What a Savior. Well, as I said,
we've been well-fed tonight and last night, and we're ready to
feast again on the Gospel. It's a blessing to have Brother
Jean-Claude here to preach and proclaim Christ to us. You all
know how dear he is to me and to Vicki and I, and I know how
dear both these men are to all of us. And it's a real blessing. Brother Jean-Claude, come up
and preach Christ to us. Well, if conference or preaching
was a competition, I would come here and throw the sponge. But it isn't, and I must say
how honored I feel to be here with you, and especially with
these two dear friends in the Lord, and it's been a real privileged
to have the time to gather and to be able to be ministered to
truly in the word, value these two true preachers of the gospel. And of course, I don't have to
say that because you have just heard and you who come regularly,
you hear every week. So if somebody comes and say,
These men are false preachers. You know that it is not true
because they have fed your soul and my soul. But it is hard to
follow and we'll come down from the great heights to which Brother
Garius brought us to the road going into Jericho in Luke 19. You remember last night we saw
Mr. Bartimaeus And now Bartimaeus
is singing and jumping, following Jesus in the way, and Jesus goes
into the modern city of Jericho. And chapter 19, and we'll start
reading at verse 1. Then Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, who was the chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus
was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short
stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up
into a sycamore tree to see him, for Jesus was going to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus made haste
and come down for today I must stay or abide at your house. So he made haste and came down
and received him joyfully. But when they saw it, that is
the, leaders of the Jews, the religious people, when they saw
it, they all murmured, saying, he has gone to be a guest with
a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus, that is inside
the house, stood and said to the Lord, look, Lord, I give
half of my goods to the poor. And if I have taken anything
from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today
salvation has come to this house because he also, he's a son of
Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that
which was lost. And we come again to this appointment
of the Lord Jesus with a soul known from eternity And yet,
undistinguished until that time by anything. A man who is lost,
as any man can be lost. But the Lord comes to Jericho
because he must meet that man. And we are going to look at who
is the man whom Jesus meets, with whom Jesus has this appointment. and what goes on in the heart
of this man. And we will see also who this
man is met by. In all this section of Luke's
gospel, or the gospel according to Luke, Luke is speaking, writing
about the kingdom of God. And our text is in the heart
of that passage. And of course, today, I'm not
very familiar with what goes on in this country, but I guess
it's the same as most places. It is very fashionable to talk
about the kingdom of God, to talk about God as being king. But there are many errors, and
it's a kind of king like modern kings, king without power, king
at our service. Here, Luke is showing really
what king is God and what king is Jesus Christ. For instance,
in chapter 18, we see Jesus shows how you come into that kingdom.
You need to have a heart like that of a little child. And he
says after his interview with the rich young rich rulers, we
call him, he shows that for the rich in this world, it is difficult
to get in. Well, actually, it is impossible
just by the efforts of men. Impossible. Because you must
leave everything. And the more you have, the more
it is difficult. And even as he comes towards
Jericho, he's just past the old city, the ruins still, and as
he does that and meets with Bartimaeus as we've seen, Luke is very careful
to point out that Bartimaeus addresses the Lord with a messianic
title, because he's the ultimate, great messianic king, the Davidic
king, who will have the authority to implement all the promises
of the new covenant. So we are in the middle of the
kingdom of God. And later, when he will walking
triumphantly into Jerusalem as it was foretold. The crowd welcomes him or cries,
kingly crying, cries. He's the king, the one who comes,
the son of David, the one who comes riding a donkey like a
king did. So we're looking at the kingdom,
we're looking at the king, not forgetting as we've seen last
night if you were here, that all along the vice of the wrath
of God is pressing harder and harder and more and more feelingly around his heart, around
his very being. He knows and he's going to experience
something he has never known as God. He's going to be separated
from his father for his people. But the king whom the Jews expected,
were waiting for, is not the king that came. And they rejected
him. They rejected him. We are not
going to have this man to reign over us. They wanted a king. or a convenient king according
to their liking. And that is not the king God
sent. And today, today, it is very
common to see people acknowledging the kingship of Jesus. But if
you analyze or if you scratch a little, it is a king which
must serve man. Really, that kind of king, a
little boy king, is no king at all. Not at all. And people will
come and pray, and you will say, well, that is not me, but that's
the grace of God. People will pray, oh, Lord, oh,
my king, bless me. Well, it might take a long time
for God to figure out what that means, blessing them, but it's
quite easy. It's more money, more life, more
health, more whatever. But this God is at my service. He's going to give me what I
need, what I want, and so on. Well, my friend, that's no king.
