you'll open your Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 2. If you like sermon titles, this
one's entitled, The Boy Who Prayed for the Devil. I originally planned
to preach it last Sunday night, but Sunday morning's message
overflowed into Sunday night, so this one got shoved to this
morning. We'll begin reading at verse
14 of Hebrews chapter 2. Since the children have flesh
and blood, he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, he too shared in
their humanity, so that by his death he might destroy him who
holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those
who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he
helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason, he had to be
made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become
a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and
that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because
he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those
who are being tempted. Now back in the early seventies,
when I was still in high school during the summers, I would counsel
at a camp. It was called Camp Good News.
And it was for elementary age children. And I was counselor there in
one of the cabins. And during evening devotions,
I gave the young boys in there a chance to pray if they wanted
to pray. Some of them did. And one little fellow was praying
for the salvation of several people. And during this part
of his prayer, he asked God to save the devil. And after prayers, I told the
young man that we shouldn't pray for the salvation of the devil
because God's not going to save him. Now, I'm sure there would
be a great deal of practical benefit if God were to save the
devil, just as it is. It's a great practical benefit
when God saves anybody. But notice here. It says in verse
14 of Hebrews chapter 2, Since the children have flesh and blood,
he too shared in their humanity, so that by his death he might
destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.
Now the death of Christ was designed to save his people, but it also
has this design, it destroys the devil. Not eliminating, not
as though he doesn't exist, But the devil's power has been
broken. And the devil will be cast into
hell. People have the idea that the
devil is king of hell. He's not king of hell. I'll tell
you who is king of hell. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's king
of everything. The devil doesn't rule in hell.
The devil will burn in hell, like all unbelievers do. God
will destroy him. Christ has destroyed him. by
his death, and that destruction will find its fulfillment in
times to come. But I told this young fellow
we ought to pray for the devil, because God's not going to save
him, and he asked me why. Why isn't God going to save the
devil? I'm sure it seemed like a good idea to him. It would
eliminate a lot of our troubles, wouldn't it? And when he asked me why, I didn't
have a good reason for it. They had no good answer. All
I can say is, well, he's not. It's just the way it is. He's
not going to do it. We shouldn't pray for him. We had taught this
boy, at least all the time he was at camp, and I know if he
went to any of the good news clubs, they were taught this
in good news clubs. We had taught the boy the free
will doctrine that God wanted to save everyone. Now that, in
Christianity, that is the dominant doctrine. Nearly everybody who
says that they are a Christian believes that God wants to save
everyone, that he wants everybody to be in heaven, and that he's
done everything he can to save everyone. Now, that's the common
or, as they say, the conventional wisdom. And that's what we've
taught this boy. And so since we say God wanted to save everyone,
his reason was, well, then God must want to save the devil,
too. And why wouldn't he want to save the devil? Is the devil
more sinful than you and me? Do you really think he is? Is
the devil more wicked than us? Is he more of a rebel than you
and I are? I can tell you this. Remember
the old phrase, if you're old enough, back in the 70s, there
was a comedian and he used to always do this skit and he'd
say, the devil made me do it. Whatever it was he got in trouble
for, the devil made me do it. I have found this. I don't need
the devil's help to sin. I talked to a fellow who used
to live in this town and he'd been sick for quite a while,
so I hadn't seen him. And I mean, he was sick nearing
the death. And the next time I saw him,
he looked like he got awful close to death because he looked pretty
bad when I saw him. And he'd been out of the hospital
a while. And I said, well, good to see you so and so. I haven't
seen you in a while. I heard you were sick. He said, yeah.
He said that God didn't want me and the devil didn't want
the competition. And you know something, when
I think of what I am and what I've done, I do believe that
I could give the devil a run for his money when it comes to
sin. How about you? I believe I could think of things
he hadn't thought of. And I can sin in ways that it's
impossible for him to sin, because after all, he's just spirit.
And there are certain things it takes a body to do. Has God rejected the devil because
the devil is more sinful than us? No. Is he more of a rebel
than us? He tried to take God's throne.
