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[0:00] And I would continue to call your attention to a word found in the 40th Psalm.

[0:16] Psalm 40 and verse 7 and 8. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart.

[0:45] There is only one person, as I said this morning, that ever was from Adam's time and ever will be to the end of time, who could with truth declare such words as these.

[1:05] And that is the Son of God, who came and who prophesies of his coming by such wonderful words as these.

[1:21] Lo, I come. And that beautiful little English word has a great importance in it.

[1:33] Lo. You'll find it in a good many places in the scripture and almost always when God is declaring something of great value or importance.

[1:48] For the angel that came to see the shepherds, he said, or the angel said, Lo, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to you and to all people.

[2:05] And it would seem to my mind that it is a word that God has specially inserted in his word to call our attention to something that is of the greatest value and importance.

[2:24] Not merely as a doctrine, not merely as a wonderful fact or part of God's word, but something that is most vitally important to you and to me.

[2:42] Now we have here, therefore, in this beautiful language, the Lord Jesus, prophetically declaring that he comes.

[2:57] Lo, I come. and he goes on to tell us why he comes. And he tells us also how so much of his coming and of himself is written in the volume of the truth of God.

[3:21] Well, that in itself should make the Bible a very precious book indeed to you and to me. We cannot discard it. We cannot neglect it.

[3:32] We cannot think indifferently about it. When the Lord Jesus says in this kind of language, and it is all important to, in the volume of the book, it is written of me.

[3:50] And you know that begins right in the very beginning. When God came and found Adam and Eve in their pitiful condition, having fallen by disobedience, and the serpent was there, too, that had caused the downfall of our first parents, the Lord God said to the serpent, he said, I will put enmity between thy seed and the seed of the woman.

[4:29] It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. But notice this, a most unnatural term is used in that first promise given by God.

[4:48] A term that is not natural, a term that never has been used before, never can be used, rightly. The seed of the woman, not of the man.

[5:01] Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

[5:18] The seed of the woman. That was the first unfolding of this glorious person in the volume of the book.

[5:32] And then he goes on and on in wonderful ways and terms and types and figures and declarations. The promise of his coming is the great theme of the Old Testament scriptures.

[5:52] The sure fact of it is there laid out before us. He will come. And the only hope of the world is in his coming.

[6:10] Lo, he says, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. I think one of the most pleasing things is when a believer comes to the word of God and finds Christ there clearly set forth in it.

[6:36] When they can see the beauty and the glory of the word of truth honoring him and setting him forth and magnifying his name there is always a satisfaction when we can come nearer and nearer to the Lord Jesus in the word of God in the Old Testament just the same as in the new in the volume of the book.

[7:09] Then we shall try to look very closely and briefly this evening to things which relate to the coming of the Lord Jesus why he came to what purpose he comes and to whom he comes and for whom he comes.

[7:32] I've said four things really but they are embraced in the two great outstanding features. Lo I come the first great thing with the Lord Jesus in these words is this he came to do his father's will.

[7:54] Not his own but his father's will. He came to perform all things that the father had set for him to do and to leave nothing undone.

[8:09] The task was enormous far far beyond our comprehension and the descent itself into our nature the contraction of the Son of God in the span of humanity was something far above and beyond our highest comprehension and this was all part of the wonderful coming of the Son of God.

[8:41] He came to do his father and have you not noticed that striking word which he spake the first words that the Holy Spirit records as coming from his lips he said to Mary he said how is it that you have sought me wish she not that I must be about my father's business he came to that one purpose above all to do his father's business and all the wonders of his doing the glorious way in which he accomplished everything not a thing was left out everything was included embraced and accomplished that the dear son of God and let us remember always this he did all this alone not with the myriads of angels to support him and to help him in any way whatever but he stood alone scriptures speak of it in this way who is this that cometh out of

[9:59] Eden this person who treadeth the wine press of God's wrath alone oh my dear friends I would help us have some sweet comprehension by faith of your redeemer if you have a real redeemer you could see this in him and about him that he did everything that you needed to be done for your poor never dying soul and he did it alone without aid support God was with him we read as we were speaking some few Sundays ago angels administered unto him but those were only rare occasions in his life on earth for the main part and the chief part when he came to lay down his life and to sacrifice himself for the sakes of his people to pour out his own heart's blood for their redemption he was alone he was alone in

[11:07] Gethsemane he was alone on the cross of Calvary he came then to do the father's will lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will oh my God now secondly I want us to see another glorious purpose for which the Lord Jesus Christ came and this is one of the great mysteries scriptures and interpretations of the great mystery of his nativity you see Christ did not appear suddenly on the scene of this world he came in the way that all children come every babe that is born in the world comes in the same way as the babe of Bethlehem came in the womb of Mary a mother there for that period of time that is known and prescribed by God he was being formed with that body that was holy and separate and perfect and harmless and perfectly free from sin he did not partake of his mother's sin he was the pure spotless son of

[12:56] God born of a woman now that brings him so wonderfully close to his people you see if he had come and I'm sure there's no possibility or anything of this nature whatsoever but if he had come as I've just said suddenly to appear as a full grown man or even as a child on this world he would never have come near to his people but he was born as dear Mr.

