Turn back to Luke chapter 19. Back in Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse 35, we have
an encounter of our Lord coming to this community called Jericho. All the old writers say this
was a very large community. It was some distance from Jerusalem.
twenty miles or so, and there were many people in it, many
thousand people in it. It was a large community. And
our Lord was approaching this place called Jericho, and there
was a beggar there. His name was Bartimaeus. He was
dirty. He had no way of supporting himself
other than to beg alms for the poor. And he sat there daily
at the entrance into the gate of this large city called Jericho. He sat there in all his filth.
in all his darkness, didn't know what was going on around him,
ignorant of his surroundings, of everything going on. What
a picture of us. What a picture of fallen man.
What a picture of us all in our natural state. And there he sat
begging. And there was quite a crowd surrounded
our Lord. You remember, he's in the midst
of his public ministry. And everywhere our Lord went,
he healed the blind and he raised the sick. strength to those who
were lame and halt and withered. And you can just imagine, you
can just imagine the people that clamored to our Lord that had
loved ones and had members of their family and neighbors and
friends who were sick. You know, you see these phonies,
these obnoxious and odious men on television that they're in
these services and they have They have a whole host of very
ill people, crippled people, wheelchairs, and they always
show those people. And then they have some phony
to come up on stage, and they do some ridiculous shenanigans,
you know, and this person does cartwheels off the stage, you
know, and those type phony things. I'm telling you today, go down
here to this hospice center. You go down here to this hospice
center, and they call the family in. And all the family members
are there weeping. And this loved one is not going
to survive through the night. And someone go into that place
and lay a hand on that one or pray for that one. And miraculously,
that person is made healthy and young and vital. That's someone
that you'd follow. That's someone that you would...
Can you do that for my loved one? Well, that's who's here.
That's the Lord Himself. This is the Lord Himself that's
here. And this filthy beggar, he cries out. He hears the commotion.
And they say, it's Jesus of Nazareth that's passing by. This man knew
something. And he said, have mercy on me,
thou Son of David. That promised one that's going
to come. That one that the Old Testament talks about that's
coming. He identifies who he is. Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. And Brother Mike said, sat in
here before the service, and he was reading there, and he
said, and Jesus stood still. And he said, every time he stands
still, something good happens. And Jesus stood still. And he
said, bring that man. That filthy beggar. You bring
that man. You bring him to me. And he healed
that man. He healed that man. What an amazing picture of us
in our filth, in our inability to do anything. What a picture
of us. And yet he passed by. And he
said, you bring that man, you bring him, that particular man,
of all those people that's in that cracker, you bring him to
me. And he healed that man, gave that man sight. And that man
rejoiced. That man rejoiced. Don't we rejoice
today for what our Lord's done for us? And he entered into that
large city, Jericho. Now, I like to, when I try to
get a mental image, I try to get a picture in my mind of what's
going on here. This filthy beggar, there he
sat, he probably stunk. He probably was awful to be around.
And yet he cried out for mercy, and the Lord saved that man,
gave mercy to that man. All this crowd of people, and
our Lord enters into this large city, Jericho. Boy, this is going
to be a place to set up a tent meeting. This is going to be
a place to have a crusade. We'll get all the dignitaries
of town, all the prominent people, Pass out leaflets and we'll have
a big meeting here in this place. I mean, we can gather in a crowd
every night. And look at this in verse 1.
Jesus entered. He entered into Jericho. You
see that? And He passed through Jericho. What? There's no sinners
in this place? There's no filthy people in this
place? There's no people in need in this place? He passed through this place.
There's no evidence that He did any miracle. that he raised anybody
from a sick bed, that he gave sight to any other blind people,
that he gave anybody that was crippled the ability to walk.
He didn't reveal himself in a spiritual sense. He didn't reveal himself
to be God Almighty in human place, to anybody in this place. He
entered and he passed right on through. He passed right on through
Jericho. You see that? He passed through
Jericho. He passed through it. Look here
in verse 2. And behold, anytime you see that
in Scripture, Anytime you see that word, behold, you pay close
attention, because something big is happening. This is a word
to get our attention. Behold, there was a man. There
was a man in that town. His name was Zacchaeus. And he
was chief among the publicans. What is that a description of?
