So I'll read our text and then
pray together and Luke The beginning of chapter 19 And Jesus entered and passed through
Jericho and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus which was
the chief among Republicans and he was rich and he sought to
see Jesus who he was and 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 was gone to be 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 by false
accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, to this
day is salvation come to this house for so much as he also
is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man is come to seek and
to save that which was lost. Father, thank you for your word.
I pray your spirit upon us to teach us, Lord, the truth that
we might, by faith, understand your word and see Christ in him
alone. Rejoice in him alone, trust him,
and hope in him alone. In his precious name, amen. Jesus
entered and passed through Jericho. I want to think about that for
a second. Already we have gospel in just that little phrase, Jesus
entered and passed through Jericho. The title of the message this
morning is, Who sought who? And the reason for that is verses
3 and verse 10. Verses 3 and 10. He sought to
see Jesus, who he was. That last verse we read verse
10. The Lord said all of this happened because I came seeking
So both were seeking at this time But the question is who
Sought who's Ikeas was interested in seeing the Lord likely For
the same reason that many others were there. There was a great
multitude there. Why were they there? well because
him he was Working miracles and word had spread. Multitudes followed
the Lord wherever he went, and Zacchaeus was just one of them
at that time. And he was short of stature and
was unable to see because of the great crowd that was there,
so he climbed a sycamore tree. But verse 10 tells us that the
reason that the Lord Jesus came to this earth, now you think
about this. The reason that God was born
of a virgin, born in a manger, born on this earth, the reason
that existed before he came, because the cause has to exist
before the result, before the action, the cause of the action
must exist before the action itself. And he said, I came,
and here's why I came. and to save Zacchaeus. Wait, Chris, he didn't say that.
Yes, he did. In the context of that verse, verse 10, he came
to seek and to save more than him, but he's applying that truth
to Zacchaeus. This is why this just happened,
because of why I came. So who sought who? There was a time when both the
sinner and the Savior sought each other. But way before that, before there
was time at all, God the Son purposed to come. You see he's
given the reason why he came which has to be true before he
came This is why I came in the heart of God Father son and spirit
was the will to seek and save sinners and Zacchaeus is one
of them And the eternal Son of God Had
the will in his heart This was his desire before he came to
this earth. That desire was in his heart.
I'm gonna go after him. And I'm gonna find him. And I'm gonna save him. He came to seek and save others
too. But Zacchaeus was certainly one of them. Who else? Well,
we know from scripture who some of them are. But what is paramount to each
one of us this morning is, will he save me? Did he come to this
earth for me? So let's look at it. Verse one
says, he entered and passed through Jericho. In Joshua chapter 6
in the Old Testament we learn that the city of Jericho was
accursed unto the Lord. And this is what the city of
Jericho pictures spiritually from then on. To be cursed of
God in the story of the Good Samaritan, the man to whom the
Good Samaritan came and saved. That man, it says in the beginning
of the story, he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell
among thieves. And that's a clear picture, it's
a gospel story of Jerusalem means double peace. It means set ye
double peace. And we've talked about that,
how that Paul talked about peace between those who at one time
had nothing but prejudice and hate and envy and guilt, guilty
hatred toward one another. But also he not only reconciled
them with one another and make them one, but he made us one
with the Father, all of us one with God. It's double peace. That's what Jerusalem means.
Jericho is the place of the curse. That's where we went. And we're
laying half dead because of it. We went from the place of perfect
communion and peace with God in the Garden of Eden to the
place of the curse. That's us by nature. We went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho. In the fall, when we sinned against
God, we went, we were under the curse now. We're in the place
of the curse. In Joshua 6, 17, it says of Jericho,
the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein to
the Lord. That's where we live by nature
before God. In the story of the Good Samaritan,
the only way that man ever leaves Jericho You're not getting up. You're not ever leaving Jericho.
