We have joined with you in bringing this former landlord before the throne of grace, and we do so in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ alone, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
The word you have set before us is true and searching, for our Lord Himself has said, For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. There is permanence in God's salvation and it will never fade, but it requires that a man see his true condition. If we have laid hold of the truth of God's salvation we believe in a real Fall, and we who have really transgressed are those for whom there is truth in Christ's salvation. We believe also in a real Atonement, for Christ has stood in the sinner's place, and through that blessed doctrine of substitution we receive a real pardon. No salvation will ever serve his turn but one which is divine from top to bottom, God's in the beginning, God's in the carrying on and God's in the concluding. We pray that this man may see Jesus and in seeing Him see God's salvation itself, and that he may simply believe and live.
We are reminded that the house in which we dwell in this life has God for its Landlord and that we are only tenants. Your former landlord, though he has held property in his hands for a time, is himself a tenant under the great Landlord who has at all times the right to enter His own property and to speak to the heart. Our prayer is that he will offer the key of his house to that great Landlord and acknowledge that he lives on sufferance as His tenant, and that he will lose his life for Christ's sake that he may truly save it.
You have asked also that he may hear God's voice concerning His holy plan for his life. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The mere letter alone will kill, but when we hear God's voice speaking in it, then it has power. We pray that he will put his ear down to the promises of Scripture till he hears God speaking through them to his soul, that he will take heed how he hears, coming to the Gospel as God's voice to us and in God's presence with a simple and lowly heart. The saints know the voice of their Shepherd, and a stranger they will not follow. May the Lord open his ear to that still small voice, to obey the inward monitor, and to prepare to meet his God, being warned by the threatenings, cheered by the promises, and comforted by every good word of the Lord so that the Word may be life and salvation to him.
Let us pray together.
O Lord Jesus, You reign over darkness and Your light expels all darkness. We ask Your mercy and grace upon this man who once stood as landlord over an earthly dwelling. Show him that he is a tenant in Your world, that his breath is in his nostrils only because You keep it there. Convict him of his real sin and his need of a real Saviour, and reveal to him Your real atonement made upon the cross. Grant him repentance and faith, that he may lose his life for Your sake and so save it, trusting not in himself but in Your blood and righteousness alone. Speak to him through Your holy Word, let him hear Your voice and not the voice of strangers, and guide him into Your holy plan for his life according to Your perfect will. Bring deliverance where there has been strife concerning the rented apartment, and let all who see it behold Your greatness and power. We ask this not because we are worthy, but because You are faithful and Your salvation is true. In Your mighty and merciful name we pray, Amen.
