Repentance and faith cannot exist without each other.
True repentance involves seeing sin for what it really is; not just a character defect, but a permanent attitude of rebellion against the love and care and righteous authority of God. It is this new understanding of God and of one’s own sin that leads to true repentance. There will also be a great desire to break with the past and to live in future only to please God (Acts 26:20). That is repentance.
Faith is an unwavering trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour to deal with sin (Acts 20:21; Romans 3:25). It is not merely an intellectual assent to a set of doctrines, but a coming to Christ in repentance, crying for mercy. Faith hears the truth of the gospel, believes it and then acts upon it. Saving faith progresses from a belief in certain facts to a real trusting in Christ and what he has done on our behalf and for our salvation. Faith is a re­sponse of the mind and heart to the Saviour of whom the gospel speaks (1 Peter 1:21).
Conviction of sin, repentance and faith are the biblical way and are far removed from an easy believism or a mouthing of the so called prayer of faith.

In the last 150 years or so the sinners prayer has become an indispensable part of evangelism. It has been made popular by the ministries of Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. Before that it was almost unknown and certainly it is not found in the New Testament. There when sinners were confronted with the gospel two things were necessary to lead to salvation, conviction of sin and repentance.

In Acts 2 the gospel was preached with the result that sinners ‘were cut to the heart’ ( deep conviction of sin), they were then told to repent. No prayer was given them to repeat but 3000 were saved. Today if a man shows an interest in the gospel he is urged to repeat the sinners prayer and on the strength of that is told he is now saved. The prayer will vary but basically it is ,

“Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”

There is nothing wrong with the words but what is wrong is the emphasis put upon them as a means of salvation. As a means of salvation they are about as useful as a bag of chips. The chips may look good, smell good and taste good. They will temporarily fill a hunger gap but tomorrow you will have to get another bag because the chips effects soon wear off. There is no lasting value. That is not the salvation of the New Testament and that is why so many who pray the sinners prayer do not last long in the Christian life.

When this happens we are told that the follow up was poor, and they fell from grace, instead of the more obvious reason that they were not saved in the first place. Consider the following scenario that is all to often seen today.
A man attends church fairly regularly on a Sunday morning. He never comes to the evening service or the mid week prayer meeting and he never reads the Bible or prays on his own. He is not a Christian. He knows it and everyone in the church knows it. One Sunday he shows more than a passing interest in the gospel and this thrills the Christians in the church. One of them eagerly encourages him to pray the sinners prayer and he is told he is now a Christian.   He still does not attend the Sunday evening service or the prayer meeting, and still never reads the Bible or prays, but he has prayed the sinners prayer and that is enough for most Christians. But it is not enough for God who demands conviction of sin and repentance as essential to conversion and a changed life as evidence of it.

The whole system speaks of an impatience on our part with God’s way. It is as if we say to God, “Lord, you have made the way of salvation too hard by your insistence on conviction and repentance so we will devise an easier and quicker way’.

The sinners prayer will certainly give you results but what about the fruit? Warren Wiersbe makes the strong point that ‘There is a difference between “fruit” and “results”. You can get “results” by following sure-fire formulas, manipulating people, or turning on your charisma; but “fruit” comes from life. When the Spirit of life is working through the Word of life, the seed planted bears fruit; and that fruit has in it the seeds for more fruit (Genesis 1:11-12). Results are counted and soon become silent statistics, but living fruit remains and continues to multiply to the glory of God (John 15:6).

How did Jesus deal with a man who appeared to be searching for God?  The Rich Young Ruler had all appearance of a genuine seeker and if he was given the sinners prayer he would have gone away believing he was now a Christian. But Jesus took him to the law, to the ten commandments, in order to show him his sin. This young man had no awareness of sin let alone a conviction of personal guilt. If he had, then perhaps the sinners prayer might have been of some use to him, but no conviction means no repentance and this means no salvation.

When seeking to evangelise, stick to God’s ways.

In his book God Sent Revival Thornbury says that Charles Finney in his use of the anxious put God up for vote. If this is true, and I believe it is, then we have to say that today’s use of the prayer of faith by-passes God’s essential in salvation of repentance. It is noticeable how the emphasis on conviction and repentance have all but disappeared from evangelical preaching today. They have been replaced by phrases like, open your heart to Jesus or make a decision for Jesus.

