How to Receive Christ — Peter Brandon

Receiving Christ as Savior

Our subject is quite basic, how to receive Christ as Saviour. Trust that this might be a blessing to all. Shall we turn to the scripture? We're going to read John's Gospel, Chapter 1. And we'll start at that one.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was light, and the light was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.

He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighted every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.

He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness of all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared heaven. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word. An old couple was coming to the actual meeting every night in Dunstable.

And then we had a particular meeting for the senior citizens, and a dinner was given to them. And I was sitting near to this aged couple, and I said to them, Have you been helped by the meetings? And they both said yes.

I said, Do you mind if I put to you a question? Have you received Christ as your Saviour? Well he said, Not yet, we don't know how to do it. Well I said, You must receive him as your Saviour, and then you must receive him as your Sovereign, and then you have received him.

Yes he said, But we don't know how to receive him. So I said again, Well you must receive him as your Saviour, and you must receive him as your Sovereign, your Lord. Yes he said emphatically, But Mr. Brandon, we don't know how to receive him.

So I looked and said, Well you must receive him as your own personal Saviour into your life, and then he must become the Master, the Boss, the Lord of your life. But then he got a little excited and perspirated, and he said, But look, we don't know what to do.

What do you have to do to receive him? How is it done? And then of course I realised that I had been making a mistake. I'd been telling people to receive Christ, but didn't tell them just how to do it.

And I had to say to the man and his wife, Well when you're ready, you must get down on your knees, and ask the Lord Jesus by prayer to simply come into your life and save you and forgive you. Now he said, That's what we wanted to know, how to make the final contact.

Rejecting Christ Despite His Revelation

Now my dear friends, what I want to do tonight, is to show you very simply, and I'm not going to keep you long tonight, on how to receive Jesus Christ as your own Saviour. Now first of all, notice the negative.

He came unto his own people, and his own people received him not. The Lord Jesus came to the Jewish people with all the prophecies behind him, concerning his birth, concerning his life, concerning some of the miracles that he would perform, concerning his death, concerning his burial, concerning his resurrection, and even concerning his ascension.

So that when he came prophetically from the scriptures, they would easily be able to identify him, but they didn't receive him. And then he came to them in absolute purity, so for the first time they saw moving among them a man that never could sin.

Must have been wonderful to see that. In fact he could say to people who positively hated him, Which of you convinces me of sin, and not one of them could point the accusing finger. But they didn't receive him.

He came to them with marvellous signs of divinity, so that they saw actually with their eyes, people who were born blind seeing. They saw people who had never walked, and we would call them perhaps spastics.

And they actually saw them walking. They actually saw a man who had been dead four days, and his body was in the state of corrupting, it was decomposing, and they saw that man actually coming out of the grave with all his grey clothes.

And seeing these outstanding miracles that were signs of his divinity, they still rejected him. He came to them sacrificially, even when they nailed him upon the cross, and they crushed upon his head a crown of thorns, and into the very wounds that their hands had made, they inserted their vile spittle.

And when they had done their ugliness and their work, so that they suspended him betwixt heaven and earth, and that meant he was not fit for the gods, he was not fit for earth, and so they dangled him between heaven and earth.

He met all their hatred with these words of love, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. But they didn't receive him. He was raised from the dead with mighty power, and he said to his apostles, who received special signs of power, to show that Jesus was raised from the dead, that they were to go only to the house of Israel, and quite frankly, they saw wonderful miracles, they heard penetrating words, that they couldn't gain faith, that they didn't receive him.

Israel's Rejection and the Warning to Gentiles

And then at last, God gave them their last supernatural manifestation, and he lit up a man's face like an angel, because the law was given because of angels, or through angels, and therefore God made his face light up as an angel, and that man even gave the greatest message, that will ever be given in history.

It was full of penetrating power, and when they heard it, they were cut to the heart, and they felt it. And then God pulled down the shutters, he closed every door, and Israel became a desolate nation.

And because they rejected the Lord Jesus, ladies and gentlemen, for two thousand years they have suffered. Six million Jews were gassed in the last war, we have just recently heard, that Stalin had slaughtered three million, and we can see even today, there are nations that want to exterminate them, and there will come a moment very shortly, when the whole world will gang up against Israel.

