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What must one do to be saved? This is the most important question that anyone could ask. There are many answers given to this question in the religious world today. One answer that is often given has to do with "The Sinners Prayer." I would like to begin our study by reprinting an example of the sinners prayer that I copied from a website, which is one among thousands that you can read on the internet. I believe it to be typical of what many preachers tell people to pray in order to be saved. It goes like this:
After this "prayer," the website then adds these words:
This is not unlike many of the prayers uttered every Sunday morning on the radio and TV and in many denominations across the world. Millions of tracts have been distributed in hospitals, restaurants, hotels and other places that have this prayer in them. THE SINNERS PRAYER IS NOT IN THE BIBLE I will begin by pointing out a very obvious fact: If the "sinners' prayer" was required by God, it would be included in the Bible as a command and an example for us to follow. Would you not agree with that? If God required you to pray a prayer in order to receive forgiveness and to become a Christian, He would have given us an example of what prayer to pray and He would have told us in His inspired word to pray that prayer for forgiveness. But the following is an indisputable fact:
Look from the first verse of the first chapter of the Book of Matthew to the last verse of the last chapter of the last book Revelation, and you will never find the so-called "sinner's prayer." It is just not in the Bible! It is unfortunate that so few people question the authenticity of the "sinner's prayer." I guess it is so common for preachers to tell people to pray this prayer, and people have heard it so long in their assemblies and on TV and the radio, that they just accept it as truth without really investigating it. Why are there so many who claim to follow the Bible as their sole authority in religion and yet teach the sinner's prayer which is never mentioned in the Bible? It is probable that many have accepted the "sinner's prayer" because someone they trusted and respected taught them to accept it or because that's what they have heard all their life and they have never studied the Bible to see if it is so. I know in today's politically correct environment it is a terrible sin in the eyes of many people to question someone else's religious beliefs. But all we ask is that you be like the noble Bereans of Acts 17:11, who upon hearing the apostles preach, "searched the scriptures daily, to find out whether these things were so." If more people had this attitude of searching the Scriptures to see whether things they were taught were so, there would be far less error in the world today, and the so-called sinner's prayer would cease to exist. Only the truth can set us free, Jesus said in John 8:32. But error, if believed and obeyed, will keep us in the bonds of sin all of our lives and the result will be the loss of our souls. I would like for us now to turn our attention to an evaluation of the "sinner's prayer" in light of the Bible. THE SINNER'S PRAYER ADDRESSES JESUS First, the prayer is addressed to Jesus rather than the Father. It says, "Dear Lord Jesus." When Jesus gave the model prayer in Matthew 6:9 He said that we are to pray, "Our Father in heaven." He made clear that prayer is to be addressed to the Father, not to the Son. Do you know of any example given in the New Testament anywhere, where we are taught to pray to Jesus for salvation? Do you know of any example in the New Testament where Jesus, one of the apostles, an inspired Evangelist or any other Christian ever taught that we are to pray to Jesus for salvation? I challenge you to find just one passage that teaches such. Our prayers are to be addressed to the Father in the name of the Son. On one occasion the apostle Paul wrote, "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20). Paul said he gave thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul prayed to the Father in the name of the Son. He did not pray to the Son. Paul said, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Ephesians 3:14). Who did Paul bow his knees to? The Father, not the Son. We must follow the pattern Paul used in our prayers today. We pray to the Father in the name of the Son. Thus, the sinner's prayer begins in an unscriptural way. The prayer is addressed to the Son rather than the Father. GOD DOES NOT HEAR SINNER'S PRAYERS The next phrase of the sinner's prayer is the confession "I know that I am a sinner." This, of course, is something that all of us ought to know. We know, that before we are washed clean by the blood of Christ that we are sinners. We certainly need to realize that we are sinners before we can be cleansed by the blood of Christ. But here is something we need to know about prayer: The Bible teaches that prayer is a precious privilege afforded only to those who are in Christ -- to those who are saved. Prayer is a spiritual blessing. The Bible teaches that God the Father "has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). All spiritual blessings are in Christ. Prayer is a spiritual blessing. Thus, prayer is only available to those who are in Christ. An alien sinner does not have the right to expect God to answer his prayer. Second, the alien sinner is one who regards iniquity in his heart. The Psalmist wrote, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Psalm 66:18). Does the Lord hear the prayer of one who regards iniquity in his heart? No. Is the alien sinner one who regards iniquity in his heart? Yes. That is why he would be praying the sinner's prayer in the first place. God will not hear the sinner's prayer because the sinner regards iniquity in his heart. Someone might object here by saying that the very same thing would apply to a Christian who sins. To this, we reply that the Bible makes a distinction in one who has had his sins washed away by the blood of Christ and one who has not yet contacted that blood. This is why we refer to the sinner as the alien sinner. The alien sinner is one who has not been washed by the blood of Christ. The New Testament is clear on what a Christian must do when he sins. We have the example of Simon in Acts chapter eight. Simon was a Christian. Yet, he sinned. He was instructed in verse 22 as to what