Luke's Gospel in chapter 19,
we read these words. And Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, 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
guessed 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, 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. 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 is come to seek and to save that
which was lost. This fact This declaration that the Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost is of
great comfort to the child of God. There's comforting knowledge
in knowing that our salvation does not depend upon our seeking
God. We are not saved because we sought
Him. We are not secure because of
something we have done or something we must continue to do. Our salvation
does not stand in what we do or what we think. It does not stand in our strength
or our effort. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Salvation stands in the fact
that God in Christ came into this world to seek out His own. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. He came to seek out His own. He came into this world of sin,
this world of darkness, this world of enmity, this world of
bitterness, this world that rejected Him, this world that sought to
put Him to death. Christ came into this world to
suffer death, to lay down His life, to be rejected by all, to be hung upon a cross under
the wrath of God because of the sins of his people. In order
that he might take those sins away, in order that he might
forgive those sins, in order that he might reconcile that
people who were at enmity with God, with God, in order that
He might save a people which was lost. The Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which was lost. His coming is
twofold. He came to seek and to save. He came into this world to head
to the cross to save His people. And He came to seek them out.
Today he continues to seek that which was lost. to seek lost
sinners, to seek lost souls, to seek those who are dead in
trespasses and sins, to seek those like you and I who have
gone astray. For we all, like sheep, have
gone astray. We've all turned our backs on
God. We've all turned our backs on
our Maker. We've all turned our backs on
the truth. We've all turned our backs on
the Gospel. Today we turn our backs on the
Gospel. Naturally speaking, our hearts
are hard, they're hardened. We don't want to know, we don't
want to hear, we don't care. There is none that seeketh, there
is none that understandeth. And yet, despite our rebellion,
despite our hardness of heart, despite our disinterest, despite our enmity, despite the
fact that we've never sought God and we don't care for God
and we don't care for his salvation, the Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. He seeks us out. And no matter
how far astray we have wandered, no matter how far off we have
gone, and no matter how far off we may continue to go, no matter
how hardened our hearts are, no matter how sinful we've become,
no matter how rebellious we are, if we are His, if we are that
which was lost, whom He has chosen unto salvation, He will seek
us out. He seeks us out. He finds us. He comes unto us wherever we
are. And He saves us in spite of all
we are and all we do. No matter how resistant we may
be, no matter how unbelieving we may be, no matter how disinterested
we may be, He will come unto us in the Gospel. He will find
us, He will seek us, and He will save us. This is of great comfort
to those who are brought to hear the truth of the Gospel, brought
to know their state before a holy God. It's of little interest to those
who know not this state. It's of little interest to those
who are quite content in their own strength, their own wisdom,
their own ways, indeed in their own religion, in their own self-righteousness. Because religious or not, we
are by nature essentially self-righteous. We live as though if there was
a God and there was a reckoning, he should save us. We should
be alright because I am essentially good. We look upon others as
worse than ourselves, we think of ourselves as fine. We are
essentially self-righteous. We justify our every deed and
our every action by looking upon others as though they're worse
and us and ourselves as though we're better. Even if we're wicked. Even if we are criminal. Even those who go around living
a life of absolute sin, a chaotic life, a life of criminality,
still have a sense in which they think they are better than others. They're smarter than others,
they're quicker than others, they're cleverer than others.
They don't get caught like others get caught. And they think there's something
in them which makes them better. And essentially this is how we
exist in this world. We don't fear death and we don't
fear the God who sustains us. Because one, we don't consider
him. And two, if ever we do we think
that surely we'll be alright. So we go astray. Seeking our
own ends. And putting the things of God
to the back of our mind. When we're young, we live as
though life goes on forever. We grow up as a child thinking
we have yet to grow. We become a young man or a young
lady thinking we have the opportunities of life stretching ahead of us.
