07.27.07
Whatever Happened to Repentance Preaching
In New York City, you can visit church after church, from stately cathedrals to small congregations, and you’ll seldom hear a word preached about repentance. The same is true of many evangelical churches across America and worldwide. You can visit congregation after congregation for months on end, and never hear any mention of repentance. Of course, there are churches today that do not compromise on this important biblical doctrine. But a vast number of churches have decided that repentance is too offensive a message. In fact, entire denominations have de-emphasized it. In such churches, you can hear all about God’s love, his blessings, his precepts for coping with life, but not a word about godly sorrow for sin. You can hear messages on loving others and being a good, kind person. All of that is indeed scriptural. But you won’t hear a repentance message like the one Peter preached at Pentecost. His sermon led thousands to freedom in Christ.Many pastors today would be appalled at what Peter preached that day. Acts 2 gives us the context for the apostle’s powerful message: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).As this verse demonstrates, there must be a knowledge of sin before there can be true repentance. That is the purpose of the law, to awaken a sense of sin. And the hearts of those people in Jerusalem were stirred when they heard God’s Word and recognized their sin.Peter answered their desperate cries by instructing them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (2:38, my italics). What does it mean to repent?True repentance results in sorrow, remorse and regret over sin.
To repent is to experience such contrition as to change one’s way of life. Simply put, repentance is turning from one’s sin and going in the opposite direction.
Repentance is not meritorious. Only the sacrifice of Christ’s blood can forgive. But repentance is the only way to know true healing and rejoicing. There is no other way to enter the peace and rest of Christ except through the doors of repentance. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the fruit that results from repentance:
“Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death…For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear” (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
Let me give you the background of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He had exposed the sin of incest in their congregation, but nobody dealt with it. And because this awful sin was overlooked, there was no remorse among the people.
So Paul wrote the church an even stronger message. Now, as the people sat listening to his letter read aloud in the congregation, they were pricked at heart. And they repented, full of godly sorrow at not having faced the exceeding sin in their midst. That repentance brought great rejoicing.
Now Paul encouraged them, saying, “See what godly sorrow did for you? It wrought a carefulness in you. It brought an indignation against your own sin.” Repentance is the only way healing and strength can come to those who are caught up in sin.
Repentance and trust in Christ’s redeeming blood result in total remission of sin, and that means pardon, forgiveness and freedom from sin’s power. According to Paul, there can be no conversion, no freedom, no born-again miracle without repentance: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
Thus, Paul preached to the Athenians: “God…now commandeth all men every where to repent” (17:30). And Jesus tells us he came for that very purpose, “to call…sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). Perhaps clearest of all, Luke states, “It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47)…
The feel-good gospel is all mixed up about the love of God.
Multitudes today are flocking to meetings where a feel-good pastor tells them, “All you need to do is believe, and you’ll be born again.” This doctrine is built on a passage in Acts 16, where an unsaved jailer asked the apostles what he should do to be saved. Paul’s response was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).
Ministers who emphasize this doctrine forget that when the jailer approached the apostles, he was so convicted that he “came trembling, and fell down” (16:29). This man was so distraught he had even considered suicide. He had a sense of his own sin, and his awe of God led him to repentance.
The truth is, human compassion alone cannot convert anyone’s soul. It reaches only the flesh, unable to touch the deep places of the soul.
And it’s a truth that is at the very core of the gospel. It says that biblical reproof against sin - a message warning the sinner to run to the Cross or perish - is the greatest love message that can be offered to man.
Ministers who once avoided the repentance message are being convicted to preach it again.
The pastor of a mega-church recently fell under conviction over his light, easy messages. For weeks he struggled, thinking, “I’m not a true shepherd. I’m not giving the people what they need to grow and mature in Christ.”
So he changed his preaching to include repentance. At the time, his congregation numbered in the thousands. Then, once he started preaching repentance, he ended up with less than two hundred people. But he is fulfilled and blessed because he’s now seeing his people grow in Christ.
I have to wonder: Is this why so many pastors never preach repentance? Are they afraid of losing people? Do they fear being unable to make mortgage payments? Are they mindful of needing people to give more toward the church’s growing expenses? I’m convinced these things combine to persuade good men to preach a soft message.
At times I’ve wondered what it would be like for people in feel-good churches to hear a repentance message by their preacher. I picture multitudes filing in to hear his latest sermon. Yet, backstage this man is in the grip of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to him with powerful conviction:
“The day of the Lord is at hand. The handwriting is on the wall, and God will soon judge the nations. All things are being shaken, and men’s hearts will fail them for fear.
“Do not go out on that stage tonight and comfort the people in their sins. Many are soul sick and blind, like sheep gone astray. They are in turmoil, with painful family problems, addictions, bondages the enemy torments them with.
“If you won’t warn them, their blood will be on your hands. The prophet Ezekiel has warned that if you don’t blow the trumpet to warn the wicked, they will die in their iniquity and the Lord will require their blood at your hand.
“Go now, and warn the people to repent and forsake their evil ways. Never again choke my conviction, for it leads to life. Then comfort and encourage them.”
If that preacher were to obey, he would immediately witness two things: a mass exodus to the doors, and a fraction of the people left sitting stunned in their seats. After a few minutes, the preacher would begin to see tears and hear soft weeping. Finally, a voice would rise from among those who have stayed, asking, “What do we do now?”
”The time has come to confess, to weep, to make things right with the Lord.”
You can read this article in its entirety by David Wilkerson at www.worldchallenge.org.
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