Should we beseech sinners to ask the Lord to enable them to believe or just beseech sinners to believe?
Last month I received a mild critique of one of my sermons. Here is it in paraphrase:
What do you think? My mind goes immediately to the man in the Gospels that says, "O Lord I believe, but help my unbelief..." Would the correct response have been to have simply said, "Well..then just believe then!"
Is there anything wrong with imploring sinners in a sermon to pray that the Lord grants them saving faith or should we just tell them then and there to believe savingly?
Last month I received a mild critique of one of my sermons. Here is it in paraphrase:
At the end of the sermon when you were appealing to the lost you told them to "pray and ask God for a new heart" or something like that. I know what you mean by saying it, I have said it to people to probably, but Brother T-- has pointed out to our church that this isn't actually found in the scriptures. He actually said that it is a wrong conclusion from God's sovereignty. He said that in the scriptures they never say, ask the Lord to save you, they say to believe immediately.
Acts 16:31 And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
Another example of a call to immediate response it
Acts 2:37-38
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Mark 1:15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
brother T-- was actually teaching us that to tell the sinner to ask God to save them, or something of that nature can give the person an excuse not to come to Christ or can hinder them from it. The sinner supposedly prays for the Lord to save them and then when he doesn't he blames the Lord for not saving them. Or they are made to feel that they have time to repent because they are waiting on the Lord to save them since they've heard it's a sovereign work of God. He was saying that we are to call people to immediate believe as we see in the new testament. To press people with their responsibility to believe immediately.
What do you think? My mind goes immediately to the man in the Gospels that says, "O Lord I believe, but help my unbelief..." Would the correct response have been to have simply said, "Well..then just believe then!"
Is there anything wrong with imploring sinners in a sermon to pray that the Lord grants them saving faith or should we just tell them then and there to believe savingly?