That's no king at all. But then it still raises the
challenge to us where we're sitting. What king do we want to serve?
What king do we serve? What is the king you're waiting
for coming from heaven? Because he's the son of God.
He's the son of God. He's the cross at the center
of your hope. That cross which is the glory
of that king. Oh, Father, glorify your son. And that is just in the shadow
of the cross. It's a cross at the center of your hope. Because
for Paul, for instance, eminent Paul, it was, it was the man
who could turn around and mock all the wisdom of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees put together. The man who could master Greek
philosophy in Greek when he comes into the one of the main place
of the wisdom of men. He exerts all the strength he
can have to put that aside, knowing only Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ
crucified, the person and the work of the King coming, of the
Messiah. And if I may say so, even grace
is not at the center of the gospel. Now, yes, the good news of salvation
is a salvation by grace. We have already said it. But
this come through the cross. No cross, no grace. Because grace has aimed at raising
that cross right from the time of the eternal counsel of God. By the death of another, because
there was no one who could die the death that would do the work,
as we have heard. We have no means, my friends,
to save ourselves by ourselves. And you will know what I mean.
We are so twisted in our race that we can twist the beautiful
grace of God and the beautiful truths of grace. We can twist
them to gain preeminence to our shame, isn't it? So it is the
grace that is in Christ. When I preach in Africa, sometimes
people take for granted what they're gonna hear. You know,
especially after the lunch, it's difficult to concentrate, but
we know what he's going to preach. In French, we call the session
after lunch, in the conference, the graveyard. It's kind of about
the same thing. So just trying to wake people
up, I say, well, in the Bible, there is no election. Now, I
know everybody's awake, even tonight. And they say, what do
you mean? Well, you say that. I mean, we've heard you say all
along. And so on said, no, let's go to Ephesians chapter one. And it is not election. It is not grace coming all the
time. It is in him. You take Christ along. What is
left? Tell me what is left? Nothing.
A system. system where men can show their
worth. And they do so, I tell you. They
do so, and you know it. So this is the king is coming. Let us focus on him. This man
is walking now through Jericho.
He's going up to Jerusalem. And before the week is over,
he will be on that cross by grace. God has sent him, didn't have
to send him, sent him by grace. So this is what we need to rejoice
in. And as he walks toward that cross,
as he walks in the grace of his father, along the roads of Palestine,
his last journey down here, he has an appointment with dead
souls, people who are loved and don't know it. who live as people
who are unloved and people who are going to die. He has an appointment. And this is the glory of this
gospel. This is what I like to call the
incarnation of the gospel. You're familiar with the fact
that the incarnation Christ came to the world, but all along,
The Lord sends his word all through the Old Testament, through his
prophets, through his servants. He incarnates this truth so that
we can hear people, we can see people. And the Son came, and
he came to where these people were. And tonight, whoever we
are, he comes to us as a saver of life or as a saver of death. So we need to hear, we need to
hear. He is going to Golgotha, but
he saves. He is there going through Jericho
to seek and save that which is lost. And tonight, tonight, the
preaching goes forth. Why? Because we want to hear,
maybe. Because I want to preach, yes,
but because God, seeks and saves that which is lost. Well, let's
look at this lost man, Zacchaeus. That's our first point. Dacius. What do we know about this man?
Well, you remember last night, we saw that we didn't know much
about Bartimeus, but what we knew was quite instructive. And it's exactly the same here.