Why? Because they rejected their Messiah. Now isn't that a lesson to us Gentiles, that we can't afford to reject or neglect the Lord Jesus. May I say this to you carefully, with great love, I do not want to say this with a vindictive voice, but there are millions in hell tonight, who are there because they rejected, or neglected the Lord Jesus.

And that is why the most serious thing, that anyone can commit, is not murder, or adultery, or child abuse, or homosexuality, it's to reject Christ. In fact there is only one thing tonight, that the Holy Spirit will convict us of, and that's the sin of unbelief, and that's rejection.

And you know every time I preach the gospel, I see people neglecting and rejecting Christ. And they don't realize it, that they are writing their deemed sentence. Oh don't do that tonight. And then he turns from them and he says, that as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Receiving Christ as Sin Bearer

Now how should we receive the Lord Jesus? First of all, we should receive him as our sin bearer. There are two kinds of human beings, and only two. There is the sinner, that is in his sins, and will bear the consequences of his sins.

And there is the sinner that trusted Christ, and praised God, his sins have been put on the Lord Jesus. And therefore it's as simple as this. You bear your sins, you dine your sins, or someone else bears them for you.

And thank God, that's the Lord Jesus. In order to get this point home to boys and girls, in the old country, what I do is this, and I wish I could do it sometimes before I go, because sometimes a demonstration gets over the truth far more than words.

And I put on a tattered gown, like an old-fashioned schoolmaster. And then I tell the boys and girls, we're going back 100 years. And we're not going to be alive in 1991, we're going to be alive in the year 1856.

And I'm a good schoolmaster, I say, and a loving schoolmaster, but I want the best out of my boys and girls. And then I find that there are some children who are constantly rebellious, so I make two laws.

And I put them on this big board. You shall not talk. You must not be disobedient. Disobedient, two cuts of the cane. Now, I say to the boys and girls, I put that up in order to stop the rebellion, I put that up in order to stop the talking, so that we might have a happy classroom.

Now, if you break that law, you are guilty. And they all say, yes sir, we understand. I'm marking the register, and I'm calling out the names, and all of a sudden, I see two boys talking. What are they doing?

They're breaking my law. So being a loving headmaster, I let them go on. Perhaps they will stop with their skills talking. And so I put down the pen, and I say with a strong, censorious voice, those two boys get the cane and the box.

It's like the dead, then. They can't believe it. And then I say to them, now why are you two boys being punished? Because we broke your law, sir. And why must I punish you? Because you must be judged.

Sin, Judgment, and the Need for Atonement

Now, all of us have broken the law of God. Every one of us. And we've broken it over and over again. And they're called the Ten Commandments. And God only has one punishment, and that's death. And that means separation from God.

You see, God cannot have functional sins in his presence, because he is infinitely holy. And if we die in our sins, it means that we're eternally separated from God. The two boys go and see the headmaster.

And just before they go in and see the headmaster in those days, they would go to the bathroom or the cloakroom and rub piles of white soap on their hands so that it would take away the sin of the case.

And sometimes the boys would put an old-fashioned paper-thin book down their trousers so that the impact wouldn't be so great. But the masters knew all these things. So they've gone away to get the cane, and I have in that class my own son, and a lovely boy by pretending.

And he comes forward and he says, Dad, those two boys are my best friends. Oh yes. Can't you let them off? Of course not. They have broken the law, they must be punished. If I don't punish those boys, we shall have rebellion in the school.

And we can't have rebellion. I must have peace and happiness for all the children. We can't have riot in the class. They must be punished. All right, he says, Dad, I'll bear the punishment. And I'm rather shaken.

You see, my boy is completely innocent. He's a good lad. And he wants to bear their punishment because he loves them. The two boys come back, white and sickly looking, and they're shaking for fear. And I say to one boy, whose name is Cop, now why am I going to punish you?

Because I have broken the law. Do you deserve it? I certainly do, sir. Right, hold your hand out. And he holds his hand out, and I bend the cane. And then my boy, without saying a word, he steps in between that boy and me, and he becomes a mediator.

