to Luke chapter 19. It is, I believe, of the utmost
value for us to be reminded often that
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, came into this world to save
sinners. to save sinners. No sinner could ever be saved without him. No sinner would ever be sought or called into the kingdom of
God apart from his condescension as the God-man. We owe everything. to our Lord Jesus Christ. And
without the provision which God ordained in Christ, salvation
would be impossible. He's already told his disciples
that. With man, it is impossible. There's no potential. There's
no possibility. There's nothing there. It's a
black hole. It's an empty box. For all who are under sin go
unaffected by the things of the Spirit of God. Isn't that what
the scripture says? The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
All who are under sin go unaffected by the things of the Spirit of
God. And of both Jews and Gentiles, he tells us in Romans 3.11, there's
none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God. The sinner
must be sought out. You ever think about that? He
has to be sought out. That's part of why we preach.
We're looking, we're on the trail. Henry used to tell us, I'm on
the trail of God's elect. God's seeking out his own, and
he does it through the preaching of the gospel. The Bible says that they walk
in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened. Darkened. Lies and deceit seem
logical to the natural man. Things which we recognize readily
as lies. It just seems logical to the
natural man. Free will seems to make perfect
sense to the sinner. Rewards for his work. Huh? Readily accepted by the sinner. Decisionism. Salvation by your
own personal decision. Works imperfect into the mindset
of the natural man. His understandings darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in him. And he will not, he will not,
though these things be of the Spirit of God, he will not receive
them. He goes unaffected. Jesus Christ coming into this
world is the only source of wisdom we have. It says, God hath made him to
be unto us. Those he seeks, wisdom. Wisdom, we don't have any other
wisdom. Christ is my wisdom. When you go through Proverbs,
I have a friend that's been preaching through Proverbs for about nine
or 10 years. When you go through Proverbs,
every time you see that word wisdom, just substitute that
with Christ because he's our wisdom. He's our wisdom. We know, John said, that the
Son of God has come and given to us an understanding that we
may know him that's true. So Zacchaeus made this statement
after the Lord called him down and told him he would abide at
his house. He said to the Lord, to half
of my goods I'll give to the poor. If I've taken anything
from any man by false accusation, will restore him fourfold. And
truly, this is the desire of every saved man. Every saved man, he wants to
see things made right. He wants to see things just and
honest. But after that statement, Jesus
said unto him, this day is salvation come into this house. That's
not salvation. That's the effects of salvation.
The effects of salvation is an honest walk, but that's not salvation. This day is salvation. I'm salvation,
Christ said. And today is salvation come to
this house for as much as he also, talking about Zacchaeus
as a son of Abraham. They all said he was going to
eat with a sinner. Going to eat with a sinner. But he said, he's also a son
of Abraham, verse 10, for the son of man has come to seek and
to save that which was lost. You remember the woman, the Jews
had worked this whole thing out. And they came and took her in
the very act of adultery. And the Lord stepped in on her
behalf and forgave her of her sins. But he didn't tell the
woman taking in adultery to go and make things right, did he? He said, go and sin no more.
You can't make things right. This is where people get in trouble
and they mourn and they whine and they cry. And they're just
trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. I've known people who've, even
though they've joined a church and were baptized and they come
and they listen to the gospel, but they got this one thing that
haunts them, this one thing that they did. One act of adultery
or one act of unfaithfulness or one act, something, something
in their past. And they just can't get rid of
it. And it just haunts them and haunts them and haunts them. You can't make it right. He makes
it right. He makes it right. He's our righteousness. When Paul found out that Christ
was his righteousness and what that meant, he took all those
things that used to be his hope and threw them on the dung heap. And while shame and guilt fills
our hearts, we must come to see that Jesus Christ alone can set
things straight, make things right. He's our righteousness,
and he's our justification, and he's our redemption. The old
hymn writer said, Jesus paid it all. You believe that? Boy, I do. Jesus paid it all,
all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he made it white as snow. No matter what or who comes to
abide at your house, there's no salvation till Jesus Christ
himself comes to abide. And I'm not talking about physically,
I'm talking about spiritually and by faith. So as we examine
this man Zacchaeus, And this is what's profitable for us.
