Adrian Rogers - Looking for God in this Desperate World
Revelation Chapter 9. In a moment we are going to begin in verse 13. It seems that everything that is not nailed down is coming loose. And it seems as if the devil is pulling nails every day. And we have a world, literally, a world that has gone wild. We ask this question, "Where is God, doesn't He know; or if He knows, doesn't He care; or if He knows and cares, can't He do anything about it"? We're going to find out that God does know, God does care, and God does have a plan. Now, we've been studying that period of time that is coming on the earth known as the Great Tribulation. It is delineated in the book of the Revelation by the opening of a seven-sealed book. And as the seals are broken and the book is opened, we see the horrors of the great tribulation to come as they unfold before our eyes. There are seven seals, and one by one we've seen those seals opened.
When we opened the seventh seal, we saw that in the seventh seal there was a moment of silence and then there're seven trumpets that begin to sound. A trumpet in the Bible may give an alarm, very much like an air raid siren or a burglar alarm. It tells of some impending danger many times in the Bible. And there are seven of these trumpets. Seven trumpet angels that begin to blow the trumpet. We worked our way down through the first five trumpets and we come today to the sixth trumpet. Look in Revelation chapter 9 verse 13 through 21, "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, 'Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.' And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand".
By the way, that is 200 million, "And I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and of jacinth, and of brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for the tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see not hear not walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts".
Now, there are five factors that I think are delineated, many more obviously, but five factors that I have chosen today to lay upon your heart as we're looking for God in a world that's gone wild. If we today are wondering where is God, I wonder how much more will those in the great tribulation be wondering? By the way, I want to say it again; the Church will not be here in the great tribulation, as I understand the Word of God. We are going to be raptured out first. But there is coming a day in which some sitting in this congregation, and some of you listening on television, may enter into because some of you refuse to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Factor number one, I want to call the prayer factor. And here is the prayer factor, prayer delayed is not prayer denied, prayer delayed is not prayer denied.
So many times we have prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and nothing happens. And so we think, well, perhaps God didn't hear our prayer, or God heard our prayer and said, "No". But look in Revelation chapter 9 verse 13, "And the sixth angel sounded, and I hear a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God". Now, what is the golden altar, which is before God? In Heaven, there is a tabernacle. The tabernacle on earth that the children of Israel worshipped in was but a symbol and a picture of the tabernacle, which is in Heaven. And in that tabernacle in Heaven there is a golden altar, which the golden altar on earth represented, and it's called the altar of prayer.
Now, you need to understand how the tabernacle worked. Let's just let this carpet that I'm standing on represent the tabernacle. And as you came into the tabernacle, the first thing you would see would be a great brass altar, a brazen altar; and the fires of that altar burned continually night and day, night and day, because those fires represented the holiness of God and His judgment against sin. There would be blood sacrifice offered on that brazen altar, that altar of judgment which represented the Lord Jesus Christ dying for our sins. That's in the outer court. But then if you were to come into the inner court, you would find the golden altar. That's the altar of incense. It had four protuberances or four horns, one on each corner. A horn speaks of power.
Now, once a year the high priest would take blood and go on the Day of Atonement, past the golden altar, into the Holy of Holies, and there sprinkle that blood upon the Mercy Seat. That represents the blood of Jesus Christ, the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. But now here is the golden altar. Now once a year, as the high priest would come into the Holy of Holies, he would sprinkle the blood on the four horns of the golden altar. Because the golden altar that burns incense, and he would burn incense on the golden altar in the morning and in the evening. Well, what does that represent? It represents that our prayers go to Heaven in the power of the blood. There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only to cleanse from sin but to give efficacy to our prayers. And then this priest would sprinkle incense there upon that fire on the golden altar and that incense would go up to Heaven in the power of the blood representing your prayer and my prayer. Now let me give you some Scriptures that ramify that, Revelation chapter 5 verse 8. He speaks of the golden vials or bowls full of odors, that is incense, which are the prayers of the saints. You see, I am not guessing at this. All right, Psalm 141 and verse 2, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice".
You see that incense represent prayers. But the question comes, why, oh why, oh why are our prayers so long in being answered? Well, that's not a new question. Revelation chapter 6 now, verses 9 through 11, "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held". These are beloved Christians who loved Jesus. They stood on the Word of God. They preached; they taught; they testified; and they were put to death. "And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled".
