In chapter 18, we read about
that rich young ruler the Lord spoke to. He spoke with him and
he told his disciples, he said, it's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into the
Kingdom of God. And they asked him, and they said, Lord, who
then can be saved? He said, the things which are
impossible with men are possible with God. Our Lord was heading
to the cross. And he was going through Jericho.
And on the outskirts of Jericho there's a blind man there. He
saved him. The Lord just told him. It's
easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than to enter
the kingdom of God. And he's going to show them what
he meant by that. Look here in Luke 19 verse 1.
And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Walked all the
way through that town. Didn't talk to nobody. And behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the
publicans, and he was rich. Well, this is fresh in our minds,
isn't it? Didn't we just learn about this? He was a rich man,
and he sought to see Jesus who he was, and could not for the
press because he was little of stature. He was a short man.
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. The word of the Lord is not hard
to understand, we just don't like what it says. That's man's
problem. That ain't complicated, is it?
The Lord said, make haste and come down. And he made haste
and he came down. And when they saw it, they all
murmured, saying, that he was gone to be a guest with a man
that's 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, This day is salvation come to this house for so much
as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which is lost." Our Lord was gracious
to Zacchaeus. I want to look at that grace.
This is important. We all grew up singing songs
about Zacchaeus, didn't we? We know, I've read this 300 times.
My pastor's preached on this 14 times. I know what this is. This is important. This is how
God is gracious to sinners. And His grace doesn't change.
His love doesn't change. That's 2,000 years ago. It don't
change. We pay attention to this, don't we? We're going to look
at provenient grace. That means grace that comes before
grace shows up. Grace before grace. It's a personal
grace, specific to a person, from a person. It's urgent. It's a grace that's given that
allows a man, a big, proud, strong, rebellious sinner, self-righteous,
to descend, to come down. It's the King's grace. Whose
grace is it? It's the King's grace. It's effectual. That means it gets the job done.
It's a joyous grace and it's generous. It's a life-changing
grace. I want to know something about
that grace. I want you to know something about that grace. Who's
it for? Who's this grace for? This is
amazing grace. We sing amazing grace and we
just don't enter into that, how amazing it is. Who's this for? This unspeakable gift, the grace
of the Almighty God. Look here in verse 1. And Jesus
entered and passed through Jericho. Now, what in Jerusalem? That's
rough town. And behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was
rich. What's a publican? We all know
what that is, don't we? We might not. Words change their
meanings over time. Do you know that? Have you ever
been to a grocery store? You know what that means? That
comes from grocer. I was a man in the Germanic languages,
because gross, it's G-R-O with that funny little B, and that's
it. That means 12 dozen, 144. They
bought in bulk, and they sold to other people. They bought
a gross, they were a grocer, and we have a grocery store.
Isn't that something? That's interesting, isn't it?
What's a pub? Do you all know what a pub is? It's a tavern. It's a beer house, isn't it?
Well, in England, years ago, a person that tended the tavern
was a publican. They ran a beer joint. That was
their job. But before that in Israel, before
that happened in England, back in Israel, publicans, they weren't
just a kind bartender that would polish a glass and listen to
all your troubles. That wasn't what they were. They
were a tax collector. They were notoriously crooked,
evil men. Back then, you didn't get a bill
from the IRS in the mail. These people, they showed up
to your door and said, here's what you owe. And they said,
prove it. You want to go to jail? You owe
this much. And they skimmed off the top.
They paid the government what they owed the government. They
gave that, but boy, they got a little extra, too. I was going
to make hay while the sun was shining. And everyone knew it. And everyone dreaded to come
in contact. Don't look at them. Don't talk
to them. These are wicked, evil men. They will fleece you. They'll
take the wool clean off of you. They were powerful people. And
they did it all under the guise of helping. We're from the government
and we're here to help. Those are dangerous words. Matthew
was one of these publicans. God called him. God came to this
vessel of his grace called Matthew. He was a publican. But Zacchaeus,
he was chief among the publicans. He lived up on the hill. He was
a big shot. He wasn't a teenager and this wasn't his first job.
This wasn't an entry-level position for Zacchaeus. This was an important
and feared man. And boy, we abused the gospel
by making light of him. Oh yeah, he's just a little fella.
