What We Believe & Why - Chapter Seventeen

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What We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

Chapter Seventeen
Praying for the Lost

INTRODUCTION: TEXT: John 17:9

The intent of this lesson is to capture the true sense of how God's people are to conduct their prayer lives with relation to lost sinners. When, in John 17:9, Jesus said, "I pray not for the world," He did not imply that He had no concern for the lost and that He would never offer a prayer on their behalf. In fact, before 24 hours passed, Jesus prayed of the murderous mob that crucified Him, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) Likewise, when Paul said, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer unto God for Israel is that they might be saved," (Romans 10:1), he was not implying that the means of lost people being saved is prayer on their behalf, or that God's people are to sit around and pray for them. There is a right way in prayer to show your concern for the lost, and there is a wrong way. It is fruitless and misleading to pray for the lost in a way contrary to the principles of the scriptures. Therefore, we shall seek together, here, the right way of praying with regard to the lost.

I. THE SCRIPTURES DEFINITELY TEACH THAT WE CANNOT PRAY LOST PEOPLE INTO SALVATION.

A. The Bible is very clear-cut and concise on how people are saved.

1. Romans 10:17, "So then faith commeth by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

2. A lost man must hear and believe the gospel in order to be saved. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the scriptures, (I Corinthians 15:1-4), and it is God's power to save. (Romans 1:16)

3. There is no other means of salvation outside the gospel of Jesus Christ. A lost sinner must hear and believe this gospel in order to be saved. John 3:18 says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

4. Romans 10:14,15 make vividly clear how important it is that men hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. These verses ask, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?"

B. The idea of praying lost people into salvation is out of harmony with salvation by hearing and believing God's word.

1. If we could just pray them into salvation why should we spend the effort and money to tell them of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

2. It would surely be a waste of time and money to send missionaries to foreign lands if we could just pray the lost into salvation. Surely if salvation comes this way, we should save our money and our missionaries, and simply enter into our closets and begin to pray men into salvation. If two men are interested in a particular lost person and one of them kneels down and begins to pray for that lost person to be saved, while the other goes and tells the lost person the message of salvation, would the salvation of that lost person come as a result of the prayer, or as a result of his hearing and believing the gospel? I believe that earnest students of the Word of God will admit that the lost person was saved by hearing and believing the gospel.

3. The concept of praying lost people into salvation would render useless the need for going to them with the word of God, which is advocated so consistently in the Bible. Luke 14:23 says, "And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and compel the to come in, that my house may be filled." Mark 16:15 says, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Matthew 28:19 says, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

4. To just sit back and pray God to save sinners simply does not conform to His teachings about the necessity of sinners hearing and believing His word, and the necessity of Christians taking it to them. If men are brought to salvation through prayer, then all of us ought to get on our knees and pray as many in as we can.

5. In light of the scriptures, we know that we can pray all we want, but until a man hears and believes the gospel he will not be saved. We also know that if a man hears and believes the gospel, he will be saved, even if no one has prayed for him.

6. In a nut shell, salvation is a personal matter for each individual. No other person can pray him in, believe him in, work him in or in any way make that personal commitment to Christ for him. In spite of what others do or don't do, until he has a personal faith in a personal Christ, he will remain personally lost.

7. Many well meaning Christians have prayed to God to save certain ones. A standard part of many persons' prayer is, "Lord, save the person nearest Hell's door today." The intent is good, but that is not how God saves sinners. Instead of Him just arbitrarily saving this one and that one for whom someone has prayed, He has given us the commission to go and preach the gospel to those folks. If they receive it He'll save them. If they don't, He won't.

C. What more can we ask God to do for sinners than He has already done?

1. Is there anything in God's word that indicates that God will arbitrarily reach into a man's life and break his will down, and make him believe, while all the time the person is thinking it is his own free choice, just because somebody is praying for him?

2. In other words, now that God has already performed the work of salvation by His death, burial and resurrection, is He going to force some to believe while He ignores others? If "God is no respecter of persons," (Acts 10:34), how could He do a thing like that? Is it not a fact that God has given every man a free will to receive or reject what has already been done to save him?

3. Jesus already died, was buried, and raised again for sinners. Already, He has carried their sins to the cross in His own body. Already, He has finished the work necessary to the redemption of lost men. (John 19:30) What more can we ask or pray for Him to do for sinners, short of forcing them to receive it, a thing which we know He will not do? After all, that is the only thing standing between any sinner, who has heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and eternal life.

4. Therefore, in view of the finished work of the cross, and the fact that all its benefits are limited to those who are of the household of faith, Jesus said, "I pray not for the world." (John 17:9)

II. THOUGH WE CANNOT PRAY LOST PEOPLE INTO SALVATION, WE CAN PRAY FOR GOD'S HELP AS WE SEEK TO BRING THEM TO SALVATION.

A. Whereas God promises nothing when we ask amiss, (James 4:3), He promises divine help when we ask according to His will. (Matthew 6:10 and Romans 8:27)

1. He never promised to save lost sinners because we pray for them, but He did promise to give us grace in our efforts to reach them. (Hebrews 12:28)

2. As David did in Psalm 51:10, we can pray God to give us "a right spirit" which will make a tremendous difference in the response we get when we seek to win the lost to Christ.

3. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Every man who cares about souls needs wisdom in his efforts to win them. He has a perfect privilege to pray to God for wisdom in his efforts to reach the lost. Every person is unique and we need wisdom, or insight, as to how to approach and handle each individual situation.

