A street preacher was boldly proclaiming the gospel at a college campus. He was talking about sin, Heaven, Hell, and repentance. As he lovingly and passionately warned the college students about the eternal consequence of Hell, a college student began to raise his voice against the street preacher. “I’m a christian,” the college student announced, “And what this man is doing is unloving! Jesus accepts you and loves you. Am I’m sorry this man is giving Christians such a bad name.” Just then, another college student, an atheist, spoke up. The atheist asked the student, “Does the Bible teach that there’s a Hell?” The student paused for a moment and then answered with a stutter, “Yes, the Bible teaches there’s a Hell.” The atheist replied, “I’ve seen you on campus almost every week for the past year. You say you believe in Hell, yet not once have you ever warned me about it. I can only conclude one of two things: either you don’t really care about me, or you don’t really believe the Bible.”

We need to begin living and preaching repentance again.

We need to live in repentance, because God has called us to be holy.

14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14, NLT)

Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. (Matthew 3:8, NLT)

Repentance is the turning away from sin that comes about as the result of a changed mind. Far too many believers are stuck in sin because they imagine that repentance is simply feeling bad about wrongdoing. But to repent is to say, “God, I agree with you that this is wrong. I agree with you that it needs to be removed from my life, permanently, in every way. I will not return to it. I will not allow my flesh to try to keep it in small portions. I will cooperate with you in removing this from my life, for the rest of my life.”

To repent is to recognize that you’ll have to say “no” to what you desire.

To repent is to acknowledge that at no point in the future should you allow yourself even a taste of that which you sinfully desire.

To repent is to set aside whatever excuses you may have made for your wrongdoing.

To repent is to walk in holiness by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

And once we begin living it, we must preach it too, and boldly so.

When the Church is pure, the Church is powerful. When the Church is powerful, true and lasting transformation is brought about in the world.

I know it’s not popular to preach against sin. I know the trends of the day demand that we avoid the truths of the cross, the blood of Jesus, the evil of sin, and God’s ability to transform. But if we the Church don’t preach the gospel, nobody will. If we don’t warn the world about the consequences of its wickedness, nobody will.

In the book of Acts, we see that Peter preached repentance as a part of the new testament message.

18 But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. 19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. (Acts 3:18-19, NLT)

We see a similar message again in Acts 17:30.

God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. (Acts 17:30, NLT)

We’re so afraid of “turning people off” from the gospel that we try to modify the message, as if God didn’t get it right the first time. But understand this: it’s not our preaching of truth that turns people away from the gospel; it’s their desire for sin.

19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. (John 3:19-20, NLT)

Clearly, we are to both live and preach repentance. If you live repentance but don’t preach it, you’re being selfish. If you preach repentance but don’t live it, you’re being a hypocrite. If you both live and preach repentance, you’re being obedient to God.

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