Well, let's go back to that passage
in Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. And I want to
speak to you today on the subject, Why the Son of Man Came. First, I'm going to have a drink
of water. Well, that's pretty good. I take much medicine and it sort
of dries me out, so I have to have water every once in a while. I guess we all need it every
once in a while, don't we? But mainly we need the water
of life. We need Christ Jesus. May the
Lord give us a thirst for Him at one whom to know His life
everlasting. I want to read here again that
last verse that our brother read to us, verse number 10 of Luke
chapter 19. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost. That statement of our Lord's
is one of the most valuable, it's one of the most glorious,
it's one of the most important truths revealed in the Scriptures. In fact, I can say to you, if
you are saved, if you are a believer, if you rest on the Lord Jesus
as all of your hope of glory, all of your salvation, you have
no dependence upon your works, upon your will, upon your worth,
you have no dependence upon anything that you've done, Your hope is
the Lord Jesus, His blood, and His righteousness. Then I say
to you, you are saved because our God is a seeker and a saver
of the lost. You see, this is very, very true
to the nature of God. He's a seeker and a saver. We know that from the third chapter
of Genesis, when Adam had fallen into sin. He had followed his
wife's lead. She was deceived, but he wasn't. And he willed to eat. He willed
to rebel against God. They ran from God. They were
not seeking the Lord, but the Lord he came seeking them. He said to them, where art thou,
Adam? And God has continued to seek
for lost sinners even unto this day. It all began in the garden
and it's still going on in one of the most beautiful passages
in the book of Ezekiel The prophet of God quotes the Lord as saying,
in Ezekiel 34 and 16, I will seek that. I will. Don't you love the Lord's wills?
I will seek that which was lost, and will bring again that which
was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and
will strengthen that which was sick. God is a seeker of the
lost, of those who are in grave danger. This word, lost, in verse
number 10, the original word is often translated other ways. In fact, mainly it's translated
perish. And then it's also translated
destroy. Again, it's translated as lose. Only five times is it translated
as lost. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save those who were perishing, those who were being destroyed,
those who were the losers. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. This is very critical. Very critical
indeed. In fact, this is foundational
to our understanding of the Bible and our understanding of God's
way of salvation. We need only be reminded from
Romans chapter 3 and verse 11 that no man seeketh after God. It isn't that God is to be found
of us. God is not lost. The Son of Man
is not lost. We're lost. We're being destroyed. We're the ones who are perishing.
And we will perish. And we will be destroyed unless
the Son of Man, our God Himself, unless He comes to seek and to
save that which was lost. There would then be no reconciliation,
no salvation, no forgiveness, no hope of heaven if God doesn't
seek and save us. Make no mistake about it, our
Lord does the seeking and our Lord does the saving. We would continue to hide from
him or try to hide from him among the trees of the garden, we would
still be trying to wrap ourselves with fig leaf aprons, trying
to establish a righteousness of our own. had not the Lord
come and sought us and found us and revealed to us salvation
by His omnipotent grace through the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is saying here He is
the seeker. He is the saver of those who
are lost. This story is an illustration. One man out of a massive crowd
of people. Multitudes are on their way to
Jerusalem. For it is the time of the Passover. And every male Jew must go to
Jerusalem. So there is a great crowd of
people on their way to Jerusalem. But not only is a great crowd
of people going to Jerusalem for the Passover, a great multitude
of people surround the Master. He has performed many miracles.
His popularity has grown. And a great mass of people, they're
making their way toward Jerusalem as they go through Jericho. And
out of this vast congregation, out of this vast multitude around
him, one man, you think of that, one lone man is sought and he's
found by the Master. Here's an illustration of free
and sovereign grace. Zacchaeus was only up in the
tree out of curiosity. He wanted to see who Jesus was. And the Lord in His providence
had made Zacchaeus to be a very short man. When I was a little boy, I'd
ask my dad, will I ever be tall like you are? And I wanted to
be real tall so I could play basketball for such and such
a school. And I wonder if Zacchaeus, I
wonder, of course they didn't have basketball then, but if
you'll indulge me in my foolishness here for a moment, I wonder if
he ever asked his mom and dad, you think I'll ever be big enough
to play for the basketball team? And he was a little guy. And
I'm sure he always wanted to be taller. But God, you see,
in His eternal purpose ordained that He be a short man. It's
amazing how God works these things out for our good, isn't it? Even
things that we never think about. I mean, you could let your imagination
go and you say, well, what if He had been a tall man? But He
wasn't. What if he had stood head and
shoulders like King Saul in the Old Testament? Head and shoulders
over everybody else. He wouldn't have had to go up
in a tree. But he was a man of short stature. And he went up in a tree solely
out of curiosity to see Jesus. But this was a day marked out
from old eternity. For God had chosen Zacchaeus
unto salvation in Jesus Christ. God the Father had given him
as a gift to His Son. In fact, the Son of Man was coming
to save His Zacchaeuses from their sins by His death upon
the cross. This is an ordained moment here. And out of this vast crowd of
people, thousands and thousands, in fact, I read that just shortly
after this, it is estimated over one quarter of a million people
followed the Lord Jesus or surrounded the Lord Jesus as He went into
Jerusalem for His triumphant entry. So there are thousands
and thousands of people around Him, one man, One man is the
object of His mercy. He goes there for one man. And this man is not a seeker.
