“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15
Fifth Indictment: An Unbiblical Gospel Invitation – Part Two
Often, to get a person to pray the sinner’s prayer, he is asked, “Would you like to go to heaven?” “Well, yes,” is the reply. “Well, then, would you like to pray and ask Jesus into your heart?” Now, my dear friend, let me say this. There are people who get saved using that methodology, but it is not because of it. It is in spite of it!
Instead, we must be asking this: “Sir, do you desire Christ? Do you see your sin?”
“Oh, yes, yes, I do.”
“Sir, let’s look at a few Scriptures here that lay out for us what repentance looks like, the Spirit bearing witness that this is happening in your life. Do you see brokenness? Do you see the disintegration of everything you thought, and now your mind is filled with new thoughts about God and new desires and new hope?”
Yes, I see that.
“Sir, that may be the first fruits of repentance. Now, throw yourself upon Christ. Trust in Him. Trust in Him!
”Listen to me. You have the authority to tell men the Gospel. You have authority to tell men how to be saved, and you have authority to teach men biblical principles of assurance. But you have no authority to tell men they are saved. That is the work of the Holy Spirit of God!
But instead, you take them through that little thing, “Did you ask Jesus into your heart?”
“Yes,” he replies.
“Do you think you were sincere?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think He saved you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course He saved you because you were sincere and He promised that if you asked Him to come in, He would come in. So you are saved.”
And they walk out of the church after five minutes of counseling, and then the evangelist goes to lunch, and the man is lost.
It is an unbiblical invitation. And if they ever doubt their salvation, then you do it all again. You say, “Was there ever a point in time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come in?”
“Yes.”
“Were you sincere?”
“I think so.”
“Then that’s the devil bothering you now.”
And if they live without growth, even in the context of a church without growth in continued carnality—no fear. We blame it on the lack of personal discipleship, and we write it off as the doctrine of the “carnal Christian.”
The Myth of the “Carnal Christian”
The doctrine of the carnal Christian has destroyed more lives and sent more people to hell than you can imagine! Do Christians struggle with sin? Yes. Can a Christian fall into sin? Absolutely. Can a Christian live in a continuous state of carnality all the days of his life, not bearing fruit, and truly be Christian? Absolutely not !—or every promise in the Old Testament regarding the New Testament covenant of preservation has failed, and everything God said about discipline in Hebrews is a lie (Heb 12:6)! “A tree is known by its fruit” (Luk 6:44).
I have seen preachers who understood much about the things of God, but when they come to an exemplary Gospel presentation, they will enter, once again, into this unbiblical methodology.
Let me give you a story, a story that is one of the most precious moments in my life as a Christian.
I was preaching in Canada just 30 kilometers from Alaska. There really were more grizzly bears in the town than there were people! It was a little church of about 15 or 20 people, and I was to preach. And just when I got up into the pulpit, this mountain of a man walked in, in his 60s or early 70s. He could have whipped every one of us in this building. And as I preached, as I saw his face, I just threw everything away and started preaching the Gospel. He was the saddest human being I had ever seen. I preached just Gospel and more Gospel, and when I was done, I walked from the pulpit directly to him.
I said, “Sir, what is wrong? What is troubling your soul? I have never seen a man so sad and down-hearted in all my life?” He pulled out a manila envelope; it had some x-rays which I couldn’t understand. But he said, “I just came from the doctor. I am going to die in three weeks.” That is what he told me. “Now I have lived all my life on a working cattle ranch. You can only get there by float plane or riding horses across the mountains.” He said, “I have never been to church; I have never read a Bible. I believe there is a God, and one time I heard somebody talking about some guy named Jesus.” He said, “I have never been afraid of anything in my life—and I am terrified.”
I said, “Sir, did you understand the message, the Gospel?”
He said, “Yes.”
Now what would have a great majority of preachers done at that moment? “Well, would you like to ask Jesus to come into your heart?”—that is what they would have done.
I said, “Sir, you understood it?”
He said, “I understood it, but is that it?” He said, “A child could have understood that. Is that all it is, that I understand it and I pray, or…?”
I said, “Sir, you are going to die in three weeks. I have to leave tomorrow. I will cancel my plane ticket and we will stay here over the Scriptures wrestling and crying out to God until you are either converted or you die and go to hell.”
And so we began. I began in the Old Testament, the New Testament, every verse of Scripture dealing with the promises of God regarding redemption and salvation, over and over, time after time, reading John 3:16, praying for a while, crying out to God, questioning the man regarding repentance, regarding faith, regarding assurance—working till Christ be formed in him.
And then finally, just exhausted that evening, there was no breakthrough; there was nothing. And I said, “Sir, let’s pray.” And we prayed.
I said, “Sir, read John 3:16 again.”
He said, “We have read this a million times.”
I said, “I know, but it is one of the greatest promises of salvation. Read that text again.”
And I will never forget it. He had my Bible on his lap in those big mountainous hands of his and he said, “OK.” He said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave…—I’m saved. I’m saved! Brother Paul, all my sins are gone! I have eternal life! I’m saved!”
I said, “How do you know?”
He said, “Haven’t you ever read this verse before?”
What was going on? A working of the Spirit of God, instead of those little tricks you try. What!—you want to go eat? What!—you think preaching is a spectacle, and after that you go back to the hotel? No, after the preaching is when the work begins. It is dealing with souls. People come forward in meetings for counsel by someone who shouldn’t be counseling. And after five minutes, they are given the sinner’s prayer to pray and the card to sign. And then, quick, give the card to the pastor, and the pastor says, “I would like to present to you a new child of God. Welcome him into the family of God.” How dare you!!
If you are going to present him, say this: “This man tonight has made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And because of our fear of God and our love for the souls of men, we will now be working with him to make sure that Christ has truly been formed in him, that he truly has a biblical understanding of repentance and faith, and great assurance and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is what we are going to do.”Look at what we have done in modern Christianity. I plead with you, look at what we are doing. And this is not some strange cult. This is us that we are talking about. I plead with you: Stop it. Please, stop it!