What are we saying here about this man Zacchaeus? We know his
name. His name is Zacchaeus. And we know what he does. He's
a publican. No, no, he's chief among the
publicans. The nation of Israel at this
time was under an occupying force, a foreign country. Another nation
had come in and taken over the leadership of that country. They
had put those people under the boot of the Roman Empire. They
had set up people and put people in places of authority and places
of leadership. They allowed the Jews, they allowed
that nation to have some ability to govern themselves in certain
matters, but the decisions were made by a foreign country. And
while they were there occupying this nation of Israel, they levied
heavy taxes on these people, like armies have always done
throughout the history of the world, to pay for their other
conquests and pay for their army and pay for their occupation.
And they laid heavy taxes on these people. Now, here's this
man named Zacchaeus. This is what we know about him.
He went to these people and he said, hey, I know these people.
I know this one and this one. that one. I know what they're
worth. I know where their property is. I know what they hold and
where their money is salted away. I know who their children are.
I'll take care of that raising. I'll take care of getting them
taxes from these people. And I'll know if they're hiding
out. I'll know if they're squirreling their money away somewhere. I'll
know how to get a hold of their money for you. This was the most
awful of all the people there in that place. And he was chief
among the public. He was the head man. These other
publicans would bring their money to him, and Ozakius would give
part of it to the Roman government, and then he would keep part of
it. And it says here, in the latter part of verse 2, he was
very rich. This was a very rich man. Our Lord has done these things.
The fame of him has spread throughout everywhere. And our Lord does
this miracle outside of this place called Jericho. Everybody
knew who Bartimaeus was. He had been there always, in
and out of the city. There he sits every day, sits
there covered up in his blanket, begging for alms. And the Lord
healed that man. And that word spread throughout
that place. Now our Lord passes through, and now he's leaving
Jericho. And this filthy awful person,
this despicable person named Zacchaeus, he hears about it.
Now, he's not curious to go to the Lord and sue for mercy. He's not serious about going
to the Lord and repenting for what he is. He's just curious.
He's heard about this man. He wants to see who he is. He
wants to see what he looks like. He wants to see what this famous
person is. And verse three, oh, Zacchaeus,
he sought to see Jesus, who he was. Now remember, this was a
crowd of people. There's many people following
our Lord. You can just imagine people that's
got sick folks at home, that's got a wife or a husband that's
sick, that's got a child that's dying. And here this man is that
has this gift, has this ability, has this power from God to be
able to do these things. And these people are clamoring
after the Lord. Will you come and go with me? I have a child
that's sick. My husband is dying. Will you
come and go with me? And this crowd of people. Now
here's Zacchaeus is, this awful man. And he wants to see this
man. And he goes there, and you can
just imagine, here he comes. And he's probably Lucy's size
there. He's probably four foot eleven,
you know. He's maybe five foot at the most. You know, his dad
was a tall fella, but his mother was a little short woman. And
he took after his mother's side of the family. And he wasn't
like King Saul. He was a little fella. And here
he is in that crowd of big folks like some of you folks like it.
If I was loafing around with Scott Thompson and a bunch of
fellas his size, you know, I couldn't see nothing either. It's like
Jackie sitting over behind Dan Morgan. She can't see anything. You know, he's lucky if she can
see the floor in front of her, you know. And this is what this
fella is. He's a little fella. And there
he stands in that crowd. And he can't see nothing. And
so he... And I've often thought about
this. Whatever the Lord, whatever He makes us, whatever station
He makes us in this life, if this fellow was Scott Thompson's
size, this fellow would have been right there in that crowd.
He would have been right there in that crowd, and he would have
looked and said, I don't see anything special about that fellow.