He set himself up above all the other angels in heaven, and he
said, I'm going to be like the most high. I'm going to be in
charge. I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to say this
is how it will be and that's how it will be. And every one of us says the
same thing. Every one of us perceives of
ourselves as a God. Little babies do. Little babies, they find out
they want something, and they're going to make your life hell
until they get it. They just start to scream. They believe that they have the
right for everything to go their way, and if it isn't going their
way, Then they're going to make everybody else miserable. They
believe they're God. The biggest part, the hardest
job of a parent is to try to convince their children, you're
not God. The problem is we generally try
to teach them this way. You're not God. I am because
we have just the same attitude. We have more subtle ways. But
when people cross us, what do we do? We're going to make them
miserable for it. Because we believe everything ought to run
according to our will. And the only reason that we are
not seated on the throne of heaven is simply we haven't had the
power to carry it out. You give a man enough power,
he will declare himself to be God. All the ancient emperors
that ruled, you know, the Persian Empire and the Assyrian Empire
and all those, they set themselves up as God. They were worshipped. The Pharaoh was worshipped. Even in religion, you'll find
that. You let a guy get powerful enough, he'll demand the worship
of men. He'll put his ring out and expect
people to kiss it and to fall down before him and to call him
father, concerning which the Lord Jesus said, Call no man
father, for you have one father which is in heaven. They bow
and scrape before men. And treat them as though they're
God. We're no better than the devil. He's not more rebellious than
us. Is he outside the scope of God's power to save if God wanted
to do it? I mean, is the devil too bad
a case for God? If he can save me, he could save
the devil if he wanted to. Because in saving me, he saved
the devil. If he can reach down and grab Saul of Tarsus, who
with every fiber of his being was in abject rebellion against
God and against his Christ, he can save somebody like that.
He could save the devil if he wanted to. So here's the question this
boy asked me. If God wants to save everyone,
why doesn't he save the devil? There's nothing preventing him
from doing it. Well, this answer simply cannot fit into what is
called free will theology, natural theology. The reason that God
is not going to save the devil is simply this. He doesn't want
to. God does not love Satan, nor
does he love any of those angels which followed Satan in his rebellion. Now, free willers don't have
a problem with that. But they get a problem when you ask them
this. Why would God love sinful men? but not love sinful angels. They believe God loves everybody.
He doesn't love sinful angels. And if you say that God does
not love everybody, they get all upset and say, well, that's
not fair. Well, is it fair then that he loves all sinful men
but not loves sinful angels? Now, let's take just a moment
to define what we mean by free will, unless we Unless we misunderstand,
we don't mean simply. When we talk about free will,
we're not talking simply about a person who believes that if
someone wants God's salvation, he may have it. And that if someone
asks God for God's salvation, he'll get it. We believe that.
And I tell you this morning, if you want God's salvation,
you may have it. And if you ask God, if from your
heart you ask him for his salvation, you will get it. I believe that. You know why I believe it? Because
the Bible says that's what's the truth. It says, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, that's not difficult, is
it? That's pretty simple stuff. And there's a hymn written, and
I don't remember much of the hymn, I just remember the application
that's in the chorus. Whosoever meaneth me. And here's God's promise recorded
in his word, and I preach it continually. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. We believe those things,
but that's not freewillism. That's not what's meant by that
tag. Freewillism, in short, says this, that God has done all of
his saving works equally for everybody. and that it is the
individual, man or woman, who will determine the final outcome
of their souls. And so they assume that God has
left the matter of who shall be saved to natural men and women. That denies the sovereignty of
God over everything. Do you believe that God controls
everything? It's interesting, I find it interesting anyway,
that folks who don't believe that God controls everything
nonetheless pray to Him to do things. They'll even pray to
Him to save someone. They'll stand up and they'll
tell sinners, God's done everything He can. Now it's up to you. They'll say, let us pray. They'll
say, God save sinners. Wait a minute, if He's already
done everything He can to save sinners, why should you ever
call on Him to do anything more? One time, Brother Mahan, this
was in the early part of his ministry, and he would still
occasionally be invited to preach at free will churches. And there
was one church he went to year after year. He went there one time, and before
the service was going to start, the preacher said, well, let's
pray that God will save sinners. Henry looked at him and said,
why? I said, well, because we want
sinners saved. And Henry said, well, you've said that God's done all
He can. And now it's up to men. Instead
of praying to God, we ought to be praying to men. And he told
this man, he said, until you bow to what the scriptures say
about the sovereignty of God and salvation, I will never pray
with you again that God will save sinners. If God's done everything he can,
no use looking to him. He can't do any more. If it's
all up to us, no use looking to Him, might as well be looking
to us. And also free willers believe
this, that a natural man, that means a man who's never been
made alive by the Spirit of God, a natural man or a natural woman
has within themselves the ability to love God and choose to be
recipients of His grace. That's a denial of the depravity
of man. The sinfulness and wickedness
of man. Jeremiah states our depravity so clearly. He says, the heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Who can know the human heart?