That's very interesting. They're saying, "God, why haven't You answered our prayers"? God said, "Just wait; just wait. It is not over yet. There are going to be some more martyrs". Now, what I want you to understand is that prayer delayed is not prayer denied. Okay? What I want us to see today in a world gone wild is that God has His own schedule. And remember that if you prayed in faith and asked God to do something, that prayer never fell to the ground, that prayer is still there in Heaven. Now we're back again to Revelation chapter 8. Now we're still working back to chapter 9. But look in Revelation chapter 8 and verse 3, "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censor; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers," now watch this, I love this, "of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne".
All saints. Are you a saint? Your prayer is up there. I mean, your prayer is there. All saints, your prayer did not fall to the ground. We need to learn something. That God, with prayer, the prayer factor, that prayer delayed is not prayer denied. Ron Dunn, who's preached from this pulpit many times who's now gone to Heaven, Ron Dunn said that, "Prayer is the Christian's secret weapon". He said, "It's like an intercontinental ballistic missile," and I love it. He said, number one, listen to these things; I want to give you five factors about prayer. Don't forget them.
Number one: it can be fired from any spot, any spot. Sometimes when I get a young person in my office, I'll bring them outside my office and I have a little spot there on the carpet. And I say, "Come over here, do you see that spot"? They say, "Yes, what about it"? I say, "You can go to anywhere in the world from that spot". They say, "You can"? I say, "Yep, anywhere in world just from that spot". Because you can go to anywhere in the world from any spot. Friend, let me tell you something. You can launch a prayer from any spot on earth, any place.
Number two: It will travel undetected at the speed of light. Friend, I don't know where Heaven is or how far away it is, but your prayer can reach Heaven just like that.
Number three: It hits the target every time.
Number four: Satan has no defense against it. There is no anti-prayer missile.
And number five: It often has a delayed detonation. Now, "Lord, why haven't You heard my prayer"? God said, "It hit the target. You just wait. You just wait". These souls under the altar, "Lord God, how long"? God says, "I'm on schedule. It'll go off on time". A prayer can be launched with a delayed detonation. So that's the first principle I want you to see.
The first factor's the prayer factor. Prayer delayed is not prayer denied. Okay? Got it? Number two: The power factor. Satan is sinister but God is sovereign. Never forget that. Don't get your eyes on the power of Satan and think that perhaps somehow God is up there in Heaven wringing His hands walking around saying, "What am I going to do"? I have told you before that the Holy Trinity never meets in emergency session. God is sovereign.
Now look in Revelation 9 verse 14, "Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, 'Loose the four angels which are bound the great river Euphrates.'" Now this voice that we see, that speaks, comes from the altar. That means it's coming as an answer to your prayers. Now there are four angels bound in the river Euphrates. These are four of the most wicked and vile and powerful of all the demonic fallen angels. I call them the filthy four. God has had them bound. God has had them chained. God has had these vile, malevolent, wicked angels on a leash restraining them. They seem to have charge over the four world empires that have been on this earth. They are what we would call prince angels. There're some prince angels. Put these verses down, don't turn to them because it'll take us too much time. But Daniel chapter 10.
By the way, to understand Revelation, you have to understand Daniel and vice versa. Daniel prayed and he wondered why his prayer wasn't answered immediately. And an angel came and said to him in Daniel chapter 10 verse 13, "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days". For 21 days I have been doing battle with the prince of the kingdom of Persia.
Now who is the prince of the kingdom of Persia? It certainly wasn't an earthly man. He can't do battle with an angel. The prince of the kingdom of Persia, I believe, was one of these four angels that's bound here. Or, for example, in Daniel chapter 10 verses 20 and 21, "Then said he, 'Knowest thou therefore that I have come unto thee and now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I'm gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece, or Grecia, shall come. But I will show thee that which is noted in the Scripture of Truth: and there's none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.'"
Now Michael is a prince angel. So we know we are talking about angels. There is Michael, the prince of the people of God, of Israel especially. And there again he mentions the prince of Persia and now he mentions the prince of Greece. That helps us to understand what Paul was talking about there in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against," what? "principalities". Principalities; there are evil, wicked, vile princes, chief demons, ruling demons, who rule over world empires. That's the reason sometimes today negotiators cannot do what they want to do because they are negotiating with men and they can't negotiate with Satan. Now these filthy four, these four angels that I believe are prince angels, are bound in the river Euphrates. Now the river Euphrates is both the cradle and the grave of human civilization.
Read the book of Genesis in chapter 2 verse 14 and you'll find out that the river Euphrates flowed out the Garden of Eden. It was there that the first sin was committed. It was there that the first murder was committed. It was there that the Tower of Babel was built there on the shores of the Euphrates, ancient Babylon. It was there that Nimrod, who is a type, and a picture, and an illustration of the antichrist that is to come, whose name means rebel, built the Tower of Babel. The first world empire. Now I want to say again that the river of Euphrates is the cradle and the grave of civilization. It is that river that divides the Near East from the Far East. We say, east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet. One of these days in the great tribulation they will meet.
