You would be turning your Bibles
to Luke chapter 19. I'd say it's truly been a blessing
to be here. I appreciate your pastor and
his wife for putting up with us and feeding us and enduring
us and for this church. What a blessing that God would
establish a work in this place. not only to establish it, but
to keep it, to march over it, and nurture it. This is a tremendous work to
try to put on a conference to care this many people. And I'm
so thankful to be here. I'm thankful that we serve a
great and holy and mighty God. God, thank you for that message. And I just want to pick up where
he left off. You notice he mentions Zacchaeus. And I think this story
of Zacchaeus to me is just an illustration of what he just
preached. How that God is God. And when
the Lord Jesus Christ walked upon this earth, He's God. He
was God and He still is God. He's not God because you make
Him God. He's God. It says in Luke 19 verse 1, And
Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold, there was
a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans,
and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who
he was, and he could not for the press, because he was little
of stature. And he ran before and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And
he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when
they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he's gone to be a
guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood. And said
unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man from false
accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This
day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is
a son of Abraham. Now watch this. For the son of
man The Son of Man come and robed himself in human flesh. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. He's on a mission. He came to
this world on purpose. And what was that purpose? To
seek and to save that which was lost. My question to you is,
are you lost? Are you a sinner? He come to
seek and to save that which was lost. If you're lost, He must
open your eyes and make you realize that. And He's going to save
the lost. He's going to save every one
of them. He's not trying to save people. He's saving people. As
Todd mentioned, when God is saving us, He has saved us, He is saving
us, and one day He will deliver us from this present evil world
and He will set us free. Until then, He's saving us. Not you saving yourself, He must. He must save you. Think about that, save. He must
deliver you. He must set you free. He must. Before we get here in Luke 19,
I want us to go back just for a minute in Luke 18. I want you
to look and see this also. It's like he gives us these three
illustrations. And he says in verse 18, in chapter
18, verse 18, it says a certain ruler asked him saying, well
good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And
Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is good save
one, that's God. He said, well, you're a good
master. He said, well, if you call me good, that means I must
be God, because there's none good but one, and that's God. Thou knowest the commandments,
do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, honor thy father and thy mother. He said, well,
all these I've kept for my youth up. I've done all this now when Jesus heard these things
he said unto him yet lackest thou one thing you know what
he's gonna do he's gonna put his finger on this man's God
and before God saves you he's gonna put his finger on your
God and he's gonna kill it he must he must Yet lackest thou
one thing, sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me." And when he heard this he was very sorrowful. Why? For
he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was
sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, for a needle's eye than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And the disciples, when
they heard that, they said, Well, who then can be saved? Who then can be saved? That's
a pretty good question. Who then can be saved? The things
that are impossible with men, are possible with God. So you
see that? Here comes one man and he says,
well, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to have eternal
life? And this is what most men ask. Tell me something to do. People
in religion today, that's all they're doing is doing. Isn't
it? Doing. Tell me something to do
and I'll do it. And they say, well, I've done
all that. But yet lacketh thou one thing. Look in verse 35. And it came to pass as he came
nigh unto Jericho. And what's this unto 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 passed by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before
rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much
to more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come
near, he asked him, saying, what wilt thou that I shall do unto
thee? He said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. Jesus said
unto him, receive thy sight. Thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his
sight and followed him, glorifying God in all the people. When they
saw it, gave praise unto God. Here's another picture. What
is that a picture of? He saved this man and he's pictured
as a blind beggar. That pictures us. It's bad enough
to be blind, but then to have to beg? You know who begged? Those that are bankrupt. Those
who have nothing. You know what he did? He saved
this man. He showed this man mercy. Mercy! And now we come to this picture. You see one man that came, he
wanted to come on his efforts and his merits, then God saved
this man and he pictures this all through the scripture. Sometimes
we're pictured as a leper, we're pictured as blind and dumb, but
then we're pictured here in Lazarus or Zacchaeus as another rich
man. Look, you notice I said there
in verse 35 of chapter 18, it says, He came to pass it as He
came nigh unto Jericho. In verse 1 of chapter 19, and
Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. We know Jericho is a
picture of this world. When the children of Israel came
into Canaan the first place they went to was Jericho and God saved
Rahab the harlot and then God put a curse on that place. So
what is this saying? Our Lord is passing through Jericho. He's headed to Jerusalem and
why is he passing through Jericho? There's one of his sheep and Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho as the Son of Man, come to seek and to save
that which was lost. We don't see here that Zacchaeus
is going out here hunting for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ is coming to where He is. And this is salvation? You can't come. You're dead in
trespasses and in sins. We're blind beggars. Won't come. But I pray God comes
to you. I pray He comes on purpose to
you. And that's what He's doing here.
