The Sinner s Prayer & OBJECTIONS

Transcription

1 18 LESSON 18 The Sinner s Prayer The chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell. WILLIAM BOOTH Kirk s Comment We often become so familiar with church evangelism methods and traditions that we often just assume they are biblical, without checking into them. This lesson takes a close look at the value of one very common and well-intentioned evangelistic tradition. Q UESTIONS & OBJECTIONS What if someone says, I ve broken every one of the Ten Commandments? Do not take this statement to mean that the person has seen the gravity of his sinful state before God. He may say something like, I m a really bad person! It is often used as a way of shrugging off conviction. Pharaoh admitted that he had sinned, but his repentance was superficial. Say to the person, Well, let s take the time to go through the Ten Commandments one by one and see if you have. As the person is confronted with the righteous standard of God s Moral Law, pray that the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin. 123

2 SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL EVANGELISM P erhaps by now you feel reasonably comfortable about witnessing using the Law to bring the knowledge of sin. You know how to present the cross and the necessity of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus but then what? Is it valid to close the sale (as modern evangelism often puts it)? Should you suddenly revert back to the old, Would you like me to lead you in a sinner s prayer right now? Or should we just leave the person in the hands of a faithful Creator? Perhaps the answer comes by looking at the natural realm. As long as there are no complications when a child is born, all the doctor needs to do is guide the head. The same applies spiritually. When someone is born of God, all we need to do is guide the head make sure that the person understands what he is doing. Philip the evangelist did this with the Ethiopian eunuch when he asked, Do you understand what you read? (Acts 8:30). In the Parable of the Sower, the true convert (the good soil hearer) is the one who hears and understands. This understanding comes by the Law (Romans 7:7) in the hand of the Spirit, who will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). If a sinner is ready for the Savior, it is because he has been drawn by the Holy Spirit (John 6:44). This is why we must be careful to allow the Holy Spirit to do His work and not rush in where angels fear to tread. Praying a sinner s prayer with someone who isn t genuinely repentant may leave you with a stillborn on your hands. Therefore, rather than lead him in a prayer of repentance, it is wise to encourage him to pray himself. When Nathan confronted David about his sin, he didn t lead the king in a prayer of repentance. If a man committed adultery, and his wife is willing to take him back, should you have to write out an apology for him to read to her? No; sorrow for his betrayal of her trust should spill from his lips. She doesn t want eloquent words, but simply sorrow of heart. The essence of his apology should be something like this: Please forgive me. I have betrayed your trust. I am so sorry. The same applies to a prayer of repentance. If a person is genuinely repentant (he has sorrow of heart and his mouth is stopped from self-justification), he should pray himself; his words aren t as important as the presence of godly sorrow. 124

3 LESSON 18 THE SINNER S PRAYER The sinner should be told to repent to confess and forsake his sins. He could do this as a whispered prayer, then you could pray for him. Tell him, Quietly confess your sins to God, asking Him to forgive you, then put your trust in Jesus in the same way you would put on a parachute to save you. You wouldn t just believe in it; you would put it on entrusting your life to it. After you have done that, I will pray for you and give you some literature to help you. If he s not sure what to say, perhaps David s prayer of repentance (Psalm 51) could be used as a model, but his own words are more desirable. If you study the ministry of Charles Spurgeon, you will find that he invited men and women to come to Christ, not to an altar. Listen to him invite sinners to come to the Savior: Before you leave this place, breathe an earnest prayer to God, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Lord, I need to be saved. Save me. I call upon Thy name...lord, I am guilty, I deserve Thy wrath. Lord, I cannot save myself. Lord, I would have a new heart and a right spirit, but what can I do? Lord, I can do nothing, come and work in me to do of Thy good pleasure. Thou alone hast power, I know To save a wretch like me; To whom, or whither should I go If I should run from Thee? But I now do from my very soul call upon Thy name. Trembling, yet believing, I cast myself wholly upon Thee, O Lord. I trust the blood and righteousness of Thy dear Son...Lord, save me tonight, for Jesus sake. Go home alone trusting in Jesus. I should like to go into the enquiry-room. I dare say you would, but we are not willing to pander to popular superstition. We fear that in those rooms men are warmed into a fictitious confidence. Very few of the supposed converts of enquiry-rooms turn out well. Go to your God at once, even where you now are. Cast yourself on Christ, at once, ere you stir an inch! 125