We don't know much, but enough to know who this man is and what
is in him. Now, first thing we hear about
him is a rich man, and he's the chief of the publicans, of the
tax collectors. So we can discuss for a long
time about his riches and so on, how rich he was, and so on. But let's remember, or go back
to the point where, what has come before. Now, Jesus has already
met somebody who is rich, or he has been confronted by a man,
a rich young man. And this man came to him, but
then he turned away. with great sadness. So we remember
that, and that brought Jesus to say, how hard, how hard it
is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And of course,
what he means is that it is impossible for man. But he adds, and this
is a gospel, all things are possible to God. Luke is going to show
us that, yes, it is possible. God saves even the rich, even
the rich, not many. And here, Luke shows us that
the first man, the young man, was very promising. He came running. He had the questions. He did
things well. but then faced with the real
Christ, he turned away with great sadness. This man has everything
against him, everything. But when we come to the end of
the passage, he receives him with great joy, with great joy. So here is a rich man, a very
rich man, I would believe, but he's not only a rich man, He's
a man whose heart is so wedded to the riches of this world that
he doesn't have any scruples. The sort of man who, to gain
something, is ready probably to sell his mother. Now we can
see what sort of thing. This man is ready to collaborate
with the occupant, with the Romans, in order to spoil his brothers. And that was very important in
those days to be of the same group, you see. Well, he's ready
to do that in order to get rich. And I wonder if we are not so
wedded to the world that it'd be difficult to part with riches. we can be rich of this world
without having much riches. Our hearts may be far or shielded
from God by whatever we have. Is there anything, my friends,
which occupies your heart more than God? More than God. Well, Zacchaeus was a rich man
and the chief of the tax collectors. Shearing, even those who were
shearing the others. And really, the sort of man you
don't want to have for a friend. You never know what, you count
the spoons when he leaves. What else do we know about Zacchaeus? Well, we know that he's called
Zacchaeus. So this is not very complicated. And the mention of his name is
not something which is just here perchance, at all. There is a
purpose behind it. The name is a Jewish name. And
it's the same family as Zechariah. And it means one who is just. That is the real meaning, translation.
So it is difficult to imagine somebody who is so more badly
named than Zacchaeus. He's the chief crook of the whole
town. And he's called the one who is
just. And this is quite interesting. I remember when our children
were young, one of their friends was a little boy who was quite
restless and quite, he had quite a character, we'll put it this
way. And yet he was called Clement,
which means peaceful. Really. So, Zacchaeus was a bit
like this. And I would guess that in Jericho,
there might have been quite a few puns and sayings which would
make people laugh. You know, say, oh, hello, Zacchaeus. We know him better. But really,
this is important to underline because every time Zacchaeus,
I don't know if they had mirrors, but every time Zacchaeus would
look himself in the mirror in the morning, for instance, he
would look at the one who is just, but he knew that he was
not. And every day, every time he
could hear his name said, every time he would think on it, his
failure. would be staring him in the eyes. His failure. He doesn't live
even up to his name. He cannot. He's not just. And so he's Zacchaeus, he's rich,
he's a crook, and he's Zacchaeus. So you can see the tension there.
Now, what else do we know about Zacchaeus, which is told by Luke
here? Well, he was seeking to see who
Jesus was. This is what Luke says. The text
doesn't tell us the reason for that. And some people have kind
of worked out that it must have been curiosity. And certainly,
there must have been an element of curiosity because the news
of this guy was going all over Palestine and being quite different
from the establishment and also curing diseases right, left,
and center. I mean, the news was going around.
People knew. Most probably Zacchaeus knew
about it. Now, did he also know that one
tax collector had been integrated in the inner circle of Jesus'
followers? We don't know. Probably, probably. We don't know. But we know one
thing when we read that there was more than curiosity. There
was more than just an interest in Jesus which pushed Zacchaeus
to want to see who Jesus was. How do I know that? Well, the
word tells us. It says that he ran ahead. He ran ahead in order to see
Jesus. Because you see, this man was
very small. And you know what it is, the
crowd just presses along the road to see Jesus, everybody,
and Zacchaeus just can't make it. And so he runs ahead. You say, well, what's weird about
that? Well, I don't know. Have you
ever seen a rich, powerful man run like this? That's kids do
that. Some time ago, I mean, now we
have back home a president who is very young. But before we
had a president, I mean, not before, but before before, we
had a president who was very small. That made quite a few jokes among
us. But this man, being powerful as he was, the first man in the
nation, if he had wanted to see something or to do something,
he wouldn't have run ahead and climbed into a tree. He would
have paid his way to the front. Or he would have used bodyguards,
these big, massive men, to make a way in order to see Jesus.
