Non-Christians and Prayer
Selected Scripture
7-6-08
I have been asked by 1 of you to address a particular topic & since we have not started a new series yet, I thought today would be a good day to tackle it. It has to do with the issue of non-Christians & prayer. And the basis question I was asked to address is this: Does God hear & answer the prayers of non-Christians?
If you think about it, in our society that has so tried to remove religion from the public scene, it is not unusual to hear or read about someone mentioning prayer. In a society that has been fed the lie of the separation of church & state – the call to pray & the mention of prayer & prayers it pretty common.
- We hear it from news reporters after a disaster or the death of someone. They will say, “Our thoughts & prayers are with the family.”
- We hear it from authorities when disasters strike such as the flooding out in the Midwest. I heard 1 sheriff out there calling on people to pray.
-We hear from people who do not appear to have any relationship with God, who do not attend church or read the Bible, or their lifestyle does not match up with biblical standards but they’ll state that they pray. And all these are said with the expectation that God hears & answers their prayers.
Thus the question I was asked to address – does God really hear & answer the prayers of non-Christians? Well, without trying to sound like a politician trying to win a political campaign - the answer to the question is “yes & no.” Let me address the “no” part of the answer first.
To understand that God does not answer the prayers of the non-Christian we need to first understand some basic theology about sin & sinful man. Unforgiven sin separates God & man. We observe this in the very beginning of Genesis. After Adam & Eve sinned there was a barrier between them & God. When God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day to interact with His creatures, Adam & Eve hid themselves from God. Sin had caused them to not want to be in His presence, even fearful & ashamed to be in His presence. There was a barrier there. And the only way for that barrier, at that point, to be temporarily removed was through the shedding of the blood of an innocent animal on their behalf, a shedding of blood which prefigured the perfect sacrifice of Christ’s shed blood on the cross that would permanently deal with that barrier. But sin separates a person from God. Therefore, there is no relationship between that person & God – no matter what they may think or feel or say they’ve experienced – if they have not given their lives to Christ & put their trust in His payment for their sins – they have no relationship with God. So according to the Bible, not according to Chuck Wall, but according to the Bible, the only way for sin to be forgiven & the barrier removed is through Jesus Christ.
-As He said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
-Echoing the same truth, Peter, filled with the HS, declared in Acts 4:12 - And there is salvation in no one else (speaking of Jesus); for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
-Paul stated the same thing in 1 Timothy 2:5-6 – “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.”
So if you take the 3 big personalities of the NT, Jesus, Peter, & Paul – they are all in agreement. So for the non-Christian, there is an insurmountable barrier between them & God which is their sin & therefore they have no relationship with & cannot know, in a personal way, God.
Maybe a good question to ask that non-Christian who is expecting God to answer his prayers is:
-Why do you expect God to answer your prayers when you don’t have a relationship w/ Him?
►“I do have a relationship w/ God.” “Have you asked Him to forgive your sins based on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for you because according to the Bible that is the only way to have a relationship w/ Him?”
Romans 5:8-9 - But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Ephesians 1:7 - In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses…
Hebrews 9:22b - without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
1 Peter 1:18-19 - …knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
1 John 1:7b - …the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Revelation 1:5 - …to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
So repeatedly the Bible declares that provision is made for the forgiveness of our sins only through the shedding of Jesus’ innocent blood on our behalf. So if that one says they have a relationship with God you need to find out what they are basing that relationship on because again, unless the sin barrier has been dealt with they cannot have a relationship with a holy God.
Another question you could ask would be: Since God is holy & hates sin, & as a sinner who breaks God’s law & commands, why do you expect God to answer your prayers.
And all you have to do to bring home how they break God’s commands (or to counter the “I’m a good person” argument) is to use the 10 Commandments:
Do you have any thing or person or desire more important in your life than God?
Have you ever used God’s name in an irreverent, dishonoring way or even as a curse word?
Have you ever dishonored your parents?
Have you ever hated someone – which Jesus said was the same thing as murder?