Going through Jericho and He came to this what? Cursed world. We couldn't come to Him. He came
to us. Came to us. Called His name Jesus. Why? for he shall save his people
from their sins. It said, look in verse 2, and
behold there was a man named Zacchaeus. Can we not behold
this? And behold there was a man named
Zacchaeus among the publicans and he was rich These publicans
were, and he says he was the chief among the publicans. They
were a hated people. All through the Gospels, it talks
about publicans and sinners. They were, what I can understand,
the tax collectors. And everybody's hated tax collectors,
always have. But these were cheats. They charged
three or four times more than what the tax was. And what do
you think they did with the other? They put it in their pocket.
And it didn't matter who they were. It didn't matter if she
was a poor widow. It didn't matter. And everybody knew who they were.
Everybody knew that they were wicked and vile and corrupt sinners. But this is the one he came to
save. To me and Jericho, he would have been the most unlikeliest
person that we would have ever picked out and said, God would
show that man mercy. But this is the one he came to
get. He came to get him. Our Lord is going to show mercy
to this chief among the publicans. What did Paul say? He said, I'm
the chiefest of sinners. If God ever shows you who you
are, you think you're the worst of the bunch. You're not comparing
yourself to your neighbor or anybody else. Man, you ever feel
that way? How could I think that? How could
I do that? That's the chief of the publicans. You know it seems all the way
through the scriptures, it seems like he reaches down and picks
the worst out. We didn't mention Jericho, he
came to Jericho and we don't know how many people's in that
city, but he sent his preachers to one woman's house and she's
always referred to in the scriptures as Rahab the harlot. Why would he save her? I tell
you why. Grace. That's the only way you can explain
it. It's grace. And he was rich. How hardly shall
those that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. It's
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. What's impossible
with men is possible with God. And I tell you, it's possible.
He's able to split and roll back the Red Sea. He can roll back
the Jordan. He can do anything he wants.
He can raise up a Pharaoh and make him afflict God's people
just for God to damn that man. That's exactly right. He's God. It's untelling what God might
do to save you. Isn't it? He said, I raise up nations and
put down nations. He said, I give nations for you. I want you to see this in it. It
says in verse three, he sought to see Jesus who he
was and could not for the prayers because he was small in stature. We know the scriptures say that
there's none that seek after God. But here it says, this man
sought to see Jesus. Why is he seeking Him? Why is
he seeking Him? I know if he ever sought Him,
it's because God sought him first. He put it in his heart. This
Christ is coming, going through Jericho and Zacchaeus has a desire
to seek our Lord. And Todd pointed this out yesterday
as we were talking and he said he sought to see Jesus who he
was and he could not see him. We cannot. We are unable to see. He maybe sought him just out
of curiosity, we don't know, but he's seeking him. Seeking
him. And this book says if you'll
seek me with all your heart, you'll find me. That's what he's in, if you seek
me. And this sinner, this most unlikely
sinner is seeking to see him and he said he could not. Why? He was small of stature. He wanted
to find out what all this fuss was about. Why are all these
people flocked around this man? They were probably some in that
crowd. We don't know how many were in the crowd. They were
some believers, but I believe most of them that followed him,
they were just all following him out of curiosity. It's like
the woman with the issue of blood. Remember when she came to our
Lord, there was a whole crowd around him, and she had to press
through and touch the hem of his garment, and he stopped and
said, somebody touched me. And the disciple says, what do
you mean everybody's touching you? They just pushed up against
him. He said, no, somebody touched
me. You see what I'm saying? And
all these people around him, and he can't see Christ. He can't see Him. He can't see
Him. But our Lord, I believe, had
put in this man's heart to find out more about this man named
Jesus. He sought to see Him who He was
and He could not. There will always be things in
the way of you seeing our Lord. There will always be hindrances,
won't there? The biggest thing that gets in
the way as you're looking at it is because we are small in
stature. That's your problem. That's it. That's what hinders me from seeing
Him. It's this right here. We can see everything else. We
can see the crowd. We can see everything else. But
we can't see him. He was a small man, and God had
made him small. Because he was short, he was
not able to see over the crowd. Because of who we are, we are
not able to see and behold the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory.