He's gonna be under the curse and die under the curse unless
the good Samaritan passes by that way and looks on him and
has compassion and goes where he is and pours in the oil of
his grace and the wine of his precious blood and bound up his
wounds and lifted him up and took him to safety and paid his
way. He did everything for him. That's how a sinner gets out
of Jericho. Otherwise you die under the curse. In our text it says that the
Lord Jesus Christ entered and passed through Jericho. Nobody
else can do that. Not on your own. You're not going
to walk into Jericho and walk out. That doesn't happen by nature. But the Lord went there. and
went through it by himself. We know from all Scripture that
when he did, he passed through Jericho, he found some wretched,
cursed, dying, hell-bound sinners there, and he brought them out
with him. The story of the Good Samaritan is a picture of that,
along really with all of Scripture. He came to this earth, a cursed
place, full of cursed people. And he
entered in, and he passed through. He rose again, and he took somebody
with him. Thank God he did. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. Being made a curse
for us He had he had to come through Jericho didn't he had
to enter into Jericho And if we're gonna be saved He had to
pass through there And he had to get us And take us with him
that's what he said he came to do to seek And to save Verse
2 behold there was a man named Zacchaeus and which was the chief
among the publicans and he was rich. The first thing that catches
our eye is that he was rich because we just recently looked at the story of the rich
young ruler where the Lord said it's easier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God. And then what'd the Lord do?
He went and saved a rich man. That's all we really know about
Zacchaeus. He was a publican and he was rich. Teaching us all over again that
with me and it's impossible, but not God He deliberately saves
those that are impossible to save Those who cannot save themselves
who can never decide can never choose him over their themselves
Which is what he called upon that man to do I In other words,
he came to save the lost Where was the Lord headed ultimately
when he went through Jericho the cursed place Listen to it look look back with
me at Luke 18 31, but just the previous chapter in our study
Luke 18 verse 31 18 31 then he took unto him the 12 and said
unto them we're going to Jerusalem and Wait a minute, Lord. We're
going to have to pass through Jericho. Yeah, we're going to
have to pass through Jericho, but we're going to Jerusalem. We're going
to double peace. We're going to the place of peace.
He made peace there by the blood of his cross. That's going to
be the end of the story. But before he got to go through
Jericho first, he got to go through Jericho. Where is he headed though?
Double peace. He's headed where The man in
the story of the Good Samaritan fell from, went down from, into
Jericho. He's gonna pass through Jericho
and go right where that man fell from. Restoration unto God, peace with
God. That's the destination. But that's
not where we are by nature, we're in Jericho. So he's gonna go
to Jericho, get us, and take us to double peace. So that's
where he's gonna end up. In verse 35 of Luke 18, came
to pass that as he was come down to Jericho, a certain blind man,
that's blind Bartimaeus. We talked about that last time
and he still, in Jericho, he entered it and passed through
it and met Zacchaeus. So here we are. He's going to
the place of double peace with God. He can take us back to where
we started. Only we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. We're not just going to be back
where we started. We're going to be more than conquerors, but back to
fellowship with God, back to peace with God, where we started. But first, he must enter and
pass through the curse. Where do we fall from? Peace
with God. Where do we fall to? Curse. Where's he headed? Peace with
God. The cross, the blood of the cross.
But where's he got to go? He's got to enter and pass through.
Jericho. And when this is all over, all
of us, everybody he came to seek and to save and him, we're all
going to be in Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem. John called
it in Revelation, the new Jerusalem. The word publican, we have in
verse two here, it was all but synonymous with sinner. Everybody
hated publicans. Listen to Matthew 9, 11. When
the Pharisees saw it, they said unto the Lord's disciples, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? They were grouped,
why didn't they just say, why is he eating with sinners? Because
publicans was just as bad in their sight. Maybe worse, because
they mentioned them specifically and not just sinners. The Pharisees
probably thought they were worse than a regular old sinner, you
know. And who was Zacchaeus? The chief. The chief of the publicans. Verse seven,
you know, it says in our text there, it says that he's going
to be guest with a man that's a sinner. They didn't, those
people probably didn't know anything about him except he was a publican.