Now these demons, these spirits, evidently there's only so much that they can do. That God is sovereign, and God has restrained them until there will come a time when God is ready in the fullness of time to let them be released. And folks when that happens, and I don't want to say it flippantly, but all hell will break loose. You see, don't get the idea that Satan can do whatever he wants when he wants. He cannot. The Bible says, "Greater is He that is in us than he that's in the world". Now God allows Satan to do certain things. Satan wanted to sift Peter as wheat, but he had to get God's permission to sift Simon Peter. Satan wanted to harm Job, but he had to get God's permission to harm Job. What I'm trying to say is this. That Satan is still on a leash. Satan is still, in some measure, restrained. Satan is sinister, but God is sovereign.
Sometimes people think that there is sort of an equilibrium. That over here is God and over here is Satan, and there is some great battle between God and Satan. And we're waiting to see who will win. Don't ever get that idea in your head. Satan is a created being. And he may be sinister, but only God is sovereign. Sometimes I have played the game of antonyms with people. I played it once with you. We'll pay it this morning. I'll give one word, and you give the opposite, the antonym: Up... Good... Strong... Black... God... no, I tricked you, tricked you. No! God has no opposite! There is only one God. He is not the opposite of God. He is the creation of God. Now, listen. Prayer, prayer delayed is not prayer denied. And, Satan is sinister, but God is sovereign.
Now there's a third factor I want us to learn. And that is the purpose factor. With God, timing is more important than time. Now it's very important that you learn this. Now look in Revelation 9 verse 15, "And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men". Now, you look at that casually and you might read, well that means thirteen months and a day as you add it all up. But that's not the original and the Greek reads it this way, "Prepared for the day, hour and year". The day, not a day, and not a composite of days, but a specific day. A pinpoint. Now what this tells again is that God has a purpose and everything is under God's control. And until that specific hour, until that moment, until that moment, it cannot happen. Till that specific hour strikes.
I remember reading one time in the newspaper about the space shuttle Columbia. And they were ready for that space shuttle to blast off into space. But they had to scrub it, and they could not blast it off because the computer was off 1/25th of a second, 1/25th of a second. Can you imagine how many millions of dollars and all the technicians and all are there? 1/25th of a second. What does this verse tell me? I'll tell you what it tells me. Not a speck of dust moves on this, in this universe unless God gives permission. God is in control. Not a blade of grass moves in the wind without God's permission. God is strategically moving in the world at His own timing. God called Abraham. And God said, "Abraham, I'm going to give you this land, this land of Canaan". But God said, "Abraham, there'll be four hundred years before your people will be able to possess it".
And God explains something to Abraham in Genesis 15:16. God said, "Abraham, the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full". Very interesting. Drop by drop, drop by drop, they are putting in the reservoir of God's wrath, iniquity. And God says, "I'm waiting, I'm waiting". Four hundred years, why? The iniquity of the Amorites: not yet full. Think how long people prayed for the coming Messiah who'd been prophesied over and over again. And they said, "Oh Lord, how long, how long, how long Lord, before Messiah comes". But the book of Galatians tells us in chapter 4 verse 4 that, "In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son". God is never ahead of time and God is never late.
Second Peter the third chapter, verses 3 through 10 tells us that in the last days some are going to be saying, well, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation". Peter says, "For this they are willingly ignorant". That one day is with Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Friend, God doesn't punch a clock when He goes to work. Did you know that? "One day with the Lord as a thousand years, a thousand years as one day. But the Lord is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish". But he says, "But the day of the Lord will come". It will come. Just because it's been 2,000 years since our Lord stepped into glory, don't get for one scintilla of an iota of a second this idea in your mind that God has forgotten a promise.
As surely as I am standing here, one day the trumpet will sound, the sky will roll back, and Jesus will rise from His throne and step down to receive His own. "Even so, come Lord Jesus". He is coming. And so what I want you to notice is, folks, the purpose factor. God has a purpose. God is controlling this world. One of my favorite Scriptures, my favorite Scripture is always what I am preaching about. One of my favorite Scriptures is First Timothy chapter 6 verses 14 and 15. Paul tells Timothy, "That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in His times," I love it, "In His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords". His time, friend, His time is coming. The day, the hour, the month, He's on time. And so, if you want to know where is God, I want to tell you. God is on time, and with God timing is more important than time.