Have you ever committed adultery or lusted after someone, which Jesus said was the same thing as adultery?
Have you ever stolen anything, even time from your employer?
Well, then according to your own testimony you are an idolater, a blasphemer, a murder, an adulterer, a thief & one who dishonors his parents. Therefore, are you guilty or not guilty in God’s courtroom? Guilty! Well, if you’re guilty is God going to answer your prayers? And if you’re guilty how do you get forgiven?
“Well, I’m forgiven because I told God I was sorry.”
“So you believe God has forgiven you of all your sins, all your breaking of His commands, simply because you told Him you were sorry?” “Yes!”
“If you committed a series of crimes over a number of years & were finally caught & then as you stood before the judge you said, “Your honor, I’m sorry that I broke the law” – could the judge then say, “Okay, you can go free then.”? Could the judge say that? No, because there has to be some kind of consequence or punishment for breaking the law, especially numerous laws. If that is true in our human courts then why do you think a holy God would say, “Okay, you are forgiven simply because you said, ‘I’m sorry’”?
What you are attempting to do with these questions is - think of an onion - you start out by simply asking “why do you think God will answer your prayers” & then based on their answer start peeling away, through more pointed questions, the fallacy of their answers so that you can present the truth. And many people probably have not thought too much about this & simply assume God will answer their prayers because they believe God is good.
So it is crucial to understand – and get them to understand - how unforgiven sin affects a person & their relationship w/ God & therefore how it would affect their prayers to God & also get them to understand that there is only 1 way to deal with their sin.
Now I’ve spent a good bit of time on this because you need to be able to bring that non-Christian to this understanding because they have been deceived.
Now let me just highlight some verses which would give weight to the answer that God does not answer the prayers of the non-Christian.
Psalm 34:15-16a - The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
1 Peter 3:12 - “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER, BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL.”
Now this verse draws a contrast – it states that God’s ears are open to the righteous but they are closed & more than that, He is against evildoers. And the verse mentions only 2 classes of people: the righteous & the evildoers. Nothing in-between. So 1 conclusion is that God’s ears are closed to the cries of the unrighteous which is how the Bible refers in other places to the non-Christian.
Proverbs 15:8 - The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
Proverbs 28:9 – He who turns away his ear from listening to the (God’s) law, even his prayer is an abomination. That’s a harsh description. For the one who does not follow God’s law his prayers & all his other religious offerings for that matter are an abomination. The word also means God abhors or loathes their prayer.
Proverbs 15:29 - The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous. Again, “wicked” & “non-Christian” are synonymous. Your friend may react to being labeled “wicked” but then you can ask them whether God would call them “righteous?” They have to be in 1 of 2 categories.
Let me put several verses together & then I will comment of them:
Isaiah 1:15 – So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.
Psalm 66:18 - If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Isaiah 59:1-2 - Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Ezekiel 8:16-18 - Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”
Now granted these verses are addressed to Israel who had a covenant relationship with God & the principle would apply to NT Christians as well. But what I want you to see is this: if unconfessed sin in the life of one who has a relationship with God causes God to refuse to “hear” or answer their prayers how much more would that be true for the one who has not even entered into a relationship w/ God! In other words, is God going to be more favorable to those who have no relationship w/ Him than those who do?
So – does God hear & answer the prayers of the non-Christian? No, for their sin stands as a barrier between them & God.
Now let’s address the “yes” part of the answer. And here we need to draw a distinction between 2 categories of people:
Category #1 - The one who is genuinely seeking the truth & God. And the Bible would say, yes, God hears their prayer of wanting to know Him.
► Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek Me and find Me
when you search for Me with all your heart.
► Example – Cornelius – Acts 10 – Story of a
Gentile who sought God, a God-fearing man who
“prayed to God continually.” And we read that
before he even came to faith in Christ, God
sent a angel to him who said, “Cornelius…your
prayers have been heard.” And he was told to
send to Joppa for Peter who came & delivered
the message of salvation to him. So God will
hear the prayer of the one truly seeking Him &
will provide the opportunity to hear,
understand & respond to the Gospel.
