Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. We'll be looking at this account,
this history of the salvation of this man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. The title of the message this
evening is, A Display of Grace. a display of grace. We have before us a story, a
history, that most every little child knows, taught this from
their youth. About Zacchaeus, the wee little
man, the short man, that climbed up in the sycamore tree, who
wanted to see the Lord. As he passed by, and the Lord
came to him and told him to come down, for he must dine in his
house today. But here is much more than just
a simple story. We have before us the salvation
of a sinner. We have before us a resurrection
of a soul. We have before us a new birth
by the grace of God. This is what the Scriptures do
with all these accounts of the Lord Jesus, is they set up before
us a display. A display. Everybody knows what
that is. You go to any store and you see
a what? A display. They set out their best. Here the Lord, before us tonight,
has set out His best. A display of grace. A display of grace. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, on the way to Jerusalem, on the way to be crucified, on
the way to His death, to accomplish our salvation, comes to this
city, Jericho. And the Scripture says, And Jesus
entered and passed through Jericho. Now this city was a large city. This was no small city. This
was a large city. It was a bustling city. It was
full of people. And they were busy about the
streets. There were merchants selling their merchandise. There
were families walking about. There were mothers teaching their
children. There were fathers working for
their families. All of this was going on around
as Jesus entered into the city. It was a prosperous city. And
yet we know wherever there's a prosperous city, there's also
a people that's oppressed. In this city was great poverty
as well as great riches. And there were many in need of
healing in this place. There were many sick in this
place. It was a large city. This city was full of sinners
in need of grace, in need of mercy. Human logic would have said,
this would have been a good place to set up, wouldn't it? Human
logic would have said, Jesus, you know, this place got a lot
of sinners here. Why don't we just make camp here? Hey, Jesus,
you know, these people, they're wealthy, and maybe they can support
our cause. Maybe we should set up here. But notice what the Holy Spirit
records for us concerning the Lord Jesus and this city of Jericho. The scripture says He entered
and passed right through Jericho. Passed through Jericho. Before Jesus came to Jericho. When he was near Jericho, the
Scripture reveals in Luke's Gospel that he healed a blind man. A
blind man came to him and said, Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. And Jesus said, what do you want
me to do? And he said, I want my sight. And Jesus gave him
his sight. And Jesus walked through Jericho.
And in Matthew and in Mark's gospel, we have another account
of Jesus healing two, possibly three other blind men. One of them being blind Bartimaeus,
who said the same thing as the man at the entrance of Jericho. He said, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. What do you want? I want my sight.
And he said, here, you have your sight. So Jesus did a miracle
before He went into Jericho. And Jesus did two miracles when
He left Jericho. But we have no record of Jesus
doing anything in Jericho. Nothing. Not one miracle. Not one word was spoken in Jericho. Now this is very important. because we have on display for
us right now the sovereign grace of God. The sovereign grace of
God. Picture it in your mind's eye.
The Son of God entering into this great city full of people
moving about their daily lives and yet not one Ask Him for mercy. Not one. People were planning their days,
planning what they'll do tomorrow. And here it was, the Lord of
Glory, the Savior, the Son of God, was passing through. And none of them stopped Him.
Not one begged for mercy as He passed through this city. None of them taking any heed
to the witness of the blind man who was at the beginning of Jericho. No doubt this already ran through
the city. No doubt this has already come through their minds. No
doubt this was noise abroad. A blind man was healed at the
entrance of Jericho. Yet we read of no one coming
to Him. We read of no one seeking His
mercy. Now before Jesus came in the flesh, He left a witness,
didn't He? He left the Old Testament Scriptures for a witness that
He was coming. That He was coming. That blind
man knew it. He heard the Word of God. He
knew that Jesus was the Son of David. He had read the Scriptures,
or he had heard the Scriptures. He had heard them, that Jesus
was the Messiah, the Son of David, the Promised One. And he took
heed to that, didn't he? He begged for mercy, and what
did the Lord do? The Lord stopped and gave him mercy. If you'll notice every time in
the Gospel, when Jesus Christ was sought for mercy, can you
find one instance he rejected anyone for mercy? You won't find it. Yet here He
goes through Jericho and not one person ask Him for mercy. Not one account of one person
being healed in this city of Jericho. And I tell you tonight, every
time we preach the gospel, I tell you Jesus Christ passes through
this place. Every time the gospel is preached,
Jesus Christ, the Savior, comes by. Paul said, I determine not to
know anything among you, save this, accept this, Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's the only thing I determine
to preach to you. Every time I preach to you, I
preach to you of the Lord Jesus Christ, of a person. I preach
to you of the Savior, of the Lord of glory, the Son of God.