4. You can also pray for boldness and consistency in your efforts to win the lost. It was for this that the saints of Acts 4:29 prayed, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word."

5. You can also pray for God to minimize the efforts of Satan to hinder your soul winning endeavors and for God to arrange circumstances to your advantage. After all, God still rules the world, (Colossians 1:17), and He can put a hedge about you (Job 1:10) and cause all things to work for your good. (Romans 8:28)

6. You can also express to God in prayer the desire of your heart for the lost. Paul wrote, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." (Philippians 4:6) A child of God ought to want loved ones, friends, and all to be saved. It is honesty to express that to God. Note well that it is one thing to ask God to save a person, and it is quite another thing to ask Him to help you in your efforts to reach that person with the gospel. It is a powerful thing for lost men to hear you express your love for them to God, and your desire for their salvation and well being. Stephen did this in Acts 7:59, 60. Paul indicated our prayers should be for the general well being of all men, especially those in great authority. ( I Timothy 2:1,2)

7. James 5:16 says, "Pray one for another." Surely we ought to pray for each other in our efforts to reach the lost.

8. So there are many things for which we can pray with regard to reaching the lost, but to just ask God to arbitrarily reach down and save them is in violation of the scriptural order for reaching the lost.

B. The fact that some today, like Jesus in John 17:9, do not ask God to save the lost, is no indication of a lack of concern in them for the lost.

1. They pray with the lost at heart. Their prayers are a request of God to do what He has promised in helping reach the lost, not a request for Him to circumvent His long standing method of the lost voluntarily coming to Him by faith.

2. God's work has to be done God's way. He will help His children reach the lost, but He won't go out and save the lost who've never heard the gospel, even if His children ask Him to do it.

3. A few of God's people have realized this and are diligently seeking to acquaint every one whom they can with the gospel while they earnestly seek the grace and help of God in their endeavor.

III. SOME HAVE OFFERED ROMANS 1-:1 AS SUPPOSED SCRIPTURAL OPPOSITION TO THE POSITION SET FORTH IN THIS LESSON.

A. Romans 10:1 says, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved."

B. Long before Paul wrote these words, God had prophesied of a national conversion of the nation of Israel.

1. He promised that in spite of their dispersion from their homeland, He would gather Israel back to their homeland from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah 43:5,6 and Ezekiel 37:1-28 prophesy this.

2. In Ezekiel 20:33-38 He promised them a time of great and awful tribulation, which would break their pride and stubborn wills.

3. When in this tribulation it looks as though Israel will be utterly destroyed, God will come and fight for Israel. (Zechariah 14:1-3) Joel said, "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the Heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." (Joel 3:16)

4. After this time of tribulation and deliverance at the hand of the Lord, God will establish Israel in the promised land as the head of the nations. (Zechariah 8:20-23) Also consider Ezekiel 48:1-29 and Amos 9:11-15.

5. The results of the tribulation will be a national conversion of Israel.

a. Zechariah 12:10 says when Jesus comes back to fight for His people, Israel, "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced."

b. Jeremiah 16:14-21 and Jeremiah 23:3-8 both speak of this occasion, and the latter passage says "In his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely." (verse 6)

c. Isaiah the prophet wrote, "But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation." (Isaiah 45:17)

d. When Paul writes in Romans 10, he says of Israel in verses 2 and 3, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Then, as now, Israel, as a whole, is in unbelief, thinking they can be just with God by their own laws, or efforts, and apart from the work of Christ on the cross.

e. But Paul knew there would come a day when these people, as a whole, will realize they are wrong, depart from their own ways of salvation, and look in simple faith to the one they pierced on the cross. This would, of course, result in their salvation. And this he states in Romans 11:25-27, "...that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: As it is written , There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." So Paul knew that Israel would eventually be saved by faith in Christ, which is the only way to be saved. This was promised in Isaiah 45:17, Isaiah 59:20, 21 and Isaiah 27:9. Paul quotes these promises in Romans 11:25-27. By comparing Romans 11:25-27 with Romans 10:1-3 it is easy to see that Paul's prayer is for the promise of God to be fulfilled, and thus, for Israel to be saved by believing in the Messiah. His is not a prayer for God to arbitrarily save them against their will, apart from believing the gospel, or for Him to so overrule their wills in such a way as to force them to believe.

C. Paul's desire in prayer was that the promise of God for this conversion might be executed speedily. He was praying for the quick fulfillment of the prophecy and expressing his desire for the well-being of his people after the flesh. He was not asking God to do something He had never promised, such as saving a man who had never been shown the truth of Jesus as the Messiah.

D. The promise of Israel's conversion does not relate to an occasional Jew being saved throughout the years, but to a mass conversion in view of the events of the tribulation. If we had a specific promise in God's word that any given sinner, or that sinners as a whole, would all ultimately be saved, then we could pray God for the fulfillment of that promise. But we do not have a promise of that sort in the word of God. Paul did have a promise in the word of God about the national conversion of his people after the flesh, therefore, he could pray for the fulfillment of that promise. Therefore, it is evident that there is a tremendous difference in the basis of Paul's prayer for the national conversion of Israel, and in the prayer of a Christian for the salvation of one who is unsaved. Let every one of God's people be concerned about the lost, and let them pray for God's grace and strength in reaching those who are lost. But let the child of God be careful that he does not pray for God to do something that He has never promised and to circumvent His divine method for reaching the lost by arbitrarily trumping the lost man's will in bringing him into salvation.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"