So what did he do? This man, this grown man starts
running. I can just see him take off running.
He says, well, I know Jesus is going to come that way. And he
looks out there and he sees a tree. And he runs as fast as he can
like a little boy. And he skimmers up that tree
and gets up there and sits on a limb. And I don't think he
was the only one in the tree. That's just my opinion. But he
ran. He ran. He ran before the crowd. This tree was the means available
for him to get above the crowd. God provides the means for you
to be able to see who Christ is. God has provided a place
in Florida, a tree, to you get in and maybe God will manifest
himself unto you. That's what he did. This was
the only thing available. And I can tell you this, if God's
ever going to reveal himself to you, it will be through God's
local church. It has to be through the preaching
of the gospel. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. You must hear the gospel,
not a gospel of foolishness, but you have to hear about a
God that saves. You must. You must. Can't you just see this grown
man acting this way? What would make a man act like
this, Grace? Doesn't he? He said, unless you
become like a little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom
of God. He was willing to do anything
to try to get a glimpse of our Lord. I could see him grabbing
hold of one limb and then another. I got this from someone that says,
I sought the Lord and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek
Him seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior
true. No, I was found of Thee. Won't you see this? He ran before
him and climbed up into the sycamore tree to see him for he was to
pass that way, our Lord was. And when Jesus came to the place.
Oh we could just stop right there. Just happened to come to that
tree where Zacchaeus was at. Oh how lucky. This is why I came through Jericho.
This man is sitting up here in the tree. And our Lord walks
right up to where he's at. And this is salvation. It's when
he comes to you. Comes to you. And he looked up
and saw Him. As I thought about this, I can
see our Lord walking in this crowd. He doesn't stand out from
anybody else. He looks just like everybody
else. They're not carrying him. He's
not riding on a horse. There's nothing that makes him
stand out. And he walks right up to this tree and I can see
that kid's looking around going, where's he at? Where's he at? I don't see him. And he didn't
see him. till our Lord spoke. Isn't that
how grace is? You're looking around and you
go, where's He at? Where's He at? I know He's here
somewhere! And about that time is when He speaks. And you know
what He does when He speaks? He's going to get your attention. I can't get your attention. But
when He speaks, He'll get your attention. He looked up and saw, and he
said unto him, I can see our Lord looking, right there at
the bottom of the tree, looking up at him, and Zacchaeus can't
see him, but, boy, our Lord sees him. And he said, as you said, Zacchaeus, you talking to me? Zacchaeus. his sheep hear his
voice and they know who it is and then Zacchaeus sees him and
that's when you'll see him when he calls you by name when he
gets your undivided attention isn't that it? It said there that our Lord saw
him. He saw him from all eternity.