And the publicans were notorious. The reason Zacchaeus says later,
Lord, everybody I've cheated. I'm gonna restore fourfold. Because everybody knew that they
were a bunch of cheats. They falsely accused people of
owing money that they didn't owe. And they skimmed it off
the top. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1.15,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Isn't that what
he said? I came to seek them and save
them. Paul said, boy, that's just the truth. That's worthy
of everybody. Hearing it and bowing to it and
rejoicing in it and worshiping him for it. He came into this
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, the chief of the
publicans. Verse three, he sought to see
Jesus, who he was, and could not for the press,
because he was little of stature. I don't know what Zacchaeus knew
about the Lord at this time, whether it was just curiosity
or what, but I know this. The language is not insignificant,
because this is what we need to find out. We don't need to
know whether he can do miracles or not. We don't need to know,
are the stories true? Does he have that kind of power?
No, we need to know who he is. He sought to see him who he was. Who is he, Lord, that I might
believe on him? That old blind man in John 9 asked, who is he?
Because he was little of stature. Now listen, he sought the Lord
but he couldn't see him. The gospel message is seek and
you shall find. You'll find. And Zacchaeus did
seek and he did find. But I'll tell you why he didn't
find. Why did he find? He sought and
found. I'll tell you what didn't contribute
to that was his stature. His stature didn't help him in
that pursuit, and neither will yours. Our stature, by nature,
we're not tall enough to see. We're not big enough. We're not
enough. We're a failure. We fall short.
We're not going to be able to see as we are before God. In fact, not only does our stature
not help us, our stature's the problem. That's why we can't
see God. because of our condition as sinners. Why did Zacchaeus find the Lord
then? It wasn't his stature. Why did he find him? Because
the Lord found him. Isn't that true in the story?
You notice in verses four and five that it does not say that
Zacchaeus ran before, climbed up a tree, and that solved his
stature problem. It doesn't say that. 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 said,
Zacchaeus, he saw him. Christ saw Zacchaeus. That's what matters. Oh, you're
going to see him if you're his now. If he ever sees you, you're
going to see him. He says to those who boast their
works in that last, I never knew you. I never knew you. It says the Lord came right where
he was and looked up and saw him. And this is how God saves
sinners. He sought us from eternity. He
came to seek us because He desired to seek us before He ever came.
And He gives us a heart to seek Him. And we will, we do. We're
determined to get to Him. I'm gonna see Him, I'm gonna
lay eyes on Him one way or another if I have to climb up a tree.
But in the end, all who find Him are gonna give Him all the
glory. They're not going to say, I saw him because I climbed up
a tree. They're going to say, I saw him because he came right
where I was. How are you going to miss him, Zacchaeus? How are
you going to miss him? He came to seek you and save
you. What has a tree got to do with that? What's your testimony, Paul?
How are we gonna find him? What's your testimony, Paul?
Saul of Tarsus, now Paul the apostle, what's your testimony?
When it pleased God, he revealed his son in me. What's your testimony, David?
Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, ensure I can't
mess it up. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire. What's your testimony, John? We love him because he first
loved us. And this is the record that God
has given unto us, eternal life. And this life's in his son. That's what happened to me. How
about you? In verse five in our text, 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. Now in verse four is the description
of Zacchaeus' efforts to see the Lord Jesus Christ, but it
never says that Zacchaeus saw the Lord. Never says that. We can certainly
imply it later, He's talking with him, and I assume he's looking
at him, but it doesn't say that, and the language is significant.
