May it please Almighty God to
bless us this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, and we'll read verse five. The Gospel
of Luke, chapter 19, and reading verse five. 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. We should all be very thankful
for the Word of God and for the truth that it contains, but the
important consideration is as to whether the Word of God has
an application to us in our lives and our lives today. We should
not just read the Word of God or listen to the Word of God
being preached and think, well, that's quite an interesting picture
or subject, but the important and relevant thing is, does the
Word of God apply to me? Well, this account we've read
in the first part of this 19th chapter of Luke, of course, speaks
about a single person and that person is Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus,
we're told, was chief among the publicans and he was rich. Generally publicans were in those
days, which was really a tax collector, they were often not
very honourable men, hence the reason why they were able to
become rich because they were in that position and so here
we have this statement here was this man Zacchaeus and we're
told that he he wanted he sought to see Jesus who he was he wanted
to see Jesus but he couldn't because he was a little man and
so what was he to do so that he could see Jesus well He realised
that if he was able to climb up a tree and find a tree where
Jesus was to pass by, he would be able to view him. So that's
just what he did and he ran before Jesus and climbed up. into a
sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. No doubt he was satisfied, his
curiosity had been satisfied, and he was up this tree as Jesus
passed by. But we see in this account, and
this is the important aspect, we see that Jesus knew where
Zacchaeus was. my friends, Jesus today knows
where you and I are. He knows that we are in this
chapel here tonight. He knows what you and I are thinking
as we're here in this chapel. And so there was Zacchaeus. The
Lord knew where he was and the Lord came to that tree and we're
told when he came to that place he looked up Well, we're not
told. But it may have been a great
surprise to Zacchaeus to see the Lord Jesus stop and look
up. And then he spoke to him. He spoke to him and didn't only
look, he did look, but also he spoke to him. And he spoke some
wonderful words. He spoke personally. He said,
Zacchaeus, Now, perhaps in our little lives, the Lord may not
actually speak our name. He might, but he may not. But nonetheless, the Lord does
speak and he speaks to his people like he spoke to Zacchaeus in
a personal way. There were a lot of people there,
no doubt thronging to see Jesus. But Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus. And what he spoke was very significant. He said, make haste and come
down, for today I must abide at thy house. Well, Zacchaeus
wasn't to dilly-dally. He wasn't to make any excuses. The Lord said to make haste. to do things quickly, make haste
and come down, because the Lord was going to abide with him at
his house on that very day. What an amazing favour that was
to Zacchaeus. Well, it's an amazing favour
for us today. If perhaps Jesus might come and
say to you and me, make haste you know we're not to just carry
on perhaps resting he was no doubt in the tree resting there
seeing Jesus we're not to stay in the position where we were
perhaps initially we're satisfied with just having a view many
people today just satisfied with going to chapel and patting themselves
on the back because they've gone to the service but you see the
Lord was wonderfully gracious and did much, much more for Zacchaeus. And what a blessing it is if
the Lord looks upon us, and by that obviously Jesus doesn't
look to us physically, but if he looks into our heart and we
realise the Lord is looking at us. You can't hide from God. You can't hide. God knows where
we are and he looks at us. It's a wonderful blessing, even
tonight, if he looks at each one of us in that personal way. And let me just remind you that
real religion is personal. You and I can't go to heaven
on our parents' religion. We can't go to heaven on our
friend's religion. We each need a personal religion. We each need to hear the words
of the Saviour spoken to our very heart. Well, Zacchaeus heard
the words of Jesus, make haste and come down. Make haste and
come down. I wonder tonight, if such a word
may apply to us. If God may say, make haste, make
haste. Perhaps we wasted many days of
our life, perhaps many years of our life. And now God is saying
to us, make haste and come down from where you are. You may be,
perhaps you might think in a comfortable position, What a blessing it
is if the Lord tells you to come down because He wants to meet
with you and because He wants to abide with you. It's a wonderful
blessing. I wonder what you would say tonight if Jesus came in that way and
said to you, make haste come down for today i must abide
at thy house not tomorrow not in a week's time not in a year's
time but today we have another word in the bible which speaks
to us and is this today if you will hear his voice the voice
of jesus harden not your hearts Again I wonder tonight whether
we are receptive to the word which the Lord speaks to us.