I preach to you of His great mercy, of His great love, His
great affection towards sinners in that He died for them. Paul tells us in Galatians, he
said, O foolish Galatians, why is it that you have, who's bewitched
you that you shouldn't obey the truth? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth on display for you, set forth
crucified, where? Among you. When I preach Jesus
Christ crucified, I preach Jesus Christ on display in front of
you every time. Behold now the crucified Lord
is set forth among you. Behold His mercy to take our
humanity. Let me ask you, do you like being
human? Do you think that's a great thing?
Do you think about all the pain and suffering and anguish? If
you were deity, would you want humanity? None of us would. And yet the Savior in grace took
humanity, and not only humanity, the lowest of humanity, and died
as a substitute for sinners. And yet, here He is passing before
you, and yet still many do not seek Him for mercy. Why? Why
is it that men would not seek Him for mercy? Why is it that
sinners would die instead of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ? Why is that? Men continue to go about their
business. They hear, but they don't have
any desire. No desire. Jesus Christ passing
through His Word, telling you what He has done, how He's accomplished
salvation, finished salvation, yet there's no desire. They will not love Him because
they love their sin more. They will not cry for mercy because
they do not believe they need mercy. Jesus said, Is there any sorrow
like unto My sorrow? Can you compare your sorrow to
His? Do you think you really got a bad time of it? Have you
thought of His sorrow? Is there anyone who has had sorrow
like unto my sorrow? Is it nothing to you who pass
by? If one person in Jericho would
have cried for mercy, Jesus would have gave it. And I tell you,
if any sinner would cry to Jesus for mercy, He'll give it. But
why would Jericho be silent? Why would the Lord pass through
and be silent? What is wrong with these people?
Why did they not know? Did they not see Him? He was
glorious, passing through their city. God was passing through
and not one asked for mercy. Why? Because Jesus was silent. That's why. They were silent
because He was silent. Grace, friends, is a sovereign
gift. from the sovereign God. Salvation
is completely and absolutely the work of God alone. And when God passes through a
people, passes through a city, passes through a nation and does
not speak, none will come. This city is full of people. And every Sunday and every Wednesday,
by the grace of God, he passes by in this place and yet there
are none in this city that seem to cry for mercy. Why? Because
God is silent. Because God is silent. If no
one comes to Him, if no one has any desire for mercy, and do
not come to the Lord Jesus, it's not because they passed Him by,
but because He passed them by. Do not tell me of your future
resolutions to believe on Jesus. If Jesus does not speak to your
heart, you will not believe. If you believe, it's because
He spoke. If you believe, it's by the sovereign
free grace of God to give you salvation. It's not because you
clamored for it. It's because God gave it to you.
Because God gave it to you. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And whom He will, He hardened
it. He hardeneth. Jesus said to his
disciples, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. That's great. That's great to
us who have cried for mercy, isn't it? I never would have
cried for mercy had he not spoke. I'll tell you this, if you die
in your sins, you'll suffer for your own sins. But I know this.
You won't cry for mercy unless the Savior speaks to you. This
is sovereign grace. This is free grace. Second of
all is displayed this, pervenient grace. Look at your text. I pass
through, enter Jericho, pass through Jericho, and behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was chief among the publicans
and was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who
he was, and could not for the press, for the crowd, the multitude
was around him there, following him out, and he couldn't see
him. Because he was little of stature,
he was very short. And he ran before and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass by that
way. What we have here is pervenient
grace. It's a big word. It's just grace that goes before.
