It is often the case, even in Evangelical circles, that the terms in which the Gospel is proclaimed, offered, do not do justice to the essential foundation of repentance, and consequently the churches have been filled with wood, hay and stubble. It is sometimes a protracted, certainly always a hard and a dirty business because so much has to be removed from the heart and from the life. That is the function of repentance as a work of conviction digs deep into the life, and we begin to feel our great need and with shame our unworthiness and our filthiness before God. It can be a painful work, quite different from today's emphasis in which they make a mere intellectual assent to the Saviour: this man-cantered approach whereby men make the decision and they ask Christ into unholy hearts with inadequate preparation, conviction of sin, repentance. Repentance is something which happens when somebody turns from rebellion and longs to come back to the living God and to obey him.