This man has no interest. This man is not there as one
who wants to be saved. He's not there because some soul
winner has begged him to come and see Jesus. He's there only
because he's short. He goes up in a tree, and out
of curiosity, he wants to see Jesus of Nazareth. I wonder why
you're here today. And it may be you're a visitor. After all, most of you look like
visitors to me, because I know very few of you. But I wonder why you came. Maybe
you came because somebody invited you. Maybe you came because somebody
said, I want you to come here, I'm your preacher. Maybe you're
here today because you say, well, I need to go to church on Sunday. But maybe this is the day God's
going to run you up a tree. Maybe this is the day He's going
to find you. And let me tell you something,
if He has set His sight on you, If God Almighty from before the
foundation of the world has been looking at you, loving you, caring
about you, interested in you, and if today is the day marked
out for the gospel to be revealed to your heart, for Christ Jesus
to be revealed in you, all of the powers of hell itself cannot
stop God from doing His work today. And we ought to all say, oh Lord,
oh Lord, would you treat me today. Oh Lord, cause me to see who
Jesus Christ is. Open my eyes. Oh Lord, seek and
save me today. Seek and save me. The Lord said to this man, today
I must abide at thy house. This is one of the great biblical
illustrations of sovereign salvation. This is not God seeking in some
vague way, some general way, but seeking a sinner in a very
specific way, in a seeking way, in a saving way. He is said to be the Son of Man. He uses that title to Himself. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost. And our Lord Jesus used
this title more than any other to refer to Himself. This is
a messianic title. It refers to Him as the Man,
Christ Jesus. But more than that, It refers
to Him as being the Chosen One, the Ordained One, the Sent One,
the Messiah, that One who was commissioned by God to come into
this world on a mission of mercy. That's prophesied in Daniel chapter
7. He's said to be the Son of Man. So yes, it sets Him forth in
His humanity. but also in His divine glory
and His everlasting rule. He says, the Son of Man has come. That refers to His incarnation. He has come. Not merely He's
come to Jericho, but He's come into the world. At His birth,
He, God of very God, came. He came for this purpose, to
seek and to save that which was lost. Those are two infinitives. There's his two-fold purpose.
To seek and to save. To seek means to pursue. To look for. To search for. Understand this. He is the pursuer. You're not pursuing Him. We don't
pursue Him. He pursues us. Our Lord Jesus
came to seek, to look for, and to save. The word save means
to rescue from harm, to deliver from danger. He came to seek
and to save, and the ones He came to seek and to save are
identified as being those who are lost, those who are ruined,
those who are destroyed, Oh Israel, God said, you've destroyed yourself. But in me is thy salvation. Our Lord Jesus is the one who
came to seek and to save those who are lost. And this can't
be more clear. Jesus didn't come into the world
to be a good teacher. Oh, He was a great teacher. That's
not why He came. He didn't come into the world
to be a moral leader. He didn't come to espouse new
religious ideas. He didn't come into the world
to start a new religion. He didn't come into the world
to stir up a religious consciousness in the hearts of men. He didn't
come into the world to live a good life so that we would know what
somebody looks like who lives a good life. He came into the
world to rescue doomed sinners. That's why he came. He came for
a specific reason. To seek and to save that which
was lost. And this is our message. Everything
in the Old Testament points to this. And everything in the New
Testament defines this mission. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. For you see, sin has devastated
all of humanity. And all of humanity is marred,
and corrupted, and evil, and wicked, and ruined. And we're
all in the same condition. In fact, the condition that we're
in needs to be understood. Because it's only when we realize
what we are that we'll really appreciate what the remedy's
got to be. We're in really bad shape, folks. We're dead in trespasses and
in sins. We don't deserve any good thing
from God. We're alienated from God. We've
been cut off from God. Our sins and our iniquities,
like a great mountain, stand between us and God, and we can't
do anything about them. Salvation is an impossibility.