So I know my heart. No, you don't. Unless God revealed it to you.
Most of the people in this world think they're pretty good. I
do. And I've got lots of testimony
that I'm not any good, but I still think I'm pretty good. And I can tell you how you can
prove that men think they're pretty good. Tell them they're
not. That's all you've got to do. Find one of those super humble
Christians. Say things like, God ought to
send me to hell. Agree with him. See what the result says. Yeah,
I think I'll send you to hell too. Now, wait a minute. I'm
good as you. Yeah, that's just good enough
to go to hell. That's all. Friends, there is not in anyone,
naturally speaking, as they came forth from the womb, there's
not in anyone the inclination towards God. nor the power to
choose to follow God. It's not there. The Scripture
said there's none that does good, not one. There's none that seek
after God, not one. There's none that even understand. People think they understand
this Gospel thing. I've been preaching the Gospel
for 30 years, and from time to time I still get new revelations
of it. I don't mean a vision in the night, just a deeper understanding
than I had before. I've said for a long time I'm
a sinner without anything good in me, and I get fresh revelations
and a deeper understanding of that all the time. I've always
said that Christ alone is our acceptance with God, and yet
I continually learn that more and more. But we all started out dead in
trespasses and sins. There's no such thing as degrees
of death. That looks to me like he's more dead than the other
one. That doesn't even make any sense, does it? insensibly dead. We can learn
doctrines. Natural man can learn doctrines.
He can recite doctrines. He can go to church. He can do
all the ceremonies. He can even feel warm. He can
eat, you know, and just get all excited about the religion he's
involved. He can do all those things and not know God. He can fool everybody around
him. He can fool himself. One person he can't fool. And
that's God. The heart's deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God can. Man
looks on the outward appearance, and that's not an accusation
against us. We look on the outward appearance because that's all
we can see. All I can see is what you look at, look like,
and what you do. And I got to make my judgments
based on that. God looks right into the human heart. You can profess all these doctrines
that we profess. You can say you believe them.
You can say you love them. You can even feel your heart
warmed when you hear these things. You can be the most faithful
attender at this church and not know God. That's how desperately wicked
the human heart is. Free willism thinks there's some
spark of good in there, and if we just argue enough, They'll
come around. Well, why did God make a way
of salvation for fallen mankind, but no salvation for fallen angel
kind? Free willers might say it's unjust
for God to provide salvation for some men, but not for all
men. But they are baffled when they're asked, why then is it
just for God to provide salvation for mankind, but not for angel
kind? Now, I've said all of that to
make this point. This is what I'm bribing at in the whole thing. God sovereignly and unalterably
makes distinctions between sinners. He does. He chooses. He redeems. He calls. He regenerates. He glorifies. And who He shall save and who
he shall not save has nothing to do with who they are or what
they do. It's all together wrapped up
in his will and his grace. And if you are saved, and I suppose
that many of you are, if you have been saved, it is for this
reason, because God chose to save you, and did everything
necessary to bring that to pass, and he will continue doing it
until the job is done. God is not obligated to provide
salvation for any kind. Therefore, he is free to provide
salvation for any group, or any kind, or any individual he chooses. God could have, if he wanted
to, It was entirely within his rights to do so, to say, I'm
going to save all left-handed people. That's what he wanted
to do. He could have done it. He's God.