He doesn't look like any other fellow. That's what Isaiah 53
says. He had no former comeliness that
we should desire. He just looked like everybody
else. He wasn't fancy dressed. He wasn't riding a chariot. He
wasn't riding a chariot. He didn't have gold rings on
every finger. He just looked like every other common fellow,
you know. And if Zacchaeus had been 6'3", he'd have went on
home. But he couldn't sing. And his curiosity got the best
of him. And he looked down that long, dusty road. You know, we'd
already left the paved streets and the sidewalk. And we're leaving
town now, and there's nothing but gravel or dust down through
there. But there's the way that this man, Jesus, is going to
leave. And Zacchaeus said, if I'm going to see him, I'm going
to have to run down there and get somewhere where I can see
him, where all these tall people are not going to obstruct my
view of him. He could not see Jesus, who he was. Verse 3, he
could not for the press because he was of little stature. Now,
look here, it gets better all the time. Verse 4, an old Zacchaeus,
he ran down that road before. Can't you just see him scurrying
down through there? He's running, and little old short legs, just
as hard as they can run. How high do you reckon that first
limb was in that tree? It don't matter. He somehow shimmied
up that tree. He got something and leaned up
against that tree or a box or something. He got up in that
tree because this is the only place he's going to be able to
see this Jesus of Nazareth. And he ran before. He climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him. Can't you just see him sitting
up there? Can't you see him sitting up
there on the limb, huddled up, holding on? I'm just waiting
there and he can look way down there and here they come. Here
comes this crowd of people. And I'm going to go see this
man. I'm going to go see him in the
latter part of verse 4. For he was to pass that way. That particular way. Who's going
to pass that way? The Lord God Almighty is going
to pass that way. He's going to pass that way.
He healed this man named Bartimaeus. And he entered into this large
city and didn't do anything. Didn't do anything for anybody.
And now he's leaving. And he's going to pass by that
way. That determined way. That particular
way. How many ways was there out of
town? I have no idea. But I know one thing. I know
one thing for sure. That the Lord Jesus Christ knew
that man. that was going to be in that
tree at that particular time on this exact day. And I know
this much, that the Lord Himself was going to show mercy to that
man. Do you believe that? Amen. With all our hearts, we
believe that. And if He don't pass that way
and do something to that man, that man is going to die in his
sins and going to face God in judgment just the way he is.
A rebel. A rebel. A sinner. filthy, dirty,
undone. But he climbed up in that tree,
and the Lord was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came,
you see those next three words? To the place. To the place. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? He came to that place. Now, I
like to get this image. Here this crowd is. There's 400
people. It's whatever. They're surrounding
our Lord, and it's hard for Him to take a step because of the
people. And they're all clamoring for Him to do something and wanting
to go home with them and wanting to do something for their sick
loved one or whatever. And here He is going down this
road, and He's leaving town. And He comes to the place, and
He stops at the place, this particular place, this place that He knew
from all eternity. It may have been the only reason
that this tree was there for this fellow to be up in it. Sometimes we see things happening
all around us, you know, and we scratch our head. We just
don't know. We don't know why these things
happen. We don't know why we're put in these positions. We don't
know all the things concerned about this, but we know one thing,
that our Lord is sovereign over all things in providence, all
things that happen, all events, all advance, He's sovereign.
And He's sovereign over that man being in that tree at this
particular time. And our Lord comes down this
road, He comes to this place, and He stops. I just kind of
think that a hush fell over the crowd. I just kind of think that
the people thought, He's going to heal another blind person.
Maybe He's going to give ability to walk to somebody here that's
crippled. And here's these parents carrying this child that has
never took a step in His life. Or maybe it is that he's going
to speak to that child, and that child's going to be able to run
down this dusty road. I think a hush fell over that
crowd. And our Lord just stood there.
And look at this. He looked up. He looked up. Any doubt Zacchaeus is not going
to be there? Any doubt that somebody may have waylaid Zacchaeus on
the way down, running ahead of that crowd? Drug him in and out.
He's a rich man. He's a rich man. May have drug
him in the alley. Knocked him in the head, you know. Stolen
everything he had. Any chance? Any possibility?
No possibility. No possibility. He had to be
there. He had to be there at this day,
at this time, in that particular place. Because our Lord is going
to pass by. And He's going to pass by in
mercy and grace to this awful, awful man. He passed by that way. You remember
back in the Old Testament. Now, if this event had happened
and there had been no other event recorded in the Scriptures, then
you would probably not want to place a whole teaching on a single
event that happened in the Word of God. It played out over and over and
over and over and over again. Adam, in the day ye eat thereof,
ye shall surely die. And Adam took of that fruit.
And the Lord, he heard the voice of the Lord in the cool of the
evening walking in the garden. And Adam ran and hid. And him
and Eve had sewed those fig leaf aprons, you know, to cover their
nakedness. Because now their eyes were open. And they knew
shame. They knew guilt. They knew anger in their heart.