Short little Zacchaeus. Not in that town. He may have
been small in stature. That had nothing to do with it. This was
a feared man. Everybody knew him. It says down
in verse 7, and when they saw it, they all murmured saying
that he was gone to be a guest with a man that's a sinner. Everybody
knew this was a sinner. Common knowledge in the town.
The fact our Lord receives sinners. Scripture says He receives and
eats with sinners. That makes a self-righteous person
angry. It makes them mad. And we know
that, don't we? But that ain't me. I wouldn't
get mad over it, would I? Or would I? You think of the
most wicked, evil, elected, or appointed politician you can
think of. That everybody knows is just wicked and mean. And
they'll take advantage of you the first chance they get. Steer
clear of them. And God says, the Lord showed up and said,
I'm gonna go stay the night at your place. I'm coming to your
house. Why didn't he come to my house?
Well, on this coast, those harlots that are in films and everything,
people do that for a living. Well, if God saved one of them,
we're going to move her bags out of the way so she can sit
next to us on the pew? Sit back there, wouldn't we? How would
I deal with that? That's who this chief publican
was. That's who Zacchaeus was. And
that's who the Lord came to. They'll make a self-righteous
person angry. They'll flinch at that. They
won't like it. But boy for a sinner, I mean
a dead dog sinner, that's good news. That's good news. What
grace. This man was a sinner in a town
of sinners and God came to him. God came to where he was. Paul
wrote to Timothy, he said, this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. And he said, I'm the chief of
them sinners. This grace, this amazing grace, is for sinners. The only ones it's for. There
in verse 3, it said, and he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and
could not for the press, there's too many people around him, because
he was little in stature. He couldn't see over all them
people. How many idle words is it? Isn't that us? I'm a pretty
tall fella. Am I short? Scripture says, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Don't they? It's impossible for us to see
Christ in and of ourselves. This sinner, this despised man,
he had a motivation to see Christ. He had a determination to see
Him. That's something. It says in
verse 4, "...and he ran before, he went ahead of them, and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was to pass that
way." This is grace's provenient. That means it goes before. It
was determined before time by the Father in Christ for Zacchaeus
to want to see who this was. Zacchaeus sought to see Jesus,
who He was. He didn't want to just see Him.
I've heard about this guy. I wonder what he looks like.
Have you ever looked somebody up? I heard a man on the radio today. I thought, I know what I think
he looks like. I found a picture of him. I said,
he don't look like what I thought he did, what he sounds like,
does he? He didn't want to just seem, but he wanted to see who
he was. If we seek him to find out who
he is, we're going to find salvation, because Christ is salvation. He was seeking the Lord because
the Lord was already working in his heart. Zacchaeus was seeking
the Lord because the Lord was already seeking him. And so he
went ahead of the crowd, desiring to see who Christ was, and he
climbed up a sycamore tree to see Him. This little man, like
a grown-up, he was of age, climbed a tree like a little boy. I thought,
could I climb up a sycamore tree? I might be able to get up there.
I don't know about coming down." This little fella climbed right up
there. That tree is a token of God's grace that went before.
That sycamore tree is God's prevenient grace. And I've always imagined
that tree just standing by itself, but it may have been a bunch
of them. But he climbed up a sycamore tree. Well, what if somebody
cut that tree down? What if they decided they were going to do
deforestation? We're going to clean up the city. They're not
going to have no trees down this road. Well, then Zacchaeus couldn't
have seen Christ, would he? This tree is a token of God's
grace to his people before they know about what grace is. It was impossible that something
would have happened to that tree. The Lord said, and Paul wrote
to us in Romans 8.28, and we know that all things work together
for good to them who love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. All things. All things. God gave life in
that seed of that tree years before Zacchaeus was there. And
God watered it with His rains, and He protected that tree, and
He grew that tree of His good will and purpose. Nobody could
have cut that tree down. That was Zacchaeus' tree. The
Lord's going to use that. That's the means the Lord uses.
Just like it was purposed for Zacchaeus to have a desire to
see and know Christ, just like that tree was purposed before
time as the means provided that God used, we're here tonight
because God gathered us here together tonight. He purposed
for us to be here. Maybe someone here is seeking
the Lord. and he may be just ready to cross your path and
reveal himself to you. And if so, he's going to call
you the same way he called Zacchaeus. It won't be any different. The
Lord came to him in the exact spot where Zacchaeus was. He didn't call another person
in that city. He called Zacchaeus, only him, this public and this
sinner. I say without shame, I hope in every message, come
to Christ, just like Noah. Come to the ark. Come to Him.