[13:33] Wesley says in that wonderful hymn which David this morning says was my favorite and indeed it was late in time behold him come offspring of a virgin's womb veiled in flesh the Godhead see hail the incarnate deity he came then as all other babes come as a babe of Bethlehem oh how marvelous gracious glorious wondrous this precious truth is now what did he come for let us listen to his own words about this great and important matter he first of all he came to save sinners sinners he says I am come not to call the righteous but to save sinners

[14:39] I am come to save sinners that is why the first great purpose of the Lord's coming into this world and I feel if we have a real view of Christmas or a view of this season of the year in a right sense true sense then we shall see it in this light he came to save no one else can save and he came to save not the best not the righteous but to call sinners to repentance oh then are you a sinner if you know something of yourself as a real sinner he came I verily believe to save you you can't say to everyone in this world now Jesus came to save you we've got no right to say such a thing for one thing and it wouldn't be true for another thing in many many cases but when we say he came to save sinners we are speaking the truth of God that is the true thing and the wonderful thing about the coming of the

[16:00] Lord Jesus he came to save sinners the worst of men not the best but the very dregs of humanity those who were in the miry clay as this psalm speaks in its earlier part those who were in the very depths of ruin and wretchedness and misery he says I waited patiently for the Lord he inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up also out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay set my feet upon a rock and established my goings when people read words like that they think of the people in Dartmoor or prisons or some places in the dregs of society they think we're not included in this but my dear friend God will show you clearly and with mighty force that it is you that are in this horrible pit the pit of destruction the pit of self loathing the pit of misery and degradation and such a pit that you cannot get out by your own power effort or ability he must save you and he says lo I come

[17:31] I come to save the lost I come to save sinners what a glorious coming what a glorious savior thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins secondly he came to redeem Israel God had an Israel a spiritual Israel in his mind his purposes he made a covenant with these people before the world began he wrote their names in the lamb's book of life he charged upon his own beloved son to go forth into this world to redeem them and to restore them to bring them back from their ruination and to fulfill all the requirements of that redemption yes he came to redeem

[18:39] Israel from all Israel's sins there's nothing more glorious or wondrous in the story of the nativity of the Lord Jesus but the truth that he came to redeem there again I would say this if you get a real sense of this time the nativity of Christ into your heart you will have this truth laid deeply in your soul Jesus my redeemer and what a glorious time of the year that will be or any time if you only have a revelation of Christ as your redeemer then thirdly he came to die for the ungodly to die for the ungodly

[19:50] Paul writing in the Romans he said for some men some would even dare to die but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Christ died for the ungodly oh yes it sweeps away all merits all worthiness all things that men may claim for God to notice and to take into account and to mark down on their name and their page so to speak to their credit it sweeps all those things away he came to die for the ungodly oh what a different thing men make of the gospel and a great many people today they shun the death of Christ they eliminate it from their preaching and their writings and why do they do that because it has this about it this truth about it that if they acknowledge the death of Christ they've got to recognize this that he died for the ungodly and they do not like it they cannot stomach that sort of teaching and therefore they discard it and write it off forever but the truth remains

[21:33] Christ died for the ungodly oh blessed savior blessed babe of Bethlehem and again to refer to that hymn he says he was born that man no more may die born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth I was in the company of a minister the other day and I said this I said I believe the nativity of Jesus Christ has brought forth from our hymn writers some of the best hymns that ever were written and I'm sure that this hymn of Wessler's is one of the choicest truest and most perfect holy language concerning the dear son born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth well then the fourth thing was this he came to do the will of God as he says here in this very verse that we have taken today for our text

[23:00] I delight to do thy will oh my God you and I cannot do the will of God we have to find out what the will of God is and we have nothing to guide us to teach us we have to be shown by God himself what his holy will is before we can seek ever to perform it but he came to do the will of God he did not need to discover it it was in his heart and what he did at all times what he spake at every word he ever spoke on earth was a word in perfect accord with the holy will of God now if the Lord Jesus had deviated one iota from the will of