And they fled from the Lord. And the Lord went to where they
were. And He said, Adam, where are you? Where are you? We can jump forward in the Old
Testament. Abraham. Where was Abraham? Abraham
was down in this place called Ur of the Chaldees. This was
a pagan place. Everybody worshipped idols. Like
Brother Eric talked about in his lesson this morning from
Acts chapter 17. All these statues, all these
gods, all these idols. Abraham was right in the middle
of all that. Abraham didn't go finding God. Abraham didn't go
seek the Lord. The Lord came to him. And he
spoke to him. And he said, Abraham, leave this
place. Go to a place I'm going to show you. And he gave him
faith. Abraham believed God. And he followed. We go a little
further. Moses. Moses down there in the
land of Egypt. Been down there 40 years, you
know, raised in all the luxury of being heir to the throne,
you know. When he was 40 years old, he went out and he saw that
abuse that was given to his natural brethren, those Israelites. And
he interceded for one. And that was known. And he had
to flee. And he went to the backside of
the desert, went over there in Midian, to the backside of the
desert. And there he was over there, tending his father-in-law,
Hobab's sheep, you know. And there he was over there.
No evidence he was seeking the Lord. And he was out there one day
tending them sheep. And the Lord came where he was. And he appeared
up there on the side of a mountain in a burning bush. Moses said,
I'm going to turn aside and see this thing. And he went up there.
And the Lord spoke to him. Moses, take off your shoes from
off your feet. This place is holy ground. And
he sent him down there to deliver his people. Sent him down there
to deliver his people. Our Lord, when he entered his
public ministry, after he had After he had been baptized by
John the Baptist, the next day, there in John chapter 1 and beginning
in verse 43, Philip ran and told Nathanael, he told him, come
and see the Lord, come and see the Savior. And Nathanael came
and the Lord seen him coming. Nathanael had never seen the
Lord. He came because Philip told him to come. And he said,
ah, here comes an Israelite and whom is no God. And he said,
Which knowest thou me, Lord? And he said, Before you was called,
when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. I've always known
you. John Gill said that back in the
day when the Lord was born, he said Nathanael was the same age
of the Lord. Now, you remember when our Lord
was born there in Bethlehem and the star was there and the angels
came and reported his birth to those shepherds. And our Lord
Herod wanted to kill the heir to the throne. And he sent out
that decree from the time of the appearing of the star until
the time that it was evident that those men weren't going
to come back and report to him. That he sent out a decree that
all the children, all the men, child, men's children, two years
old and under would be killed. And you remember, the Lord appeared
to his earthly parents and said, flee into Egypt. And they left,
they took the Lord Jesus Christ, and they went into Egypt until
Herod was displaced from the throne. But while they were in
Egypt, this slaughter of these two-year-old and younger male
children took place. And John Gill said that the Jews
say that Nathanael's parents hid him under a fig tree, and
they didn't find him because he was in under that low slung,
many leaves on it, and he was hid there. And the Lord said,
While you was under the fig tree, I saw you. I've had my eye on
you since you were born. The scripture is full of these
type of instances. Peter and Andrew, they were there
on the... It's recorded there in Matthew chapter 4. Peter and
Andrew was there on the... They were fishermen, you know,
and they were there tending their boats and tending their nets.
And the Lord went to where they were. He appeared to them right
there. He walked out on the beach and
he went down that beach. You all go to the beach, I know
you all do, and you ever go to those places that are fishing
villages, you know, that we go to a place over in Topsail Island,
up on the other end of the island there's a place called Sneeds
Ferry, and they go out every day and fish, and that place
is just lined with these fishing boats that go out there and have
the nets on them, and it's a busy place of activity, a lot of activity
going on there. And that's the way this place
was. This was a fishing village. This was a place where everybody
was employed by going out and fishing. And our Lord went down
that beach. He walked down that beach. Here's
a boat. Here's a boat. Here's a boat.
All the way down through there. Just rows and rows and rows.
And He comes to this place. Here's two men there tending
their nets. Andrew and his brother Peter. And He walks up to them.