Life is something that lays before us, yet to be fulfilled. and we live essentially as though
it will go on forever. But soon time passes, and soon
time stands the other side of us, and soon we're old, and yet
we still walk backwards towards the grave, looking back in reflection
upon that which we've done, but never looking forwards to that
which is to come. we still turn our back upon God
and upon the reality that's about to befall us. Soon we will step
backwards over that cliff edge that plunges us into eternity
but we never like to look towards it because we want to pretend
that this world will carry on forever. What fools we are! And yet in a moment we will stand
before God and in a moment we will have to answer to him. And
we all know this as a reality. We know this as a reality. The
world will tell us otherwise. The world will tell us there
is no God. The world will tell us that this
world and the universe came into being of its own accord. The
world will play tricks with our minds with all sorts of ideas
of what life is and what existence is. But we know there's a God. Else why do we fear death? else why do we fear death? You say, I don't fear death,
that's because you don't think about it. But when death comes to your
door, when illness comes to your door, when you know it's a reality,
when you're old or when you're in hospital about to die, when
terminal illness comes your way and you know that death awaits,
fear and trembling comes upon you, you know that death is there. And you don't know what's beyond
it. or you do but you pretend not to know. If you believe what science falsely
so-called claims, that you're nothing and that you return to
nothing, you just fall asleep, then why do you fear? We fear because we know there's
a God unto whom we must answer. And yet despite this innate knowledge
which is in all of us, despite the conscience within, we never
seek Him. We never seek his righteousness,
we never seek his kingdom, we never turn from our sin, we just
go on like fools, grasping at everything we can here and below,
seeking out our own glory, feathering our own nest, entertaining ourselves
with all the distractions of life until it's all gone in a
moment. We never seek him. Yet he has come to seek and to
save that which was lost. He came, he is come, and he comes
to seek and to save that which was lost. He made us in Adam. He created this world, He breathed
life into man. We are His creation. But when
man fell into sin and sin entered the world and death by sin, that
which God made was lost unto sin and condemnation. Yet before man fell, And before
ever God spake and made this world, before ever He spake and
brought you and me into being, He had chosen a people in Christ
unto salvation. He had chosen a people who were
lost, for whom Christ would come, for whom Christ would die. and
whom he would seek with his gospel. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Like that shepherd of whom Jesus
spake in the parable, who lost the sheep, and who left the 99
in the sheepfold, to go and search for the one
lost sheep. He went out, as it were, into
the wilderness, climbing the mountains, searching for the
sheep, caring not for his own life, caring not for the dangers
that might be, caring not for the wild animals he might encounter. He went searching for that sheep
and when he found that sheep he brought it home and brought
it home safely to the flock. He sorted out. He went as far
as he had to go. He kept looking until he found
it. And so it is in the Gospel, wherever
there's a sheep that Christ has died for, if you're his sheep,
If He chose you before the foundation of the world, wherever that sheep
may be, wherever you may be, if you're His, He will seek you. He will find you. He will come
unto you wherever you are, no matter how far off, no matter
how lost, no matter how sunk in sin. And He will find you
with His Gospel. He seeks that which was lost.
As we said, we never sought Him. We've never sought Him. But you
might say, are there not passages in the scripture which speaks
of us seeking? There are. Luke 11 tells us,
Jesus says, I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek
and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth. And he that seeketh findeth.
And to him that knocketh it shall be opened. And so it shall. If we came unto God and sought
him, we'd find him. If we came unto God and cried
for his mercy, We'd receive it. If we sought Him truly, if we
knocked, the door would be opened. But we don't. The promise is
there and it stands, but we don't. We don't seek so we never find. We don't knock so the door's
never opened. Despite all the truth that's
declared unto us, Despite the fact that God repeatedly comes
and stands before us and presents the truth of His gospel to us,
we never seek Him. Every day He grants life unto
us. The sun rises, the sun shines,
the heat of the sun shines down unto us. God speaks unto us and
we never seek Him. Every day He gives us a day in
which we may cry out unto God, and we never cry out unto Him.