And when I bring down the cane, it's going to hurt me just as much as my own son. Why, it's like caning myself when I cane him. And I bring the cane down as though it's going to hit that boy who was an offender of my law, but I bring it right on my own son, both handed.

And his hands bubble with pain. And the other boy goes free. Now I say to the other boy, whose name is Brown, now then, laddie, why am I going to punish you? And he looks at my son with an appealing look, and he says, because I've broken your law.

And do you deserve the cane? Yes, I do, sir. And my boy doesn't say a word. He steps in between me and that boy, and holds out his blistered hand. In one way, I don't want to do it. In one way, I'm caning myself.

I'm together with my son in this punishment. But I bring down the cane as though I was going to bring it down upon Brown. And I bring it on the hands of my own son. And his hands bleed. My son suffers.

So those two boys disobeyed. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, he waited until God brought the whole of the sin question to death. He waited until God measured its infinite justice. And if I now may paraphrase divine language, he said this, O God, take that sword of judgment, stake my sister, my sister.

Jehovah lifted up the rod of death to Christ, Exalambres. And when sin and judgment was placed upon his own son, he cried out in language, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? And when all was exhausted, he cried it is finished, and gave back his own spirit to the cross.

And that was the greatest act of love that this world has ever seen. My dear friends, if you could see one sin, and its awfulness, and if you could see the consequences of one sin being judgment, and you were asked to bear that one sin for another person, if that were possible, you would never, never, never do it.

Can I go deeper? If God tonight, lifted back the great of the abyss of darkness, and we could see what it was to be in outer darkness, that place that the Bible calls hell, for one second, we would never bear that for another man.

But Jesus Christ saw it all on the cross. And then we say to these boys that were rebellious, what would you say to my son in the playground? You would say, show me your hands, and he would. And they're all bleeding.

And then you would say something like this, I caused all that trouble through my rebelliousness, and he brought it. And two things would happen, you would say something like this, Frank, I shall never talk again in the classroom.

I'm finished with it. Thank you. Thank you for bearing the punishment for me. And then we ask the question, have you ever turned from your sins because Jesus Christ was crucified for your sins? Have you ever thanked him, and received him as you said?

You see, that's what it means to receive him as a sin bearer. It means to turn from your sins because you see your sins putting him on the cross, and it means to thank him by receiving it. But I could almost hear what another person is saying.

Living the Christian Life Through Christ's Power

Over and over again, especially in London, I've heard people saying this to me. Yes, in a meeting like this, Mr. Brandon, I could receive the Savior. In a meeting like this, right now I could bow my head and thank the Lord Jesus for dying for me and ask for forgiveness.

But this is my problem. How am I going to live that life in the factory? One man said this to me. Have you ever been in a modern factory and have you ever seen the pornographic literature over all the lockers?

Have you ever listened to their conversations? I said yes, I was in the Navy. Well, he said, do you know the difficulty of living Christ in a factory? Another girl said this to me. I'm at university. I'm 18 years of age.

There's not one girl that's a virgin in our particular college. How can I live the Christian life there? It's utterly impossible. Said a businessman to me. He said, look Peter, have you ever been in a boardroom when they're discussing business?

It's almost impossible to be absolutely honest. I would like to receive Christ as my Savior, but how could I live an honest life? I said you couldn't. Once our sins are forgiven, there's not a single man that could live the Christian life.

I shall never forget as a young sailor at 18 years of age when I went aboard the HMS Nelson and there was a mess deck there that had 500 matelots. And I can assure you they weren't all singing onward Christian soldiers and Jesus bid to shine.

If I described that scene to you, you probably wouldn't believe it. And I remember with my kit bag and my hammock standing up and looking across there and saying, Lord, how can I live the Christian life here?

Well, I couldn't. God, he can give you special power to live that life. Now let me illustrate. A young man went to school before the war and quite frankly he was a wizard at maths but hopeless at art.

The New Birth and Christ Living in the Believer

And every time he went into the art class it was like having a bad nightmare. He hated it. But every boy before the war had to have a basin of art. Thursday afternoon, three o 'clock was agonising for the boy.