He said, You follow me. You follow me. He came to where
they were. You follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
And they left their boats and their nets and they followed
the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew was sitting at the receipt of
customs. The Lord came to where he was. He said, follow me. Here's
this desk set up there. And Matthew was sitting there
at a table, you know, and sitting there at a chair. He was gathering
taxes from everybody. And the Lord came to him and
said, follow me. And with that command came that ability, faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Matthew got up. He followed
the Lord Jesus Christ, left that money, left that table, left
everything, followed the Lord Jesus Christ. At Samaritan moment,
our Lord said, I must go through Samaria. And he went over there
to Samaria, and he went there to Jacob's well at high noon
when nobody came and drawed water. And he sent those disciples that
was traveling with him. He said, you go on into town
there and get us something to eat. And there our Lord sat there
on that well. There he sat at high noon. I
don't believe he was even looking towards that city. Down here
was this city. It was a half a mile down this
old, dirty, dusty road. It was 105 degrees in the shade. And there was a woman down there,
a notorious woman, an awful woman. Been married five times, and
she was living with a fellow that she wasn't married to. Despicable
woman, and nobody would even speak to her because her fame
was notorious throughout that community. And the only way she
could draw water was to go down there at high noon, you know,
when nobody else would be there. So here she comes. She gets out
of her place. She's got some clay pots to draw water with. Down the street, our Lord don't
look back. Down the street, she starts up that road towards that
well. Our Lord don't look back. And she walks up. And when she
walks up to that well, he turns and he said, will you give me
something to drink? He goes to where she is because
this is a child of God. This is one that he came to die
for. There he sits. Any possibility
that this is just a chance accident? Any possibility that this fellow
was just in the right place at the right time? Any possibility
of that? No! Not according to the Word
of God. This man Zacchaeus, oh, he's
awful. He's an awful person. Can you
identify with that? Can you identify with old Zacchaeus?
Or do you identify with one of these people that said he went
to be a guest in a house of a man that's a sinner? How come he
didn't go home with me? I'm a good feller, you know.
I don't do any of those things. No, that's who He came to seek
and to save. He came to seek and to save the lost. And here's
one of them up there in that tree. And our Lord comes to that
place at that exact time. And He looked up. He looked up, looked there. Isn't
that beautiful? And He saw him. He saw Zacchaeus. Way back. Way back in eternity
past. before God ever created the heavens
and the earth. Before He ever created man on
the earth. There was just God Almighty in His purity and holiness. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And the Heavenly Father set His
affection on someone that was in eons down as we mark time
that we'd be born, and He would grow up, and He would be a wretched
chief publican. Hated by everybody. Despicable
person. And he set his love on that man.
And he gave that man to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ said,
I'll go down there. I'll go down there and do everything
for that filthy beggar that needs to be done to satisfy your holiness,
your purity, your justice, to magnify thy law. I'll go down
there and do it on his behalf. That awful person. And in time,
he came. In time he came and here he is
walking the dusty streets of this world that he created and
he comes to this place at this time and he looks up and he saw
him. He saw Zacchaeus and he said
to him, he didn't say it to the whole community, he didn't say
it to them hundred people that was gathered around him, he didn't
call any of them by name except that man. Make haste and come down. Make
haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And I'd ask you this morning,
has he spoken to you? Has he crossed your path? Has
he come to that place where you are at that exact time that he
would cross your path? Has he spoken to you through
the gospel, through this that lives forever and ever? Has He
spoken to you and said, come down? This is a rich man. This is a man that's somebody.
This is a man that can buy anything he wants. And our Lord said,
come down. Come down. And we will. We will
come down. We will come down. I used to
watch. I may be ashamed to even say
this. I used to watch All in the Family.
I thought there was nobody like Archie Bunker. I like Archie
Bunker. And, well, Archie got thrown
in jail. And he was in there in that jail
cell with a bunch of whoop-de-doo people that he shouldn't have
been there with, in his opinion. And there was a fella in there listening
to a religious radio station. And they was jumping and shouting,
you know, like they do and everything, whoop-de-dooing. And Archie said,
what in the world are you listening to? And he said, it's his brother
so-and-so, you know. from whatever church and all.
And he couldn't even stand still. He was dancing to that music
and everything. And old Archie said, do you think you're worshiping
God? And he said, yeah, I'm worshiping
God. And old Archie, I can't even imagine this being on that
show. And old Archie said, God won't have none of that. God
won't have none of that. If you're going to worship Him,
you're going to get on your face in the dust. This is how you're
going to approach God. I thought, Archie said that?