I wanna look at the conversion of every sinner because I have
things in common with them. And I can find things in common
with them and find assurance in Christ just by examining their
conversion. And there's five things that
we all share in the conversion of Zacchaeus, five things that
ought to give us hope. ought to give hope to any sinner
who can hear these things. And the first thing we share
in common, every sinner shares in common with old Zacchaeus
is the grace of God. The grace of God. And I'm gonna talk first a little
bit about this grace and talk to you about provenient grace. That's the grace that we don't
know much about. That's that grace that's been
acting on your behalf before the foundation of the world.
That's that grace that's been working for you all down through
time. That's that grace by which you
actually have a being and were brought into this world. Prevenient
grace. It's a word we use to set before
law centers the nature of grace. It's not a different kind of
grace, it's the same grace. Eternal grace, pure grace, always
grace, and it never changes. Never changes. For many it's
just a word we use to show men and women that grace has been
active on their behalf from the beginning. It was working on behalf of sinners
before the world was. I quoted this scripture to you
a while ago out of 2 Timothy 1.9, where Paul told young Timothy,
he said, God has saved us and called us. Called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. Would you call that prevenient
grace? Well, sure it is. Sure it is. And he gave it to us in Christ. He was talking about, over in
Romans chapter 11, He's talking about the election of the saints
and he said, even so at this present time also there is a
remnant according to the election of grace. Is that pervenient
grace? Yeah, that's grace before grace. Zacchaeus was chosen of God and
therefore he was a son of Abraham by grace. And then in the fullness
of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of children. Grace has been actively engaged
on our behalf, on the behalf of chosen sinners from the very
beginning. It's all grace. It was grace
that appointed him our surety, grace that chose him as our representative. Grace that gave him, elected
him to the office of our Redeemer, as our Savior, and as our Lord. Old Jack Keyes, he didn't climb
up that tree like a 12-year-old boy. This was a rich man. He
was a chief among all the tax collectors, among the publicans.
He was rich, he was despised. He was a little short, probably
a little short fat man. It doesn't say that, but that's
how I visioned him. And here's this man and he's
like a little 12-year-old kid. He scrambles up a sycamore tree.
Loose bark and all, right up that tree he goes. And he's sitting
up there on a limb where he can see. He didn't go up there to
seek the Lord. He just went up there in curiosity. He wanted to see Him. He wanted
to see what was going on, what the fuss was all about. He'd
heard of this man by reputation and he wanted to see Him. So
he scrambles up this sycamore tree. One of the writers I read
by said, God's hounds of mercy treat him. Put him up the tree. He had no intention of coming
to Christ, no intention of being saved, no intention of doing
any of those things. But grace, prevenient grace,
was working in a way that he did not yet know. And that's
my point, that's what I want you to see. When I look at this
sinner, I find something in common with him as grace was working
through the providence of God, arranging things, determining
things, setting things in motion in this man's life. He had no
clue about these things until after the Lord saved him. But oh, what a blessing it is
to look back and see the Lord's hand in all those things. Paul said in Acts 17 26 that
God made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and
set the bounds of their habitation that they might seek the Lord.
And that's all. Everything came together and
the Jews and the Gentiles gathered themselves together to crucify
the Lord of Glory. It said it was to do what God's
hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. Nothing is
left to chance or circumstance at the conversion of the Gentiles. You remember the church at Antioch
And the Jews were stirring up trouble. They didn't want that
church to hear what Paul had to say. And Paul said, you better
be careful lest that what Isaiah said fall on you. And you become
as those who would not hear though a man said and declare it to
him plainly, they wouldn't hear, they wouldn't have it. And that's
exactly what happened. And then he quoted some scriptures
concerning the Gentiles, and when the Gentiles heard that,
they were glad. They were glad, and listen to
this, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. You see that? Provenient grace.
