Jesus Loves You

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. – Romans 5:6

When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly, because it was the due time according to covenant purposes. Christ comes to a guilty sinner, just as He once came to a manger and a stable, because so it was appointed. There is nothing for Him to get, but everything for Him to give; but He comes because it is written in the volume of the divine decrees-

“Thus the eternal counsel ran,-
Almighty grace, arrest that man.”

Therefore, in love the Savior appears to the sinner, and by grace arrests him in his mad career.

It is His Father’s will. Christ’s coming to save a soul is with His Father’s full consent and aid. The Father wills that you who believe in Him, lost though you be, should now be saved, and Jesus comes to do the will of the Father.

He comes because His heart is set on you. He loves you, and so He hastens to your rescue. Your salvation is His delight. Though your soul is sunk in a sea of need, and you are in despair because of that need, Jesus loves you, and comes to meet your case. The best of all is that Jesus loves you. One asked an old man of ninety, “Do you love Jesus?” and the old man answered with a smile, “I do, indeed; but I can tell you something better than that.” His friend said, “Something better than loving Jesus! What is that?” The old disciple replied, “He loves me.” O soul, I wish you could see this fact, which is indeed better than your love to Jesus, namely, His love to you! Because He loved His redeemed from before the foundation of the world, therefore in due time He says, “Lo, I come.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

Yield to the Pressure of His Love

Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:7

Come unto Me… – Matthew 11:28

Christ is salvation, and everything needful to salvation is in Him. If He comes, all good comes with Him, or rather in Him. An enquirer once said to a minister, “The next step for me is to get a deeper conviction of sin.” The minister said, “No such thing, my friend: the next step is to trust in Jesus, for He says, Come unto Me.” To come to Jesus, or rather to receive Jesus who has come to us, is the one essential step into eternal salvation. Though our Lord does say, “Come unto Me,” He has preceded it with this other word, “Lo, I come.” Poor cripple, if you cannot come to Jesus, ask Him to come to you; and He will. Here you lie, and you have been for years in this case; you have no man to put you into the pool, and it would do you no good if he did; but Jesus can make you whole, and He is here. You cannot stir hand or foot because of spiritual paralysis; but your case is not hopeless. Listen to my Lord in the text, “Then said I, Lo, I come.” He has no paralysis. He can come, leaping over the mountains of division. I know my Lord came to me, or I should never have come to Him: why should He not come to you? I came to Him because He came to me.

“He drew me, and I followed on,
Charmed to confess the voice divine.”

Why should He not draw us also? Is He not doing so? Yield to the pressure of His love.

“Then said I, Lo, I come.” You see our Lord is His own spokesman. He says to me, “Go and tell those people about My coming”; and I gladly do so; but you will forget my words, and refuse to accept the Coming One. Your consciences will be unawakened, your hearts unmoved: I fear it will be so. But if this text be fulfilled concerning our Lord this day-“Then said I, Lo, I come”-you will hear HIM. If He speaks He is Himself the Almighty Word, and His voice will reach your hearts, and accomplish His purpose. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

Look Unto Him and Be Saved

Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. – Isaiah 45:22

How I wish the Lord would reveal Himself at this moment to each one of those who are weary of earth, of self, of sin, and possibly even weary of life itself! Oh, if you could but see Jesus standing in your room and stead, you would have faith to stand in His place, and so become accepted in the Beloved! O Lord, hear my prayer, and cause poor hearts to see Thee descending from the skies, to uplift sinners from the dark abyss! Holy Spirit, touch that young man’s eyes with heavenly salve, that he may see where salvation lies. Deal with that poor woman’s dim eyes also, that she may perceive the Lord Christ, and find peace in Him. Jesus cries, “Lo, I come! Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”

“There is life for a look at the Crucified One;
There is life at this moment for thee.
Then look, sinner, look unto Him, and be saved-
Unto Him who was nail’d to the tree.”

Should you even lie in all the despair and desolation which I described, I would persuade you to believe in Jesus. Trust Him, and you shall find Him all that you want.

Our Lord sets Himself to be permanently our all in all. When He came on earth, He did not leave His work till He had finished it. Even when He rose to glory, He continued His service for His chosen, living to intercede for them. Jesus was a Savior nineteen hundred years ago, and He is a Savior still; and He will be a Savior until all the chosen race shall have been gathered home. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

At Our Side and in Our Place

Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:7

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. – Hebrews 9:22

You have been your own confidence. What you could feel, or do, or think, or resolve, had become the ground of your confidence; but now Jesus puts your self down, and He is Himself exalted. By working yourself to death, you cannot effect your own salvation. Lo, Jesus comes to save you. You cannot weave yourself a garment. Lo, He comes to clothe you from head to foot with His own seamless robe of righteousness. He annihilates self that He may fill all things.