Who's going to stop him? He could have, had he wanted
to, now think on this, he could have, had he wanted to, say,
I'm going to save Every rebel angel, including that scoundrel
Satan, but I'm going to let Adam and all of his descendants perish
in the hell that they deserve. He could have done that. It was within his right to do
so. Because after all, he didn't have to save any of us. Now here we have this verse,
verse 16, for surely it's not angels he helps. but Abraham's
descendants. This word actually means, where
it talks about he helps, the word means to lay hold of or
to seize or to grasp. Let's look at a few other places
that it's found. Look at Matthew chapter 14. I'm glad I live in the computer
age. I can put these words in my computer and have it search
the scriptures and tell me everywhere the word appears. And you find
out some things, how God has used these words and planted
them here and there to give us an understanding of what he's
done. Matthew chapter 14, verse 31. Peter is, or the disciples have
been out on the, they're out on the lake there. And the wind has come up, and
their boat's getting tossed around, and then they see the Lord Jesus
Christ walking towards them, and they're scared of that. And
the Lord says to Peter, He says, You come on out here,
too. And Peter steps out, starts walking
on the water, but then he looks down, and he sees the waves and
everything, gets scared, and starts to sink. And he cried
out, Lord, save me. Verse 31, Immediately Jesus reached
out His hand and caught him. He laid hold of him. You of little
faith, he said, why did you doubt? Now here's a use of this word. And we see it so vividly here
in this picture of what it means to lay hold of someone. And Peter's
going down. And if he goes down, he's gone. He can't walk on the water and
he can't swim in this kind of ocean. It's too rough. And the
Lord just reached down and grabbed him and pulled him up. It's interesting,
the Lord had power not only to walk on the water, but to stand
on the water and pull somebody else out of it. He laid hold
of him. Then you look over here at Mark
chapter 8. Verse 23. But we'll read verse 22. They
came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged
Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the
hand. He laid hold of him and led him outside the village.
When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him,
Jesus asked, do you see anything? Here again, our Lord is reaching
out and grabbing hold of somebody. And he laid hold of him for this
purpose, to take him outside the village. So often the scriptures
talk about salvation being something outside the camp. Jesus Christ
was led outside of Jerusalem to bring salvation. Why? Salvation
never happened. within the scope of natural things. In other words, when God saves
a person, he always takes him out of whatever it is he's in. In particular, he'll take him
out and away from that self-confident, self-righteous religion that
says, I can contribute to my salvation. See, there was natural
safety in the village. There was natural help in the
village for this blind man. There was natural love for him.
His friends brought him there and all that. Our Lord took him
out of all that. If the Lord's going to save someone,
it's going to come down to just the Lord and that person. Eventually,
it's just going to be you. If God's going to save you, there's
going to come a time when the only people involved are you
and Christ. He's going to take you away from
everything in your heart. And He'll deal with you individually.
And we don't go willingly. This fellow did not stand outside
the village and cry out for help. He was in the village. But the
Lord came into the village and then took him out. And he laid
hold of him to do it. Luke 14.4 says that the Lord
laid hold of a man to heal him. And look over here at Luke 23.26.
I think this is such a powerful image for us here. lay in hold of, what it means,
how it's used. It's actually just a strengthened
form of the word to receive or to take. That's the way Greeks
would do things, you know, they'd have a root word and, well, we
do it too. They'd have a root word and they'd just add a prefix
to it or something like that. And so this doesn't just mean
grab, this means super grab. That's what the word actually
means. And it says here in Luke 23, Verse 26, And as they led him away, that is,
as they led the Lord Jesus Christ away to crucify him, they seized
Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way from the country, and
put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. Here's
what happened. This was a seizure of authority
and power. Whoever Simon was, and we hear
nothing before this about him and nothing afterwards. It's
the only time he appears in the scripture, the only event. But
he just happened to be in Jerusalem that day. And they seized him
contrary to his will and forced him to do what he never would
have done on his own. And such is the seizing hand
of God's salvation. It lays hold of those who weren't
looking for salvation. And if you tell them about God's
salvation, they don't want that salvation. that God reaches into
that mass and he lays a hold of such a person and makes them
do things they never would have done apart from him laying hold
of them. Now it says over here, let's
go back to Hebrews 2, it is not angels that he lays hold of,
but Abraham's descendants. Who's a descendant of Abraham?