Now here's the fourth factor and I want to call it the perversity factor. It talks about sin. And here it is: when restraint is removed, battles begin. Begin in Revelation 9 verse 16, "The number of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand," now you know that is two hundred million, "and I heard the number of them". Heh, why did John write that, "And I heard the number of them". Well, when John saw this revelation there weren't two hundred million people living on the face of the earth. And now he talks about an army of two hundred million. Somebody might have said, "John did you get your decimal point in the wrong place"? He said, "I heard the number. I heard the number".
Now look at verses 17 to 19 of this same chapter, "And I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and of brimstone: and the heads of the horse were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails for their tails were like unto serpents, and their heads, and had heads, and with them they do hurt".
Now when these vile angels, these filthy four, these prince angels are released from the Euphrates, then God takes the leash off. They are no longer restrained. And then an incredible battle begins. It's not the battle of Armageddon, but it is setting the stage for Armageddon; violent war, in flames the wicked hearts of men by demon spirits. You see, Satan is a demon of war, a devil of war. His demons are demons of war. Just put in your margin Revelation chapter 16, we'll get to that later on. But look in verse 14. Speaking of these vile spirits and it says, "And they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty".
Demon spirits moved the heart of Osama bin Laden. Demon spirits led the heart of Hitler. Demon spirits are war-mongering spirits working in the hearts of people to move them to destruction and battle. When you want to know where is God, don't strike out the perversity factor. There's something horrible working in the hearts of men. And when God removes restraint, battles begin. Now, here's an army of two hundred million. Now in World War II, the greatest number that the United States had under arms was twelve million at one time. And yet, here is army of two hundred million.
When John wrote this, it would have seemed impossible. But I read and saved the article out of a newsmagazine, some years ago, back in the sixties, where Red China confessed and announced that it could put two hundred million people under arms. Amazing thing. And they used exactly, precisely, the number that God used here in the book of the Revelation. But besides this, the Bible uses the word armies. Now we see it in verse 16 of Revelation chapter 9, "And the number of the army of the horsemen". Actually, that's plural. The number of the armies and the war that is described here it seems like a symbolic description of modern war. They have breastplates of fire and of jacinth. Jacinth is the color of hot, blue flame like would come out of the mouth of a gun.
These instruments of war shoot fire, and smoke, and brimstone. They have tails like the tails of serpents. It sounds very much like modern tanks, and helicopters, and rockets that we would see today. Can you imagine the Apostle John if God gave him a vision of man landing on the moon? And God said, "Look at this, John". And John would say, "I saw a great spider issuing forth fire and brimstone; that's what I saw". John is looking forward. Of course, nobody knew anything about helicopters or airplanes; nobody knew anything about tanks. They knew something about horses, prepared to battle. There's coming a war.
Now, what is this war? What I want to give you is a scenario. I'm not saying this is what will happen; I'm saying it is what may happen. But the things I am going to tell you are prophesied. Whether this is the point or not, I want you to see. There is going to rise in Europe, and it is arising right now, a coalescence, a union, where we're going to have the United States of Europe. More and more in Europe, in the West, there's going to be a coalescence of power there in Europe. And a ruler is going to arise, and he's going to gather together all of his military and economic power that has been latent there in Europe. The beast, the antichrist, as we're going to see later, is going to come out of the old Roman empire, western Europe that is reconstituted.
Now, this ruler is going to make a treaty with Israel. The only way out of the problem that we see right now in the Middle East is for a third party to come in that has the power and the authority to say to Israel, "Come under our wing and we will protect you and we will make your borders safe". And so Western Europe, with the agreement of the United States, will make a treaty with Israel that unconditionally guarantees her borders. When that happens, it will incite the passions of the Muslim world and that Muslim world is stretched along the Euphrates River. Just go get your geography book and look and see what happens. And it reaches all the way up to Southern Russia and the former Soviet Empire there. That Euphrates begins up there. And all of them are going to come together with great resentment, saying, "No you can't make a covenant with Israel like this".
And there will come a war that will be centered there along that Euphrates from the north to the south. And a horde of people, two hundred million will begin to march in the ultimate Jihad, the ultimate Jihad. When this happens, the West, that has made a covenant with Israel, will come against this horde. Read about it in Ezekiel 37, 38 and 39 when you get home. As this northern power comes down and makes an alliance with all of these others round about. Turkey and others will come against Israel. Who will win in that battle? Well, the Bible says there's going to come a great shaking in the land of Israel. Will it be an earthquake? Will it be an atomic war? We'll see.
