Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. But sinners are not those
who seek out the Lord, rather they are those who are sought
by him. Even as he described his purpose to save Zacchaeus,
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is
lost. The Lord saw Zacchaeus in the branches of a tree and
commanded him to come down, for he was going to abide at Zacchaeus'
house that very day. This was no doubt a great surprise
to Zacchaeus, but he was powerless to resist the command of the
Lord. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Whenever the
Lord sees a sinner, he will find him and bring him to himself.
There is nothing in a sinner that would recommend him to the
Lord. He does not call men to himself because of their status,
faithfulness, or religious devotion. In fact, he bypasses all such
qualifications and seeks out the lowliest of men. For you
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty. and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and the
things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. He seeks those
sinners that are lost. It is true that all men are by
nature sinners, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. Yet all sinners are not lost. In order for something
to be lost, it had to be the prior possession of the one who
lost it. The Lord set forth this truth very plainly in this parable.
Either one woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece,
doth not light a candle and sweep the house, and seek diligently
till she find it. And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise I
say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repented. He also taught the same truth
in his illustration of the shepherds seeking the lost sheep, while
ninety and nine were safely in the fold. The Lord had possessed
His people from the beginning, having subjected them unto vanity
in order to demonstrate the glory of His grace in their redemption. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. He saves those sinners that he
seeks. Most modern preaching characterizes the Lord as trying
and hoping to save all of mankind. To the natural mind, this seems
like a fair and equitable approach and one which sits well with
religious sentiment. Yet in order to promote this
concept, one has to declare that the Lord of glory, who does all
things according to the good pleasure of his will, must ultimately
fail to accomplish his purpose. Nowhere in all of the scriptures
can such an idea be found. The Lord did not just come to
seek lost sinners, but to save them as well. Salvation by any
measure must be complete, or it is no salvation at all. Thus
we can be certain that his calling is effectual, or is sure to accomplish
the purpose for which it is sent. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper
in the thing whereto I sent it. Peter declared on the day of
Pentecost those to whom the promise of God was given. For the promise
is unto you and to your children, and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. The promises
of the Lord must be applied to those to whom they are called. For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of God by us. There is no shadow of turning
with Him. What He has promised, He will do. The Lord makes it
plain throughout His Word that He puts a difference between
those who are sinners and those who are righteous. That difference
is manifested by His calling of sinners to repentance. Righteous
men do not consider themselves in need of repentance, especially
as they compare themselves to those they view as wicked. Yet
the man who is convinced that he is a sinner can do nothing
but cry out for mercy when the Lord calls his name. He is quite
unconcerned as to his status compared to other men, for he
knows that he is not worthy of the least of the Lord's mercies,
even as Paul declared. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. The gospel declaration
of the complete and finished work of Christ in behalf of sinners
is life and light unto his soul. Have you heard his call? For
a free CD containing 15 of these radio broadcasts, send an email
to forthepoor at windstream.net.