Galatians chapter 3 verse 29. You know, they're all up in arms
about what's going on in the Mideast. And I mean, it's a dangerous
situation, no question about that. So many people think that this
is some kind of sign of the end of time. I'm no prophet. I don't see anything
in the Scriptures. With my eyes and my understanding,
I don't see anything in the Scriptures It says anything about what's
going on over there right now, because the promises concerning
the seed of Abraham are not primarily to his natural seed. There were
promises given to his natural seed. Someone wrote a book called
Abraham's Four Seeds, and he identifies four seeds of Abraham
in the scriptures. There's a seed of Abraham through
Isaac and Jacob, whom we commonly refer to as the Jews. There's
the seed of Abraham by Ishmael, who we commonly refer to as the
Arabs. There is the seed of Abraham, which is one meaning Christ. Galatians says that too. He is
the seed of Abraham to whom the promises were made. Abraham understood
that. That's why it's written. Abraham
saw my day and he rejoiced at the sight of it because Abraham
realized that the promises that were made to him and to his seed
actually were all culminated in one person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But now notice this in Galatians
chapter 3, verse 29. If you belong to Christ, then
you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You
who believe, you're Abraham's seed and you're an heir of the
promise. Whatever those promises made
to Abraham, whatever they mean, they're to you. Now those people over there fighting
over real estate in the Middle East, they've missed it. They've missed it. If they think
that somehow or another what's going on over there or what they're
doing is a fulfillment of a biblical prophecy, the promises are to
God's church, those who are in Christ. Now, Christ laid hold
of them. Four quick things. Four ways
in which God laid hold of the seed of Abraham. Those who are
in Christ. First of all, God laid hold of
the seed of Abraham in sovereign election. Now, Paul spoke of
elect angels. He wrote in 1 Timothy 5, verse
1, about the elect angels. God did choose angels, but he
didn't choose angels to save them. He chose angels to preserve
them. He preserved, he held back some angels from following Satan
and from falling with him. But God never chose a fallen
angel to save him. However, of the seed of Abraham,
it's written in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, But we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord. Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. You know, Paul was just he loved
the doctrine of election, as we saw last week. The first words
of the gospel he ever heard were this. God, the God of our fathers,
has chosen you. And for those who have come to
understand something about the hardness of their hearts and
how no persuasion on the part of men No worries about the dangers
of hell can ever really make them love God and fall down and
worship him and call upon his name for salvation. When they
realized that left to themselves, they'd never choose God. They
love the fact that from the beginning, God has chosen a people unto
salvation. Some people think that if elections
true, that means there's some people for whom there's no hope.
Folks, apart from election, there's nobody that's got any hope. If God merely provided for salvation
and kind of set it out like you do a bowl of dog food and say,
well, if you want to eat it, if that's what He had done, nobody
would eat. Nobody. But He chose a people. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, says Paul,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
And what's the pattern? What's the outline, so to speak,
These blessings and to whom they shall go, he said, who's blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, according as he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Those aren't my words, those
are God's words. He chose us and I'm so glad. Because I would never have chosen
him. And even though by his grace, He chose me and worked in me
to choose Him. I still see that within me is
a strong tendency to walk away. To give it up. To quit. Fortunately, even though my choice
may fail, His never does. Never does. Paul was thankful. Not that they
had chosen God, but that God had chosen them. Not because they loved God, but
because God had loved them. Secondly, God laid hold of the
seat of Abraham by way of his incarnation and redemption. That
is, God, what do we mean by incarnation? The incarnation simply means
he took on flesh. God became a human being. So
human that no one could tell the difference between Him and
any other human being. So human looking was our Lord
Jesus Christ that when He claimed to be God, they were going to
stone Him. They said, because you being a man, make yourself
to be God. He laid hold of the seed of Abraham
by laying hold of their nature, by grasping it and taking it
on for Himself. In Hebrews chapter 2, where we
are here, Earlier in the chapter and then later on, it speaks
about Christ becoming like us. Why did God take on human flesh? Well, because God had laid hold
of the people by election for the purpose of salvation. It
was necessary that Christ become like us in order that he might
be a faithful high priest. You see, nobody but a man can
make satisfaction for a man. The blood of bulls and goats,
says the writer of Hebrews, the blood of bulls and goats can't
take away sin. And God, in his pure spiritual essence, has no
blood to shed in behalf of sinners. Nobody but a man can be a substitute
for another man, and nobody but God can satisfy God. Therefore,
God became a man, the God-man. Both that he might suffer as
a substitute for sinners and that he might, as God, satisfy
God's demands. It was necessary that he become
a man. And God the Son laid hold of
our nature and became like us. He never took on the form of
an angel to stand in the place of angels and bear their sin
and bear their punishment. Instead, he laid hold of our
nature. Every angel that ever sinned is going to perish eternally. But some men, some humans, who
are just as rebellious and sinful as any fallen angel, some of
them shall live with God forever. God lays hold of the seed of
Abraham by His Spirit, calling them to Christ through the gospel.