It does say the Lord saw him. This reminds me of John 9-1,
and Jesus passed by. As Jesus passed by, he saw a
man which was blind. Another way to say that is he
saw a man which could not see. That's what happened to me. He
saw somebody that couldn't see him. And they're not going to
see him unless he sees them and does something about them not
seeing him. Isn't the gospel so simple and
so beautiful? This is what people miss. They
deliberately miss it. Because they hate it. They hate
the truth. It's not that people can't figure
that out. A child can figure that out. People despise the
truth that salvation is of the Lord. That's not difficult. That's
how I got saved. If you want to say it that way,
I got saved. You want to say that? Here's
how I got saved. I couldn't see him, but he saw
me. And he did something for me. Isn't that a beautiful verse
of scripture? As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind
from his birth. What a beautiful scripture that
is. One day the Son of God came where I was and saw a man which
could not see him. Never could, never would. But
he fixed his eyes on me because his heart was on me before he
ever came. His heart was already on me. Now look what the Lord said to
him. Oh, look what he said to Zacchaeus. I'll tell you what
he didn't say first. He did not say, I've got a decision
that you need to make. It sounds like from what the
Lord said to Zacchaeus that the matter had already been decided.
Doesn't it to you? And not by Zacchaeus. That's
kind of how it is when God saves a sinner. It doesn't have anything
to do with your decision. You're going to decide all kinds
of things if God saves you that you've never decided before.
But salvation doesn't come that way. The matter's already been
decided. Look at it. Hurry up and come
down here. I've got to come to your house
and stay today. I like that word today. Don't you? Oh boy, I don't know
if I can expound on that much, but I like that word today. I
got to come today. Oh my. I don't hear a proposal
there, do you? I hear a command. I don't hear
a contingency. I hear a necessity. I've got
to. I've got to. Zacchaeus don't have to do anything,
but he's going to. As far as him, he didn't say,
I've got to come down. No. The Lord said, come down. The Lord's got to do something
if somebody's going to be saved. I must abide at your house today. The gospel is a command. God
commandeth all men everywhere to repent, Acts 17, 30. Repentance is changing our mind
about who God is, about what we are before God by nature and
how God can be just and justify a wretch like us. He is just
and justifier by Christ being made a curse for us. that we might be redeemed from
the curse of the law by his precious blood. So the gospel's a command. The gospel is urgent. Make haste
and come down. Come down now. What did he say? Come now and let us reason together. He didn't say think about it.
He said come now. That's how the gospel goes forth.
I'm not giving you something to think about this morning.
By the gospel command, it's an imperative. You must have him. You must come to him. And you got to hurry up. Look
at a passage of scripture that's not often seen in its context.
Look at it with me. 2 Corinthians 5. Turn there with
me because we don't usually see this in its context. And I think
it's vital. Of course it is. It's the word
of God. 2 Corinthians 5.20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. This whole passage of scripture
is about the gospel being preached, and that's how God saves sinners.
The gospel, and that's how God saves sinners. Now look at it,
we're ambassadors for Christ. We come from the king this morning.
The king don't make suggestions. The king says, here's what you
do, and you do it, right? We're ambassadors of Christ.
We pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled to God. For
he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. There is grounds
for reconciliation. Be ye reconciled to God, because
God's reconciled to you by the death of his son. Now, you be
reconciled to him. That's the gospel command. Look
at verse one of chapter six. We then, as workers together
with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of
God in vain. Don't hear this command from
God and reject it, ignore it, or dismiss it as most do. Don't do that. For he saith,
I have heard thee in a time accepted. Now listen, this is important
now. You're hearing from God. But
the question is, is God gonna hear you? We're ambassadors for Christ.
You're hearing a message from God. But is God gonna hear you? This ain't a matter of you accepting
what he has to say. This is a matter of him accepting
you. I have heard you in an accepted time. And in the day of salvation
have I secured thee. If you're gonna be saved, you
know when it's gonna be? Right now. Right now. Behold, now is that
time. He's talking about a prophecy
from the Old Testament scripture. But Paul, you see how he's applying
that. We've brought you a message from the king. And the question
is, are you acceptable to him? And he's saying this. I'll tell
you this. If you are, it's right now. Right now. The accepted
time. If he's going to hear you, he's
going to hear you. Right now. Are you going to cry to him? There is a day when God doesn't,
He's not gonna hear you. He said, you'll call on me and
I won't hear you. You know when I can tell you
that He will hear you? Right now. Right now. Now is the day
of salvation. So the gospel is a command, the
gospel is urgent, and the gospel requires you to come down. Now this is more than just humility,
though we don't discount that. It is a question of humility.