So when we see Zacchaeus running ahead and not acting as a rich
man would do, we know that there's more than curiosity. And we know
that it is the spirit of God which works there. Why? Because he refuses to be turned
back. He refuses the impossibility. He must see Jesus, and therefore
he doesn't mind about himself, about his self-respect or whatever,
he runs, climbs in a tree. Well, I don't know for you, but
back home, adults don't do that. It's kids. Well, if I did that
today, it would be difficult to get down from a tree, but
that's another thing. So it is the spirit of God which
is already working there. And Luke is showing us that by
telling us that Zacchaeus, running like this. The Spirit is working
in this hard soul and breaking it and preparing it to receive
that beautiful seed of the life that is in Christ. He's going
to read this to receive the seed and bear fruit. The Spirit is
there at work. And of course, this is a time
to Stop and pause, and maybe turn away a little bit from Zacchaeus
and search ourselves. Yes, oh, maybe say, well, I believe,
I believe in free grace, you know, I'm really somebody, okay. But you know, all along the gospels,
the gospel accounts, we see people who follow Jesus, some people
who believe in him. John 2.23. Many, and the word
means a multitude, a great number, believed in his name because
of the miracles. But he didn't believe in their
faith. He didn't have faith in their faith. We see people who
receive him. When he goes to Galilee, it says
they receive him. Well, actually it means they
had an interest in him. Like, you know, he's the guy
in the news. We see a lot of people like this. But in every of these hearts,
there's no work of grace, no work of grace. So it is important
and crucial, I believe, to pause at times and to say, where do
I stand? Where do I stand? My following
Jesus, my doing this and that will do me no good. unless God
has done something in my heart. In another passage, we hear that
Jesus kind of warns his disciples saying, do not rejoice for what
you do. Cast out devils and devil obey
you, but rejoice. Do not rejoice in what you can
do for God, but rejoice. in what he has done, that your
names are written in the heavens. We see these people all along. People in John chapter six, for
instance, who still are digesting the miracle and they turn away
from him. Judas. Judas goes and preaches the gospel
like all the other apostles. And he heals people. How do I
know? The Lord sent people two by two. So there must have been somebody
with Judas and nobody, I mean, that guy didn't see no difference. But he didn't have his name written
in heaven, in the Lamb's Book of Life. So let us examine ourselves. Let us search our heart. Many
people have an interest in the Savior, but they never bear fruit. Never bear fruit. Why? Because as soon as a difficulty
comes, as soon as things are not exactly like one wants, they
turn away. They turn away. It's not what
they expected. And it's just the power of the
flesh which animates them. And maybe it is that the flesh
has still power with us. And maybe at times we rise against
things and we need to beware. We need to beware. And some people seek to find, seek
salvation. They think they found it, but
they're always seeking more. There's always something missing.
Why? Because it is just in the flesh. See, you find them 10 years later,
they're still seeking, still seeking, never finding. No, this
is not the salvation from God. Here, Zacchaeus refuses to be
turned away. And we've seen that already with
Bartimaeus. Keep quiet. Don't do this. I mean, this is not decent. But
Bartimaeus will not have a no. And Zacchaeus is, why? Because
it is the same spirit working in them, the same spirit. And we want that spirit working
in us. And so Zacchaeus runs ahead and
gets up in his tree, and we know that it is not the flesh which
animates him at all. There's more than that, more
than that. And Zacchaeus wanted to see who
Jesus was. And this had become probably
quite unconsciously, intellectually. But this thing had started to
occupy, to take hold of his heart so that he doesn't care what
people will think. He runs. He climbs a tree, you
see. He wants to see who Jesus was. And now he's up in a tree. Like a kid. Like a kid. Like a little child. Like a little
child. He's ready for the Kingdom of
Heaven, we may say. But, my friends, he's not the
only one who had a purpose that day. That day. And so we come
to our second point, which is what Jesus says. Come down from
the tree, quickly, because I must dwell. I must abide in your house. This is what Jesus says. Zacchaeus
wanted to see who was Jesus. Jesus wants to abide. And this is the gospel. This
is the gospel. Man's doesn't bring anything,
anything. Not at all. No. Savior, as it
was said earlier, the Savior is not here in Palestine to sort
of have a sort of theological seminary with 12 men, well, 11
good and one bad, and so on, and do a sort of theological
exercise. No, not at all. He goes to the
cross, but it is in order to save that which is lost. And
now he's in Jericho because there is someone who is lost. And yet