A few minutes ago, we read from 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13,
where it says that God had chosen His people unto salvation. It
says, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. That word sanctification simply means to set apart. And
the Spirit of God comes down here, He comes in through the
preaching of the gospel, such as I'm trying to do right now.
And he, just like Christ laid hold of Peter, the Spirit of
God lays hold of us in all our rebellion and all of our sinfulness
and all our wandering around like sheep going astray. He reached
out and he laid hold of us. just like Simon of Cyrene, who
had no intention to have anything to do with Christ and His crucifixion,
and yet he was laid hold of and made to do what he otherwise
would never have done. So the Spirit of God lays hold
of the chosen and redeemed people of God. He lays hold of them
and causes them to do what they would never do apart from His
work, and that is call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. I have seen some people laid
hold of by the Spirit of God. But I've never done it. But I've
seen it happen. I've seen people who have sworn
that they would never bow to this gospel, and I've seen them
bow. And I couldn't make them do it,
I'll tell you that. The Spirit of God can, though. He can take
old proud Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus breathing out
threatenings against the church of God, hating God and his Christ
and his people. And he can make him bow and say,
Lord, who are you? What should I do? He takes hold of them, and then
God finally will lay hold of Abraham's seed, all those in
Christ. He'll lay hold of them in resurrection and glorification. One of these days, the skies
are going to split wide open, and Jesus Christ, our God, and
our Lord, is going to come here and literally lay hold of all
those who sleep in Jesus. He's going to tear open their
graves by His authority, and He's going to call them out.
And everybody that's still alive at that time, He's going to lay
hold of them, that is everybody Every believer alive in that
day, he'll lay hold of them, and he's going to gather all
of them to himself. And here's the result. Paul says,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It's not angels he
lays hold of, because he didn't choose to. It's not every son
of Adam that he lays hold of. Many of them will be allowed
to go their own stubborn way, like lemmings over the cliff.
into hell. But the seed of Abraham, he lays hold of them, for he's
called them his, and he will not let them die. Now where does
that leave you and me? Well, by the authority of the
Word of God. I call on you to lay hold of Christ. With all
your heart, lay hold of him. That woman who had an issue of
blood, nobody could do any good for her. She went to where Christ
was, and as He passed by, she reached out and touched the hem
of His garment, grabbed ahold of His robe, and was healed. There's an old song. We sang
it from time to time. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He passes by. You'll find He's not too busy
to hear your hearts cry. He's passing by this moment.
your need to supply reach out and touch the Lord as he goes
by now if you do if you call upon the name of the Lord here's
one thing I'll know if you reach out lay hold of him here's one
thing I know he laid hold of you first he laid a hold of you
in election and redemption and he's laying hold of you and regeneration but we can't control the arm
of God and so I appeal to you Do you see yourself as a sinner that cannot save yourself? And
do you find in the Lord Jesus Christ a sufficient redemption
price for a sinner such as you? And do you find in Him sufficient
righteousness that for His sake God could call you good? Do you
see these things? Then this day, by His grace,
call on His name and ask for His salvation. and confess it
before all men. Lay hold, as the scriptures say
with the same word, lay hold of eternal life. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you know that you and you alone
can lay hold of the seat of Abraham. So I ask you this morning, lay
hold of those here in regenerating power. Make them believe. Make them
do what they'd never do on their own. And cause them to rejoice in seeing Christ, their salvation. Bless us now as we participate
in your table. Make it meaningful to our hearts.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.