Every day He gives us hours in the day in which we may call
out unto God, in which we may pray, in which we may seek out
the truth, and we never do. How many copies of the Bible
have been printed and circulated throughout the world? How easy
it is to get hold of one and read it. Yet we never pick it
up and we never seek out the truth. Mankind says, oh that's
rubbish and he never read it to know. He never reads it to
know what it says. What fools we are. Our minds
are closed without ever knowing. God speaks every day. Every day we go to sleep, the
next morning he rises again. The sun rises up before us, God
speaks unto us again and says, seek me and ye shall find. And we don't. We get up, we go
about the things we want to do. But seeking God, Seeking his
son, seeking the truth, hearing the gospel is never on our list. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. We never ask and we never seek. There is none that seeketh, no
not one. Romans 3 tells us there is none
that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. None. Not by nature. Not until God begins a work in
our heart. Not until God intervenes. Not until God sounds an alarm. Not until God awakens our soul. When He begins to draw us, then
we may begin to cry out, then we may know, then we may fear
that which is to come, then we may know that we need salvation,
then we may know that we need to know God, then we begin to
cry out unto Him, but He's first sought us. Until that day there
is none that seeketh, except the Lord makes us willing We
will never seek Him, we will never hear, and we will never
care, except the Lord makes us willing. But that's exactly what He does
when He comes to seek and to save that which is lost. My people shall be willing in
the day of my power, the psalmist says in Psalm 110. My people
shall be willing in the day of my power. Because until the day
of God's power comes upon us, until God brings his gospel in
power unto us, we're not willing and we don't seek. But when he
begins a work of grace in the heart, When he comes and we hear
that gospel, not in word only, but in power. In the Holy Ghost with much assurance,
when we hear that word in power, then he calls. and He draws us
by His Spirit, and we begin to turn, and we are turned by Him,
and we call and we seek. Psalm 34, 4, David says, I sought
the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. When God made David willing,
when God showed him His state, When God made him to fear that
which would come upon him, when God showed him that he was a
sinner, then he sought, then he cried out unto God and God
heard him. Has God brought you there? Do you fear death? Do you fear
Almighty God? Do you fear what lies beyond
the grave or do you just not care? Is your mind, is your head
made of dough? Are you blinded to the truth? Are you yet a fool who thinks
life will go on forever? Is all your effort in trying
to build up something in this world which will go in a moment? Or do you look beyond the grave
to that which is everlasting and consider what then? What
will I have then? What will occur then? Great men have built up great
empires and done great things in their lives which are taken
from them when they disappear from this world. Julius Caesar,
the Caesars of Rome, ruled over great empires and yet they died,
some not old, in their forties, or younger, gone in a moment. Mighty men of business have built
up multi-million, multi-billion corporate empires, but it's all
for nothing. They grow old and their riches
are useless to them, and then they're gone. Winston Churchill helped lead
this country, Britain, to peace through the Second World War.
And he helped establish peace in Europe in the years that followed. And as an old man, he looked
back over his years in power and said, I've lived many years
and achieved many things, but all for nothing. He could see
so easily how everything he strived for could be taken away in a
moment. How the peace that had been brought
about in this world could soon be destroyed. All the greatest
efforts of man are for nothing, they can go in a moment. An old age came upon him and
eternity awaited. It will come upon you. It will
come upon me, or perhaps not. Many are taken when they're young. Many die when they're young. Oh may God teach us something of
what we are, even when we're young, that we may fear death,
that we may fear the Lord, that we may fear the consequences
of our sin. Oh may He teach us what we are
before Him as sinner, that we're full of sin, that we are sin,
that we've never considered God, we've never sought God, we've
never loved God, we've never cared for God, yet He's the one
that keeps us alive this moment at this hour, and He's the one
before whom we must stand. We will stand before Him, we
know we will. And yet we never seek Him. Until
He comes in the Gospel, in the day of His power, and makes us
willing, we never seek. None do. You don't. I didn't. None do. Because we're lost. We're lost. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. We're lost. And the lost don't
know the way. They're lost. The lost don't
know their way. The lost sheep doesn't know its
way. That's why it's lost. It's wandered
off. It doesn't know where to go.
