Repentance (Part 8), FAITH
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin M Overfield
Date: Fri, 5 May 2000
Repentance (Part 8), FAITH
"Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1:14, 15)
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)
The tract from which I obtained the outline on the fruits of repentance
(included in Repentance, Part 2) included faith as the 7th fruit. However,
faith as a condition of salvation is an additional step for the seeker to
take
in seeking God.*
True it is that many have seemed to exercise faith automatically once
they have truly repented; but, others have had need to be instructed and
encouraged to take God at His Word and to believe in Christ as their only
hope of salvation. Notice that Jesus said to "repent AND believe".
Many souls have taken quite some time to get to the place where their
repentance has become truly and fully old time Bible Repentance. Some
have taken hours, days, weeks, and -- in extreme cases -- even years to
"pray through" to a real experience of salvation. Many times the problem
has been that they were unwilling at some point to surrender to God. In
many cases, however, the seeker after God was ready to believe Him for
salvation, but, for whatever reason, would not do it.
Both repentance AND faith need not take a long time. Anyone who
truly wants to be saved can be saved today if he will "call upon the name
of the Lord" (Romans 10:13) with true repentance for sin and a simple
faith in God. "For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in
the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (II Corinthians 6:2).
God has promised to hear us AND to HELP us NOW! And all His
promises are certain. God cannot lie; Christ paid the price to redeem us;
and the Holy Spirit is near and ready to deliver by His limitless power.
Here I give a story from the Life of John Wesley Redfield to illustrate
the point:
"During the summer, while visiting in Stamford, as he passed a house one
day a lady called him in to see her husband who was in despair over the
doctrine of election. He had, in childhood, been taught the Calvinistic
faith,
and although he had been a Methodist for years, he could not shake off
entirely that teaching.
"Mr. Redfield asked him, 'How long have you been in this state of mind?'
"'For twenty years,' he replied. His wife said he would sometimes shut
himself up in a room and pray and groan for hours together without any
relief.
"Mr. Redfield said to him, 'Tell me as near as you can all about it.'
"'Oh,' said he, 'I am afraid that I am a reprobate; that Christ never died
for me. Sometimes I feel my heart a little softened, so I can weep a little;
and then I take comfort and hope that I am not lost. But the hardness
returns, and then I am in distress again.'
"'Well', said Mr. Redfield, 'I am not going to use any arguments against
that false doctrine; but I want you in your heart to say, I believe Jesus
died for me.'
"'Oh,' said he, 'I would not dare to do so wicked a thing, for if he did not
die for me, I should then be believing a lie.'
"'Never mind that,' said Mr. Redfield, 'for if Christ did not die for you,
according to this miserable doctrine, you are lost any way, and to believe
one more lie cannot make your case a great deal worse; you had better
risk it.'
"The old man repeated aloud, in measured tones, 'I believe that Jesus died
for ME. Oh, glory to God! I've got it! I've got it! I've got it.'
"Here Mr. Redfield saw demonstrated that one act of faith would do what
twenty years of praying had failed to do." **
"The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon
him in truth." (Psalm 145:18).
* For a more thorough explanation of faith as a condition of salvation see
Bible Note "What Must I Do to Be Saved?".
** Though I do have the book from which this excerpt comes (THE LIFE
OF REV. JOHN WESLEY REDFIELD, M.D., by J. G. Terrill), I copied
it from a CD produced by Holiness Data Ministries, which contains lots of
holiness books, sermons, and etc. Anyone interested in obtaining this CD
or more info may contact Brother Duane Maxey at [email protected].
I highly recommend the book AND Brother Maxey's CD.
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
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