But out of that, the West will prevail, and there will be a geo-political vacuum, and in that geopolitical vacuum, ah, the beast will move. And now he will be ensconced as virtually the world leader. All the world will wonder after the beast. And we'll say, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war against the beast"? Well, you say, "Pastor, when is that going to happen"? Well, I personally believe it's going to happen after God removes His church. And then God removes His restraining hand and says, "Let loose the four angels, now is the time, let them loose". Man, who's wanted to live his own life his own way, he'll follow Satan and will now have his opportunity.
Now here's the fifth factor that I want to mention. And it is the pride factor. And here is the pride factor. If God's love doesn't bring repentance, God's judgment brings rebellion. Now you would think in all of these things, that men would fall on their face. You would think that they would be crying out to God and saying, "God have mercy". But begin to read now in Revelation 9 beginning in verse 19 again through to verse 21, "For their power is in their mouth, and their tails are like serpents and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues," now watch this, one of the most amazing statements, "Yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, or of their sorceries, or of their fornication, nor of their thefts".
Now you would think that men would be horrified, but they're hardened. Let me give you something. Men are not changed because of punishment. You can put a man in a prison, but it won't change his heart. You can lay a thousand stripes on the back of a fool, the Bible says, and it won't change him. Men are not beaten into submission. Do you know what they are doing in hell? Jesus said in Matthew 13 verse 42, "In hell men are gnashing their teeth". Do you know what it means to gnash their teeth? It means to snarl. Grrrrrrrr. They are gnashing their teeth against God. They're not saying God have mercy. Here's a world under judgment, but they don't repent of their sorcery. They're still doing their vile concourse with demons, astrology, and Satan worship. There are sins God-ward, and there are sins man-ward. Murder. The stage is being set.
Now in America, you can put to death a little baby that has already been born. God have mercy! God have mercy! God have mercy! Have we lost our minds? We have the audacity to sing, "God bless America". And there is sorcery. Do you know what the word sorcery means? It is the Greek word pharmacia. Do you know what a pharmacist is? He is a dispenser of drugs. The word here is for drug use. In the tribulation, man's mind will be reduced to rubble through drugs. And then he mentions fornication. It's the Greek word we get our word pornographic from. It speaks of sexual perversion and immorality. It speaks of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. And God left Sodom and Gomorrah with its smoking ruins as a testimony to those that after should live ungodly. But we will not learn. And the world will experience the same judgment as Sodom and Gomorrah.
And then he speaks of their thefts, their crimes. Because they steal from one another, and no restraint whatever. What I'm trying to say is this. Listen to me, I'm finished with the message, but you listen to me. Punishment, suffering does not bring people to God. Now God is righteous and God will bring judgment. But do you know what brings people to God, what causes people to repent? The Bible says in the book of Romans chapter 2 verse 4, "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance". Listen to me now, if Calvary, if bloody Calvary, doesn't cause you to bow your knee and give your heart to Jesus Christ, suffering won't do it. All it will do, is to bring more and more rebellion. If the love of God doesn't move your heart, you tell me what will move your heart.
C. S. Lewis said there're two classes of people in the world. There are those who, like Satan, say to God the Father, "Not Your will, mine be done". Then, there is another class, who don't follow Satan but who follow Jesus, who say to God the Father, "Not my will, Thine be done". Everybody here's in one of those two categories. But C. S. Lewis says to that first category, who like Satan say to God the Father, "Not Your will, mine be done". When they finally drop into hell, a broken-hearted Father will say, "Not My will, yours be done". "The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance". And if you go to hell, you listen to me, you'll have to climb over bloody Calvary to get there. God doesn't want you to die and go to hell. But you can say to God the Father, "Not Your will, mine be done". That's foolish to do that. The wise thing is to give your heart to Jesus. Amen, Amen.
Would you bow your heads in prayer? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. If you're not certain that you're saved, would you like to be saved, would you? Would you like to know that you really do have life? Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life". Could I lead you in a prayer? We'll call this prayer the sinner's prayer. And you can pray and accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You can do it right now. Would you pray this prayer?
Dear God, I know that You love me. Thank You for loving me. And I know that You want to save me. Jesus, You died to save me and You promised to save me if I would trust You. Jesus, I do trust You. I believe You're the Son of God. I believe you paid for my sin with Your blood on the cross. I believe that God raised You from the dead. And now I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin. Cleanse me. Come into my life. Take control of my life and begin today to make me the person You want me to be. And Jesus, give me the courage to make it public. Help me never to be ashamed of You. In Your name I pray, Amen.