In the matter of salvation God has to be kept as sovereign if not we will end up filling the church with chaff and not wheat.  Dallimore says of Charles Wesley,
“During 1743 and 1744 certain of Charles’s views and practices
were beginning to change. For one thing, he came to
recognize that everyone who professed faith in Christ was not
necessarily converted.
He stated, ‘We have certainly been too rash and easy in allowing
persons for believers on their own testimony; nay, and even
persuading them into a false opinion of themselves. ‘
And to ‘a young son in the gospel’, he declared, ‘Be not oversure
that so many are justified. By their fruits ye shall know them.
You will see reason to be more and more deliberate in the judgement
you pass on souls. Wait for their conversation. I do not
know whether we can infallibly pronounce at the time that anyone
is justified. I once thought several in that state, who, I am now
convinced, were only under the drawings of the Father. Try the
spirits, therefore, lest you should lay the stumbling-block of pride
in their way, and by allowing them to have faith too soon, keep
them out of it for ever. ‘

God’s way of salvation is very clear in the New Testament

• Hear the word of God. Romans 10:17
• Believe it.   Acts 4:4
• Conviction and repentance.  Acts 2: 37-38
• Receive Christ as saviour.  1 John 5:11

 

It appears that too many Christians have no difficulty in leaving the church they have attended for several years and going to another church in the same town. They will tell you that it was not an easy decision to make, but it happens so often that it could not have been all that difficult. But leaving a church should never be easy, but always difficult, and always a last resort.

Very few churches are guilty of sheep stealing the problem is with the sheep. They are easily dissatisfied and convinced that the grass is greener in another field. It is not always wrong to leave a church, but it should be a last resort not the first option.

WHAT IS A CHURCH?

The church, wrote A. W. Tozer, ‘is the temple in which the Spirit of Christ dwells, the body of which Christ is the Head, the medium through which he works for the reclamation of mankind. Individual members of the church working in harmony with each other are the lips and hands and feet of the inliving Christ. The Church is the true Shekinah, the visible habitation of the invisible God, the Bride of Christ, destined to share for ever the love of his heart and the privileges of his throne.’
If Tozer’s definition is correct then we should give the utmost respect to the church. It is not something to be treated lightly.  It is a company of people who by nature are sinners but have been saved by the grace of God: ‘Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst’ (1 Tim. 1: 15).
The church, then, is people, God’s people, and what we are being told in 1 Timothy is how to conduct ourselves when we come together as Christians. We are a redeemed people, but we are not a perfect people and, therefore, there are often many problems in the church. Most of Paul’s letters in the New Testament were written to deal with church problems. Problems in a church are not exceptional-the devil will see to that, but no Christian has the right to absent himself from church attendance because he wants to avoid hassle. Some Christians are far too sensitive about their own feelings and position, and they need the hurly-burly of church life to humble them and remind them that they are not the only Christians with feelings. Hassle can be good for our sanctification as it throws us more and more upon the Lord for grace, patience and under­standing. This does not justify tension between believ­ers, but learning how to deal with tensions in a Christ­ honouring way can promote a real growth in grace. Christians need the church for its problems as well as its blessings.

EXPECTATIONS

The list of what Christians expect from a local church could be endless but two things need always to be present. The preaching needs to be biblical and feed your soul. It may not be the best of preaching in that it is not as powerful as some but so long as it is true to the scriptures then your soul will grow on  it.  Not every church can have outstanding ministry but as Dr Lloyd-Jones said “ I can forgive a preacher most things as long as he warms my heart towards Christ”.’
The fellowship of the church needs to be warm and caring. Fellowship is not a matter of a few Christians talking together about the weather, their holidays, or engaging in social chit –chat. This, of course, can be quite enjoyable and there is no harm in Christians having fun together. But the uniqueness of Christian fellowship consists in being able to talk about and share together the joys, blessings and problems of our faith.
Fellowship is like the spokes of a wheel. The closer the spokes are to the hub, the closer they are to each other. The further away they are from the hub, the further they are from each other. In the same way, the closer you are to the Lord, the c1oser you will be to other believers. The more you enjoy fellowship with Christ, the more you will enjoy the fellowship of his people.
If your church has these two thing you should be able to put up with what it does not have.

FOOD AND FREEDOM

In my first church five of the members began to attend a Pentecostal church in the evening. These were good people and their action disturbed me. When I spoke to them about it they said that they greatly appreciated the preaching and valued it as food for their souls, but the worship they found stifling so they went to the pentrecostal church for freedom.
We talked about food and freedom and which was the most important. They wanted both but they would not get both in our town. I warned them that sooner or later they would have to make a choice. They did and left us altogether. Soon after I left to take up another pastorate. I returned for the induction of the new pastor and Derek Swann was preaching in the induction service. After the service one of the five came up to me and with tears in his eyes said that I had been right in warning them not to leave. He said, “ I have not heard preaching like we had today since I left this church”. I replied, “ Well you know what you must do”.
It is one thing to leave a church and it is quite another to go back. I greatly admired this man because he wrote to the deacons apologizing for leaving and asking if they would have him back. That was not easy but it was right.
If the preaching in your church is not biblical then look for somewhere else to worship. If it is, then value it and even though other aspects of church life may not be to your liking put up with these and seek to change them as and when you can.