You may remember many years ago the days of Samuel. Samuel was a young lad and the
Lord spoke to him and initially he didn't know it was the Lord
and he asked Eli, who was of course the high priest and He
and I first of all told him to lie down, and then he realised
that it was God that was speaking. So he was instructed in this
way how to respond. Very simple. Speak, Lord, for
thy servant here is. What a wonderful favour that would be for us tonight. If Jesus spoke to us and we may
not understand perhaps exactly what it means and who he's actually
speaking to, but it's good for we have the same spirit as Samuel
and are able to come and say, speak Lord for thy servant here
is. He didn't say, I don't want to
hear. He wanted to hear. What a blessing for us tonight. you and I want to hear, hear
the voice of Jesus. That voice which is an all-powerful
voice. The voice of Jesus changes lives. The voice of Jesus will change
your life and my life. And how wonderful it is to think
that Almighty God condescends to speak to us. When you think
of the billions of people in the world and to think that Almighty
God so wonderfully and gloriously condescends to look upon us as
individuals and speaks to us. Well, surely then, the Lord came
tonight and says, make haste and come down, for today I must
abide at thy house." What had come the day, the appointed day,
that Zacchaeus was to be blessed. Think of that. That was a day. And what a mercy if there's a
day in our lives when the Lord will come and abide
with us. We're not told how old Zacchaeus
was, but I wouldn't think he was a young man. He'd no doubt
been living for quite a long time and he hadn't heard the
voice of Jesus. And now Jesus came and stopped. He stopped where he was. He looked
up and he spoke to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus make haste and come
down for today i must abide at thy house and the hymn writer
has a line which says the appointed time the appointed time rolls
on a pace not to propose but call by grace what a blessing
if you and i are amongst those who understand that great truth
you see god doesn't come and propose anything and we can say
well i don't want to listen my friends when god speaks the call
there's a word for that word for it and it's this it's an
effectual word it's an effectual call what does that mean it means
it has wonderful effect. Well it had
a wonderful effect upon Zacchaeus and it will have a wonderful
effect in our lives if Jesus speaks directly to us as he spoke
directly to Zacchaeus. Make haste and come down for
today I must abide at thy house. So what did Zacchaeus do? Did
he take his time? Did he think, well, I can just
be leisurely about this? I'll just go at my pace. No,
he heard the voice of God speaking to him. And the voice of God
had a very great effect upon him. So we read, and he made
haste. and came down. He made haste
and came down. What did he do? He obeyed the
voice of Jesus. That's a great blessing. If God gives you and me his grace,
his favour, to be willing in a day of his power, this was
a day of power in the case of Zacchaeus, A day when the Lord
spoke directly to him, told him what to do, and Zacchaeus immediately
obeyed. It's good, you know, if God gives
you and me grace to obey the Word of God. Obey the Word of
God. And it may be, perhaps, that
you may be reading the Word of God. and somehow the word seems
to stand out and that word seems to come into your heart and then
you may realise this is God speaking to me. It's very humbling, it's
a wonderful blessing to have the experience of God speaking
to you and to me. Well, here the Lord spoke to
Zacchaeus and told him to come down and make haste and come down.
And the reason was because Jesus said, today I must abide at thy
house." What a wonderful statement that was. I wonder what would
happen if God came and said that to you today. Make haste and
come down, for today I must abide at thy house. Would you have
to say, oh, hold on a minute, I've got a few things in my house
I don't think you should, I don't want God to see. I think I better
try and hide those and get rid of them. Well, we're told that
Zacchaeus received the Lord gladly. What a great blessing it is then,
if we are of that mind. And if Jesus should speak to
us, we are willing to receive the word gladly. Gladly. And we're told, and he made haste
and came down and received him joyfully. Yes, it was great joy. Yes, he was so pleased that the
Lord Jesus should have spoken to him and told him he was going
to abide with him and therefore make haste and come down and
we see that Zacchaeus did that which the Lord commanded him
to do well of course people didn't like it the crowd of people didn't
like it they didn't like to think that Jesus had gone to be with
such a bad man as Zacchaeus. Well, Zacchaeus was thankful. And my friends, people may be
surprised perhaps, if God speaks to you and comes to your home,
to your room, and perhaps speaks to you. And they said, well,
they murmured and said, he's gone to be a guest. with a man
that is a sinner. And as I said previously, usually
those people who were publicans or tax collectors were not honest
men. They were evil men and they were
categorized as bad men and therefore spoken of as sinners. And so
here we see this statement and we're told they weren't happy
because the Lord God had gone to be a guest. with a man that
is a sinner. What a wonderful blessing if
Jesus comes and is our guest. What would you say tonight if
Jesus came to you as your guest? Would you receive him joyfully? Would you be so thankful that
he's condescended to come to you? You see, The Lord God is
very, we use a word, sovereign. That means, as a king, he has
an ability to do just what he wants to do. Our kings, perhaps
not quite so much today, but in years past, a king was a very
powerful monarch. The kings in the Bible, the pharaohs,
were very powerful people. They could say what they wanted
to have happen, and they spoke and it was done. Well, here we
see this situation. It was indeed done. The Lord
God had spoken, had spoken to Zacchaeus, and therefore he'd
come down and received the Lord joyfully. And of course, he was
spoken against. People didn't want to see Jesus
going to be with what they termed a sinner. People may become jealous. may become jealous they don't
want to think perhaps that the Lord Jesus has spoken to you
and hasn't spoken to them and therefore there may be still
in this day and age in which we live people who are jealous
because they haven't received anything and yet the Lord has
come and spoken to you what a blessing then if that is so and then it's
just important to note in this little account that Zacchaeus
then he tells the lord really how good he was and he said behold 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 accusations i restore him fourfold
well why was he saying that sure it was to try and impress the
Lord Jesus. What we know, Lord Jesus doesn't
need to be impressed at all, because we are all bad and wicked
sinners and we all need the Lord to have mercy upon us. So what
was the response of Jesus to this statement that Zacchaeus
made? The Lord Jesus ignored it. He
made no comment. he made no comment, but instead
he spoke a far more important word to Zacchaeus, and that was
this, this day is salvation come to this house for so much as
he also is a son of Abraham. What does that mean really? Very
simply, that means that the man was a converted person. The Lord had come and shown himself
to him as his saviour. Salvation means the saving of
the soul. The Lord just has come to him
in this way and has said for as much as he also is a son of
Abraham, meaning he also is a child of God. Well, there can be no
greater blessing really than that. To think the Lord took
notice of Zacchaeus, and we're not told that Zacchaeus prayed
for any blessing. He didn't pray at all, he didn't
seek anything. But the Lord was wonderfully
merciful to him. Wonderfully merciful to him. Well, what a mercy then, today,
in our little lives, if we can also trace out the good hand
of God upon us. It's important that we can. And also, that wonderful statement,
this day is salvation come to this house, this house, to Zacchaeus'
house, where he was. My friends, what a blessing if
the Lord comes and brings salvation, the saving of our souls, the
personal knowledge of it to ourselves, so that we can rejoice, indeed,
in what God has done, his grace, his favour, his love, his mercy. You see, Zacchaeus was the only
person. Look at all the crowds there.
thronging along, all wanting to see Jesus. But Jesus had a
message for Zacchaeus and what a blessing if God has had, does
have, will have a word for your soul and my soul. It's so important
isn't it? We don't want to carry on through
life ignorant of such a wonderful statement. This day, this day,
you see how quickly the work of God appeared. The Lord had
said to Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must
abide at thy house. And now the Lord goes and says,
this day is salvation come to this house. What a wonderful
mercy. What a wonderful mercy of the
salvation of God has come to you and come to me. You see, it's good and right
and proper to come together to worship. But you see, you and
I need to hear the voice of Jesus. We need to know that the Lord
Jesus has taken and is taking notice of us as individuals and
is not passing us by as just a cumbra of the ground, something
of no value. We want to know. The truth is
we must know. All of us here tonight must know. that Jesus has looked upon us,
that Jesus has called us. He called out, didn't he, to
Zacchaeus. He didn't just look and not say
anything. He called out. The Word of God
speaks to us about the call of grace. God's call. the mercy it is if we've heard
that call and we can understand it emanated from God because
it's come to us and it's had an effect upon us when God speaks
it has an effect man can speak has no effect when God speaks
it has an effect see it had an effect here did it not upon Zacchaeus
he immediately responded to this word oh what a blessing if the
lord speaks to you and me and we respond we don't just
turn a deaf ear we respond and we obey the glorious word of
god to think that the Lord God should have spoken to Zacchaeus.
Yes, as we gather from this, not a very honourable man, and
perhaps you and I feel we're not very honourable people, and
yet to think that God has looked upon us and God has chosen us. When the Lord Jesus was speaking
to his disciples in that upper room. He said this, ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you. Zacchaeus had not chosen
God, but God had chosen him. You and I may not have chosen
God, but what a blessing if that word is true. Ye have not chosen
me, But I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, spiritual fruit, and that fruit should
remain. This is the blessing of God. This is the favor of God. And you and I cannot come and
say, well, I deserve God to look upon me. Zacchaeus couldn't say
that, he was a publican, an evil man, he couldn't claim anything. And you and I won't be able to
claim anything. But what a mercy, an inestimable
mercy, a mercy beyond the things of this natural world. Because
if God looks upon us and speaks to us it means that is bestowed
upon us a great and glorious gift of eternal life. There's nothing greater for you
and me to receive than the gift of eternal life, because it means
what it says, it never ceases. Our natural life will finish,
at the most, in a few years. But if God gives us the gift
of eternal life, it is what it says, forever. It'll never be
removed from us. What a wonderful, wonderful favor
then, to understand the truth of this great word. This day,
this day is the day salvation come to this house. It was an
appointed day for Zacchaeus. I wonder if you can look into
your life and see an appointed day came when the Lord called
you, when the Lord spoke to you. What a mercy to know the Lord
has spoken and if so you're able then to say by the grace of God,
this day in my life, there was a day that salvation has come
to me. Well, tonight, let us look into
our hearts, all of us tonight, to see whether we have that wonderful
blessing of salvation coming to us, that we are no longer
dead in trespasses and sins, but we are spiritually alive
and we've heard the voice of Jesus speaking to us. Whatever
word that may be, the Lord uses so many words to correct us,
to awaken us from our dead condition into that time of spiritual life. And so as we have this little
account There are many points in it really. And the clause
really which lay hold of me was just this, make haste and come
down. Make haste and come down. Don't just continue ignoring
the gracious invitations of the gospel. Make haste and come down. He came down, and what did he
do? He met with the Saviour. The Saviour came down, yes, and
he abode with him, and he received him joyfully. And we're told
he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner. How humbling. to have the truth evidenced in
our life. Lord has come to us as our guest and you see if he
has he will teach us and he will show us all that we need and
he will never leave us nor forsake us. Just think of that you and
me as unworthy sinners not worthy of any notice of God. And yet
he's looked upon us and he's called us. And because he has,
he has said, I would never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Therefore
we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. The Lord will help
you day by day and bring you at last safe home to glory. May it be true of each one of
us, like the hymn writer says, we are traveling home to God. In the way the fathers trod,
they are happy, they're in glory now, and we soon their happiness
shall see. It's a wonderful prospect, and
never underestimate the happiness of glory. recognize that there
is no comparison with so-called happiness in the things of this
life, comparing it with the happiness of glory, because there is no
sin, there's no trouble, there's no pain, eternal happiness and
joy forever and ever. So what a great and wonderful
blessing you and me tonight if as we have this little account
it's not many verses there's only 10 verses and explains to
us the condition and the salvation that came to Zacchaeus and in
our little life to be able to also see that God in his wonderful
mercy and amazing love you know this is a tremendous consideration
to think Why should God love me? Have you thought of that? Have you thought, why should
God love you? Anything good? If you try and
speak of anything you might think was good, like Zacchaeus, it's
of no value. The Lord ignored it. The Lord
ignored it. My friends, what a mercy to have
that assurance in our heart. The Lord, Lord God Almighty,
how humbling to think of that. It's because he has loved us.
Again, think of this. Before the foundation of the
world, yes, he loved us. The moment we were born, he loved
us. He loves us forever, if we are those who come within the
bounds of this account here, who have heard the commands of
God. And it was, wasn't it, to Zacchaeus? He told him in nine certain terms,
very simple words, make haste and come down. Bless God today,
the Lord uses simple words. for us poor sinners. Make hasten,
come down for today. What a wonderful truth that is.
There was Zacchaeus, he wanted to see Jesus. He didn't realise
what the blessing was to be. Perhaps you and I felt, oh, I
would love to see Jesus. Well, the greater blessing was
that salvation came to his house. that would be a wonderful blessing
for us if salvation comes to our house and to realize because
of it we are part of the family of God as it's spoken of here
in this verse also a son of Abraham i think that you and i are part
of God's family that one day we'll be joined together in heaven
and to be forever with the Lord. It is a wonderful prospect, especially
as we think how unworthy we are of any favour. And yet God, he
saw us ruined in the fall, the fall of Adam and Eve, yet loved
us notwithstanding all. Oh, my friends, the love of God
is past our understanding. especially when we consider ourselves,
that love has come to us, such an undeserving sinner, as we
read, By grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. Zacchaeus would not have been
able to boast of what he'd done for his salvation. He had boasted
of what he'd done, but it didn't lead him to salvation. But he
would be able to boast of the love of God to such an unworthy
sinners, and so were you and I and our friends tonight. May we not forget this very simple
phrase and may it truly apply to us. If it hasn't already,
make haste and come down. For today, I must, so positive,
isn't it? I must abide at thy house, not
someone else's. Now he comes and dwells with
his people and my friends who once he loves, he never leaves. loves them to the end. Well tonight,
may we I hope, as Zacchaeus did, receive him joyfully, and may
we go on our way rejoicing, thankful to know we have such a kind,
gracious and merciful God, who has not passed us by as we deserved. that looked upon us in love to
our soul and brought salvation unto us. Amen.