as far as we're concerned. There's none righteous, we read
in Romans 3. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way,
we read. They're all together unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues have they
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. And the way of peace have they
not known? There is no fear of God before
their eyes." That's us. That's all of us. And out of this mass of fallen
humanity, there's a remnant. According to the election of
grace. And our Lord Jesus says, the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save the lost. The lost. At the beginning, Even
before He was born, it was announced, Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And now here
He is at the very end of His public ministry, just a few days
before He's to die. And He reminds us of why He came. To seek and to save that which
was lost. We've already been reminded of
that right from the Savior's lips in Luke chapter 15. The parable of lost things. The
lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. It wasn't the sheep or the coin
or the son who sought and found the Lord or their owner, but
the owner In the case of the last one, the father, Salton
found the lost. The shepherd finds the lost sheep.
Do you see yourself in that story? You are out lost, wandering away
from God. He found you. The shepherd found
you. The good shepherd who gave his
life for the sheep. It's the seeking shepherd and
he finds the lost sheep and he picks it up and he puts it on
his shoulders and he takes it all the way home rejoicing. And he says, rejoice with me,
I have found my sheep. Do you see yourself in that story?
I'm that lost sheep. And then the woman had ten coins. One of them was lost in the dust.
That's you and me, lost in the dust of sin, dead, dead, dead. We're not down in the dust saying,
hey, here I am, look at me! I'm over here! No, the coin fell, rolled over under
the dust, and there it lay, until its owner, until its owner lights
a lamp and comes searching and finds it and picks it up and
dusts it off and says to her friends, Rejoice with me! I found the coin that was lost.
You see yourself in that story? And then the son, the prodigal
son who went astray He said, Father, give me my inheritance
early. I'm out of here. And then the Lord brought him
to his senses. After he had reached the bottom,
he said, I'm going home. I'm going home. And he had his
little speech memorized, wrote it out, took out his pen, wrote
out his little speech. I'm not worthy to be your son
anymore. I'll be like a servant. He started
coming back and his father's out on the front porch looking
for him, looking for him. And he sees him. The father comes
running after him. God the Father comes after us
and He embraces us. Have you been embraced in His
love? Isn't it wonderful to be embraced by the Lord? And you
have your little speech memorized, oh God, I'm such a sinner. Oh God, could you ever show mercy
to a rebel like me? And He hugs you. He embraces you. And He says,
welcome home. Well, come on. And the boy says,
Father, I'm not worthy. Oh, he said, just stop. Just
stop. Bring forth the best robe, the
righteousness of Christ. Let's put a ring on his finger,
sonship. Let's kill the fatted calf. Christ
has died for our sins, according to the Scripture. That's faith. This is a happy day. This is
a joyous day, the Father said. For this my son was lost, now
he's found. He's dead, now he's alive. Can you enter into that story?
I can. I can. He found me. He found me. That's his business. He's the Savior. He's the Savior. He finds His delight in saving
sinners. God finds His own satisfaction
in this. Listen to Isaiah 62, 5. For as
a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over his bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. when the woman found the coin
that was lost. She said, rejoice with me, I
found that coin. Then the Savior said, even so
there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels. Well, that doesn't
mean so much that the angels are rejoicing. Somebody else
is rejoicing. I can't imagine the joy of the
Lord What does it mean for the Lord to rejoice? But I'll tell you what makes
Him rejoice, if I may say it this way, and if I'm saying it
wrong, oh God, please forgive me. But that which delights the
heart of God Almighty, that which brings Him the greatest pleasure
and delight and joy, is seeking and saving lost sinners. And He's going to joy over us
forever and ever in glory. Listen, it will be our joy to
be there. Oh, it will. It will be a land
of delight for us. But nobody will be more joyful
than our God. He has set Himself to this purpose
since before the world began. Salvation is not a new idea. This is an old gospel. How old is the old gospel? As
old as God. And He set this in motion before
the world began. with this purpose to glorify
Himself and bring Himself joy in the salvation of sinners. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost. Look back at verse 1 of this. And Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. Now, let's keep this in the context. Back in Luke chapter 18, in verses
18 through 25, our Lord was confronted by a rich young ruler who refused
to bow to the claims of Christ Jesus. And as he walked away
from the Master, look in chapter 18, verse 24. When Jesus saw,
chapter 18, verse 24, that he was very sorrowful, He said,
How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's
eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And
they that heard him, his disciples, said to him, who then can be
saved?" The subject is salvation now. These chapter divisions, they
are not inspired. The subject is salvation. And
the disciples said, who then can be saved? Verse 27, and he
said, The things which are impossible
with men, salvation, establishing righteousness, putting sins away,
everlasting life. The things which are impossible
with men, thank God they are not impossible with Him. They
are possible with Him. If He's of a mind to seek and
to save that which was lost, I'll guarantee you, the lost
one is going to be sought and is going to be found. And beginning right there, our
Lord proceeds to demonstrate the fact that God alone can save
poor sinners. He alone must seek and save that
which was lost. So that in verse 30, the last
phrase of verse 30, He speaks of, in the world there will be
life everlasting. He tells us that the salvation
that He brings is life everlasting. And then in verses 31, 32, and
33, He tells us how this salvation comes to be. He took unto him the twelve,
he said unto them, Behold, now be amazed, listen up men, we go up to Jerusalem, and all
things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of
Man, there's that title, he used it again, shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto
the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and
spit it on, and they shall scourge him and put him to death, and
the third day he shall rise again." This is how salvation is going
to be accomplished, he says. Remember, the subject is salvation.