to do about that sin. He was told to "Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you." Here an erring Christian is told to pray for forgiveness. We never have an example in the Bible of an alien sinner being commanded to pray for forgiveness. If so, where is it? The reason an erring Christian is told to pray for forgiveness is because prayer is a special privilege reserved only for the Christian. In John 9:31 we have the record of the man who was born blind being healed by Jesus. Jesus had done this healing on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees said, "This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath," but "Others said, 'How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?'" (John 9:16). So, there was a division among them. The Jews called the man who was healed before them and ask him, "'What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?' He said, 'He is a prophet'" (John 9:17). This is not what the Jews wanted to hear. The Bible says, "But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, 'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?' His parents answered them and said, 'We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.'" (John 9:18-21). The Bible then says beginning with verse 24, "So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, 'Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.' He answered and said, 'Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.' Then they said to him again, 'What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?' He answered them, 'I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?' Then they reviled him and said, 'You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.' The man answered and said to them, 'Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.'" (John 9:23-31). Here the man that was born blind and is now healed makes an argument to support his belief that Jesus is a prophet. The man who had been healed of his blindness stated a truth that he and the Jews who were confronting him about Jesus all had learned from their youth up. They had learned it from the Old Testament Scriptures. "God does not hear sinners." A sinner can pray and pray for forgiveness of sins, but God does not hear that prayer. Why? Because "God does not hear sinners." There is nothing said in this context that would refute what the healed man said. The Old Testament Scriptures state in Proverbs 28:9, "One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination." The sinner is certainly one who has turned away his ear from hearing the law. Thus his prayer is an abomination before God. This is no doubt what the healed man had in mind when he said, "God does not hear sinners." My friends, the Bible teaches that God does not hear sinner's prayers. Since this is so, the so-called sinner's prayer is ineffective and useless. WERE PEOPLE TOLD TO PRAY THE SINNER'S PRAYER We have already stated that Jesus, the apostles, the first century evangelists, or no other Christian in the first century ever once taught that the alien sinner must repeat a prayer to receive salvation. Let us now examine some of the cases of conversion in the book of Acts and see if the apostles told people who wanted to be saved to pray the sinners prayer. T he first gospel sermon was preached on the first Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After Peter had stood up and preached the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord to the Jews who were gathered there that day, some of them were convicted in their hearts that they were sinners and in need of salvation. They asked Peter and the other apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" That's in verse 37 of Acts 2. This would have been a perfect time for Peter to have answered them, "repeat this prayer after me and you will receive the remission of your sins." Or, he could have replied, "Receive Christ as your personal Savior and repeat this prayer." And then he could have uttered the prayer and had them repeat it after him. But is that how Peter replied to their question? Read it for yourself. Acts 2:38 says, "Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.'" I want to ask you a question. Did Peter get it wrong? Did he make a mistake? Should he have said something else? Who is right about what one must do to be saved -- those preachers today who tell you to pray the sinner's prayer, or the inspired apostle Peter? Why can't preachers today just tell people the same thing that Peter told them? "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins...."? Is that so hard to understand? Is that so hard to accept? Is that not the answer that you preachers ought to be giving? If not, why not? [Note: The Bible does not teach anywhere that Jesus is "your personal Savior." The dictionary defines "personal" as, "of, affecting, or belonging to a particular person." If Jesus is your personal Savior, that means He can't be the Savior of anyone else because by using the word "personal" you are saying that He only saves you. Yet, the Bible teaches that He came to save the world (John 3:16; 4:42; 12:47; 1 John 4:14); that He is the Savior of the body - the church (Ephesians 5:23). If He is your personal Savior, He cannot be the Savior of the church - He could not have come to save the world. It is wrong to refer to Jesus as your personal Savior because He is the Savior of all who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25).I n Acts chapter 8 we have the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch. The Eunuch was reading the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53, which is a prophecy concerning Christ. The Holy Spirit directed Philip the evangelist to go to the Eunuch and ask him a question. He ask, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The Eunuch replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" He then invited Philip to come on board the chariot with him and the Bible says, "The place in the Scripture which he read was this: 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.' So the eunuch answered Philip and said, 'I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?' Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him." The Bible then says, "Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, 'See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?'" Wouldn't this have been a perfect time for Philip to tell the Eunuch, "You don't have to be baptized. The only thing you must do is to receive Christ as your personal Savior and repeat this prayer after me"? Then Philip could have uttered the sinner's prayer and the Eunuch could have repeated the prayer and he would have been saved. But when you read the account, you don't find Philip saying anything about a sinner's prayer. The Bible says in verse 37, "Then Philip said, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may.' And he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing." Now if one can be saved by uttering a "sinner's prayer", then why didn't Philip tell the Eunuch to pray for salvation? Why did Philip go to all of this trouble to baptize him?Was the Eunuch converted to Christ? Did the Eunuch receive salvation? The answer to those questions is yes. Did he receive salvation as a result of praying the sinners prayer? The answer to that question is no! The inspired evangelist Philip said absolutely nothing about the Eunuch praying for salvation. The Eunuch was saved when he did what Philip taught him to do when he preached Jesus to him. Since the Eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" we must conclude that in preaching Jesus to the Eunuch, Philip taught the necessity of baptism. Why else would the Eunuch have asked this question? Thus, the Eunuch was not saved as a result of praying the sinners prayer, he was saved when he obeyed the gospel. And involved in obeying the gospel was baptism. Look at the account of the conversion of the apostle Paul. It is a remarkable account because it's the only account of conversion of which we have three records given. You will recall that Paul, who at that time was called Saul, was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians and to take them back to Jerusalem. On the way, the Bible says, "...and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' And he said, 'Who are You, Lord?' Then the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' So he, trembling and astonished, said, 'Lord, what do You want me to do?' Then the Lord said to him, 'Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do'" (Acts 9:3-6). Notice that Saul was not saved on the road to Damascus. Jesus told him to go into the city and it would be told him what he must do. At this time Saul didn't know what to do. The only thing he could do was to go to the city and wait to find out. Now Jesus could have told Saul right there to pray to Him to be saved. But He did not. He told him to go into the city and he would be told what he must do. Verse ten says, "Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, 'Ananias.' And he said, 'Here I am, Lord.' So the Lord said to him, 'Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.'" I want you to notice what Jesus said Saul was doing. He said, "for behold, he is praying." Now if one is saved by prayer, surely Saul must have been saved at this point. So why send Ananias to tell him what he must do? Why not just send Ananias to tell him, "you have been saved as a result of your prayer"? In Acts chapter 22, in his defense before the Jews, Saul tells about his conversion to Christ. He repeats the things we've already looked at in chapter nine. In verse ten he repeats what Jesus told him when he asked, "'What shall I do Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.'" Let me point out that there was something the Lord had planned for Saul to do in the city of Damascus. There was something appointed for him to do. Was that to pray? Let us see. Read verses 12 through 16 of chapter 22. "'Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to me; and he stood and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that same hour I looked up at him. Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. 'For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'" When Ananias came and told Saul what the Lord would have him do -- what was appointed for him to do to be saved (because that's what Saul was asking about), what did he tell him? "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Ananias told Saul that what the Lord would have him do -- what was appointed for him to do -- was to be "baptized and wash away his sins." My friends, if sins are washed away as a result of prayer, then why was Saul's sins not washed away before Ananias came to him, because "behold he is praying." Saul was praying. But he was still in his sins. When did he have his sins washed away? When he complied with what Ananias was sent to tell him what was appointed for him to do. Now some say that the "calling on the name of the Lord" was prayer. But that could not be, because he had already been praying. I submit to you that the calling upon the name of the Lord was his appeal to God for a clean conscience by obeying the gospel as 1 Peter 3:21 (ESV) teaches. The calling upon the name of the Lord took place when he obeyed the gospel. It was not prayer but obedience in doing what was appointed for him to do. There is absolutely nothing in the account of the conversion of Saul that indicates that either Jesus or Ananias told him to pray for salvation. Nothing. CONCLUSION We could continue to study each account of conversion given in the book of Acts and we would find the same thing. There is never any mention of any sinner being told to pray to receive salvation. It is just not there! Now, if it's not in the Bible, why teach it? Why do it? If it's not sanctioned by God in His word, by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by the inspired apostles and evangelists in the first century, why teach it? How can we teach it and still claim to be teaching the Bible and honoring Jesus Christ? My friends, rather than the accounts of conversion teaching us that we must pray the sinner's prayer to be saved, they teach us that one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God; one must confess that belief with the mouth before men; one must turn from his sins in repentance; and one must be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. I challenge you to read every account of conversion in the book of Acts and to see whether these things are so. If we can assist you in your study of the Bible, please contact us. [Note: This lesson was originally preached on the radio in Murray, Ky]
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