Category #2 - The one who really does not have much use for God in their daily lives except when they want something or are in a pinch & then they pray. You think of the numbers of people to cry out to God when a disaster strikes or the numbers of people who cried out to Him during the 9/11 events.
So does God hear the prayers of that kind of person? And the answer is – sometimes yes! How can you say that, pastor? Because since God is a merciful God, He sometimes chooses to respond to the prayer of the unbeliever. It is not something they can count on or expect because the general rule is that He will not answer their prayers because of the sin barrier but out of His mercy, sometimes He chooses to do so.
Examples:
Ishmael – If you remember the story because of Sarah’s resentfulness of Hagar & Ishmael & because of Ishamel’s treatment of Isaac, Hagar & Ishmael are sent away. And so they are out in the desert & out of water. On the verge of death Hagar cries out & so does Ishmael & it says (21:17) “God heard the lad crying” & in response sent the angel of the Lord to Hagar who in part told her (21:18), “Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad.” And then God promises to Hagar to make a great nation from Ishmael. Interesting too is the fact the Ishmael’s name means “God who hears.” But there is no indication in the Scriptures that Ishmael had a relationship w/ the true God. But God responded to his cry.
The people Jesus healed – how many people came to Jesus over those 3 years asking, praying, crying out for healing which Jesus granted, yet many, if not most of them, first of all were not saved nor did they follow Jesus afterwards – yet Jesus chose to respond to their cry & heal them. Think of the 10 lepers that He healed yet only 1 came back to thank Him. And the indication is only this one came to true faith in Christ, but He heard & responded to their cry/prayer, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us!”
The Nobleman’s Son – In John 4:46-54 we are told the story of the nobleman who came to Jesus to ask for healing for his dying son. This nobleman was not a believer or “Christian” but he did recognize that Jesus was able to do miraculous things. And that is what a lot of non-Christians believe too. They do not have a personal relationship with God, He is not a part of the daily lives & thinking but they do believe He is powerful & thus call on Him at times when they need a “miracle.” And so in this story Jesus, out of His compassion, told the nobleman that his son was healed. Afterwards, when the nobleman was returning home he came upon his servants who informed him that his son was well & when he discovered that his son was healed the very same hour that Jesus spoke the word, the Bible tells us that “he himself believed & his whole household.” So clearly he was still a non-Christian when he made his request to Jesus. And there are numerous examples from Jesus’ ministry.
Ahab – Ahab is probably the greatest example of God responding to the cry or prayer of the non-Christian. This episode flows out of Ahab & Jezebel’s stealing of Naboth’s vineyard in which they have Naboth killed. In response God sent Elijah to Ahab w/ a scathing pronouncement of judgment in which God said, “Behold, I will bring evil upon you, & will utterly sweep you away & will cut off from Ahab every male.” Well, even this evil, wicked man is shook by Elijah’s prophecy so much so that we read (1 Kings 21:27) – “It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently.” Now there is no genuine repentance happening here. Nothing that is going to last. We know that & God certainly knew that but notice God’s response anyway – (1 Kings 21: 28-29) – “Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son’s days.’”
Now remember who Ahab was (1 Kings 21:25-26) – “Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife incited him. He acted very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the sons of Israel.” In other words, this was not just your typical unbeliever. This was 1 of the most evil & wicked men on the planet, yet God, out of His infinite mercy, responded to the cry of this man.
So in conclusion – does God hear & answer the prayers of the non-Christian. As a general rule – no because their sin separates them from God & therefore they have no relationship with Him & are thus under His judgment. But there are times, out of God’s compassion & mercy, when He will respond to the prayers/cries of the non-Christian. It is not something that can be expected or counted on, but there are times when He does. Many of those times it is used to bring that person to faith in Christ.
Let me simply remind you who are Christians of those 2 verses we looked at earlier.
Psalm 66:18 - If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Isaiah 59:2 - But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Make sure you have truly confessed & repented of your sins so that your prayers are not hindered & are heard by the Lord.
