Sovereignty of God

Shut Not Out Your Own Mercy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

“I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” – Hosea 2:23

O words of wondrous grace! No search is needed to find the Lord, for He comes in manifested grace, and calls upon us to see Him. “I have long been searching for Christ” murmurs one. What! seeking for the sun at noonday? Jesus is not lost. It is you that are lost, and He is searching for you…Still one declares that he has been seeking the Lord Jesus for many a day. This is sadly strange, for Jesus is near. “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? or, Who shall descend into the deep? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that if thou wilt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” If thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.

If you are in yourself sadly unready, yet He himself will make everything ready for Himself. Only open wide the door, and let Him in. Do you say, “But I am ashamed”? Be ashamed. He bids you be ashamed, and be confounded, while He declares, “I do not this for your sakes.” Yet be not so ashamed as to commit another shameful deed by shutting the door in your Redeemer’s face. Shut not out your own mercy…Many a troubled soul thinks that Jesus is one who comes to ask of us what we cannot give; but indeed He comes to give us all things. His errand is not to condemn, but to forgive. Miss not the charity of God through unbelief. Run to the door, and say to your loving Redeemer, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof; but as Thou hast come to me, I welcome Thee with all my heart.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Jesus Loves You

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

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

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

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

Jesus is the Way to Himself

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

“I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” – Romans 10:20 (Isaiah 65:1)

Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:7

To many men and women Christ has come though they had not even desired Him. Yea, He has come even to those who hated Him. Saul of Tarsus was on his way to worry the saints at Damascus, but Jesus said, “Lo, I come”; and when He looked out of heaven He turned Saul, the persecutor, into Paul, the apostle. The promise is fulfilled, “I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me.” Herein is the glorious sovereignty of His love fully exercised, and grace reigns supreme. “Lo, I come,” is the announcement of majestic grace which waiteth not for man, neither tarrieth for the sons of men.

Our Lord Jesus is the way to Himself. Did you ever notice that? He comes Himself to us, and so He is the way by which we meet Him. He is our rest, and the way to our rest; He says, “I am the way.” You want to know how to get to Christ? You have not to get to Christ, for He has come to you. It is well for you to come to Christ; but that is only possible because Christ has come to you. Jesus is near you: near you now. Backslider, He comes to you! Wandering soul, roving to the very brink of perdition, the good Shepherd cries, “Lo, I come.” He is the way to Himself. ` C.H. Spurgeon

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

Worthless Cobwebs

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

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

Man’s First, and Last, and Best Hope

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. – Genesis 3:15

That first news of the coming Champion came at a time when all man’s pleas were failures. Adam had thrown the blame on Eve-“The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Eve had also thrown the blame on the serpent; but the Lord God had silenced all such excuses, and driven them from their refuges. He had made them feel their guilt, and had pronounced upon them the inevitable sentence; and then it was that He spake of the “Seed of the woman.” Here was man’s first, and last, and best hope. So too, my friend, when you dare no longer plead your innocence, nor mention extenuations and excuses, then Jesus comes in. If conscience oppresses you so sorely that you cannot escape from it; if it be so that all you can say is “Guilty; willfully guilty,” then Jesus comes. If you neither blame your surroundings, nor your companions, nor the providence of God, nor our physical weakness, nor anything else, but just take all the blame to yourself because you cannot help doing so, then Jesus comes in. Verily you have sinned against God, against your parents, against your fellowmen, against light, against knowledge, against conscience, and against the Holy Ghost; no wonder, therefore, that you stand speechless, unable to offer any plea by way of self-justification. It is in that moment of shame and confusion that the Savior says, “Lo, I come.” For such as you are He is an Advocate. When a sinner cannot plead for himself, Christ pleads for him; when his excuses have come to an end, then will the Lord put away his sin through His own great sacrifice. Is not this a precious gospel word? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

To you, O Naked Sinner He Comes

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. – Genesis 3:7

When we find the first promise of our Lord’s coming, “in the volume of the Book,” we find that man’s covering was a failure. The guilty pair had gathered the leaves of the fig tree, and had made themselves aprons, for they knew that they were naked. This was the first fruit of that boasted tree of knowledge, and it is the principal one to this day. Their scant coverlet contented them for a little while; but when the voice of the Lord God was heard in the garden they confessed that their aprons were good for nothing; for Adam owned that he was afraid because he was naked, and that therefore he had hidden himself in the thick groves of the garden. It is easy to make a covering which pleases us for a season; but self-righteousness, presumption, pretended fidelity, and fancied natural excellence- all those things are like green fig-leaves, which shrivel up before long, lose their freshness, and are rather an exposure than a covering. It may be that my hearer has found his imaginary virtues failing him. It was when our first parents knew that they were naked that the Savior said, “Lo, I come.” My downcast hearer, if you are no longer in your own esteem as good as you used to be; if you can no longer hide the fact that you have broken God’s law, and deserve His wrath; if you no longer believe the devil’s lie that you shall suffer no penalty, but may even be the better for sin, then the Lord the Savior says to you, “Lo, I come.” To you, O naked sinner, shivering in your own shame, blushing scarlet with conviction- to you He comes. When you have nothing left of your own, He comes to be your robe of righteousness, wherein you may stand accepted with God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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