the Father wants that soul in his presence in all eternity. The Jews were expecting a Messiah
which was coming in the might of man. Someone who would rule
and then boot out the Romans from Palestine and bring the
Jewish nation to the top. But they were doing that, they
were conceiving that in the strength of man. But Jesus knows that
the flesh can produce nothing but the flesh, nothing spiritual
at all. Now to come into this kingdom,
you don't need to be Jew. but you need to become like a
little child to be born again, to be born from above, to be
saved from perdition and become a new creature. This is how one
comes into the kingdom of God, like Zacchaeus. And I don't know
if you've marked these must of the gospel. John chapter 3, for
instance. You must be born again. You must
be born from above. How does that come? I must be
lifted up. The Son of Man must be lifted
up. Then you go to the next chapter. He must needs go through some
area. You see? And then later on. The one who really wants to be
a true worshipper must worship in spirit and truth, which is
a work of God, which is this new work of God. So the must. And now, I must dwell in your
house. I must abide. And it's not just
passing. He will stay. God does a work
of salvation in which man has no part. We cannot be tired of
saying that because we try all the time to get some little part. You see, even sometimes in the
fact that we say we have no part, we say it so well that we make
it a work of ourselves because we're better than others. No,
my friends, not at all, not at all. Man is so attached. to the world. And what can Zacchaeus
do here? He's wedded to riches. He loves
riches in the world. Now, he's rejected by men, by
the best men in his town. He's hated by men. I mean, he's
a tax collector. That's not really the thing which
endears you to people. And now he's here in this tree. Well, that's much better because
he's going to see Jesus go by. But if he sees Jesus go by with
his eyes, that'll do him no good. Jesus will go by. Zacchaeus will
see him. Oh, it's only that. And then
Jesus will go to Jerusalem. Go to the cross, die, save his
people. Zacchaeus will come down from
his tree, go back to his business, until the time he can't do any
more business, and then he will die. Man has no part in salvation,
not at all. But Jesus is not just going up
to Jerusalem. No, he's come to seek and save
that which was lost. And now he comes. underneath
the tree, and he stops. Zacchaeus, wow, he knows his
name? How does he know his name? Of
course he knows his name. Of course he does. Like he knows
your name if you hiss. They're engraved on the palms
of his hands from eternity. I remember when I was 11 years
old, my first class of English. So that goes back some time.
and it was not taught like it is taught today. Now, the first
thing we had to learn was the Lord's Prayer in the A.V. version, 1611. The these and
those are, I can't even say it now, you see, but I still remember
it today. I can say it by heart with my
accent, but still I can say it, you see. On the palms of the hands of
Jesus are engraved, on his breastplates are all the names, Zacchaeus
is there. Not because of what Zacchaeus
can do, not because of what is not done, but because God has
decided. I thank you all, Father, that
you have wanted it so. This is Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus,
calm down. So Jesus is there and he lifts
up his head and sees this man, Zacchaeus, he knows him, he knows
him. And it's very interesting how Luke shows us that actually at
this moment, Zacchaeus' soul lives. Now, listen. This is Jesus speaking. Zacchaeus
make haste and come down. Next verse. So he made haste
and came down. There's obedience. Obedience. Probably the first
time this man obeys something. Obedience. Isn't that a true
mark of the life of Christ flowing into this man? When did it come,
what, what? It doesn't matter, it's there.
This man obeys. Jesus says, come down, and this
man comes down. Actually, Jesus knows him from
eternity, and now this man knows the master, obeys the master,
and there will be no way No way, anything nor anybody can take
that knowledge away from this man. No way. Because it is sealed
by the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ has engraven
it in this man. Isn't that wonderful? And there
are some poor people, maybe you have said it, that you can lose
your salvation. Not that salvation, my friends,
not at all, no. And Jesus knows this man from everlasting,
and it is actually for this man, this traitor, this sort of stupid
man, that he's going up to Jerusalem. It is for such people that the
Savior is walking that way and going to that cross in order
to die. for these people, not for those
who are whole, not for those who are in good health, not for
those who are morally right, not at all, not at all. So that
gives hope to whoever hears, whoever hears. Has Christ come
to abide in your house, abide in your house and your heart? But there's one more thing to
underline. Well, there's a lot of more things
to underline, but I choose one, and this is our third point.
