Your earnest prayer on behalf of this man has been heard, and we join you together at the throne of grace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is able to save.
We praise God with you for the cross, where His holy Son suffered as the Substitute for all who believe, bearing their sins in His own body up to the tree and away from the tree. There is no other name by which we must be saved, and there is no other sacrifice that can put sin away. It is our comfort that when the soil slips from under a man's feet and he is about to dash into the pit that is bottomless, the Lord Himself can come in, even then, and rescue him to the praise of the glory of His grace.
You have prayed rightly that this man may hear the voice of the Lord and see the clear truth about his identity in Christ. The Scriptures teach us that our true identity is not found in the desires we have followed or the false names we have taken upon ourselves when we strayed from the narrow path, but in what Christ has done for sinners who look to Him. As one has said, it is all you have to do, to look out of yourself and away from yourself, and look to Christ, not to forms or feelings, but to what Christ has done. To look to Him is to trust in His one great sacrifice, and in that looking there goes forth the word, Deliver him from going down to the pit.
We also join you in praying for a true work of repentance in his heart. There is a repentance that is only the outcome of terror and the flesh, which is superficial and skin deep and withers in a night, and gives no glory to God and leads to no lasting deliverance. True repentance gives God glory, hates sin because it slew Christ, and turns from it to live as the holy God would have us live. Faith and repentance are inseparable. The repentance that will save a man is quite consistent with faith in Christ, for repentance ejects sin as an evil tenant and faith admits Christ to be the sole master of the heart. We pray that the Lord would not leave him to a stony heart or to a despairing remorse, but that He would open his ears and seal his instruction, withdraw him from his purpose and hide pride from him, and work in him that godly sorrow which is wrought by the Holy Spirit through belief of the truth.
Therefore we pray with you that the Father, who alone can deliver us from the power of darkness, would be pleased to do these things. We ask that He would break the stony heart and soften it for His glory, give courage to walk in the narrow way, and teach this man the fear of His holy name which is the beginning of wisdom to depart from evil. We ask that He would open his eyes to see both the depth of His love in Christ and the mischief and bondage of sin, that He would show him the fascinating power of sin and of the world for what it is, and make him to loathe it. We ask that the Lord would separate him from ungodly influences, even those in his own household, and from every hateful and sinful entanglement where he is controlled or in danger, and that He would set him free indeed. For to escape from Satan who is the prince of the power of the air, oh, let it be sung in heaven, and He has delivered many and can deliver still.
May the Lord keep this man in safety, guard his life, and bring him into the light and liberty of the children of God. May he be brought to say with a joyous faith, I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord, and may his life henceforth be spent in the service of Him who has delivered him. We pray that he may come to know himself as a child of God not by nature or by his own desires, but by being born again through faith in Jesus Christ, and that walking by faith from the wicket gate to the celestial city, repentance may be his right hand companion all the journey through.
We commend you also to the Lord, that you may continue in prayer and in kindness toward him, speaking the truth in love and pointing ever to Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin all who truly repent and believe in Him. May that truth be laid home to his heart by the Holy Spirit and vivified there, that he may look and live.
In the powerful name of Jesus we ask these things, trusting that He hears when His people agree together according to His will. Amen.