It doesn't even know how to find Him if it did seek. Even if it
got to the point of feeling cold and lost and lonely and feared
death and tried to return, it wouldn't know the way. We don't
know the way. We don't know the way unto God.
We don't know what to do about our sin. Even when we come to
see that we're a sinner and come to realise our state, we don't
know what to do about it. We try to clothe ourselves in
our own self-righteousness. We try to improve ourselves.
We try to hope that God might be more pleased with us if we
start making amends for the things we've done. We try to turn from
our iniquitous ways, we try to turn from our rebellion, we try
to turn from our wayward ways, we try to live in a better way
in the hope that God might be pleased with us. We're lost and
we don't know what to do, we don't know the way to God, we
try to get to Him through every other way. We turn to this religion
and that religion. We turn to this behaviour and
that behaviour. We turn to the law of God. We
turn to our own self-righteousness. We try to get to heaven by our
own strength. We try, as it were, to build
our own Tower of Babel. Here we go, we'll get up, we'll
save ourselves through this means and that means. natural man who
fears death tries what he can to sustain life. Oh, if we could
just cure this disease and cure that ailment, we'll be able to
live longer. Oh, if we can find a way that
reduces the effects of aging, we'll last longer. Oh, if we
can find a way to sort out the climate in this world, the world
will last longer. He does everything he can to
patch up that which he sees decaying and destroyed. And it's all for
nothing. It's all brought to nothing.
Because he's lost. And he doesn't know the way.
And he doesn't want to know the way because when one comes and
stands in the midst and says, this is the way, he says, away
with this man, crucify him, crucify him. When one comes over him
and says, I am the way, he says, go away, I don't want to know. And he goes about finding his
own way because we don't want to know the way. We see this in this chapter. Jesus came to Jericho and he
comes to Zacchaeus, a publican and a sinner. And the people
there, when Jesus came unto Zacchaeus and said, Zacchaeus come down,
for today I must abide at thy house. And he came down and made
haste, and received him joyfully. When the people saw it, they
all murmured, saying that he was gone to be guessed with a
man that is a sinner. All the people saw Christ come
to Jericho, and Christ came unto this sinner. Christ sought him
out. He came unto this one whom he
would save, and all the people murmured, because they thought that salvation
should come to the righteous not to sinners they thought that
salvation should be a reward unto them for their wisdom and
their religion and their righteousness something that they have done
something that they have said Later Christ taught daily in
the temple but the chief priests and the scribes and the chief
of the people sought to destroy Him and could not find what they
might do for all the people were very attentive to hear Him. The religious there sought to
destroy Him. The way unto God came into their
midst And these who were lost sought to destroy him. And the
way unto God can come into your midst and stand before you in
the gospel and stand before you in the preaching of the gospel. As in this message which you
hear this day at this hour, it can come before you and stand
before you and you in your heart seek to destroy it. If you could destroy the preacher
and silence his voice, you'd do so. If you could go somewhere
else so that you could not hear, you would do so. If you could
destroy Christ on high who sends the message by his preacher,
you'd destroy him. Because you don't want to know
the way. And yet Christ came. in the midst
of such a people. And he came to a sinner called
Zacchaeus, who until that day had been a publican and a sinner,
stealing wickedly from the people, enriching himself at everybody
else's expense, seeking all that he could gain in this world,
having not a thought for God. And yet that day, Christ came. unto him, and said unto him,
This day, Zacchaeus, is salvation come to this house inasmuch as
Zacchaeus was the son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost. Zacchaeus was just like
those scribes and Pharisees, not religious like them perhaps,
but just as hardened in his heart to the truth, just as wicked
and sinful, just as lost, and yet Christ found him, changed
him, made him willing and made him hear. In the parable that
Christ goes on to speak following his encounter with Zacchaeus,
he speaks of this nobleman with a kingdom and the reaction of
the citizens of his kingdom who hated him and sent a message