It is a question of bowing. It is a question of submission.
In the story of the Pharisee and the Publican that we also
recently saw in this study, who both prayed in the temple, our
Lord said that the Publican went down to his house justified for,
because, Listen, Luke 18, 14. I tell you, this man went down
to his house, justified rather than the other, rather than the
Pharisee, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased. And
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. This is a question
of righteousness before God. You're gonna have to submit to
him. You're gonna have to bow to him. You're gonna have to
take your place before him and cry, he must increase and I must
decrease. This coming down that's pictured
by Zacchaeus physically coming down and being commanded to come
down, coming down from a tree, this coming down spiritually
is an acknowledgement of our sin and a cry for mercy to him
who alone can have mercy on a sinner. And that word merciful there
in that story of the Pharisee and the publican, when the publican
stood afar off and wouldn't lift up so much as his eyes, unto
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner." That word merciful means make propitiation for me. And propitiation means sin offering. And that has to do with blood.
There's no mercy without a sin offering. Think about this too,
though. What was coming down? What is
this spiritual coming down? for Zacchaeus. It was the undoing
of everything that Zacchaeus did in his flesh in order to
see God. Think about that for a second.
Not only was Zacchaeus' stature his problem and not only were
his efforts not the reason that he saw Christ. The reason he
saw Christ that day is because Christ purposed before eternity,
before he ever came to this earth as a baby He came to seek out
Zacchaeus and to save him. And he did. He physically did. But not only were Zacchaeus's
efforts not the reason that he saw Christ, but he had to undo
his efforts. Not only did you not see him
because you went up a tree, but you got to come down out of the
tree. This is insult to injury as far
as your works are concerned. They're not just nothing, they're
counterproductive. They gotta be undone. Did you
know that the Lord Jesus Christ had to die for your worship this
morning? Think about that. Everything
that we do, and I wanna see him, don't you? I'm not gonna see
him because of my efforts. I'm gonna see him because he
wants to be seen. And even my worship is seen without him. He had to make atonement for
my worship this morning. That's just the truth. Everything
that I do is polluted, even now. He had to undo his efforts. He
had to renounce them. He had to abandon them. Salvation
only comes when you abandon your efforts. Come down out of the
tree. Undo everything you did. Paul said, everything I've done
and everything I am, my earthly heritage, my religious heritage,
everything I've ever done, all my law keeping, it's all done. And I don't want anything to
do with it. I'm coming down. I'm coming down. When you abandon your efforts,
despair of your own stature and energy and will and receive the
Christ who doesn't save tall people. He doesn't save people
of ingenuity and spiritual things that figure out, you know, maybe
if I climb a tree. He don't save people like that. He saves in
spite of your stature. He saves in spite of your Religious figuring things out
the wisdom of the world especially religious wisdom is foolishness You're standing before God and
your efforts to get saved have to be undone they have to be
paid for Your fig leaf has got to be stripped
off in order for you to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ Hurry up and come down. Why? Because I've got to save you.
Isn't that beautiful? Don't get any more beautiful
than that. Because that's what you need to do to get saved?
No. Because I came here to save you and I'm going to do it. So
get down here. Boy, that's beautiful. I must abide. The word means
to remain. Bless God when the Lord comes. It is salvation. And when He
comes, He comes to stay. I came to save you. I've got to abide. He came to
seek and to save. How does that happen? I've got
to live where you live. You've got to live where I live.
And we're going to stay that way. Once you know who He is, I think
about this, once you know Him, You know, I can tell you what
one of your favorite scriptures is right now. If not, I mean
right at the top. If you know who He is. You know
what it is? You do. I do too. I will never
leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13, 5. That's one of
your favorites, isn't it? I knew it. It's one of mine too. And all you gotta do is know
who He is. I will never leave you. If you know who He is, all
you need is Him. What I have now is Him with me.
