The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-17, titled "Bible Questions and Answers." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.
Question
Could you talk about the proper place for the "sinner's prayer" (inviting Jesus into you life to be your Savior), perhaps as a demonstration of faith, but not equal to faith, and could you also explain the dangers in the misleading use of the "sinner's prayer" and receiving Christ, and perhaps touching on Revelation 3:20 as well?
Answer
Let me start with Revelation 3:20. In the technical sense, Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." The context of Rev 3:20 is that Jesus is knocking on the door of the "Church"--it's not really a specific illustration of how to evangelize somebody. Jesus is speaking to the Church; He is concerned about the character, or if you will, the lack of character of this church. Just to put the context together for you; so you'll remember, I'm sure, the church at Laodicea: "lukewarm...I'll spit you out of my mouth...you say you, 'are rich, and have wealth and don't need anything,' and yet you are wretched and miserable, poor, blind, and naked," and all of that. And then He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock!" I want to get in the church, is what He is saying--I want you to receive me as Lord of the church--He wants to come into the church and work there. It's not really the human heart that is the issue there, although I think that you can extrapolate and say, "the Lord wants entrance into the life of a sinner; He wants to come in and cleanse that sinner; He wants to come in and wash that sinner, and that does take you to John 1:12.
John 1:12 is a very clear verse, it says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God." What does it mean to receive Christ? Well, when you talk about saving faith, you are basically talking about three things, there are three components:
1. Is to comprehend the facts, the truth of the gospel.
2. Is to believe that they are true.
3. Is to engage yourself in appropriating them for your life.
So it would be to say, "I understand the gospel; I understand Jesus died; I understand He rose again; I understand (what I said this morning) that He is a member of the Trinity, who came into the world through the virgin birth, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death, rose from the dead, and the Father approved of His work so perfectly, that He raised Him, gave Him the name "Lord", seated Him at His right hand, from which He now reigns over His church, interceding for them, and will return and establish His kingdom. I believe that--that's true.
You say, "I understand that, I comprehend that." Secondly, you say, "I believe that; I believe that is fact, that is spiritual reality. Third, "I place my life and my eternity on the reality of those facts, by acknowledging Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. I think there is an element of reception at that point. It is a receiving of the truth, as the truth; it is believing it and it is appropriating it in a personal way. I don't think that it is inappropriate to say, "Christ, I want you to come and take command of my life. I want You to be my Savior, I want You to forgive my sin. I acknowledge You; I confess you as my Lord. I want You to save me. I want You to come and indwell me, because you have the promise of Acts 2:38, that when someone hears the gospel, and when they repent, it says, "You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Christ." So you could pray and say, "Lord, I want You to save me, I confess You as my Lord. I believe in the gospel, I believe that You are the Christ who died for me, I acknowledge that, I want You to save me, I want You to be the Lord of my life, and I want the Spirit of God to take up residence in my life.
But all of that must be cast in a very important perspective, and this is, I think, maybe the best answer I can give to your question, as to how you approach someone.
In the end, salvation is a work of God--is it not? And I think the best illustration, in the New Testament, of a sinner coming and praying the "sinner's prayer" is the publican, again in Luke 18, who said, "God be. . . ." What? "merciful to me a sinner." And I think we always have to understand that salvation is God's prerogative. It is not automatically mine because I articulate a formula with my lips--it is mine because God graciously grants it to me. In the end I must ask for that gift to be given.
What I do, when I am talking to someone about Christ and when I want to lead them to, not only understanding the truth, but believing the truth is the truth and then making a personal commitment to it, to receiving Christ, to appropriating it, to confessing Him as Lord, is at that point to say to them, "I encourage you, if you believe the gospel, and you believe it is the truth, and you are ready to put your life in the hands of the Savior, that you ask Him, now, to save you. Rather than telling Him you are qualified; that you ask Him to save you." That to me is the sinner's prayer.
I remember when I was called down to this little Riverside Hospital, down south of here, one night, and it was late, and I was going home. It was like seven o'clock, and I thought, "Well, I better go right away." I went into this hospital room and there was a guy in the bed, and I could see immediately he was dying of AIDS. Of course, there were other homosexuals in the room, in fact, there was a homosexual aide from the Hollywood AIDs Center, whatever it is. And there was a homosexual male nurse there, and then there was one of this guy's consorts or lovers there. And I walked in the room and walked over to the bed, and introduced myself to David Chastain (sp.), who had called and left his name and said, "I am dying, please, somebody told me you could help me prepare for death," and so I went.
I walked in the room and the other three were gone--very fast. I said, "David, I want to know why you called me." He said, "Because I am dying and I'm going to go to hell." He said, "I know it, because I know the gospel." He said, "I was raised in a Christian family. I went two years to a Bible college, but for the last twenty years I have lived as a homosexual." And he said, "Every minute of it I have known it was wrong, I have know it was sin, and I have known that I have dishonored God. I don't deserve to be saved; I have defied God. I have denied the gospel my parents taught me and now I am on the brink of death and I want God to save me, but I need some help." So I took his hand and I said I want you to tell me what you understand about Christ, and he articulated the gospel clearly. And I said, "Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ actually died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, to satisfy the justice of God on behalf of sinners who believe? Do you believe that He rose from the dead literally, and that God therefore affirmed the perfect sacrifice by the resurrection--do you believe that?" He said, "I believe that." I said, "Then you know the truth; you have heard it and you believe it. Only one thing remains, and that is to cast yourself on the mercy of God. God is not bound to save you. You have defied Him, but Jesus said this, "Whoever comes to Me, I will in no wise . . . What? . . .cast out." I reminded him of that, and I said, "All I can tell you to do is to plead with God to save you, and I'll plead with you."
And so he launched into this prayer, and it was an amazing prayer, and he went through the recitation of his wickedness and his evil (not specifically, but generally) and how he had defied God and ignored the gospel of his youth, and how he had defied his parents, and how he had remembered how his mother had prayed for him so long, and here he was having come to the end of this horrible wicked lifestyle. Now he was crying out to God to save him and he knew he wasn't worthy and he just prayed with tears and passion. And all the time he was just wringing my hand as I stood by the bed. Then I prayed, and I just said, "God be merciful to him, a sinner. He comes, You know his heart. It must be that the Father is drawing him, at least it seems such, if indeed this is the work of the Father to draw this penitent--then save him." And that's what I prayed, and probably the prayers of both of us took 20 minutes.
At the end of that time we said "Amen," and his rather rigid body sort of relaxed after the prayer, and he just looked off at the wall. I said, "What are you looking at David?' He said, "I am looking at the calendar." I said, "Why?" He said, "Because I never want to forget the day of my new beginning." That's a quote. He said, "I really believe the Lord has forgiven me."
He had five days to live, as it turned out. He spent those five days witnessing to everybody around him, and I spent a portion of those five days hauling material down to him, which was like a cram course for heaven--you know. I kept saying, "You know, you are going to get all this in a few days--you know. What's the hurry? He said, "I just want to know, I just want to know. He just had a hungry, hungry heart for the truth.
That's how I approach that, rather than saying to somebody, "Here's a little prayer on this page. Pray it and you are in." It's not like, "O.K., I prayed the prayer and I'm qualified!" It's like, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" Isn't it? I think that's the way you approach it. O.K.?
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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