But I assure you, if you come to Him, it's because He came
to you first. To have that desire to truly
know Christ is a work of grace. That provenient grace, that grace
that went ahead of time, organized our whole lives till we come
to see Him, come to hear Him. And that grace is personal, it's
specific. It says there in verse 5, and
when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw Him, saw
Zacchaeus. The Lord came to the place, the
exact spot where Zacchaeus was. Just the same as He came to that
exact spot where that woman at the well was. Just the same way
he came to that exact spot where Matthew was sitting in the receipt
of custody. Same way he came to Nathanael. Before Nathanael
saw the Lord, the Lord saw Nathanael sitting there. He knows his sheep. He knows exactly where to find
his sheep. Sheep are lost. I was lost and
then I was found. A whole lot of people have been
saved their whole lives and they ain't never been lost. Sheep
are lost. And the Lord finds them. But
He don't find them like I find stuff I lose. If I lost my keys,
it's because I don't know where they are. He knows where His
sheep are. We're the ones that strayed.
We're lost, meaning we can't find Him. We don't know the way
to Him. But He knows just where His people
are. And it says, And he looked up and saw them. This wasn't
the first time the Lord saw Zacchaeus. He saw Zacchaeus when His Father's
eternal will and purpose was given. He saw Him chosen and
loved before the world was. He saw Him fall in Adam. He saw
Him throughout His whole family tree, from Adam all the way up
to Zacchaeus. He saw Him. He saw Him at His
birth. He saw Him His whole life. And
He saw Him up in that tree when He called Him by His grace. And
right now, this very second, Christ sees Zacchaeus. Every bit of that, from eternity
to eternity, was because of His grace. Grace comes with a personal call.
He calls him by name. Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. There's
a general call. Every time I preach, there's
a general call that goes forth. The Lord spoke from heaven and
said, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Then He gives
a specific call. This is my Son in whom I am well
pleased. Hear ye Him. There's a commandment
that comes with it. It says in verse 5, 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
in thy house. You think Zacchaeus was shocked? He knows my name. I've heard
of him. How'd he know who I was? His
name was written in that Lamb's Book of Life. Always has been. Christ is the one that wrote
it there. He said in Isaiah 43, But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. He calls out that
name and the first thing we know is I'm his. Grace before grace. And that
grace is personal. It's specific. And next, that
call of grace, it's an urgent call. He says in verse 5, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down. Why is it so urgent? Sinners
are in serious danger. The child Adam is in serious
danger. And that danger requires that
sinner to make haste to come to Christ. And it's dangerous
to wait. We read there in Hebrews 3, "...the
Holy Ghost saith today, if you will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts." He says, "...exhort one another daily while it's
called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin." This happens. This happens. Just because someone,
they don't disagree with the Gospel. They hear the Gospel
preached and they go, hmm, it's alright. That does not mean they
are an object of God's grace. Felix had that happen, didn't
he? There in Acts 24, Felix sent
for Paul. Paul was in prison. He said,
you go get him and you come here and you preach Christ to us.
And he brought his wife with him. Him and his wife sat down
and they had a private audience with Paul. And Paul spoke to
him. He reasoned of righteousness, of temperance, of judgment to
come. And Felix trembled. Oh, I heard
every word you said. and answered, ìGo thy way for
this time. When I have a convenient season, Iíll call for thee.î
Tomorrow never came. Make haste while the Lordís passing
by. He never passed that sycamore
tree again. He come by one time. One time. None of us are guaranteed
tomorrow. The Lord told that rich man,
he said, ìThou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee.î Come to Him now and beg mercy. That call of grace, it's
an urgent call. An urgent call. And this grace
calls down. People always think it goes up.
You're improving. Oh, I know something now. I'm
growing in knowledge. I smile bigger and I stand up straighter.
My voice gets a little higher when I talk to people. I smile
like a possum eating light bulbs. goes down. Look here. Verse 5,
Zacchaeus make haste and come down. We must be called down
before we are ever called up. We must be stripped of our rags
of righteousness before we are clothed in His righteousness.