4 SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL EVANGELISM Q UESTIONS 1. How can we guide the head in a spiritual birth? 2. Why is this understanding important? 3. Where does this understanding come from? 4. Why are the sinner s words not important? 5. Does your church invite sinners to the altar, or to the Savior? P REACHER S P ROGRESS Ree Peterson: I know that I am a sinner, but I confess my sins to God each night. I tell Him that I am sorry and that I won t sin again. The trouble is that I repeat the sin. Christian: If you find yourself in court with a $50,000 fine, will a judge let you go simply because you say that you are sorry and that you won t commit the crime again? 126

5 LESSON 18 THE SINNER S PRAYER Ree Peterson: No, he won t. I d still have the fine to pay. Christian: That s right. Besides, you should be sorry for breaking the law, and of course you shouldn t commit the crime again. However, if someone stepped in and paid the $50,000 fine, then you would be free from the demands of the law. God will not forgive a sinner on the basis that he is sorry. Of course we should be sorry for sin we have a conscience to tell us that adultery, rape, lust, murder, hatred, lying, stealing, etc., are wrong. And of course we shouldn t sin again. God will, however, release us from the demands of eternal justice on the basis that someone else paid our fine. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. His words on the cross were, It is finished! In other words, the debt has been paid in full. All who repent and trust in Him receive forgiveness of sins. Their case is dismissed on the basis of His suffering death. Does that make sense to you? Ree Peterson: It does, actually. Christian: Can you see that sorrow for your sin, and even repentance, isn t enough to save you from hell? You must trust in the Savior. If you are born again, God will give you a new heart with new desires, so that you won t continue to repeat the sins that you did before your conversion. F EATHERS FOR A RROWS Many years ago we had in our home a stubborn spider that kept building a web against our house. No matter how many times we swept it away, the spider and its web would reappear the next morning. One day I enlisted the help of one of my sons, as well as a small stick and a can of insect spray. I had my son gently tap the stick on the web while I made the sound of a fly in distress. The hungry spider came out of his hiding place, and that s when I killed him with the insect spray. There is a stubborn web of sin that continually plagues mankind. It is the web of violence, corruption, rape, greed, wars, theft, etc. We try to sweep it away through political means. Yet these crimes remain, and few seem to identify the root cause of the problem. That remains in hiding. 127

6 SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL EVANGELISM Memory Verse No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. JOHN 6:44 We must use the stick of God s Law to gently tap on the human heart. Suddenly, the cause of sin appears. And that s when sin can be put to death with the power of the gospel. It is God s Law that reveals the human heart as desperately wicked, and it is the gospel that delivers us from the power of sin. In Christ we are born again (John 3:3) and become new creatures. W ORDS OF C OMFORT I walked confidently onto a plane, followed by my daughter and her friend. As a seasoned traveler, I was leading the way. Not only was I an example of travel in action for my daughter and her friend, Rebekah, but I was on the cutting edge in contemporary travel gear. Before it became trendy for travelers to pull black bags with wheels on them, I had purchased a big blue travel bag with wheels. The only difference was that mine wasn t as slick as those used by flight crews. I didn t pull it along with an adjustable steel handle; I pulled it with a strap that was four feet long. However, this day I was amazed at how quickly family and friends disowned me, merely because the bag caught on the armrest of an aisle seat near the front of the plane, ripped it off, and I dragged it unknowingly for half the length of the aircraft. They also disowned me merely because, earlier on the same trip, one of my bags fell down an escalator, scattering people behind me. Last Words Captain John Lee, who was executed for forgery, sought to do away with God, yet in death longed for the assurance and hope of faith: I leave to the world this mournful memento, that however much a man may be favored by personal qualifications or distinguished mental endowments, genius will be useless, and abilities avail little, unless accompanied by religion and attended by virtue. Oh, that I had possession of the meanest place in heaven, and could but creep into one corner of it. 128