| July 2, 2000 |
Vol. III, No. 9
|
Recently, I heard a preacher tell the story of his visit to a hospital where a man with a terminal disease was saved through prayer. Many call this “the sinner’s prayer.” It might be prayed anywhere, such as the bedroom, corn field, driving along in a car, a church service, as well as a sick bed in a hospital. Friends, in all candor, we do not read in the word of God about an alien sinner being saved by prayer. In fact, the expression “the sinner’s prayer,” is not found one time in the Bible. Such is the figment of a man’s imagination.
In the world-wide commission of Jesus, given after His resurrection, He never said anything about prayer. He said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), and that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations” (Luke 24:47).
In all the cases of conversion recorded in the book of Acts, not one time was an alien sinner told to pray. On Pentecost, the inspired apostle Peter told the Jews, after they had asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” to “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). Nothing about praying, here. When Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch the first thing the eunuch asked was, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” Philip, after hearing that he believed that Jesus is the Son of God, baptized him, Acts 8:35-38. No prayer, here. This harmonizes with what Jesus said in Mark 16:16. In the conversion of Lydia, Acts 16:14-15 and the Philippian jailer, Acts 16:30-33, we do not read of them being told to pray. However, they were baptized after faith and repentance. The Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized, Acts 18:8. All of them did what Jesus said to do in the great commission, and for the same purpose Peter stated in Acts 2:38 -- for the remission of sins.
Saul of Tarsus, who was praying, was told by Ananias to “arise. and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). Here was an alien sinner who was told to quit praying, get up, be baptized, and wash away his sins. “Calling on the name of the Lord” is an expression that means “appealing to the name of the Lord,” or “appealing to the authority of the Lord.” This is what a person DOES, rather than just what he SAYS. The word “call” is the same word translated “appeal;” in Acts 25:11 where Paul said, “I appeal to Caesar.” In other words, Paul is saying, “I will call upon Caesar.” He has the power as emperor to exonerate me. To be saved, we need to appeal to Jesus, obeying Him.
The blind man who had been healed by Jesus rightly said, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth” (John 9:31). This comports with Proverbs 28:9, “He that turneth his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.” Yet, preachers say than an alien sinner can pray for the forgiveness of sins, and God will forgive, while at the same time he ignores water baptism, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, and the plain teaching set forth in the examples of conversions in the book of Acts.
--Weldon E. Warnock, Truth Magazine, June 1, 2000
In Matt. 16:1-4, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus, "And testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, 'When it is evening you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red;" and in the morning, "It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening." Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.' And He left them and departed."
There is no doubt that these Pharisees and Sadducees had heard of, perhaps had even seen, some of the mighty miracles of Jesus. As He arrived at their shore, He had just finished miraculously feeding a crowd of more than 4,000 men plus an unspecified number of women and children. Previously He had fed a larger multitude with an even more meager beginning. He had healed the sick, cast out demons, even raised the dead. They knew about such miracles, but they were not willing to embrace His teaching. So what could they do?
On an earlier occasion, the Pharisees in other areas had accused Him of working His miracles by the power of Satan. Jesus put them to silence by conclusively showing that Satan would not work against himself by expelling his own henchmen. See Matt. 12:22-29.
Remember, the primary purpose for which miracles were worked was to produce faith in the hearts of those who witnessed such miracles that this new message He preached was from God. Nicodemus correctly drew that conclusion, John 3:1-2. Numerous others came to believe because of what they saw. Others through the ages have come to believe because of the testimony of those witnesses. John said of the miracles he recorded in his account of the gospel, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). We didn't see Jesus walk on water, but we believe because of what is written. We didn't see Him feed the multitudes, heal the sick or raise the dead, but we believe because of the testimony of those who did see Him work His mighty deeds.
But those who were not willing to believe, did not believe. Even when they saw, they refused to believe. To have worked still another miracle would no more have produced faith in them than the miracles they had already seen and heard about. To such as were unwilling to be convinced, Jesus said there is only one more miracle for you to consider, and with that He foretold His resurrection from the dead, comparing it with the experience of the prophet Jonah. As the prophet again walked the earth and taught after being three days in the belly of the great sea creature, likewise Jesus would appear again and teach after being dead and buried for three days. His resurrection was the ultimate proof of His identity and of the Divine source of His message.
--CRJ
* 12 newborns would be given to the wrong parents daily.
* 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes would be shipped per year.
* 18,322 pieces of mail would be mishandled per hour.
* 2,000,000 documents would be lost by the IRS this year. (We can handle that one!)
* 2.5 million books would be shipped with the wrong covers.
* Two planes landing at Chicago's O'Hare airport would be unsafe every day.
* 315 entries in Webster's Dictionary would be misspelled.
* 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions would be written per year.
* 880,000 credit cards in circulation would turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
* 103,260 income tax returns would be processed incorrectly per year.
* 5.5 million cases of soft drinks produced would be flat.
* 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly.
* 3056 copies of tomorrow's Wall Street Journal would be missing one of the three sections.
--author unknown, from Laugh a Day