Here is a glorious setting of Himself at our side and in our place...He puts His own name to our liabilities, and in effect, that He may meet them, He says, “Lo, I come.” Your debt of sin is discharged when you believe in Christ Jesus. “Without shedding of blood is no remission;” but the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. You are not now to bear your own sins. Behold the scape-goat, who carries them away into the wilderness! Yea, Jesus says, “Lo, I come!” He takes our sins upon Himself; He bears their penalty, and we go free. Blessed word-“Lo, I come: I come to take your weight of sin, your burden of punishment. I come to be made a curse for you, that you may be made the righteousness of God in Me.” Sinner, stand out of the way, and let Jesus appear for you, and fill your place! He sets you on one side, and then He sets Himself where you have been. Jesus is now the one pillar on which to lean, the one foundation on which to build, the one and only rest of our weary souls. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

His Perfect Salvation

Then said I, Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:7

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. – Isaiah 28:16

Have you not seen people engaged in urgent work who did not understand their business Apprentices, and other unskillful people, are muddling time away. They are making bad worse, and running great risk. Perhaps a great calamity will occur if the work is not done well and quickly. A first-rate worker is sent for. See, the man has come who understands the business. He cries, “Let me come! Stand out of my way! You are on the wrong track: let me do it myself!” You have not blamed him for egotism, for the thing needed to be done, and he could do it, and the others could not. Everybody recognized the master workman, and gave place to him. The announcement of his coming was the end of the muddle, and the signal of hope. Even so Jesus comes to you sinners, and His presence is your salvation. He says, “Lo, I come.” What does He mean? He means, the setting of all else on one side. There is the priest-he has not helped you much; he may go, for Jesus says, “Lo, I come.” There are your own efforts and doings; there are your feelings and thinkings; there are your ceremonies and austerities; there are your prayers and tears; there are your hearings and readings-all these must be laid aside as grounds of confidence, and Jesus alone must be your trust. He can do for you what none of these can. You are trying to work yourself up to repentance and faith, and you cannot succeed. Let Him come, and He will bring every good thing with Him. It is glorious to see our Lord throwing down all our bowing walls and tottering fences, and to hear Him cry, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation.” Everything else vanishes before His perfect salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

When Man’s Hope is a Failure

Then said I, Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:7

The Lord Jesus is to come a second time; and when will He come? He will come when man’s hope is a failure. He will come when iniquity abounds, and the love of many hath waxed cold. He will come when dreams of a golden age shall be turned into the dread reality of abounding evil. Do not dream that the world will go on improving and improving, and that the improvement will naturally culminate in the millennium. No such thing. It may grow better for a while, better under certain aspects; but, afterwards the power of the better element will ebb out like the sea, even though each wave should look like an advance. That day shall not come except there be a falling away first. Even the wise virgins will sleep, and the men of the world will be, as in the days of Noah, eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage. On a sudden, the Lord will come as a thief in the night. The deluge of fire will find men as unprepared as did the deluge of water. He will come taking vengeance on His adversaries. When things wax worse and worse we see the tokens of His speedy coming. He will shortly appear, for the sky is darkening. When every hope will seem blotted out, and nothing but grim ages of anarchy and ungodliness are to be expected, then our Deliverer will come. When the tale of bricks was doubled in Egypt, Moses came; and when the world attains to its utmost unbelief and iniquity, Jesus will come. So at this moment my hearer may be saying, “I cannot be worse than I am; if I am not actually in hell already, yet I feel a fire within which tortures my soul. The sword of vengeance hangs over my head suspended by a single hair. I tremble to live, and I fear to die. Lost! Lost! Lost! I am past hope! “This is the time for my text: “Then said I, Lo, I come.” He who is able to save to the uttermost appears to the soul when every other hope disappears. In your deep distress I see a token for good. You are now reduced to spiritual death, and now I trust the eternal life will visit you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

Worthless Cobwebs

Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:6,7

Sacrifices and offerings had ceased to be of any value: God had put them away as a weariness to Him. The scribes and the Pharisees, with all their phylacteries and wide-bordered garments, were a mere sham. There seemed to be no true religion left upon the earth. Then said Christ, “Lo, I come.” There was never a darker thirty years than when Herod slew the innocents, and the chief priests and scribes pursued the Son of God, and at last nailed Him to the tree. It was then that Jesus came to us to redeem us by His death. Do I speak to any man here whose religion has broken down? You have observed a host of rites and ceremonies: you were christened in your infancy, you were duly confirmed, you have taken what you call “the blessed sacrament”; or it may be you have sat always in the most plain of meeting-houses, and listened to the most orthodox of preachers, and you have been amongst the most religious of religious people; but now, at length, the Spirit of God has shown you that all these performances and attendances are worthless cobwebs which avail you nothing. You see now that-

“Not all the outward forms on earth,
Nor rites that God has given,
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
Can raise a soul to heaven.”

But now the Spirit of God has told it you, and you feel its force: He is great at convincing of sin. When the Spirit of truth comes to deal with the religiousness of the flesh, He withers it in a moment. All religion which is not spiritual is worthless. All religion which is not the supernatural product of the Holy Ghost is a fiction. One breath from the Spirit of God withers all the beauty of our pride, and destroys the comeliness of our conceit; and then, when our own religion is dashed to shivers, the Lord Jesus comes in, saying, “Lo, I come.” …When you part with self you meet with Christ. When no shred of hope remains, then Jesus says, “Lo, I come.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm