verse 10, the Son of Man. Now we know who
that is, the Son of Man. Evidently from what He has said
in describing Himself many times, He uses that expression, the
Son of Man. He was the Son of God, but He
is the Son of Man. evidently he was not ashamed. But anyhow, it says, For the
Son of Man, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, is come to seek and to
save that which was lost. Now, let's read beginning verse
number one. It says, And Jesus entered and
passed through Jericho. Jaco was a fairly large city, diversified population, colors,
nationalities, religion. A lot of people there. But I noticed as I read that
that he entered the city, but he didn't stay in the city. He entered and passed through
the city as if he had a particular design
or objective in his visiting that particular part of the country. If he was trying to get all men
saved, he missed a good opportunity there in Jericho, because the
population was very great, various sorts of nationalities there. But it says he entered and passed
through Jericho like he was looking for a specific or particular
person. Well, he passed through Jericho,
and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus there, which was chief
among the publicans, and he was rich. He was not well esteemed by his
brethren, because he was a chief publican. He is number one, number
one tax collector. And from that day until now,
no one in his right mind has endeared himself to a tax collector. Especially if the tax collector took more taxes than he deserved. And that's the way these publicans
did. They were unjust tax collectors. They collected these taxes for
the Roman government, which the Jewish people hated. So they
didn't think well of publicans. And he is rich. He is rich. Does not the Bible say that it's
very difficult for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of
God? It says that someplace in the Bible, doesn't it? It says
the difficulty of a rich man enter into the kingdom of God
is like unto a camel going through the eye of a needle. It's difficult
for the camel to go through the eye of a needle, and it's difficult for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God. But our Lord said what
is impossible with men is possible with God. So what we have here,
we have a man that's despised and hated by his countrymen,
and plus that he's rich. But the third verse says he sought
to see Jesus who he was. He had a design in his madness
here. And that was to see the Lord
Jesus Christ and find out who He was. He had heard about Him. The fame of the Lord Jesus swept
abroad the land. The miracle worker turned water
into wine. Who raised the dead. Who gave
hearing to the deaf, voice to the dumb. Heal lepers. He heard about him. And he sought to see. He didn't say, well, I'd like
to see him. I hope he passes in this direction.
I'm not going to make any unnecessary effort. What will be, shall be. So it's in his plan or purpose
to ever visit with me in this lifetime while he'll find out
where I'm at." Well, all of that's true to a degree, but it didn't
exclude his responsibility to seek the Lord,
make himself available, try to find out who he is. And he could not see Him for
the crowd. because he was little of stature.
He wasn't very big and he couldn't look over their heads and there's
a lot of people there where our Lord passed through. So he ran
ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see. He got
up there where he could look down. For he was to pass that
way. He was there and he... So what
I'm trying to say is when a seeking sinner finds a seeking Savior,
something happens. A seeking sinner finding a seeking
Savior. If we ever find a sinner that's
seeking God, we'll find a Savior that's seeking the sinner. And
they'll meet on the blood-splattered platform of the Atonement. Well, and when Jesus came to
the place, He stopped. Here's a man, a little man, a
rich man, but a hated man, up a tree that got the attention
of the Son of Man. The Eternal Gods, or the Eternal
Heaven, and the Eternal God, The Bible says the heavens cannot
contain him as far as immensity and strength and power and glory
and wonder. But here is a little fellow,
a rich man, hated, Republican, climbing up a tree, got the attention
of the Son of Man, got the attention of the Son of God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ stopped and looked up at him. He stopped and he
looked up. And he saw him. And he knew what
his name was. Acted like he'd been looking
for him. Acted like he'd been looking
for him. He entered into this city, Glenn,
passed through the city to the other side, went through the
crowd of people, and all at once come to a standstill and looked
up, and he said, Zacky. And he knew who this fellow was. And he said unto him, Zacchaeus,
make haste, get in a hurry, and come down. For today I must abide at thy
house. A seeking sinner and a seeking
Savior is going to meet, all in the plan and design and the
good providence of God Almighty. And when they saw it, well, he
made haste and he come down and received him joyfully, glad to
see. And when they saw it, they all
murmured, that is, the religious people, the Jews, the chief scribes
and Pharisees and priests. They murmured. They sang that
he, that is the Son of Man, has gone to be a guest with a man
that is a sinner. Isn't that terrible? Gone to
be a guest. He's gone over there to that
sinner's house. When there's plenty of respectable
people around here, he's gone to a sinner's house. And boy,
the air was filled with that conversation. of the Son of Man,
coming from Jerusalem, the miracle worker. Some say he's the Messiah,
and some say he's John the Baptist, and others say he's Elias. We
know he's a man of great importance, we know that much, and he's going
over there to be a guest with a man that's a sinner. Thank
God. Thank God that he does. condescend
to sin. And Zacchaeus stood and said
unto him, unto the Son of Man, the Lord. He said, Behold, Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor. I'm a rich man. I give half of it away. If you had $100,000, would you be quick to say, I'll
put $50,000 of it the work of the Lord. Well, I don't know what we'd
do, but I know what he did. He didn't say, maybe I will.
He didn't make a proposition here and say, if you do something,
I'll do something. He just said, I'm going to give half of my
goods to the poor. And he said, I know that people
said I'm a terrible thief. But I've overtaxed people. I
know that's the rover around and all. But he said, if I've
taken anything from any man by false accusation, I'll give it
back to him fourfold. Four times what I took. Sound
to me like this man's sincere, doesn't he? Huh? Gonna give half
of his riches away, and if you can come to him and show him
that he's stole money off of you, I'll give you four times
what I've told you. Can't beat that, can you? And Jesus said unto him this
day. You think this man was saved,
Zacchaeus? It says that he wanted to find
out who he was. And he found out who he was.
He's the Savior of sinners. And Jesus said unto him this
day. Salvation has come to this house. Now, salvation's not in a formula. Salvation's not in a package.
Salvation's not in a program. Salvation's not in a plan. Salvation
is not doing the best you can. Salvation is not do's and don'ts
and rules and regulations. That's not salvation. I know
that's what the world thinks it is. The majority of people
in the world at any given time, if the question was asked, what
do you think salvation is, it would have something to do with
what they do or what they don't do. Isn't that right? It would,
well, they say, well, I don't do this, and I don't do that. I think my heart, I think at
the bottom of everything my heart's right in this matter. Salvation
is not what you do or what you don't do. Salvation is a person. And the person, listen, he said,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. Now he says, Jesus said unto
him this day, Is salvation come to your house? Now, what is salvation? Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Shall I come to your house? Salvation has come. Forasmuch as he that is Zacchaeus
also is the son of Abraham. That's who he's going to save,
the sons of Abraham. He's the son of the covenant.
He's one that God's chosen. Now listen to this, For the Son
of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is come to seek and to save that
which is lost. Now, there's a self-evident truth
in this 10th verse. Let me talk about it for just
a few minutes. For the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, has
come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now, whatever,
follow me closely, whatever was the intention of Jesus Christ
coming into this world, That intention, let me put it this
way, whatever was the purpose or intention of Jesus Christ
coming into this world, that purpose or intention most certainly
shall never be frustrated. Most certainly shall His intention
or purpose be fulfilled. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost." Now, most people, most
people, this is what they believe, most people, most people believe
in what is called a general redemption. That is, that He, the Lord Jesus,
the Son of Man, shed His blood for every person in Adam's race,
and that the intention of Jesus Christ in His death was the salvation
of men considered as a whole. Now, if that's so, If the Lord
Jesus Christ shed his blood for every member of Adam's race,
and it was his intention that every member of Adam's race be
saved, if that's so, then somebody has overlooked the fact that
in this case, Christ intention or purpose would be frustrated
or thwarted in a measure. Now, I hold that the Bible teaches
that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was of infinite value,
and that the intention or the purpose of Jesus Christ was never
the salvation of all people of Adam's race. For if Jesus Christ
had designed the salvation of all men and women and boys and
girls of Adam's race, then all men and women, boys and girls
of Adam's race would be saved. If that was his intention, they
would be saved. I believe that the intention
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is just equal to its effects. Now, let me try to strengthen
the doctrine by argument here. It seems to me, inconsistent
with the very idea that he should ever intend or purpose anything
which should not be accomplished. I cannot associate the idea of
God trying, intending to do something, but cannot get the thing done. To me it's an inconsistency.
Now, when I look at a man, and I see that man and know that
man because I'm a man, and see that man is full of pomp and
vanity and foolishness and certainly devoid of power, I don't wonder
that man often begins to build, but he's never able to finish. I'm not surprised that he often
stops short, because he does not count the cost? I'm not surprised
at what man does. I see man as a mere drop, a mere
speck in the great and glorious sea, ocean of God's creation. He's so insignificant, he's like
a pine in a needle in a haystack. But when I think of God, whose
name is I Am That I Am, which means the self-existent One,
it's in Him, in God, that we live and move and have our being. The Bible says that He is from
everlasting to everlasting. The Almighty God, having all
power, and all strength, and knowing all things, and having
a fullness of infinite wisdom. I cannot. It's an impossibility
with me to associate with such an idea of God that He might face. I can't do it. I can't get hold
of that. That God in Heaven might face. I cannot suppose that he would
ever fail in any of his intentions. It seems to me that a God who
could intend a thing and fail in his intention would be no
God. He'd be just like me, maybe a
little superior in strength, He's certainly not entitled to
worship. If He intended to do something
and failed in His intention, would He be God? He's not the
God of the Bible. But I believe that He's a God.
I believe that He's the God of the majority of the world's population.
I believe that's the kind of a God they believe in. I believe
most of the churches and people that I know, apart from a few
scattered stragglers and strangers here among us, I believe that's
the kind of God they believe in. They believe that God would
intend a thing and fail in His intention. Well, I don't think
so. I cannot think of a God except
as a being who will and it's accomplished. Who speaks and
it's done. That's the idea of God that's
in my poor mind. A God who speaks and it's done. A God who wills and a world is
made. Look over here. It says in the
beginning, God. He created the heavens and the
earth and the beginning. When there was no being but God,
no being but God, the Supreme Being, He created the heaven
and the earth, all the visible and invisible. How'd He do it? The earth was out forming void
and darkness, was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters. God said, Let there be
light. Let there be light! For it is
splashed in the sky, the sun, and the moon, and the stars,
and all the milky ways, and all the heavens. Fill the heavens
with light! Let there be light! There was
light. That's the kind of God I believe in. I believe in a
God If he intends to do something, his intentions shall never be
frustrated, but shall be accomplished, come hell or high water. That's
the kind of God I believe in. I believe a God that starts something
has got power and wisdom to accomplish that which he starts. God saw
the light, and it was good, and God divided the light in darkness,
and God called the light day, and darkness He called night,
and the evening and the morning were the first day, and God said,
Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let
it divide the waters from the sea. God said, Let the waters
under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and
let the dry land appear. The next three words says, And
it was so, and it was so. Listen, I cannot think of a God
except as a being who wills and it is accomplished, who speaks
and it's done. Now we have before us the fact
that all the works of God have accomplished their purpose. We
got the whole Bible here that talks about the works of God
and the accomplishments of the purpose of God. We got that fact
before us. Now, it was never the intention
of God in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ to save every member
of the human race. That was not His intention. If it was His intention, why
do we have hell? Why do we have hell? If it was
the intention of God to save everybody, why did He make a
hell where people are tormented? How come Judas Iscariot went
to hell? Huh? If he intended to save everybody.
If the intention of God in the purpose of the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was to save every soul in Adam's race, why is there
a hell? You say, well, hell is for the
devil and his angels. But our Lord Jesus Christ said,
for all Christ rejecters, along with the devil and his angels.
all those that believe not. God in flaming fire shall take
vengeance upon those that obey not the gospel." It wasn't his
intention. It was his intention to save
those that the Father gave him. Now, I don't know who they are.
He knows. He said, My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me." He knows them. He knows them by name. He knows
where they live. He said, his name, he told that
angel. The angel didn't know this. God
told the angel, He said, you go down and talk to one Cornelius. And you tell that Cornelius to
go over to Joppa. And he said, over there to Simon
the Tanner's house, who lives there on the seaside. And he
said there's one there whose name is Simon. His surname is Peter. He knew
all about him. He knew where he was at, what
he was doing, what his name was. They're sons of Abraham. They're
folks that God knows He's got, He's set His law before them
before time ever was. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
His intention and His purpose being thy surety to save everyone
that the Father gave you. And He said it's my intention
for the Son of Man to seek and to save that which was lost. That's his purpose. That's his intention. And he's going to do that. And I said, I didn't know who
they were, but he does. So I preached to everybody. Everybody. I preached
the gospel to everybody. And that's the way you ought
to do it. Preach it to everybody. You don't know who's going to...
You don't know. There's not a number on their back. If there was a
number on their back, then we could just go looking for the
number. A big X on their back that says
sheep and a big G on their back that says goats. We wouldn't
talk to the goats. We got nothing to say to the
goats. We want the sheep. He's looking for the sheep. Now
is he going to find the sheep? Did he make atonement for the
sins of his sheep? He did. If I took you to the foot of
the cross, and I put you there on the kinder side of the cross
and hid you there in those olive trees, and you could hear the
groans and the sighs and the tears of that man on that tree, you could never be convinced
that that man, the incarnate God, hanging on that tree, whose
blood pounded the ground, you could never be convinced that
his blood was shed in vain. His tears and his groans were
in vain. Do you think that a drop of his
blood, blood from the veins of incarnate deity, would fall to
the ground and fail in its intention? No, sir. Shall His word return
unto Him void? Certainly not. What was His intention? To seek and to save that which
was lost. Two things here, and I'll just
mention it quickly. Two things. The subject of the
atonement is the lost. Man never be saved until he's
lost. Lost before God. It's a terrible thing to be lost here in this life. To be lost, I mean, in this dense
population or in a dense forest, that's a terrible thing to be
lost. I remember Stan and I was talking the other day. We was
over in Fairmont. And I said, you ever been up
this street? He said, I don't know. So I took off around that
street, and we went on up through there. And he said, I've been
here. I said, how do you know? He said,
this is where I got lost. So I got lost here one time.
Said, Little Mitch and Mary Mary and I, we went up over the hill
through the woods. We come back out, and we come
on this street. We was lost. You can get lost. But if that
ever gets lost before God, I mean panic sets in. I mean panic. I mean you can't just see it.
I mean there's going to be a crying out of the heart. There's got
to be some satisfaction in a man's heart. The conscience has got
to be quieted. Something's got to be done to
the conscience to quiet it down so you can have some peace. I
read to you this morning where it said, Preaching Peace by Jesus
Christ. That peace comes through the
preacher preaching peace. Peace of God that passes all
understanding. Fills a man's heart and mind. comes through the Lord Jesus
Christ, the man's loss. That's the subject right there.
The subject of his atonement is the loss. And the object of
it is he comes to seek and to save. He's going to save the
folks that are lost. That is, he died for sinners. He died for sinners. And those are the people he's
going to save, lost and sinning. The man comes to the place that
he's lost before God, and he's wondering, and he wants to know
the way, the way from his ruin to the way to God's celestial
glory. If he wants to know the way from
earth to heaven, the way to justification and sanctification and redemption
and righteousness. He wants to know the way. Christ is the way. He wants peace. Christ is our
peace. He died for the sinner. The lost sinner. And his intention
is to save him. And I'm looking for I'm looking
for sinners. I'm looking for lost people.
If I find them, I'm going to tell them that. I'm going to
say, Christ is looking for you. I'm going to tell them, I'm going
to say, are you a seeking sinner? Yes, I am. I desire some assurance
in my heart that I have an interest in Christ, that He died for me.
I desire an interest, and I say, well, He's looking for you. He's
looking for seeking sinners, a seeking Savior. He passed through
Jericho to the other side to find a seeking sinner. And when
he found the seeking sinner, he said, come down back in. For today salvation has come
to your house. Has salvation come to your house?
Has it come to your house? Is Christ your all? I bid you to flee to Him. I bid
you to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Fall before Him. Claim Him. Lord, you're mine. I'm one of
those sinners that He's talking about. I'm lost. I've got no
hope in myself. I know what I am. Oh Lord, I want to know You. That's all I know to tell you.
Seek the Lord while he may be fast. Let's stand and we'll be
disciplined. I have no service then on Wednesday
night. Thursday night, 7 o'clock. Thursday night at 7. Brother
Henry will be here. Henry Mayhead. We all like to
hear him preach. Everybody likes Henry. He hits
a home run every time he gets up. Never misses that fella. And he's never missed so far
that I've ever been around him. And I don't believe that he has
the intention of missing Earth time. He'll tell us about the
Lord Jesus Christ.