diff --git a/lime/lime_tabular.py b/lime/lime_tabular.py
index 880f3d391..b9752d15d 100644
--- a/lime/lime_tabular.py
+++ b/lime/lime_tabular.py
@@ -305,7 +305,8 @@ def explain_instance(self,
                          num_samples=5000,
                          distance_metric='euclidean',
                          model_regressor=None,
-                         sampling_method='gaussian'):
+                         sampling_method='gaussian',
+                         predict_fn_accept_dense_only=False):
         """Generates explanations for a prediction.
 
         First, we generate neighborhood data by randomly perturbing features
@@ -358,8 +359,17 @@ def explain_instance(self,
                 metric=distance_metric
         ).ravel()
 
+        is_convert_to_dense = False
+        if sp.sparse.isspmatrix_csr(inverse) and predict_fn_accept_dense_only:
+            inverse = inverse.toarray()
+            is_convert_to_dense = True
+
         yss = predict_fn(inverse)
 
+        if is_convert_to_dense:
+            inverse = sp.sparse.csr_matrix(inverse)
+            is_convert_to_dense = False
+        
         # for classification, the model needs to provide a list of tuples - classes
         # along with prediction probabilities
         if self.mode == "classification":