The Sinner's Prayer

Everyone prays in times of turmoil or when they want something badly enough. I would bet that even atheists sometimes pray hoping that there is a God.

Acts 17:23 "... as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you..."

My contention is that everyone seeks God! Atheists have yet to find Him. Theirs is that UNKNOWN GOD. It's God as they understand Him. They have been called by God but failed to hear. Ultimately, atheists are merely the spiritual hard-of-hearing. Let me hear it from some atheists: Do you find yourself wishing or praying to a God you do not know?

However, any person who has not been born-again, worship that UNKNOWN GOD, for all are called:

Acts 2:39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

God calls. You must respond. How is that done? The sinner's prayer. There are many but Psalm 51 is the best! For those not born-again, this type of prayer is the only type to which God listens:

John 9:31 "Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him."

In essence, unless sinners are praying for their own self-sacrifice to Him, God just does not listen. If we can be deaf to His call, God can be deaf if we don't respond to it! That's a dire place to be.

In Psalm 51, David is repenting of his sin with Bathsheba and having Uriah, her husband, killed.  Most of us, when we sin, say without much ado, "God, please forgive me of my sins," without even elaborating on what sin, having remorse, and presenting oneself to Jesus to cleanse. It must be to Jesus because it takes blood to cleanse the heart:

1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

From the story of Nicodemus (John 3), walking in the light is being born-again. Briefly, that light is that no one can safe themselves but only God can by his own shed blood on the cross for our sins. In response to seeing the light, God convicts the sinner, and the sinner feels remorse, sincerely repents, and the blood of Jesus cleanses them from all sin. As they are born-again, the old person is put asunder and the new person arises. That is the new birth. If a person has not done those things, then their religion is as useless as the UNKNOWN GOD.

If one examines Psalm 51, although he was already "a man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22), I submit that when Jesus calls, those who respond must be after God's own heart! David sincerely was:

Psalm 51:1 "Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—

6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—"

David had a "broken and contrite heart." He backslid for he was a Christian even before he sinned! Those who are Christians and sin, still must pray the same sinner's prayer. This prayer is for all who sinned; hence, it is for us all!

Note that I wrote something we normally don't say - "He was a Christian". We don't think of the Hebrew people as being Christian. Of course, few were but those to whom God spoke directly, they were indeed Christians! It must be remembered - it's not Jesus and God; it's Jesus Is God. When God spoke in patriarchal times, it was the Word's Voice that was heard. Jesus Is that Word who became incarnate (John 1:1-14).

John the Baptist, a different John, even said: "the one who came after me was before me." (John 1:30; paraphrased). Where was Jesus before? One place of many, we find Him with David. Ironically, Jesus was called the "son of David" because he was of the line of David, and a King after God's own heart! How do I know that David knew his own "Son" (seed):

Psalm 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
9  Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

14  Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it..."

David knew thousands of years before the Messiah came that he was his Savior. He knew that Jesus does not desire sacrifice, but only oneself (verse 16).  The "bones" that God had broken were blood and water, which did the cleansing. He specifically was aware of the importance that blood and water are efficacious, and that real bones would not be broken (John 19:33-37) as was prophesied by David himself in another Psalm:

Psalm 34:20 " He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken."

Then David described in detail the method of restoration! It was the blood of Jesus which would save him! Read it all in detail and think about contrition, guilt, and repentance - what's required to be born-again or restored to salvation as the case may be. David did those things and he was delivered from his sins, and came back into communion with God. The prodigal son had returned to his adoptive Father, and all was well with his soul.