And one of these days, it's gonna be me with Him. Which is paradise. Verse 6. And he made haste and
came down and received Him. Joyfully Of course he did of
course he came down when God says let there be light. There's
light When he says be not faithless,
but believing you know what comes next my lord and my god, that's
what Notice he didn't accept him like
his didn't accept he received him There's a difference The Son of God is not up for
acceptance or rejection. He's just not. That's not the sinner's business.
That's not our prerogative to accept Him or reject Him. Salvation is not you accepting
Him. It's Him accepting you. Zacchaeus
received Him to as many as received Him to them. Well, how did they
do that? He gave them the power to be the sons of God. That's
how he received him. But this is not Christ standing
outside the door of the sinner's heart and knocking and hoping
somebody will let him in. This is the Son of God saying,
hurry up and get down here. I've got to come stay at your
house today. I must. It is necessary. There's no knocking. There's
no waiting. It's right now. And it's the
will of Christ, not the will of man. He's not waiting on you. I hope you're waiting on Him. This is the Son of God fulfilling
the purpose for which He came. He came to seek and to save us,
and He did, He is, He will. What is our experience of that?
Pure joy. He received him joyfully. Not perfect joy, not yet. But the simple joy of knowing
that God Almighty came down here in the person of his son for
this reason, to save you. That's joy. And he gave himself
in order to save you. And because of who he is and
what he did, you're saved. That's joy. Salvation came to
my house. Not an opportunity or a chance.
Salvation. The person who came to live with
me is salvation. And that's joy. Let's close I want you to read
this with me and we'll be through first Peter 1 3 He received him joyfully there's
there's there's quite a bit more to this story, but we'll have
to see it next time because There's just so much here, but
in this will be I think it'll be good this way in a two-part
But look at first Peter 1 3 we're talking about he received him
joyfully When the Lord saves you You don't argue about who
saved who, who sought who. You already know that. You know
that. You know who came where. You know who accepted who and
who didn't. You know who accomplished salvation and who didn't. You
know whose efforts were futile and had to be undone and you
know whose efforts resulted in your eternal glory. You just
know that. Here's the reaction. Blessed,
did I say verse three, 1 Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for
you who are kept. Kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time
wherein you greatly rejoice. You greatly rejoice. Though now, in spite of your
rejoicing in your heart, even though now, for a season, if
need be. Now think about that. Paul is writing
to people, he doesn't know whether they're going through trial or
not. Some of the people that read this, some of the people
that are hearing it this morning aren't really going through a
whole lot of anything. Just being in the flesh is a trial in a
sense, you understand that, but nothing particular, maybe. But
you know who is going through a trial? Those that need to.
The ones that need to. Who said they need to? I don't
ever need to go. Maybe you do. It ain't up to you, is it? It
ain't up to you. The one who it is up to says
you need it. I'm glad of that, don't you?
If need be, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold
trials. And here's why. Remember now you're rejoicing
in all of this all that came before it and all that came after
that where it says you greatly rejoice That the trial of your faith
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth Though
it be tried with fire Trials aren't pleasant are they? Whatever
they are loss pain Sorrow grief They're not pleasant. The Lord put a stake. The King James Version renders
it thorn, but we think of a thorn on a rose bush or something.
That's not what Paul had in him. It was a stick of wood in his
side. And he cried out to God, take
it away. And the Lord said, my grace is
sufficient. And Paul, you know what Paul said after that? Therefore
will I glory in my tribulations. He said, it's good, so it's good. That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having
not seen, you love, in whom, though now you see him not, yet
believing. You don't see him with earthly
eyes, but you do see him. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen with these eyes, the substance of things hoped for.
Though you don't see him, yet believing on him, you rejoice
with joy that cannot be told. The only way that you're going
to understand what I'm even talking about is if you've experienced
it. If you know Him. I can't tell you about it. Not
really. You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. Where's that joy coming from? God, according to his abundant
mercy, hath begotten us again into a living hope by Christ
who died and rose again. And in spite of everything that
we experience in this flesh, we rejoice with joy that we can't
even describe and full of glory. Let's pray.