I think you perhaps misunderstood me to a small measure, so let me attempt to clarify further. As I said previously, I am by no means denying that we must preach about the Law of God and the judgment to come. Scripture makes plain, the Law is our school-master that teaches us of our need for salvation, to lead us to Christ. It does this by pointing out our sins, and how they have alienated us from God, and how we are in need of mercy to receive pardon for our transgressions. Otherwise, the Judge of all the Earth shall do what is right, and punish us forever in the fire that has no end. We are in much need of more of this type of preaching today, especially in an age where every man does what is right in his own eyes, and many think they are simply "good people."However, simply preaching such will not get one person saved. It might bring about some sense of conviction and contrition, but it alone will never save one soul from hell. I believe this is where many street preachers, especially ones that follow closely to Ray Comfort's methods, or strongly to Reidhead's "Ten Shekels and a Shirt," etc., enter into error.While I fully believe in preaching about sin and hell, and consider myself to some extent to be a "hell fire preacher," and if you listen to any of my street sermons, you will find I spend no small amount of time on sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come.However, such is not to be the thrust of our preaching. Such will never get one person saved! It never has, and never will! How does one get saved? By simply repenting of their sins? No.While repentance does indeed move one to salvation as the Scriptures plainly teach, it is not merely repenting of sins that saves one.Rather, Romans says "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." You see, saving faith while it includes repentance, must not be mere repentance alone. Our salvation depends not simply on repentance, but our belief that Jesus is indeed Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead.Outside of this, one cannot be saved. And it is my greatest fear that many street preachers who are out there preaching a hard message of repentance are not actually preaching at all. For unless our preaching is Christ centered, and unless we introduce people to the person of Jesus Christ, then we are not truly preaching. For the gospel is Christ centered, not sinner centered.Our repentance must be grounded in something. What will geniunely bring about true repentance, and not just being sad over ones sins, or fearful of eternal damnation, is to have one's faith grounded in the faith of Christ. Notice John the Baptists message, and the message of Christ: "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"They didn't simply tell people to repent because they were sinners who were in trouble with an angry God. They told them to repent, for the kingdom of Heaven was at hand. And they then went about demonstrating the power of that kingdom. Repentance was grounded upon the fact that the kingdom of God that was prophesied by the prophet Daniel, had come. What drove people to their knees was a demonstration of that kingdom. In otherwords, when they saw the power of that kingdom being manifest in their midst through the power of God, they were left with the undeniable sense that this message was true. Gripped with the truth that the kingdom of God had indeed come, scores of people came to saving faith, as they would then repent of their sins.This pattern is seen in the book of Acts as well. Lot's of hell fire type messages seen in the book of Acts. But notice the very first message which was preached by the apostle Peter, which I thinks serves as a great model. What is it that ultimately drove the Jews to their knees? The center of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost was that the Jews had murdered God's Messiah, whom God raised from the dead. They thought they could be rid of this Christ by nailing Him to a tree, but God showed they could do no such thing, and instead raised Him from the grave. "This Christ, whom you murdered, God raised from the dead!" was what Peter preached. It'd make me tremble to, no wonder thousands converted that day.And so it goes on throughout the book of Acts, that what the apostles got in trouble for the most was not calling people to repent, and pointing out their sins, but rather, it was that they asserted with great confidence and demonstrated to the world, that Jesus Christ was indeed alive. Thus, the Jews locked the apostles up for healing people, because healing people demonstrated that the apostles were using the same power that Christ had, which only further proved this Christ whom they murdered, was alive.Same goes for Paul when preaching to the Gentiles. When standing before King Agrippa and the charges were laid out before him by Festus, he summarized Paul's trouble to center around "a dead man, who Paul asserted to be alive."Based on this, it is my conviction that as preachers, especially those who preach on the street, the center of our message should not be about repentance and sin. Though we should preach on those things, our message should ultimately be Christ centered, and focus on His life, death, and resurrection. Unless it is, then we cannot be said to have truly preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. For we are comissioned by God not to preach repentance or about hell, but we are comissioned by God to preach THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. Once people believe that Jesus is alive from the grave, how can they but repent? How can any of our lives ever be the same, once we have a revelation of this truth? How can I continue in sin, knowing that God raised His Son from the grave?Earlier last year I preached a message at my Church called "Jesus is Alive!" I'd encourage everybody here, especially my street preaching brethren, to listen carefully to this message. This message is my heart beat:
http://www.christiansteps.com/sermons/jesus_is_alive.mp3