This is why he's gone. All these other people around
him and he came for Zacchaeus. He may have come through that
town to save this one man. What did he say about, I must
need to go through Samaria. And he called him. And as Todd
has already mentioned, this is a personal call. He called him
by name. Oh, if he ever speaks your name.
He ain't going to speak in some audible voice, but he speaks
in a still, small voice. He can whisper, and you hear. Oh, I pray he called your name.
Just whisper. Remember when he called Samuel? He said, Samuel? Samuel went
to Eli. Thought it was Eli called him.
And Eli said, go lay back down. He said, Samuel. He goes back
to Eli again. He said, well, maybe it's the
Lord. He said, when he calls, you answer him. Went back and
laid down, and the Lord said, Samuel? He said, here I am, Lord. So simple, so plain. A personal
call. And he still speaks to sinners.
If God's going to speak to you about it, as I've already said,
he will speak to you through his gospel. People today want
everything else, and they say the gospel's outdated. This is
how God saved sinners. This is how God has always saved
sinners. He preached this to Adam and
Eve in the garden. He preached to them substitution. It's a gracious call. And it
is an effectual call. I know this as good as I'm standing
here. If God Almighty ever calls your
name, you're coming. He's going to make you will in
the day of his power. And it is irresistible. You'll
want to come. He said, what did he do? He said,
Zacchaeus, make haste. It's not time to wait around. Remember when the servant went
to get a bride for Isaac. And she goes down to Laban's
house and get Rebecca. And he tells his message and
they get up the next morning and he's ready to go back to
Abraham. He's ready to take this bride back to Isaac. And Laban
and his mother of Rebecca says, just let her tarry for a little
while. You know what he said? Don't
you hinder me. And when God speaks, now listen
to me, everybody listen to me. If God ever speaks to you, it
is time to make haste. Today is the day of salvation. I was talking about reprobation.
I can tell you in Proverbs chapter 1 it says I've stretched out
my hand to people all the day long and they refused my hand,
they rejected my call and God says one day you'll call and
I'll laugh at your calamity. That does happen, doesn't it? Don't ever presume that he'll speak to you again. He
may not. Isn't that right? He, God doesn't
have to speak to you anytime. There's a lot of people in Europe
that have perished. And there's gonna be a lot of people in our
day that perished. How many were saved in the days
of Noah? Noah was what? A preacher of righteousness.
God help us to make haste. And do what? Come down. You must
come down. You've got to come down off your
high horse. We think we're something special.
We ain't nothing. We are nothings and nobodies. You know how the Bible describes
us? Worms. You ever looked up that word
worm? That is a wiggling maggot. That's just repulsive. That's
who we are. come down off your high horse. And when our Lord speaks to a
sinner it is always this, come down. Make haste and come down. My advice to you this morning
is to come down. Come down. And I love this right
here. That part of verse five, I must
abide at thy house. I didn't just come to visit your
house. I'm coming to abide at your house. You want to come to my house? You want to come to my house? Where I've done all my wickedness,
where I've robbed widows, where I've done all this corruption,
you want to come to my house? Yeah, I'm coming to your house.
And I'm not just coming to visit, I'm coming to stay. That's what I said. You coming
to my house? You want to come to my house?
Why would you want to come to my house? I'll tell you why. I bought you He said, He is a son of Abraham. I redeemed you. I bought you. I've come to get you. Because
you're mine. You're a son. You're one of my
children. You're one of them promised children.
You're one of them covenant children. Given to Christ before the world
was made. He bought him before the world
was ever made. Bought him. All this is, is him
coming to get him. Isn't it? He's just like Davidson
and the servant that fetched Mephibosheth. He come to fetch
him. What a beautiful picture. What
a beautiful picture. But verse 7, wait a minute, verse
6. So what did Zacchaeus do? He
made haste. When he speaks and he commands you to do something,
you do it. With the command comes the ability. He made haste. I can see him
almost break his neck getting out of that tree. I want to go to him who bid me
to come. And he came. And he came down
and received him joyfully. Gil said he received him not
only into his house but into his arms and into his heart.
