"Deciding For The Lord"

D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones lectured to Westminster theological students after he retired from the pulpit . The lectures were gathered in his classic " Preaching & Preachers . One of the chapters is : " Calling For Decisions " .

That term 'decide ' has always seemed to me to be quite wrong . I have often heard people use expressions which have disturbed me , and made me feel very unhappy . They have generally done so in ignorance and with the best intentions . I can think of an old man who often used the following expression : ' You know , friends , I decided for Christ forty years ago , and I have never regretted it . ' What a terrible thing to say ! ' Never regretted it ! ' But that is the kind of thing people say who have been brought up under this teaching and approach . A sinner does not ' decide ' for Christ ; the sinner ' flies ' to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying -- Foul , I to the fountain fly ,
Wash me , Saviour , or I die . [ A. Toplady ]
No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope , his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God's holy law .

 

More from Dr. L-J's chapter :

In the church where I ministered in South Wales I used to stand at the main door of the church at the close of the service on Sunday night , and shake hands with people as they went out . The incident to which I am referring concerns a man who used to come to our service every Sunday night . He was a tradesman but also a heavy drinker . He got drunk regularly every Saturday night , but he was also regularly seated in the gallery of our church every Sunday night . On the particular night to which I am referring I happened to notice while preaching that this man was obviously being affected . I could see that he was weping copiously , and I was anxious to know what was happening to him . At the end of the service I went and stood at the door . After a while I saw this man coming , and immediately I was in a real mental conflict . Should I , in view of what I had seen , say a word to him and ask him to make a decision that night , or should I not ? Would I be interfering with the work of the Spirit if I did so ? Hurriedly I decided that I would not ask him to stay behind , so I just greeted him as usual and he went out . His face revealed that he had been crying copiously , and he could scarcely look at me . The following evening I was walking to the prayer-meeting in the church , and , going over a railway bridge , I saw this same man coming to meet me . He came across the road to me and said , ' You know , doctor , if you had asked me to stay behind last night I would have done so . ' ' Well ,' I said , ' if what happened to you last night does not last for twenty-four hours I am not interested in it . If you are not as ready to come with me now as you were last night you have not got the right , the true thing . Whatever affected you last night was only temporary and passing , you still do not see your real need for Christ . '
That is the kind of thing that may happen even when an appeal is not made . But when an appeal is made it is greatly exaggerated and so you get spurious conversions .

 

More from L-J .

I have spoken of others who are criticised by their members because they do not make this 'call' at every service . The practice seems to have introduced a new kind of mentality , a carnality expressing itself as an unhealthy interest in numbers . It has led also to a desire for excitement , and to an impatience almost with the message because they are waiting for the 'call' at the end and the seeing of the results . All this is surely very serious .

 

Doulous , I am in agreement with the good doctor , speaking of whom ... here's more from that chapter .

My contention is that [ a principle ] applies to this matter of calling for decisions , and that the tendency increasingly has been to put more and more emphasis on the 'appeal' and the taking of a decision , and to regard it as something in and of itself . I remember being in an evangelistic meeting in which I , and others , felt that on that occasion the Gospel had not really been preached . It had been mentioned , but it certainly had not been conveyed , it had not been preached ; but to my amazement a large number of people went forward in response to the appeal at the end . The question that arose immediately was , what accounted for this ? I was discussing this questin the following day with a friend . He said , " There is no difficulty about that , ' these results have nothing to do with the preaching . ' So I asked , ' Well , what is it, what was happening ? ' He replied , ' This is God answering the prayers of the thousands of people who are praying for these results throughout the world ; it is not the preaching .' My contention is that there should be no such disjunction between the 'appeal' and the preaching , any more than there should be between the sacraments and preaching .
... this method surely carries in it the implication that sinners have an inherent power of decision and of self-conversion . But that cannot be reconciled with scriptural teaching such as 1 Corinthians 2:14 , ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned ,' and Ephesians 2:1, ' You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins ,' and many other statements .
... there is an implication here that the evangelist somehow is in a position to manipulate the Holy Spirit and His work . The evangelist has but to appear and to make his appeal and the results follow inevitably . If there were an occasional failure , an occasional meeting with little or no response , the problem would not arise ; but so often today the organisers are able to predict the number of 'results' .
... this method tends to produce a superficial conviction of sin , if any at all . People often respond because they have the impression that by doing so they will receive certain benefits .