For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. – Luke 19:10

To this day we are visited of God in other respects, but with equal mercy. The proclamation of the gospel in a nation, or to any individual, is a visit of God’s mercy. Whenever you come and hear the gospel, be you sure of this, whether you receive it or not, the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you. Even if you stop your ears, and will have none of it, yet God has visited you in tender mercy, in that by the gospel He tells you that there is a way of salvation, that there is a plan for the remission of sin. It is a monstrosity-what if I say a miracle?-of iniquity, that men having sinned, and God having done so much to work out a way of remission of those sins, men should refuse to accept God’s pardoning love. Oh, my hearers, Why are you so besotted? Wherefore do you hate your own souls? Surely, the devils themselves would at the first have scarce believed it, that there could exist a race of creatures so hardened as to refuse the love which visits them in grace. This is what devils never did. Men sin not only against God, but against their own interest, when they turn aside from the wooings of disinterested goodness, and refuse salvation through Him who loved us even to the death. That which God has so tenderly and heartily wrought out in the gift of His dear Son to die for us ought to be received with eagerness. Will not you receive it? …Jesus seeks you, will you not seek Him?~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1907.cfm

And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David…That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear -Luke 1:69,74

Remember that He not only took our nature, but He dwelt among us in this world of sin and sorrow. This great Prince entered our abode-what if I call it this hut and hovel?-wherein our poor humanity finds its home for a season. This little planet of ours was made to burn with a superior light among its sister stars while the Creator sojourned here in human form. He trod the acres of Samaria, and traversed the hills of Judea. “He went about doing good.” He mingled among men with scarcely any reservation; being through His purity separate from sinners as to His character, yet He was the visitor of all men. He was found eating bread with a Pharisee, which perhaps is a more wonderful thing than when He received sinners, and ate with them. A fallen woman was not too far gone for Him to sit on the kerb of the well, and talk to her; nor were any of the poor and ignorant too mean for Him to care for them. He was bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and His visit to us was therefore of the most intimate kind. He disdained no man’s lowliness; He turned aside from no man’s sin.

But remember that He visited us not merely to look upon us, and to talk with us, and to teach us, and set us a high and divine example, which were incomparably gracious, if it went no further; but He so visited us that He went down into our condemnation, that He might deliver us from it…He did not come into our nature, and yet keep Himself reserved from all the consequences of our sin; nor come into our world, and yet maintain a status superior to the usual denizens of it; but He came to be a man among men, and to bear all that train of woes which had fallen upon human nature through its departure from the ways of God. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, because the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. Our Lord so visited us as to become our surety and our ransom. This was a wonderful piece of tender mercy indeed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1907.cfm

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, -Luke 1:68

God has not merely pitied us from a distance, and sent us relief by way of the ladder which Jacob saw, but He hath Himself visited us…God’s great visit to us is the incarnation of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many visits of God to men had been paid before that-read your Bibles, and see; but the most wonderful visit of all was when He came to tarry here, some thirty years and more, to work out our salvation. What but “tender mercy,” hearty mercy, intense mercy, could bring the great God to visit us so closely that He actually assumed our nature? Kings may visit their subjects, but they do not think of taking upon themselves their poverty, sickness, or sorrow: they could not if they would, and would not if they could; this were more than we could expect from them. But our divine Lord, when He came hither, came into our flesh. He veiled His Godhead in a robe of our inferior clay. O children! the Lord so visited you as to become a babe, and then a child, who dwelt with His parents, and was subject unto them, and grew in stature, as you must do. O working men! the Lord so visited you as to become the carpenter’s son, and to know all about your toil, and your weariness, ay, even to hunger and faintness. O sons of men! Jesus Christ has visited you so as to be tempted in all points like as you are, though without sin. He really assumed our nature, and thus paid to us a very close visit. He took our sickness, and bare our infirmities. This was a kind of visit such as none could have thought of granting save the infinitely tender and merciful God. The man is our next kinsman, a brother born for adversity; in all our affliction He is afflicted; He is tenderness itself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1907.cfm

To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant…whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us… – Luke 1:72,78

The evangelists, though they wrote in Greek, carried with them into that language the idioms of the Hebrew tongue; so that they do not use an adjective, as it would seem from our translation-“tender mercy;” but they say, mercy of the bowels, or of the inwards, or of the heart of God. “The mercy of the heart of God” is to be seen in the remission of sin, and in the visitation of His love when He comes to us as “the Dayspring from on high.” Great is the tenderness of divine mercy.