Christ was a welcome guest to him. Can you even imagine what's
going on in his mind? Why me? Do you ever feel that
way? Why you? Why you? Verse 7, not everybody was happy.
And when they saw it, they all murmured saying, Oh, he's gone
to be a guest with a man that is a sinner. He loves sinners. My question to you is, as I've
already asked, are you a sinner? If you ever, if God ever opened
your eyes and makes you and allows you to see who you are and that
you are nothing but a mass of sin, you'll be glad that he went
home to be guest with one who was a sinner. And he said, he's
his guest. What a guest! And he didn't say, let me go
home and fix up my house first. And when they saw it, they all
murmured, said, oh, he's gone to be a guest with the man that's
a sinner. Don't you see verse 8? And Zacchaeus
what? Stood. So I take that to mean he must
have been on his face. He stood. But grace and God's
grace is the only thing that can enable you to stand with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we stand in Him completely. And He said unto thee, look what
He called him. He didn't call him like the guy
did back in chapter 18. Good master. He said, Lord, Religion, they got it all mixed
up. They said, why won't you make
Jesus Lord? Won't somebody make Jesus Lord? Peter preached on
the day of Pentecost and he said, that same Jesus whom you crucified,
God hath raised him from the dead and God beat you to it and
God made him Lord. And this man recognized it. And
if God ever opens your eyes, you'll see him as what? Not as
some little personal savior. Not somebody to just save you
from hell. You will see him as your Lord. He's your sovereign
over you. He can save you or damn you.
And he'll be just in whatever he does. That's it. Well Lord, God enable me just
to bow to him. Everybody in this building everybody
in this building is going to bow to him as Lord either in
this life Or in at the afterlife one way or the you go about doing
I? Want to bow to him now? behold Lord the half of my goods
I give to the poor I I've taken away anything from any man by
false accusation. I restore unto him fourfold. The Lord didn't tell him to do
this. What made him do this? I'll tell
you what did. Grace did. Something I heard Henry say years
ago and it's flat stuck with me. He said grace makes a person
gracious. Doesn't it? It makes you gracious. Gracious not having to beat people
over the head Lovingly want to Is it high for my goods? Jesus
said unto him This day His salvation come to this house for as much
as he also is a son of Abraham Galatians 3.7, Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. Galatians 3.29, If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's
seed and heirs. What? Heirs? According to promise. It would be just like if we had
an estate. You say, we're going to leave
this to my family. And you have children and maybe
even grandchildren that are not even born. They have no idea,
they don't know anything about it. But they're heirs. It says we are joint heirs with
Christ. You mean this publican, this
chief publican, this sinner is an heir? Oh yeah, he's an heir.
And you know what? He's always been an heir. The
Lord just now lets him in on it. You know, that's what salvation
is. It's complete. It was finished
before the world was ever made, but God comes to you and just
says, it's done. It's finished. You say, why would
He give that to me? Grace. You mean this poor, dead
sinner? Why? Let me sum it up. For the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. I pray that God would save us. You notice I said us. That God
would come to you and He would come to us. And He keeps coming
to us. You know what it's like. When darkness veils His lovely
face. I rest upon His what unchanging
grace." That's our hope. That's the only hope there is. Great is Thy faithfulness. All for whom He chose, all for
whom He redeemed, He's going to come and get every one of
them. And I pray God may use this weekend
for that purpose, that God may come to your tree and call your name. And he'll
say, make haste and come down. Thank you, Mike. God's people truly do stand amazed
that he would have mercy on them. This has been a house of prayer
for you this morning. I hope that you have had the
Lord give to you the prayer, bid me to come unto thee. and
that he's answered that prayer. Lord, save me. Save me. We've heard the gospel this morning.
I'm so thankful for it. Tom's going to come lead us in
number 235 in the hardback terminal. Let's stand together. Number
235.