after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. That's what we are. We are citizens
in this world, as it were, of God's kingdom, of God's world. We live here in the world he's
created. And our hearts say, we will not
have this man to reign over us. Far from seeking him, in our
lost condition, we seek to destroy him. Yet he does reign, and he does
rule. And he will preach his gospel
until all the lost sheep for whom he died are found. He's come to seek and to save
that which was lost. He's come for the lost sheep
of Israel. The lost sheep of Israel. In Matthew chapter 15 verse 21
we read that, Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the
coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David! My daughter is grievously
vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, it
is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, Great is thy faith, be it unto thee as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. He's come for the lost sheep
of Israel. The lost whom he seeks are a
chosen people. They are the lost sheep of Israel. The sheep that have wandered
astray. The sheep that have gone are
far off. The sheep that are lost, but
the lost sheep of Israel. A nation, a people, a chosen
people, a called out people, a separated people. It is these
whom he's seeking in the midst of this world out of the multitudes
who are born of Adam. There are those who are of Israel,
chosen of God unto salvation, chosen before the foundation
of the world, chosen in Christ, for whom He came, for whom His
blood was shed, chosen unto salvation. And He comes in the Gospel to
seek them out. And He will come. and return
with his gospel, and return with his gospel, and return with his
gospel until everyone for whom he died hears and believes. This is a chosen people, an elect
people. He didn't choose everyone. We
cannot presume upon his salvation. We cannot presume that we are
a sheep and not a goat, that we are of Israel and not of Egypt. He came for Israel, the lost
sheep of Israel, not the nation, the physical nation of Israel,
but the spiritual Israel, chosen out of the Jews and the Gentiles
through all time. A spiritual Israel, a chosen
people, a called out people. Are you one of them? Is he seeking
you? Has he prepared your heart? He
came to seek and to save. The day he came to Jericho, when
Zacchaeus was there, he met with a man who was made willing. He
met with a man who received him. He met with a man whose heart
was prepared. Zacchaeus was brought to know
he was a sinner and he received him as he prepared you. He met him
in Jericho, a reminder of that city who in ancient times Joshua
came unto with the people of Israel And that mighty city with
its mighty walls full of sinners had that harlot Rahab who received
the Hebrew spies and who hung her scarlet line out of her window
and who was delivered from the destruction that came upon that
city. Salvation came to that city. Salvation came to that house
in that day. Joshua and the people of Israel
circled it with the gospel. They sought it out. They came
with the trumpet of the gospel and they went around it. And
around it. And around it. and around it
and around it and around it and then the seventh time they went
around it blowing the trumpets and the walls of the city fell
down flat God persevered he came with his gospel and he went around
that city seven times until that hour when the walls fell down
flat and Rahab was delivered. With Zacchaeus, he comes again
to Jericho. He comes with his gospel. He
blows the trumpet of the gospel and Zacchaeus, that wicked sinner,
is delivered from that city when all else murmured and said that he was gone, Jesus
was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. When the chief
priests, when the priests and the scribes sought to destroy
him, when everyone else there hated and rejected him, yet the
gospel came to Jericho and to Zacchaeus. God preached his gospel. until the lost heard and were
saved. If you're His, no matter how
many times you may hear, no matter how far off you may go, no matter
how hardened your heart may become, if Jesus came for you, if you're
a lost sheep of Israel, that gospel will come and come and
come and come and the trumpet will be blown and blown until
the walls of your heart fall down flat and the truth of the
gospel enters in. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. He won't just seek us He won't
just find us where we are and preach the gospel unto us. But
if we're His, He will save us. Christ came into this world to
save His people. He didn't just come and preach. When His ministry began, 30 years
old, when He began to preach and to say, repent, for the Kingdom
of God is at hand. When he preached the Gospel and
called upon sinners to repent, to turn, to turn unto God from