[24:04] God there would have been no salvation for you or for anyone in this wide world you see the Lord God his father required that he should keep the law heal the breaches his people had made in it and fulfill it perfectly here on earth in our body in our nature as a man to go to the very end of it for righteousness and to complete it by sealing it with his own precious blood you see he had to keep the law of God the devil tried to divert him from it the enemies of God and truth and righteousness all sought with one accord to drive him from it the very atmosphere the very conditions and circumstances in which he lived he was a man of sorrows all his way from the cradle to the grave but he kept the law of God you cannot you've broken it so have

[25:27] I broken it and a broken law can never be repaired by us who breaks it must be repaired by him who never sinned I came to do thy will oh my God and then listen to this yea thy law is within my heart oh you sometimes say I do wish I had more in my heart than I have in my head it's a good thing to have a head that can store up and to remember and delve into truth but it's a far far more blessed thing to have the truth of God in the heart there there you will feel the love for it there you will feel how much you owe to him who gave himself to your redemption he says yea thy law is within my heart then the last and fifth point I would bring before you is this and that is he came that his people might have life and that they might have it more abundant beautiful parable that Jesus spoke that is found in the tenth chapter of

[27:18] John's gospel where he speaks about the shepherd and the sheep and the door and those that enter into that door can come in and out and find pasture he speaks also about the enemies that seek to destroy God's own sheep and to scatter them abroad but he says I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundant everything everything the Lord did all that he spake all his wonderful administration whilst here on earth and now whilst he is in heaven in the right hand of God is for the benefit of life of all his people every touch every wonderful token all that he teaches all that he gives is that they might have life now my friends there's one thing about this time of the year this nativity if you would really enter into it fully blessedly and enjoy such a season as this you must seek to know this one thing has

[28:47] Jesus given me more life is there more life in my soul is there more life in my faith or dead faith is a terrible thing and a dead religion is even worse and both are great possibilities in among even the professors of religion but if he gives you more life you will seek that life to come out and be made evidential in a multitude of ways your prayers do you feel prayer is more of a lively thing a living thing is it a mere dead form do you go through a term of phrases a series of words and phrases or do you feel you are broken hearted sometimes and can scarcely bring a word out of your poor lips but oh you say

[29:51] Lord make my prayers real give me more life in your service oh you are limp and lacking and wanting so often in serving the Lord but if the Lord Jesus comes he will bring more life and you will serve him with eagerness of spirit and heart and mind and run in his ways with all diligence and nothing will be too hard no obstacle will be permitted to stand in your way oh dear friends this is one thing that will mar your happiness at this time and that is if anything comes in the way of putting the Lord first of honouring him before everything else you will then know what deadliness things deadly things are and you will lack the great vital touch that you need life eternal life

[31:10] Bunyan shows us in the pilgrim how that he saw man running for his life behind him was a city of destruction and he was hastening though he had a burden on his back he was hastening with all speed that was possible to command and the one word was this in his heart eternal life eternal life now Jesus the babe of Bethlehem he came that his people might have life life and my earnest prayer and wish for you all is this at this time of the year this season of thanksgiving and remembrance that you might enjoy the life of God in Christ

[32:16] Amen good The first story is the Lord, the King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him, the Lord of all.

[32:47] Number 22. The King of Glory.

[33:39] The first day he died of soul, and to take the shepherd's home.

[33:54] The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him, the King of Glory.

[34:08] The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him.

[34:23] The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him.

[34:37] The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him.

[34:51] The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him.

[35:08] The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him. The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him.

[35:22] Jesus Christ we humbly fall, crown him, and among him. The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall... The King of Glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him, and among him. The King of George. At his feet we humbly fall, and almost him.

[35:37] The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory

[36:41] The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory The King of Glory

[37:42] The King of Glory The King of Anybody The King of Glory The King of Night The King of natürlich praktily The King of Glory I Am Adplexing The world's alive.

[37:58] Tis the Lord, the world's glory. Tis the Lord, the gift of glory.

[38:12] As his feet beyond the core, Thou wilt crown me, Lord of all.

[38:32] Help us, O Lord, in our hearts to crown thee King of kings and Lord of lords. Thou didst speak in the time when thou didst stand before the judgment seat.

[38:48] Of thy wonderful birth. And didst speak to Pilate and say this, For this end was I born. For this cause came I into the world.

[39:04] Not to be made a king who was ever. The king. Be thou the king in our hearts. And bless our souls of this season, we pray.

[39:18] May the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with us now and evermore. Amen.

[39:28] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[39:45] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.