Grace that goes before. This grace of God that goes before
His chosen people, it works out all things in the lives of God's
elect. It works out all things and brings
them to hear and believe the gospel. That's what pervenient
grace does. See, God doesn't leave anything
to chance. Nothing in your life was chance. Nothing. Nothing. Not one second was left to chance. God before prepared all things. Believer in Christ, do you not
know the scriptures that says your very hairs of your head
are numbered? How insignificant is that? Our hair, if it's shaved, it
doesn't affect us, life or death. It doesn't give us life or death.
If our hair's cut, it's insignificant. We cut it all the time. Who cares
if it falls out? Yet God has the very number of
them. Nothing to chance. Everything. Zacchaeus, this man was a chief
ruler, a tax collector. Oh, don't get me started. Tax collectors. Nobody likes
tax collectors. Nobody likes it when people come
and take your money that you've earned away from you. Nobody
likes them. This man was not only a tax collector,
he was a thieving tax collector. This guy, he would not only take
the taxes that were owed, but he would take above what was
owed for himself. And not only did he do that by
himself, he was the ruler of all the tax collectors. This
guy was the chief. He was the target of everyone's
hatred. This guy, he was a mean person. And he was good at it. Scripture
says he was rich. He was good at thieving. He was despised and hated. This
man did this evil and he did it willingly. He hated God. He hated and despised his people
so much that he would be a traitor to his own people and disobey
the law of God by putting his brethren in poverty so that he
could consume it upon his own lust. This guy was an evil man. He was greedy. But now he heard that Jesus passed
through Jericho. He heard something about this
and something moved him. This guy's wealthy. He's the
lead guy, one of the rulers of the city, an evil man. And yet he hears of this man,
Jesus, and he's moved. to get away from his house. He's
moved to get out of his house, away from his business. He's
moved. For some reason he's curious
about this man. He wants to see him. This happens to every elect sinner. We who now believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ know our nature. We know before we were like Zacchaeus
and that we were evil, always, continually, that we hated God. But there was a time in our life
where the Lord gave us something, some kind of curiosity or conviction
even. Everybody's experience may be
a little different. But I know this, everyone who
now believes in Christ before they believed, God moved them. into hearing the gospel. Move them to have some interest
in the things of God. And this man, Zacchaeus, left
all behind. And I'll tell you what, you couldn't
have dragged this man away. You couldn't have stopped this
man from seeing the Lord Jesus. He didn't know why. He didn't
know why he was going to see this man. He just knew he had
to see Him. This is pervenient grace displayed
for you. Everything in this man's life
was ordained of God to bring him to this moment. To bring him to this place where
he knew he needed to see Jesus. He left all his business, couldn't
be stopped, and even was not stopped in abasing himself to
see Him. He climbed up a tree like a little
child would. It's a grown man. It's a man
who's a ruler. And yet he's climbing up a tree
to see another man walking by? Don't know why he was doing it.
He was just doing it. That was God's grace moving him
there. God's grace going before. And
this grace of God that went before us, directing every path, using
every experience to bring us to the place where we could see
Jesus. In 2 Peter 3, 9, it says, The
Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. but that
all should come to repentance. Why is it that you were not dead
before you heard the gospel? How many times did it seem as
though we were almost just taken out of this world? How many times,
how many foolish things have we done that seemed like death
was just, you know, we were aching for death. We were looking for
it or something. And yet every time it escaped. Why? Provenient grace. God was
gracious. He was not willing that we should
perish. But He was long-suffering while we were sinners. He's been
long-suffering with this man Zacchaeus, all of his life thieving
and robbing, and yet God didn't kill him. God sustained him.
Why? He was bringing him to a place.
He was bringing him to an appointed place, an appointed time. The long-suffering of God, Peter
says, is salvation. Praise God for such pervenient
grace to keep me before so that I would come and see Christ. Third, appointed grace is displayed. We have sovereign grace displayed.