That's it. You're going to come down. We're
going to come down if we're going to come to Christ. We're going
to come to Him in the dust, in sackcloth and ashes. We're not
going to come in all of our glitter and finery that we have. We're
not going to come to Him in our wealth. We're not going to come
to Him in our self-righteousness. We're going to come down. Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down. Because I must abide at your
house. I must abide at your house. He
must. He must, like Brother Eric said in his lesson. Those people
that believed, they had to believe. They had to. It was determined
before the foundation of the world they would believe. He'd
give them faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He'd cross their path
with the preaching of the gospel. They had to believe. They had
to believe. Had to believe. He said to him, come down. Come down. Let's turn over there
in Ezekiel chapter 16. This is a favorite of mine. You all know this portion of
God's Word, Ezekiel 16. Verse 3, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother was a Hittite. And as for thy birth, thy nativity,
and the day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither
wast thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted
at all, nor swaddled at all. to do any of these things unto
thee, to have compassion upon thee, and thou wast cast out
into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that
thou wast born." You see this picture? Here's this child, this
brand new baby, and it was born into this world. And it gasped
that breath. But it wasn't, none of those
things, it wasn't washed. All that fluid that was on that
child, it wasn't cleaned, it wasn't washed, it wasn't wrapped
in a blanket. It was just thrown out there
into an open field. It was just thrown out there into the open
field to the loathing of the person. Look at that over there.
Look at that disgusting thing over there. None of us pitied
it. Nobody had compassion on it.
Couldn't do anything for that. Going to lay there and die. Going
to lay there and die. And that's what we are. That's
what we are. That's what every one of us are
when we're born naturally into this world. And look at verse
6. And the Lord said, I passed by. I passed by. I passed by thee and I saw thee. I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood and couldn't do anything to help thyself. Anything to
help this child? Anything to help this infant?
Can this infant do anything to help itself? What makes us think
that we can do anything to satisfy God's holiness and purity? is magnificent. Anything we can
do. God need anything from us, Eric
said? Nothing. We can't do anything. Zacchaeus
couldn't do anything. There he sat. God passed by. The Lord passed by. Saw him.
Spoke to him. And he sees this infant. That's
all of us. Polluted in our blood. And he
said, I said unto thee, the latter part of verse 6, I said unto
thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live. Is that the greatest word
you've ever heard? The Lord Himself, when He passed
by and sees us in all of our awfulness and ugliness, and He
says, live. I said unto thee, live. Yea,
I said unto thee, when thou wast in my blood, live. Live. Live. That's what's going on
here to Zacchaeus. There he is. There he is. One of God's sheep. One that
the Lord Jesus Christ in just a few days would go to the cross
and die for. Take away his filth and sin and
shame and give him that perfect standing before God Almighty.
Zacchaeus, you come down. And there are those here today
that he's spoken to. Come down. Come down. Come down. I must abide at thy house. And
verse 6, look at this. If he speaks, we'll come down. If he speaks, we'll come down. And old Zacchaeus, verse 6, he
made haste. He made haste. Can't you just
see him skinning down that tree? Can't you just see him? Do you
ever see these? There's a show on TV that used
to be, and they'd have these contests where these men would,
these people that are professional loggers and timbermen and cut
trees. And there's this one thing. They've
got no limbs on these trees, and they're 80 feet high. And
these men got these belts around them. You've seen it. And they
climb up them trees. They go all the way and ring
a bell on top when they get there. And they time them from top to
bottom. And then when they get up there and ring that bell,
I mean, they're almost free fall. It's just amazing if you've ever
seen it. They come down that thing in three seconds. I mean,
it's just boom, boom, boom. They jump 15 or 20 feet at a
time. Them spikes catch, and then down they come. I just picture
old Zacchaeus. The Lord said, Zacchaeus, make
haste. Come down here. I'm going to your house." I don't
know how fast he was, how nimble he was, but he come down. He
come down. He was more impressed with coming
down rapidly and being in the Lord's presence than anything
that had ever taken place in his life. If the Lord ever crosses
our path, if He ever crosses our path and speaks to us, we'll
come down. We'll come to Him. We'll flee
to Him. We'll lay hold of the Savior like a dying man, like
a drowning man. He came down. He came down. And
look at this. He received Him joyfully. Do
we know something about that? Do we know something about that?
Me and John talked occasionally. And John said he doesn't even
watch the news anymore. He said it's just awful. And
he said it's depressing. And he said I don't even watch
it anymore. He said I don't even turn it on. Well, I do. And he's
right. There's not much that's promising
in the news in our day. Not much. that looks something
that's impressive to us. But I do know one thing. I do
know one thing. The Lord has crossed my path.
And He called me by name. And He said, Come down. Come
down and bow at My feet. And He gave me the grace to do
that. Gave me faith in who He is. He's God. Beside Him, there's
none else. And He came and did a work for
all of His people. And He's given us faith to flee
after Him and lay hold of Him. And in the midst of all this
that's going on in this day and in this place and in this time,
we're joyful people. Aren't we happy here this morning?
Aren't we a happy people? What have we got to be grieved
over? Christ came, called us by name,
through the preaching of the Gospel, gave us faith to lay
hold of Him. We ought to be the happiest people
there should never be. There should never be a time
that you don't see all 42 teeth smile on believers' faces. I
mean, it ought to be. It ought to be. He received them joyfully. And
look at this, verse 7. That crowd of surrounding our
Lord, when they saw it, they all murmured saying, I can't
even say this in the way that they would say this. He went
to be guest in a house. He did. of a man that's a sinner. Thank God. Thank God that He
didn't come to call righteous people. He came to call sinners
like me and you. Filthy, awful, undone. But one
day, He crosses our path and He reveals to us what we are.
You see down here, look down here in verse 8. Zacchaeus stood
and he said unto him, Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I
give to the poor He knew what he was. He knew that all of his
wealth had been gotten by ill-gain. It had been wrongfully done.
He said, look, I'll give it back because I know now what I am.
I know now what I was doing. I'll give half of it to the poor.
And if I've taken anything from any man by false accusation,
I'll restore it to him fourfold. What do you think Zacchaeus was
the next day? What do you think that Philippian
jailer was the next day? Me and a fellow down at work
used to talk every now and then. You know, Paul Silas was there
in that prison, and the Lord shook that place, and the doors
flew open, you know. And that jailer, if a prisoner
escaped, he was going to die. And he'd run in there with his
sword drawn, would have killed himself, you know. And Paul said,
don't do yourself any harm. We're all here. We're all here.
And he preached Christ to that Philippian jailer. And that jailer
took him home, and the wounds that he had placed on his back
with the whips, him and his wife, I cleaned them scars all up.
His whole family, Paul and Silas preached the Gospel to that man.
His whole family was saved. God saved that whole family of
that Philippian jailer. What do you reckon that next
set of midnights that fellow was? What kind of a feller do
you think he was? What kind of a feller is this guy? He said,
Lord, I know what I am. I know what I am. And I'll give
half of it. I'll give half of it to the poor.
If I've wronged anybody, I'm going to go hunt every one of
them up because I know them. I'm going to hunt every one of them
up and I'm going to restore it fourfold. Something's happened to this
man. Something's happened to this man. He knows what he is.
He's a sinner. Do we know what we are? We came
to save sinners. That's our hope. That's our hope. Any sinners here this morning?
Any sinners here this morning? Has he passed your way? Has he
passed by where you are and what you were doing? Has He brought
you to the place? What is the place in our day?
In Zacchaeus' day, it was down that dusty road up that tree.
And the Lord passed by. Where's He passing by today?
Where's the place He's passing by today? I'll tell you where.
You find a place. You find a place where somebody's
standing and telling you who God is. And somebody that's not
afraid to tell you, God don't do something for you. You're
going to face God in all your filth. And He's going to send
you to everlasting darkness and doom and ruin. And the only hope
for you is that man, Jesus Christ. And He came to save a particular
people. You may be one of them. You interested? You interested? Then you flee
to Him. You find out where He's being
preached faithfully, regularly. Don't go anywhere where they're
glorifying the flesh and bragging on the flesh. You go somewhere
where they're bragging on Christ. And you stay there. And you bring
your kids up there. Anytime those doors are open,
you be there. Has He brought you to that place where the gospel
is preached that glorifies and magnifies His name? Has He seen
you? He's always seen us. He's had
His eye on us from all eternity. Has He called you? Have you come down? Henry used to say, have you bowed
to the claims of King Jesus? Have you come down? We're a joyful people. Oh, what
joy! Oh, what joy to know that He
passed us by, passed by where we were through the preaching
of the gospel, and He spoke our name, and with His love and tender
mercy called us by His grace, and we've come down and laid
hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for His amazing grace.