And as he lined up outside the classroom to go in many times he said with sheer determination well whatever he puts before me I'm going to try and paint it today. Well he got into the art room and fortunately there was a seat at the back so that he thought no one could see him.

And there in front of all the boys was a lovely rose and they were told to paint that. Well the moment he picked up the paintbrush he hadn't got a dog's chance he held the paintbrush like a cricket bat.

And there he was trying to paint. But he had real determination and there he was trying to paint and a spot of paint went on this side of the paper another side of the paper he wiped his face and of course got it all round his nose and mouth and then he looked up at his masterpiece after he had been struggling for about 20 minutes and it was like the world in its chaotic state.

It was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the beast. And he was sweating, struggling, trying to paint and unbeknown to him in his intensity the art master somehow got behind the seat that was almost up against the wall.

And when he threw down the brush denoting that he was finished he slapped him on the shoulder and I'll give him another name and he said Johnson, you're absolutely hopeless. He looked up and said, agreed sir.

He says now what are you going to do with that masterpiece? He never said a word, he grabbed hold of it screwed it into the tightest ball that was possible and said can I serve you? And he went out to the waste paper basket and threw it in and under his breath he said Hooray!

He was glad to see the back of it. There comes a time in your life when you come to God and you say Lord I've made a mess of it completely. The greatest moralist that ever lived actually said this Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death.

You see the moment you get to a point where you realise you cannot even keep the dictates of your own conscience you certainly can't keep the ten commandments and when you come to Jesus Christ you come far short of his moral standards and when you see yourself as God sees you you realise what a mess you're in and realise you just want to finish with it all like he did with that painting.

When he came back the art master said to him Now then Johnson I want you to clean your paint so he did and then he chuckled and he said Do you call that clean? He said clean all the enamel, clean the dead.

That's filthy! So he cleaned it again. He said Johnson you call that clean? Do you really think that's clean? Well he said it's good enough for me. Well he said it's not good enough for me. And so the art master in his grave cleaned again cleaned his painting.

Now he says that's how I want it. You'll never have a new life until God has cleansed you through his precious blood. Your life might be good enough for you but it's not good enough for God and there's only one way in which you can be cleansed and that's through the death of Christ and when God forgives you through that death he forgives you once and for all because he dies for sin once and for all.

Now he said get a new piece of paper and he did and can you see the beauty of that desk? Clean desk clean paint clean water clean brushes and now a completely new piece of paper and that's what the Lord does.

The moment you have been cleansed he puts the Holy Spirit within you and you are born anew and you are made a new Christian. It's not a patched up old life. Forgive my excitement. It's a completely new life.

Right he says. Take hold of the paintbrush. Oh dear, dear, dear, dear. He says don't hold it like that lad. Hold it like that. And he did. And then he slipped his hand over his and they started to paint a rose and the boy could see it coming and he was getting so excited as the art master was painting through him that his eyes nearly came out on his cheek and there he could see a rose coming.

Now he says why couldn't I do it? Look at it now. But you see the art master was painting through him. And that's Christianity. Listen to what Paul says. I am crucified with Christ. That's my old sinful life.

Nevertheless I live. Yet not I. But Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see he put his life in us by the power of the Spirit and he lived his life through us.

Halfway through the painting the art master stopped and said Laddie Let your hand go limp. And he looked at the lad and said You don't understand what I mean do you? Let your hand go like a piece of wet tissue.

And he knew that language. And then unreservedly he gave himself to the art master. That's what we must all do. The moment the Holy Spirit comes in. Do watch this. He wants to relive the life of Jesus in us.

Thinking through our minds Seeing through our eyes Speaking with our lips Listening with our ears Serving with our hands Loving through our hearts Walking in our feet. So that it's Christ reliving his life in us.

And in order to do that We must be totally given to him. When it was all over The art master had gone Craftily he put his name underneath Like the artist. And then asked the art master if he could take it home.

His father had died And his mother was at work Keeping him at school. And they had an old fashioned wooden mantelpiece. I can't describe that to you here But some of you might know. And he went up And he pinned that right on the wooden chariot.