What is gospel preaching?

I realise that many who read this article will not be preachers, but this is nevertheless relevant to all believers. Whether we are preachers or hearers, we need to re-examine what we would expect from the ministry of the word. What should we look for? What do we need to hear from the pulpits of our churches? True gospel preaching will not only fulfil the preacher’s ministry, but will revive the desire of every believer to make Christ known.

Passion for souls

The gospel preacher must have a passion for the souls of men and women. He’s not preaching to teach them, but to save them. Every gospel sermon has this glorious aim. He must also love the people. The eighteenth-century English preacher Richard Cecil said:

To love to preach is one thing; to love those to whom we preach is quite another. If you lack this element of compassion for the people, you will also lack the pathos which is a very vital element of true preaching.

It is this love and pathos that brings into gospel preaching what Dr D.M. Lloyd- Jones called a ‘melting quality’. What a phrase that is! It’s possible to be too harsh in our gospel preaching, even to the point of delighting to tell sinners they are going to hell. We must preach about hell, but, oh, to be able to do so with this melting quality!

Plain speech

The gospel preacher must preach to where the people are, not where he would like them to be. Today most people are biblically illiterate, so preachers must preach to that condition. This means preaching simply, clearly and keeping free of jargon. George Whitefield said, ‘l use market language’ and Spurgeon said,

‘The multitudes will never be benefited by preaching which requires them to bring a dictionary to church’.

Using plain speech doesn’t mean using slang but language and concepts that people can understand, and illustrations they can relate to.

An impossible task?

The people we’re seeking to save are spiritually dead; they are incapable of understanding spiritual truths because the devil has blinded their minds. We are just like Ezekiel before the valley of dry bones. Written right across the situation is the word ‘impossible’. Spurgeon said:

No minister living can save a soul; nor can all of us together, nor all the saints in heaven or in earth. We cannot work the regeneration of a single person. The whole business on our part is the height of absurdity.

Then why try? We do this because of two reasons.

1. We ourselves were once spiritually dead, and the impossible happened to us. We were saved.
2. The impossible is possible because of God. It is God alone who saves, but he has chosen to use the means of preaching to accomplish salvation, and, therefore, preaching the gospel is crucial.

All this requires that the gospel preacher must have an unwavering trust in God and an unshakeable confidence in the message he is preaching. It is this alone that keeps us going. If our confidence is in anything else, sooner or later it will let us down, and we will become demoralised and disillusioned.

Should we expect success?

The task of the gospel preacher is the salvation of souls, and he should be satisfied with nothing less.
We must be faithful, but even that is not enough. We must want success. The gospel is meant by God to save souls, and, therefore, it ought to save. I wonder if we think the word ‘success’ is unspiritual? Richard Baxter said:
If you would prosper in your work be sure to keep up earnest desires and expectations of     success. God seldom blesses any man’s work so much as his whose heart is set on success. Let     all that preach Christ and man’s salvation be unsatisfied until they have the things they preach for.

Reaching the heart, not the emotions

The task of the preacher is to reach the heart of the sinner. Spurgeon said;
    A sinner has a heart as well as a head; a sinner has emotions as well as thoughts, and we must     appeal to both. A sinner will never be converted until his emotions are stirred.
For most preachers the easy part is to preach the truth, to give a faithful exposition of Scripture. The difficult thing is to preach in such a way that we stir the hearts and prick the consciences of sinners. An easy way out is to say that only the Holy Spirit can do that. But is that a right attitude? Isn’t that giving up our responsibilities as preachers and reducing preaching to mere lecturing?
How do we then preach so that sinners’ hearts and emotions are stirred? It’s not by filling the sermon with sentimental stories of dying children. That may well stir the emotions, but it won’t lead to salvation. That’s the work of an actor, not a preacher. Neither can we achieve it by packing the service with gimmicks and working up an atmosphere.

What a privilege

So how do we do it? By preaching to them and for them. That means we must have plenty of application all the way through the sermon; pointing out truths, pushing them home, showing their relevance to everyday affairs of life. In this way we will guard against being heavy and boring. What a privilege the gospel preacher has in standing before people who are dead in sin and telling them that God loves
them. What a privilege it is to prove it by telling them of Jesus; to tell them of the glories of the incarnation, of Calvary, of prophecies fulfilled, of divine justice satisfied, of the resurrection; to tell them that God demands the response of repentance and faith. What a privilege to preach the gospel! What a joy to see the Holy Spirit begin to work in sinners – to see indifference turning to concern, concern to conviction, conviction to salvation.
Peter Jeffery served as a minister in England and Wales before engaging in an itinerant ministry of evangelism and preaching.