whom they had turned away, when he began to preach and to declare
the Kingdom of God, he didn't just preach, he didn't just present
the message, he didn't just seek the lost, he didn't just find
them, but he came to save them. His whole ministry upon this
earth, his walking around Israel, his circling as it were of Jericho,
round and around and around and around, silently pacing the perimeter
of Jericho, led up to that one day when Christ would be taken
outside of the city of Jerusalem. Having gone to Jericho, he returned
from Jericho to Jerusalem and he was taken outside the city
and hung up and crucified. He was taken to the cross, he
was taken to the place of execution to pay the price, to suffer the
cost of salvation. today he says unto Zacchaeus
this day is salvation come to this house this day And that
day came because on that day, on another day, Christ was hung
upon a cross outside Jerusalem in order to save his people from
their sins. He was hung. He was hung up upon
a cross. He was crucified. He came to
his people and the people cried out, away with this man. We will not have this man to
reign over us. Crucify him and he comes unto
you in this gospel and your heart cries out away with this man. I will not have this man to reign
over me. Crucify him and your heart takes
him and it leads him outside the city. It marches him outside
of your Jericho, and it takes this Saviour, it takes this Gospel,
and it nails him to a tree. Your heart takes him, and your
unbelief takes him, and your rejection takes him, and you
pierce his hands unto the cross. and you pierce His feet under
the cross and you lift Him up to die because your heart with
the hearts of the scribes and the Pharisees sought to destroy
Him and seeks to destroy Him. You never sought Him but you
sought to destroy Him. You never seek Him but you seek
to destroy Him. And you pierce His hands and
you pierce His feet and you murder. the Son of Man who came to seek
and to save that which was lost. Every time we hear the Gospel
and shut our ears to the truth, every time we go away in unbelief,
Every time we refuse to believe, every time we fail like Zacchaeus
to receive the Lord joyfully, we take the Lord and his gospel
and we nail it to that tree and we pierce the Prince of Heaven. We pierce the Prince of Life. We pierce the Son of Man and
the Son of God to that tree and we destroy Him. Our seeking is
a seeking to put him to death. We sought to destroy him. We
seek to put him to death. We seek to silence his voice,
and silence the voice of his witnesses, to silence the voice
of all preachers who come in his name, declaring his name
and his salvation. They come and stand before us
and say, behold the Lamb of God, and we take that lamb and we
burn it. They come and say behold salvation
in Jesus Christ and we nail him to a tree and destroy him. We
will not believe. And yet every time he circles
our Jericho and sounds his trumpet he seeks and saves that which
is lost. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Today you sit in your Jericho
and the four walls of Jericho stand up high and thick and strong
around the walls of your heart. and you sit there in your security
laughing at that people that goes around the walls silently
with their gospel with their Jesus with their Christ and their
salvation you sit surrounded by the walls of your heart and
you sit there in comfort knowing they can never get in They can
never touch me. Here I am and here I will remain. And yet, on that day, the trump
is blown and the power of the gospel causes the walls to fall
down flat. If you're one of the lost sheep
of Israel, no matter how great the walls are around your heart,
No matter how safe and secure your Jericho may be, no matter
how great your unbelief, this Gospel will come in power. Your heart will be made willing
in the day of God's power. Your heart will be turned. God
will prepare. He will bring the events of life
upon you, the storms of life. He will bring death to stand
before your gaze. He will bring your unrighteousness
and sin to stand before you and bring horrors into your heart
and mind. He will bring the understanding
that judgment and condemnation awaits. He will cause you to
cry out for mercy. He will cause you to turn and
to cry out unto Him for salvation. And He will say with the blast
of the seventh trump, this day is salvation come to this house
for as much as you are a son of Abraham. And you will know
the joy of receiving He who said, the Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. And you will bless God for the
seven times the gospel circled your walls until eventually God
made the walls to fall down and life to enter in. and salvation
to visit even you. Oh may God give us ears to hear
and hearts to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.