We must be slayed before we're given eternal life. Somebody told me one time, I
said, I've never felt that. I've never been just convicted
of sin and hopeless and helpless and brought down to nothing.
God ain't gave you life yet. I pray He does. Get down. Come down. He commands it. We've got to come all the way
down. We can't ascend up to heaven. He's the only one that did. And
we have to come down to His hem of His garment, to His feet. Y'all may not know this, Donnie
Bell preached one time for a group of believers that decided they
wanted to maybe call a pastor and stuff, and he went to preach
to them. And he said, you've got to come down. Maybe it was
hot and everybody was tired. They'd been working all day and
had busy things and busy lives like we all do. And he walked
outside that pulpit and he got down on his knees and he took
his hand and he slapped the ground. And he said, you've got to come
all the way down. I wish I had that passion sometimes.
If I think there's something out there worse than me, I haven't
been brought low enough yet. Is there anybody worse than me?
If there is, I haven't been brought down low enough yet. I've got
to come down until there's no one worse than me. I've got to
be brought down to where I'm the chief of sinners. That call
of grace is downward. And this grace is from the King.
He says at the end of verse 5, abide at thy house." This is
a picture of that new birth. He must abide at thy house. How important is that new birth?
How important is it that Christ be formed in you? It's a necessity. It's a necessity. The Lord didn't
just invite Himself over. That's not what He's saying.
He said He must abide. He was taken up residence. That's
what that means. I'm moving in. And where he abides,
he rules. He is king. He sits on his throne
and he rules as the sovereign king. Someone can tell me, come
back later, like Felix did Paul. I appreciate that. I like what
you say. I'll talk to you next week. I've got some things to
do. I've got family coming into town. It's a long drive. It's
this, it's that. Come up with anything. They'll
send me away. But if God calls you, you won't
say, I'll wait till later. This is a commandment from the
King. Make haste, come down, I must abide at thy house. Salvation
is from the King that makes His people willing in the day of
His power. He doesn't offer to come in. He doesn't wait for
an invitation from you to come in. He enters and He gives a
new heart and He abides there and He never leaves. He said,
I'll never leave you or forsake you. He stays right there. Verse
9 says, And he said unto him, This day has salvation come to
this house. Salvation came to you not because you decided or
accepted Jesus. It came in power and it came
in grace, sent by God to every one of his lost sheep. Every
child that's ever been saved, saved that way. This call of grace is from the
king as a commandment. It's effectual grace. Effectual
grace means it gets the job done. What happened when the Lord called
him and said, Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. I've got to
stay in your house today. I'm abiding with you. Verse 6
says, and he made haste and came down and received him joyfully.
There was no debate over what was the best season, what was
the best time to do this. He made haste and he came down
to the Lord. This rebel was made an obedient
son. He obeyed God. He didn't hear
God's Word and take what was convenient for him. He obeyed
God. And it was a joyous grace. It
was an effectual grace, he called Him. He obeyed Him and it was
a joyous grace. Zacchaeus had joy before. He
had a lot of power, he had a lot of money, but now Christ was
his joy. He received him joyously. Turn
over to Luke 15 there, just a couple pages. Zacchaeus had joy and the heavens
had joy too. It says in Luke 15 verse 8, He that woman, having ten pieces
of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle and sweep
the house and seek diligently till she find it. And when she
hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together,
saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which
I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth. That's a joyous grace. The heavens
rejoice. The heavens sing His praises
when one sinner is a recipient of His grace. It's joyous. And
it's life-changing grace. Turn back here and look at verse
8. Luke 19, 8. This is a generous grace. Henry said, Lord might save the
Tidewell, but they don't stay that way. Verse 8, 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. If I've
taken anything, that was his business, wasn't it? Did the
Lord stop and say, now hold on, I've got to correct everything?
Remember when that jailer said, what must I do to be saved? To
Paul. To Paul said, now hold on now.