He was doing his maths. And his mother came home. And she didn't say a word. Nor neither did he. And she looked at that painting very carefully. And she looked at the initials And she looked at him. Now I'm going to give you what she said verbatim to the boy.

It's rather crude but this is what she said. Liar! This is what he means Liar! He said I painted that. You painted that? Did you hold the brush? Yes. And did you put the brush to the paper? Yes. And you painted that with your own hands?

Yes. Well she said the days of miracles are not over. And that's Christianity. It's Jesus Christ Reliving His life In you. That's why the scripture says Christ Our life Shall appear. You see Christianity isn't your best hobby.

When you become a Christian Christ is your life. Your old life dies And you relive Jesus Christ. Now I can almost hear someone saying And with this I'll close. How do we get to a point then when we receive him?

Receiving Jesus as Sovereign and Lord

The last step is not only receiving with my sin bearer My saviour But my sovereign. Now may I say this to Christian people. We are scared To preach sovereignty in the gospel. And that's why we have Scores of weak Christians When you believe You just don't believe in Jesus.

You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's making Jesus Your sovereign And making the Lord Jesus your saviour. Now what does it mean to make him your sovereign? In the Gulf War The other day An American officer Came Unexpectedly In front of 20 Iraqis Who were in a trench.

He held over them A hand grenade That could have blown them to pieces. And he said I'll give you 5 seconds To surrender. And he held that over them. All of a sudden the white flags went up. Right out you come.

And then he put down the grenade. But they surrendered to his lordship Because of a grenade The Lord Jesus never deserved. In the Old Testament. There was a man That had a real good master And he was a slave.

And after 7 years They could be exempt from slavery. And his 7th year Was coming up. And he started to calculate. And the master came to him And he said His name was Joseph. Joseph next year you can go out Free as you like.

I hope I've been a very good master. And Joseph started to calculate. And he said I love my master. I love him. I couldn't get a better master. I love my wife that he's given me. I love my 2 little children.

I'm not going out free. I want to be his slave forever. So he went along to see his master. And he said very devotionally Master I've got something to say to you. What's that? I've been working for you For 7 years.

And you've been a wonderful master to me. You've been great. I've never seen you lose your temper. I've never been disappointed with you. I'm sorry I've been a disappointment Sometimes to you. But you've never been a disappointment to me.

You've given me a lovely wife. I've got those 2 lovely children. I don't want to go out free. I want to be yours forever. The master would say I'm pleased to hear that. Would you allow me To take you to the judges.

And would you allow those judges To come to our door. Yes. And would you allow those judges To allow me To take an oar. Here it is A small oar And pierce your ear And you'll be mine forever. Master. I don't want to go out free.

I want to be yours forever. So they went to the judges. The judges came to the house And there would be a crowd of people around the house. And then the judges would say this Joseph Levi Are you prepared to be this man's servant forever.

I am. Has there been any enforcement To make you say that statement. No sir I do it of my own free will. Joseph Levi On account of your statement I'm going to ask your master Right now To put a hole in your ear By his daughter.

And he would take the oar And he would go back to the place. And they would all be watching. And then as quick as lightning He would do it Pierce. And he would say Master you're forever. And he became His Lord.

Jesus Christ never holds. The hand grenade over you And says surrender. Come to you with his pierced hand His ribbon flower. And he says surrender to my love. Who's going to receive. Now I'm going right back To that first story.

The Call to Personal Faith and Surrender

That old couple Came with me Into a little room with my wife. And just before they knelt down To receive him. I said this Sir Do you realise you're a sinner. He said I do. Do you believe that Christ died for you.

Yes I do With all my heart. Are you willing to make Jesus Your Lord and Master. He said I am And then I said to his wife What about you dear. Oh she said I've been wanting to do this For a long while but I didn't know how.

And then I read this verse to them. Everyone that calls On the name of the Lord Shall be saved. And they knelt down And right in their hearts. They told the Lord About their sins. And they quietly said this Lord Jesus Come in and save us And be the Lord of our lives.

And hallelujah. They were both They received him. Now don't raise your hand. If there's someone That would like to receive him Right now Then let Starhead can do it Right now.