he suffered before God. And from the sixth hour there was darkness until the ninth hour. And in those three hours God brought sin together. God measured sin with his judgment and he brought that judgment upon his own beloved son.

And the Lord Jesus was made so much one with our sins he became a sin bearer. And he cried that prayer that baffles so many people. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, that's our state.

And he so realistically bore our state that he cried our language. But when it was all over he said, it is finished. And bowed his head and died. And therefore we have two great messages. God's light, God's love.

Beloved friends, there comes a moment in our experience when we see the light and we get a shock because we all think we're respectable people. But when God comes to us and reveals the state of our hearts we see that we're unclean in God's sight and we need forgiveness.

And then he gives us this wonderful surprise that God loves us, Christ died for us and he wants to forgive us. I wonder, dear friends, would you mind if I ask you a question? Have you ever really asked the Lord Jesus to cleanse you from your sin?

To come right into your life? Why not do it now? Wouldn't it be lovely if someone who for the first time realized that Christ died for their sin and in the presence of the cross you quietly asked the Lord Jesus to come into your life.

One person received this message and she wrote this beautiful prayer. Why not now pray it with me? Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.

In Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 we read these words. The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. One day an infidel named William Hone met a small boy who was reading the Bible.

Hone said to him, Why do you spend your time with a worthless book like that? The lad responded, It's the only thing that gives my sick mother any comfort. The man was moved by the youngster's simple comment and decided to read the Bible for himself.

As he did, the Spirit of God spoke to his heart. Some time later he wrote the following lines on one of the pages in his Bible. The proudest heart that ever beat hath been subdued in me. The wildest will that ever rose to scorn thy cause or aid thy foes is quelled, my God, by thee.

William Hone's life was transformed through the power of the Word of God. It broke down his stubborn will. It penetrated his hard heart, made him see the folly of his unbelief and caused him to turn to God in faith for salvation.

My dear friends, that same word, the Bible, still works wonders today. When faithfully presented and honestly received it convicts the sinner, edifies the believer, comforts the sorrowing, gives direction to the wandering, offers hope to the faltering and restores the erring.

The person who ignores or neglects the Bible is indeed foolish. But wise is the one who reads it, studies it and obeys it. And the Christian who uses it in witnessing will be effective. Remember, the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes it.

Friends, it's time to remind you of our cassette offer. This program has been recorded on cassette and is available to you free and postage paid. You may obtain your copy by mailing your request to Times of Refreshing Post Office Box 66 Lillydale 3140.

When writing, be sure to include in your letter this number 855. Cassette number 855. And the address again is Times of Refreshing Post Office Box 66 Lillydale 3140. Friends, this broadcast is a radio missionary outreach of the Christian Brethren Assemblies of Victoria and is made possible by God's provision through His people.

We thank you for your company today and we look forward to being with you next week, Lord willing. Till then, this is Harry Venton on behalf of Peter Brandon and the voice of Melody Victoria wishing you God's richest blessing.

Goodbye for now and remember keep looking up.