Now it's none of your works. Now you can't do nothing. Now
we're going to have to sit down and have a Bible school lesson, and we're going
to take you back to kid church, and we're going to have to teach
you some things, and we're going to have to have some understanding,
and we're going to have to lay a foundation for you to understand these things,
and then you can believe on the Lord. He didn't correct everything
that the children did wrong, did he? What must I do to be
saved? He said, believe on the Lord. Believe on Him. The Lord
didn't correct him, did he? He's going to teach him something,
though. This son of Jacob, a deceiver, a cheat, now he's generous. He said, I've given half of everything
I have to the poor. You go down and find somebody homeless and
give them half of everything you have? What was that miracle the
Lord listed? The poor have a gospel preached
to them, didn't they? Zacchaeus just had the gospel enter his
heart. That good news. He had Christ entered him. And
he said, I'm going to support the furtherance of the gospel.
I'm going to do everything I can. If these hands move, I'm going
to use them. The Lord gave me eyes to see. I'm going to see
everything I can. He gave me ears to hear. I'm going to hush
and listen all I can. He gave me feet. I'm going to
walk everywhere I can walk. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. As gracious as you've been to
me, that's how generous in grace I want to be to others. As you
love me, that's how I want to love my brethren. No one set
him down and said, if you want to be saved, you've got to tithe,
and you've got to give alms, and you've got to clean up your
ways, you've got to make amends. All the things, all the offenses
you've had in the past, you've got to try to sort that out.
They didn't say that to him. The Lord said, Zacchaeus, make haste,
come down. I'm going to abide in your house.
Something happened. Something happened. From a willing
heart, he said, if I wronged anyone, I'll make up fourfold.
What happened to Zacchaeus? What changed? I mean, this wicked
man, if they got out of his way, avoid him. He has all his new
desires. He has a new love. He has a joy
now. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians
5, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now they love. Now they give. Now they serve.
Now they obey. They never did before. It may
look like it on the outside. Now they got a new heart that
does it. Unto the Lord. He was born again. He had a new
heart, a new love for the Lord, new love for other people. He
was a new person. He went to sleep that night with
a whole lot less money in the bank. But he fell asleep with
riches untold. The Lord was abiding with him.
The Lord was abiding with him. What is impossible with man,
a rich man entering into the kingdom of heaven, is possible
with God. The Lord, in His infinite grace,
saved Zacchaeus. It says in verse 9, Jesus said
unto him, This day of salvation come to this house for so much,
as he also is a son of Abraham. Why did the Lord mention that?
Zacchaeus was a Jew. He had been a physical child
of Abraham his whole life. But now, now he is a spiritual
child of Abraham. Now he had the same faith Abraham
had. The Lord gave it to him. It says
in John 8, they answered him and said, Abraham is our father
and Jesus saith unto them, if you were Abraham's children,
you would do the works of Abraham. He just declared, Zacchaeus,
that one's Abraham's, that one's mine. He's born again. Have you been called by the same
grace? Has the Lord been gracious to
you to put you under the sound of the gospel and His providence,
brought by many means and shipwrecks and storms and sycamore trees? Whatever it was, the means He
used has He come to you as He spoke to your heart. Has He made
this grace and this mercy urgent to you? Have you been brought low all
the way down to Him and His garments, facing the dirt to His feet?
was a call of the King effectual. Have we obeyed Him? Have we obeyed
Him in believing Him, trusting Him, loving Him, loving our brethren? Have we obeyed Him in His ordinances
that He gave us? Do we observe His table as He
commanded? Have we entered the waters of baptism? That one that
saved us, boy, that ain't nothing. Go dip seven times in the Jordan.
I ain't doing that. The Lord saves man. Which river do you
want me to get in? I'd be glad to. We've been given
the grace to obey Him fully. If so, if we're recipients of
this grace, you give thanks and you go home in joy. Go home in
peace. If we have Him, we're exceedingly
rich. We have a wealth untold. And
if you haven't received this grace yet, you get yourself to
a place where you can see the Lord passing by. You find yourself
a sycamore tree and you climb it. You get up there. This building that we're in right
now is a sycamore tree. Every Wednesday night, two times
on Sunday morning, and Sunday evening, he passes by. I would make it my business, if
I hadn't been a recipient of this grace, I would make it my
business to be where he is going to be passing by, and I beg God
to do the same thing for me that he did for Zacchaeus. Lord, give
me an urgency. Be gracious to me. Bring me down. Abide with me. Abide with me. And if he gives us that heart,
there was a day he came to me and said, Kevin, make haste. Come down. I'm going to abide
with you. For his people, every one of
them, that's what he'll do.