We have provenient grace that goes before displayed. And now
we have appointed grace. Every elect child of the Father
has an appointed time and place where God has determined to meet
with him and look on him. Notice Jesus. In verse 5, And
when Jesus came to the place, Jesus, He was going through Jericho
to a place. This was not accidental. Jesus
was passing by everybody to get to this place. And when Jesus
came to this place, you might as well put an X on the mark,
like actors do. They went to this side, and you
put an X over here, and they stand here. And they move over
here, and they stand here. Jesus said about the woman at
the well, I must needs go through Samaria. Why? There was an X
over there. There was a person that he needed
to see. It was one of his elect. And
here was one of his elect at a tree. And he came to this place,
and he looked up, and there he was. Was there any chance that
nobody was going to be there? Was there any chance Zacchaeus
was going to miss this appointment? What if Zacchaeus wasn't willing?
How silly! Jesus came to the place and looked
up because He knew who was there. Matter of fact, He even called
him by name. Zacchaeus. Came to the place. We, like Zacchaeus,
are sinners, vile and despised. full of sin and can by no means
please God. You can by no means please God.
You can by no means, no effort, no, you don't have any worth.
You don't have any value that you can please God with your
works. It's Achias. He could have ran
to that tree. He could have ran to another
tree. He could have ran to another tree. He could have ran until
his feet bled. If Jesus Christ had not met him
there and looked up, Zacchaeus would have been lost forever. We are like that infant in Ezekiel
whose parents were vile parents. They were wicked parents. And
their child was worse than they are. And
they cast that child out in the middle of the wilderness, polluted
in his own blood, left him to die. Child was worthless. Yet God said, when I passed by
thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love. Thy time,
the appointed time. Grace, friends, is appointed. It's not merited. God has an
appointed time. He will meet with every elect
sinner. He will meet them at His appointed
time, at His appointed place, and He will look on them with
mercy. He said, He spread His skirt
of righteousness over us and covered our nakedness. And He
made a covenant with us. And we were His children from
eternity, now in time became His sons. When did you believe on Jesus
Christ? Well, you believed at the appointed
time. You believed when Jesus came to you and looked to you. Grace is appointed. This is the experience of every
child of God. Can you not see how God planned
all things to bring you to hear the gospel of His Son and believe? Again, this work is a complete
work of God. And fourthly, we have on display
the grace the calling grace of God. Not only does Jesus Christ
sovereignly save us, not only does he go before us, not only
does he come to the place appointed in time to meet with us, but
he also calls us. He calls us. At the appointed time, Jesus
fixes His eyes on us, two things happen to the sinner. To the
sinner, when Jesus fixes His eyes on the sinner, this is what
happens, is you first of all see a reflection in the law of
God. Remember the Scriptures speak
of the law of God as a mirror. What does a mirror do? Ladies, what does a mirror do?
Because I don't stare in one very long, but y'all may. A mirror
simply reflects what's there. It doesn't change anything, does
it? You don't look in the mirror and all of a sudden you're changed.
No, the mirror just shows you what's there. And that's when
He looks on us. We see the mirror of His law
and we see the horribleness of our sin. But praise God for the second look. Because He also looks on us not
only with the law, but He looks on us with grace. Mercy. I like that hymn, A Second Look
He Gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for
your ransom paid. I died that you might live. Jesus looks on us. But He not only looks on us,
He calls us. He calls us. Jesus looked up
and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus. No one had to tell
Jesus who that was. No one had to tell him. He knew
his name. In John chapter 10, Jesus says,
The porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, And he calls
his own sheep by name. Believer in Christ, your name is written in heaven. It always was written in heaven. Jesus knew your name before you
ever came in to this world. They had to teach me my name.
I don't know, maybe you're smarter than me. Maybe you knew your
name when you came out of the womb. I don't know. But I had
to learn my name. But Christ never had to learn
my name. He knew it already. And at the
appointed time, He called my name. You know what my name is?
Sinner. Now, I heard that word a million
times, but there was a time when that name actually meant something
to me. Because I identified with that
name, sinner. But not only did He call me sinner. Every place in the Scriptures
where it speaks of a saint, A chosen one. A saved one. A vessel. A child of Abraham. It's calling
my name. That's me! That's me! Unappointed heir of heaven! That's me! How do I know He called
my name? And He said, come down. Get out of that tree and come
down. Come off your high horse. Come
down. And friends, when He told me
to come down, He told you to come down, what did you do? Because when Jesus calls a sinner
by name, It's powerful. It's not only appointed. He not
only calls us, but it is an effectual call on display. An effectual. Effectual means powerful. That's
what it means. It gets the job done. When Jesus called this man by
name, it was an effectual call. Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. Today I must eat in thy house.