Who then can be saved? Well, it's impossible with man,
but it's not impossible with God. No, not at all. Because God gives to men life
everlasting. And He does it through the substitutionary
sacrifice of His darling Son. And then in verses 35 through
43, he shows us the sure result of his work of substitution and
satisfaction, his work of redemption, the sure result is the salvation
of sinners by omnipotent grace, for he gives sight and salvation
to a blind man as he enters into Jericho. Look at verse 35. It came to pass, as he was come
nigh to Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging,
and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And
they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying,
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Be propitious to
me by means of the sacrifice. And they which went before rebuked
him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much the
more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood. He's on his way to Jerusalem
now. He's on his way to die. But he stopped. And he commanded
this man to be brought to him. When he was come near, he asked
him, saying, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he
said, Lord. He recognized his Lordship. Here's
this man of Galilee. Jesus to everybody. Everybody
called him Jesus. But he called him Lord. Lord,
that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive
thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received
sight. He followed Him, glorifying God,
and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
And our Lord continues. He continues through Jericho
to meet up with Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. It says, Jesus entered and passed
through. Literally, He was passing through
Jericho. And behold, there was this man." With these words, it's as though
Luke, the beloved physician who was inspired to write this, it's
though he says to us, never cease to adore and give thanks to our
God for his sovereign, distinguishing grace. For you see, He has mercy
on whom He'll have mercy. He's gracious to whom He'll be
gracious. He came to save lost people,
people who are unable to save themselves, unwilling to come
to Him. He finds them and He makes them
willing to be saved His way in the day of His power. Isaiah
quoted the Lord saying, I am sought of them that ask not for
me. I am found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me, behold
me unto a nation that was not called by my name." He seeks and saves the lost. And here's this man, Zacchaeus. The scripture says in verse 3,
he was a little of stature. I take that, here's the application
I make to that. He didn't measure up. He didn't
measure up. Not only did he not measure up
to other men height-wise, he didn't measure up to what God
demands. And neither do you, my friend. Neither do I. God says, be ye
holy, for I'm holy. We don't measure up. But I know
who does. I know who does. Christ Jesus. And all those who are in Him,
united to Him by eternal grace, in Him, listen, we measure up. He's our fitness. He's our worthiness. Well, this man climbed up in
a tree. All of you kids, you ought to know this. Zacchaeus
was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. And he climbed
up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as
the Savior passed that way, he looked up in the tree and he
said, Zacchaeus! You come down. For I'm going
to your house today. I'm going to your house today.
Our Lord Jesus sought him and found him. And somebody said
he come down so fast that bark won't grow on sycamore tree anymore.
I don't know, but he sure did come down that tree fast. Because
that's the effectual call of grace. And when you come, you'll
come because he called you. It wasn't pretty please come
down here. It wasn't I'm knocking on your hearts door, will you
pretty please open up to me. Get down here Zacchaeus now.
And boy he came. And I tell you, when our Lord
issues to you the sovereign, irresistible call to come to
Him, down your tree you'll come. Down that tree of self-righteousness. Down that tree of arrogance and
pride. You'll come down. How far? All
the way to the bottom. And you'll find the one who's
waiting on you is the Lord who effectually drew you to Himself.
And our Lord said, I'm going to your house today and I'm going
to abide there. He abides with his people forever.
And he said to the people, listen, he's a son of Abraham. That's
more than just being a natural Jew. He's a spiritual Jew. He's
one of God's elect. I'll tell you why I've come,
I'll tell you why I called him down from this tree, and I'll
tell you why I'm going to his house today. For this reason,
I, the son of man, I've come to seek and to save that which
was lost. And I got him. He sought him
and he found him, didn't he? And went home with him. That's our great Redeemer. omnipotent
in grace, mighty to save. Bless his name. Let's sing a
song. Number 235, number 235.