But I call your attention to the original reading because it seems to me not only to mean tenderness, but much more. The mercy of the heart of God is, of course, the mercy of His great tenderness, the mercy of His infinite gentleness and consideration; but other thoughts also come forth from the expression, like bees from a hive. It means the mercy of God’s very soul. The heart is the seat and center of life, and mercy is to God as His own life. “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God.” God is love: not only is He loving, but He is love itself. Mercy is of the divine essence: there is no God apart from His heart, and mercy lies in the heart of God. He has bound up His mercy with His existence: as surely as God lives, He will grant remission of sins to those who turn unto Him.

Nor is this all-the mercy of God’s heart means His hearty mercy, His cordial delight in mercy. Remission of sins is a business into which the Lord throws His heart. He forgives with an intensity of will, and readiness of soul. God made heaven and earth with His fingers, but He gave His Son with His heart in order that He might save sinners. The Eternal God has thrown His whole soul into the business of redeeming men. If you desire to see God most Godlike, it is in the pardon of sin, and the saving of men. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1907.cfm

Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us… – Like 1:78

There is an exceeding melody to my ear as well as to my heart in that word “tender.” “Mercy” is music, and “tender mercy” is the most exquisite form of it, especially to a broken heart. To one who is despondent and despairing, this word is life from the dead. A great sinner, much bruised by the lashes of conscience, will bend his ear this way, and cry, “Let me hear again the dulcet sound of these words, tender mercy.” If you think of this tenderness in connection with God, it will strike you with wonder, for an instant, that one so great should be so tender; for we are apt to impute to Omnipotence a crushing energy, which can scarcely take account of little, and feeble, and suffering things. Yet if we think again, the surprise will disappear, and we shall see, with a new wonder of admiration, that it must be so. He that is truly great among men is tender because He is great in heart as well as in brain and hand. The truly great Spirit is always gentle; and because God is so infinitely great, He is, therefore, tender. We read of His gentleness and of His tenderness towards the children of men; and we see them displayed to their full in the gospel of our salvation. Very conspicuous is this “tender mercy of our God.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1907.cfm

“To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.”-Luke 1:77-79

Observe how Zacharias, in this his joyful song, extolled the remission of sins, as one of the most extraordinary proofs of the tender mercy of our God. He had been dumb for a season, as a chastisement for his unbelief; and therefore he used his recovered speech to sing of pardoning mercy. No salvation is possible without forgiveness, and so Zacharias says, “To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins.” The Lord could not forgive them on the ground of justice, and therefore He did so because of His tender mercy-the tender mercy of our God, who has made Himself “our God” by the covenant of grace. He passes by the transgression of His people because He delighteth in mercy… I want any soul here that is burdened with sin to believe in the forgiveness of sins, and to believe in it because God is love, and has a great tenderness towards the work of His hands. He is so pitiful that He loves not to condemn the guilty, but looks with anxious care upon them to see how He can turn away His wrath and restore them to favor. For this reason alone there is remission of sins. Forgiveness comes not to us through any merit of ours, present or foreseen; but only through the tender mercy of our God, and the marvellous visit of love which came of it. If He be gracious enough to forgive our sins, it can be done; for every arrangement is already made to accomplish it. The Lord is gracious enough for this-for anything. Behold Him in Christ Jesus, and there we see Him as full of compassion.

“His heart is made of tenderness,
His bowels melt with love.”

C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1907.cfm