Listen what happened. He made haste, he came down,
and received him joyfully. You don't see Zacchaeus up there
saying, well, let me think about this, Lord. Maybe I don't want
you in my house. Well, I know you called me, but let me think
about it. I know my wife, you know, she probably hasn't had
anything prepared. Maybe the house isn't clean enough. Maybe.
No, he obeyed. And that's what happens when
I say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You look, look and live. Believe on Christ now and live. And when the Spirit of God grabs
a hold of your heart, you'll do nothing else but believe on
him. You'll obey his voice. How do
I know? He called me and I obeyed His
voice. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I've looked to the Lord Jesus
and I still look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And receive Him
how? Grudgingly? No. Joyfully. Is this, sinner, is this a hard
thing for you to do? Is that hard? You who need mercy,
is it hard for you to receive mercy? It's like asking a starving
man, is it hard to receive bread? It's like asking a living man,
is it hard to breathe? No! I want it. I want it. I want Him. You can have this
world, but give me Christ. That's exactly what happened
to Zacchaeus. When Jesus called him, he came. He obeyed. His call is powerful to the saving
of the soul. What blasphemy it is to think
that any man can resist the will of the Almighty God. Isn't that
silly? That's just foolishness to think
anyone could resist such a gracious and loving and effectual call
from the Sovereign God. Can the dead refuse to be given
life when Christ calls them? Is that possible? Was it possible
for Lazarus to refuse? When Jesus said, Lazarus, come
forth. Was there any question that Lazarus
would not come out? No. His call is powerful and
it saves sinners. None can deny this work of grace
that's wrought in this man. Jesus calls him. He calls him
by name. And he comes. It's effectual. It's powerful. True faith that
is of God's grace will not only be heard, but it will be obeyed. And lastly, Saving grace is displayed. Verse 7, When they saw it, they
all murmured. You know when lost men see grace
displayed, they always murmur about it? Well, how can that
be? Well, you're talking that God,
you know, That's just not fair! Fair? Fair is you get hell. That's fair. I don't want fair. I want mercy. I need mercy. I don't need fair. People always murmur when it
comes to grace. They murmured in saying that
this was, that Jesus was gone to be the guest with a man that
was a sinner. Oh, what a wonderful thing, to
a sinner. To a sinner. Saving grace is
declared here. And Zacchaeus stood and said,
Behold, Lord, behold, I give half my goods to the poor, And
if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation,
I restore to him four times as much as I stole from him. Salvation that is true will always be manifest
by outward actions of faith. Is it not easy to say, I love
Jesus? Is it not easy to say, I believe
in Jesus? How many people you hear say
that? Yet we have a man on display here who not only was a thief,
he was a thief, admittedly he was a thief, but he also restored
what he took away. This man's life was changed.
When someone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and saving
grace will be manifest in that man's life. This man manifested
his faith. In other words, there'll be evidences. How do you know a tree is an
apple tree? What has apples on it? As simple, you wouldn't expect
an orange to come out of there, would you? No. If a man is truly saved by the
grace of God, there will be fruit. The fruit of grace. God's people
are gracious people. Because our Lord is gracious. God's people are thankful people,
because our Lord has been gracious. God's people are patient, kind,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. This is a manifestation, and
Jesus said, this day is salvation come to your house. This man
is a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came in to
seek and to save that which was lost." Friends, I set before you Jesus
Christ. And I know this, that God will
save His people from their sins. The elect, by nature, are lost. But Jesus came to seek and to
save that which was lost, and praise God, He'll find every
one of them. I'm thankful that I don't have
to depend upon my preaching ability for God's people to be called
and saved and met by the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this. When Christ is preached, He passes
by, and He is either silent and passes people by or he speaks
and they hear his voice. And everyone that hears believes.
And everyone that believes is saved. And everyone who's saved
loves him. I pray that God would bless this
to your heart. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.