Repent, Believe and the Gospel of God — Charles E. Fuller

Christian Heritage Ministry, in cooperation with Fuller Seminary, proudly presents the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle. Without further ado, open your Bibles to the Little Book of Jonah, Chapter 3, as the broadcast gets underway.

In the chorus of number 134, when the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

Everyone singing out heartily and remain standing for prayer. Our son, Daniel Fuller, will lead us to the throne of grace.

Our Heavenly Father, we come into Thy presence today with thanksgiving and joy, rejoicing in the wonderful hope that we have as Christians and for all the blessings that we do possess. How thankful we are of the certainty of immortality and resurrection.

How thankful we are that the labor that we do in the flesh here upon this earth for Thee is not in vain. And Father, we're thankful also that we can come unto Thee and call Thee our Father, for truly Thou hast made us Thy sons through faith in Jesus Christ.

Today we pray especially that as this broadcast goes out throughout the land, that it may strengthen Christians everywhere. Especially be with those that are young Christians who are just babes in Christ.

We pray that the sincere milk of the word may be used to strengthen them and to build them up in the most holy faith. And also we pray for those Christians today who are going through times of trial and difficulty.

May they be able to resist the devil and may they be able to keep on believing in Jesus Christ. Also we pray for our rulers in this land of our blessed America. We pray that Thou wilt be with them and strengthen them and give them wisdom in these difficult and hard days.

We pray that the gospel may continue to be preached throughout this land and into other lands. And we pray that many may come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. And so bless this broadcast today in particular.

We pray that many who are now on the broad way to destruction may be awakened, that they may repent of their sins and they may believe on Jesus Christ. For we ask it in His name and for His sake. Amen.

Go right ahead, honey. Greetings to you, friends. A dear friend of ours of many years ago wrote a letter recently. He is Dr. Thomas Mosley, who with his wife was a missionary in Tibet for many years. He is now president of Nyack Missionary Training School in New York.

In memory I can hear his lovely voice singing, Where Jesus is, tis heaven to be. When he used to visit Mr. Fuller's Bible class nearly 30 years ago, he loves this radio ministry and he very kindly wrote to tell us of some of the fruitage of my husband's preaching, of which he heard.

He wrote, A woman was saved in New England listening to your program, and two weeks later her husband was converted listening to the same program. They joined a church and later moved to a farm in a new district where they began to testify for Christ.

God has blessed their efforts and 37 persons have been converted, 27 adults and 10 children. Now they are having services in their home and other homes, and soon a church is to be started. From Detroit, Detroit, a man writes, Dear Reverend, your program is very enlightening.

I shall look forward to the next one. I'm looking for a new life. I've been a sinner ever since I can remember, and now I do accept Christ as my Savior and salvation. From Pennsylvania, a man writes very enthusiastically, a serviceman, Dear Reverend Fuller, my home is in Texas, but Uncle Fram has called again, so here I am back in the Navy where I spent six years in the other war.

I then attended your Long Beach broadcast three times and I loved every minute of it. I like to hear Rudy play. I like to hear the audience sing, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, as well as Heavenly Sunshine.

And I like your chorus and your preaching. I like it all and I hope it is never changed. I only wish there were more down-to-earth preachers like you. Another man and I managed to hear you aboard ship, even if we have to put on earphones to drown out the bull session.

I have never been able to understand the Bible so well as when you explain it, Mr. Fuller, and you do it so easy-like. We're looking forward to next Sunday. A 19-year-old lad in Ireland is so glad that he's heard about the program.

He was first told about the hour by an unsaved boy, so by word of mouth, news of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour is circulating all over Great Britain. A man writes from England,. To date I have heard about six of your programs and I feel sure I am speaking for many other British listeners when I say it is the most beautiful and impressive sacred service that I have ever heard.

I am sure that as more and more people over here learn about the program, the numbers of listeners will increase. I suppose it is a time-worn saying that this old world needs a return to true religion and all that that means.

I am nobody of importance, just a tuberculosis case awaiting admission to a hospital, but I am one of the many who are enjoying this program to the fullest and feel that it is most refreshing and heart-searching.

And in all sincerity, I hope that its radius will be expanded still farther to bring joy and hope to suffering mankind. Another man writes from Britain,. And may I say that through these foreign stations, the program can receive no support, as none can be sent out of those countries.

Yet they are tremendously appreciative and are doing their best by word of mouth and other means to make the fact known that the Old Fashioned Revival Hour can be heard, and moreover, they are praying earnestly.

We should be most happy to hear conversions abroad, too, though we do appreciate all of the letters. Here is just a bit from a letter from abroad. Your service is very spiritual and true to God's word.

We appreciate that, but also we love the cheer of it here in Britain, for you all seem to be so happy. It lifts our spirits, too, as we look forward most eagerly to the hour which is the shortest of the week.

And then there's just one more letter I'll have time to read you today. It is a good one, I think, from Scotland. Dear friends, I feel I must tell you of our appreciation of your broadcasts, which are really a blessing.

In our town we have a population of about 15 ,000, and I earnestly believe that in at least 200 homes they are listening to your messages. And word is going from home to home that people can be blessed by listening.

Your broadcasts have certainly put a new zeal into my heart and a deeper desire for the things that really count. Our town is the most easterly point in Scotland, and the main industry is fishing. Many of these fishermen listen to your broadcasts out in their boats on the North Sea, and your chorus of heavenly sunshine comes to them through the storms all along the coast, and they hear the whole broadcast, music and preaching, with great blessing.

We're all so glad that we can hear you and pray that many, many more may hear and be saved. That is all I shall have time to read today, friends.

Home, I'm just a-passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, what will I do?

If heaven's not my home, then, Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. All expecting me, and that's one thing I know. I fixed it up with Jesus many years ago.

I know he'll take me through, though I am weak and poor, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. The Old-Fashioned Revival are with Dr. Charles E. Fuller.

The message for today is titled, Repent, Believe in the Gospel of God. I'll provide additional information after Dr. Fuller's message. Open your Bibles to the book of Mark, chapter 1, verse 14, as we rejoin the broadcast.

The Old-Fashioned Revival are brought to you by the Gospel Broadcasting Association from.

The Municipal Auditorium at Long Beach, California. This is Charles E. Fuller speaking. Open your Bibles and open quickly to the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, verses 14 and 15. Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Will you underline three words in that 15th verse as the basis of our message today? Underline the word repent, underline the word believe, underline the word gospel.

Could more be said in a few words than are said in this 15th verse of the first chapter of Mark? Words charged with eternal truth, words vibrating with solemn warning. Repent, believe the gospel. These words are positive, are penetrating, are personal.

Saying in brief, unless you do repent and believe the gospel, you'll die in your sins, and you cannot go where Jesus is. John the Baptist, we learn in verses 2 to 8, was the voice to prepare the way of the Lord.

Of all the four gospels, Mark says the least concerning John the Baptist. And we'll note, but I have not time in passing but briefly mention it, that John's message was repent, the Son of God is coming.

Therefore repent, turn about in your attitude towards God, and thus prepare the way. And the stern, unrelenting law of the Old Testament was characterized by John's message wrapped up in this one word, repent, repent, repent.

And the Lord's message begins where John's ended, repent and believe the gospel. And I want to say that even after the cross and the resurrection of Christ from the dead, this was Paul's message, for Paul testified according to Acts 20, 21, how he testified both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.

Repent, repentance, what is it? In Isaiah 45, 22, we find these words, look unto me and be ye saved, all ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. That is, do not look unto any other person, do not look unto any earthly organization or any group which may perchance call itself a church, but turn, look, turn about and look unto Jehovah God, for neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name unto heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Repent, look unto me, says Jehovah God. And according to Acts 17, 30, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And our Lord came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. And the Pharisee of all the self-righteous who felt no need of repentance, he looked inwardly towards himself and he said, in effect, I thank God that I'm not as other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this poor publican.

I fast twice in the week and I give tithes of all that I possess, and it's touching the law. He said in so many words, I'm blameless. I should be justified by my works of self-righteousness, the Pharisee of old says, and the self-righteous man of today says.

However, true repentance is exemplified by the publican, for he standing afar off, realizing his position as alienated from God, separated from the life of God because of sin, would not lift up so much as his eyes, but smote upon his breast.

Why? No peace. He's saying to himself, my heart is deceitful above everything else. I'm desperately wicked. And realizing that, he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That is, God, be propitiated.

That is, be towards me as thou art when I lookest upon the atoning blood, the blood-sprinkled mercy seat. And I am coming nigh by the blood of Christ. Cover me now with thy eternal robe of righteousness, and let me stand in thy presence at the blood-sprinkled mercy seat, covered not in my own robes of self-righteousness, but in Christ's righteousness, accepted in him and reconciled to thee through the substitutionary atoning work on Calvary's cross for me.

And if you are to be reconciled to God and brought nigh, let me say it with all the emphasis of my heart, there's no other means or basis except the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're brought nigh by his blood.

In the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses from all sin. And the Lord's verdict in these two cases regarding the Pharisee and the publican is this. I tell you, this man, the publican, went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee, for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbled himself shall be exalted.

Repent, Luke 13, 3, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, but be like David of old, sing and cry out, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto thy multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

For I acknowledge my transgression, my sin is ever before me, and against thee and thee only have I sinned. Purge me with hyssop, I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Repent, repent, repent, for except ye repent, ye shall perish and die in your sin.

And then the second word, O may God burn these words home to your heart, is the word believe. Now I want to make it as plain so that even a little child in the home listening to the Old Fashioned Revival Hour may understand and be saved today.

What does the word believe mean? Literally it means to have faith in. Let me put forth the meaning of this word in the words of the psalmist. In the 37th Psalm we have these words. Commit thy way unto him that is forsaking everything else, to turn your body, soul, and spirit over to Christ and Christ alone.

Commit, turn your life over to him. And the word trust, that is, means to lean upon, to rest upon him and him alone. Thus in the words of Paul to the anxious inquiring Philippian jailer who said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Paul replies to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That is, Philippian jailer, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust entirely and solely upon Christ. And the Philippian jailer obeyed from the heart, committed his way and trusted in Christ and believed the gospel for note.

In that 16th chapter of Acts, at the 33rd verse, we find these words, how that the jailer showed his faith by his works, where it reads as follows, He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he in all his straight way.

And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing fellowship follows after reconciliation. And the Philippian jailer was that minute placed into the body of Christ and he showed his works by inviting Paul and Silas into his home.

And I say to you that when you believe, you will manifest that belief by your works. For faith without works is dead. Repent and believe what? The gospel. For 34 years I've had the blessed privilege of preaching the gospel.

And every time I do preach the gospel, every Sunday and every time I'm speaking, I say it from the heart that the gospel becomes sweeter and sweeter and more satisfying than ever, than anything in this old world.

It's the gospel, the glad tiding. And the simplicity of it is this, but all the eternal depths and heights and lengths and breadth of it, we'll never be able to comprehend it until we get to glory. And the basis of that gospel is that Christ, God's Son, died for our sin.

And if you come, you must come the sinner way in repentance, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Come God's way, repenting and believing the gospel. And that gospel is this. Now notice it, please.

The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. The wages of sin is death. And if you go on in your sinning way, as I said a moment ago, you'll die in your sins. And where Jesus is, you cannot go. But it'll be eternal separation forever down through the eternal ages, upon ages forever without end.

But listen, though the wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God, though the sinner must die for his sin, yet I say to you that if he must die for his sin, there's a way out. And that is through Christ.

For if an innocent substitute dies in the sinner's place instead and pays the penalty for sin, God says, I'll accept that which is done in the place and stead of the sinner. And so 1900 years ago, Christ, who was rich in the love of the Father and the worship of the angels, came down from glory, born of a virgin, and took upon himself the form of sinful flesh and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

And for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and died there in your place and stead. And the gospel is that Christ, God's beloved Son, died for you, and now whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Repent, believe, not man's learning, not what the natural man may say about the things hereafter, for the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit. Natural man is dead in trespasses and sin, and all that we know about the hereafter is revealed in God's blessed, inspired book.

Repent, believe, not about something, but believe the gospel, and open your heart and appropriate and receive Christ, the Son of God, into your heart and believe upon him. Believe, trust, repose, lean upon the person and work of Christ and the cross of Calvary and his bodily resurrection from among the dead, and thou shalt be saved.

Believest thou this? If ye do, then come, confess your sin, be made whole, become a new creation in Christ Jesus. For God said, I will blot out of the thick cloud thy transgression. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.

For as far as the east is from the west, so far hath God removed our transgressions from us. Now faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word. You are saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Do you really believe? If you do, acknowledge it when the time comes and confess him before men. Let's bow our heads in prayer, no one stirring. Bowing before him and every soul outside of Christ, will you bow your head and pray the sinner's penitent prayer, God be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me for Christ's sake.

Oh, my God, this soul.

Your audience, wherever you may be, God is speaking to you. God said, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. He shall not come into judgment or condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.

Will you take God at his word? You're bound for a Christless eternity. In the outer darkness, separated from God, the God has brought you to the radio right at this moment. You've tuned in on the old-fashioned revival hour, and the Holy Spirit is pleading with you.

Kneel where you are and look up into the Father's face, for God says, Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. And Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father except by and through me.

Christ is the way. Christ is the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. While our heads are bowed in this splendid audience in Long Beach today, how many will quickly put their hands up and say, Brother Fuller, pray for me.

I here and now want to accept Christ as my personal Savior and be remembered in a word of prayer. Will you put your hand up and say for that? Pray for me. Just as we tarry here in the closing few precious seconds of the old-fashioned revival hour, who will be the first to put up his hand and say, Brother Fuller, pray for me.

I want to accept Christ as my personal Savior and be remembered. God bless you, my dear man over there. Anyone else, quickly as we bring the hour to a close, put your hand up. God bless you down here, marine boy.

Is there another one to put his hand up and say, Pray for me or her? Oh, we thank God for these that are raising their hands here in the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. Continue in prayer as we leave the air on this blessed gospel hour.

You could bind God's richest blessing upon you. Amen.