Lord, behold, I give. This is what Zacchaeus says.
Jesus goes into Zacchaeus' home, and you have all the good religious
and moral people say, look, look, he's gone into the house of a
sinner, and you don't do that. We're so used with this story
that we don't see the stupidity of this. It's like saying, look,
you're here looking at the window like some people do and say,
hey, the doctor's coming. He's going to, why does he go
into this house? They're all sick. I mean, you
see how stupid it is, no? Isn't that exactly the same thing?
Here is a savior, he's gone to a sinner. Well, he's the savior
of sinners. And these people will not be
saved because there are no sinners in their own hearts. Are we blind also? If only you
were blind, there would be some hope for you. And I hope you're
blind in yourself. And I hope you're a sinner in
yourself. Because that is a savior, and there's no other savior.
There's no savior for moral people. No, they have their own little
saviors which don't don't meet the challenge. No, Zacchaeus
is not just a sinner. He's a sinner who is transformed. And we need to underline this
because often, oh, it is possible, let's put it this way, to believe
the truth and not be transformed. It is possible that the truth
locates itself in our head and doesn't touch us. And that will
do no good. That is a religious knowledge.
Not at all. This man is transformed because
the true salvation transforms. And if it doesn't, it is not
true. However true it rings. No, for Zacchaeus, the rich man,
we can see what has not taken place with a rich young ruler,
very promising man, great riches too, great desire, which Zacchaeus
didn't have in himself. And now this man left all sad. Zacchaeus receives Christ with
joy. And what does he do? What does
he do? Because new life, life does,
life lives, life does something. He gives. And now, if I was a
moralistic preacher, and by God's grace, he has prevented me from
being that, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart. But if
I was that, I would say, well, look, Zacchaeus is a real model. I mean, look. He gives back,
he gives to the poor, half of his goods. So now you calculate,
you know, how much he, and this, and I can provide the calculator
somewhere. And you know, fourfold, if he,
of course he's defrauded a lot of people, that's probably a
lot of money. And this man is going probably to be poor in
the riches of this world from now on. But I'm not moralizing. And I'm not going to focus on
the fact that he gives. I want to focus on the fact that
he doesn't keep. Because Zacchaeus, from the time
he was able to, has been gathering, taking, grabbing, and so on.
And now, he gives. You can see the power is completely
reverted, completely changed. This is a transformed man. This
is a new life. This is a new life. And that
is the life of God. His values have changed. Because what is flesh is flesh
and can only think in terms of flesh. I need to provide for
my old dailies and so on. But now what is spirit is spirit
and he has spent his life grabbing things, now he gives, now he
gives. Because now, my friends, he belongs
to another kingdom. He has another king, the Lord,
and he's born again, he's a new creature. And like a little child,
he knows by the faith that the Father has given him through
the Spirit, he knows that his Father supplies everything. Some months ago, I was in West
Africa, and it was this sort of February vacation, a week
or two weeks, can't remember. And there were zillions of kids
in that street. And it was difficult to concentrate
on teaching and so on. But you see, the whole morning,
these kids would shout and run and do all sorts of things in
that street, not one of them for one nanopart of a second
Wondering, will there be food on the table at lunchtime? Because
they know. My dad, my parents are there. So therefore, I mean, of course,
they wouldn't voice that, but they know. And Zacchaeus knows
now. He doesn't have to have his barns
full. He doesn't need to have a big
bank account, not at all. He has a father. He has a brother. And he's transformed, a new creation. This savior goes up to Jerusalem
now. Of course, Zacchaeus probably
can't voice it, but he knows. that this man is going to Jerusalem
in order to pay fully what he owes. He can do away with half
of his wealth. He can give back fourfold. You see, Zacchaeus, the one who
now is just, the one who is now just, is now clothed with a real
justice, a real righteousness. which is the one of Christ, of
course. The Savior has come, and he has
sought, he has gone towards those who were lost, and he has saved
this soul. His mission is accomplished.
It is accomplished in Zacchaeus because it will be accomplished.
This is another translation of that word. It says perfected. Now, what is perfect, if you
add, you diminish it. You diminish it. 100% plus 1%
is no more 100%. Not at all. No, this Savior has
come, and his mission is accomplished. And my friends, whoever you are,
wherever you are, may that be the case for your soul, for God's
glory. Amen.