Grace, arranging, working things out, providing the circumstance,
providing the speaker, drawing you here in his providence, all
these things, God working, and we don't even know it. When the Thessalonians heard
the gospel in power and in the Holy Ghost, Paul said, I'll tell
you what happened. You manifested the election of
God. That's what happened. Oh, the glorious providence of
God who passed through Jericho. It said he came to Jericho and
he passed through it. If you read all the accounts,
you'll find out he saved blind Bartimaeus on his way in, and
he saved two blind sinners on his way out, but he didn't do
anything in Jericho. He just passed through. And after
he gave sight to those two blind sinners, the very next thing
that happened was Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. When I think of the complexity
God's providence and all the events and circumstances that
bring it to pass, all I can do is just stand in amazement. It's
such a dense maze looking back, all the things that God has done
to arrange certain things and something else. And then Paul said this, I quoted
this to you in the other study. in Ephesians 111, in whom also
you have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. And then the third thing I see
here that we share in common with this old publican is God's
sovereign election. Isaiah said, except the Lord
of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we'd been like Sodom and been
made like unto Gomorrah. There was nothing left down there
but ashes. The smoke of their ashes rose up in that valley. That's all that was left was
ashes. He said that's how we'd been but for the election of
God. When we talk about a lost soul,
we're talking about somebody who was put in Christ, who belonged
to Christ, whom God had set apart and marked for all his blessings.
He blessed them with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ. But they become lost in Adam. They fell in Adam. And
they're no different in their nature. They're no different
in their mind from anybody else. But the grace of God didn't leave
them lost. He seeks them. He finds them. He arranges certain circumstances. He hath devised means, the Bible
said, to recover his banished. And those means are the preaching
of the gospel, the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Bible said, every promised
blessing made to men is according as he has chosen us in his Son
before the foundation of the world. And all these good and
perfect gifts sent down from the Father of light is unchangeable. It's sure, and it's without exception,
they're all gonna receive it. Every object of grace has found
their beginning in the election of God. Listen to this. Our Lord prayed his high priestly
prayer in John 17. You do yourself a good favor
if you just read and study John 17. That's our intercessor. And he's praying his high priestly
prayer to the Father on our behalf. And here's what he said. He said,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me for they are thine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them. He said this of those that he
called, he said, you haven't chosen me, but yes, they did. But no, they didn't. You've not
chosen me, I've chosen you. That's what he told them. You wasn't out there on that
lake seeking me. You was out there on that lake
fishing. And I called you. And you followed
me. I've chosen you. You haven't
chosen me. He told those Jews, you believe
not, because you're not of my sheep. I haven't chosen you. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them. I made provision for them. I
give blessed are your ears for they hear. Why do they hear?
Because he made you meet to be partaker of the inheritance of
the saints in life. Preacher, I don't see how election
can generate any hope for a lost sinner. Well, I think to know
that God intended to save anybody ought to give a man hope. You
mean he's going to save somebody? He's not going to just leave
us to ourselves. He's not just going to leave.
He has a people. He's not going to leave them
in their sins. He's going to seek them out.
He's going to find them. He's going to call them to himself.
He's going to save every one of them. And the fact is, it can be nothing
less than a feeling of self-worthiness and self-conceit that could make
a man hope in anything else. Salvation to the Lord. There's
no hope in anything else. No hope. Well, one of these days
I'm going to get saved. No you ain't. No you're not. And then the fourth thing that
I find in common with the salvation of Zacchaeus is the irresistible
calling of God. Nobody in that crowd could have
made Zacchaeus come down out of that tree but Christ. Christ
looked up there, called him by name. Nobody introduced him,
he knew who he was. Zacchaeus, get down here. He said, make haste, and he did.
Scripture said he made haste and came down. That's the difference. There's a general call and there's
an effectual call, and that general call just goes out to everyone. Our Lord talked about that over
in the book of Proverbs. He said, I called and you refused.
It just went out and fell on deaf ears. There at Mars Hill,
Paul preached. When they heard of the resurrection,
some said, well, we'll hear you again some other time. More convenient
season. They won't hear any more. Howbeit,
some of them claimed to him. Some of them heard. That's an
effectual call. The Lord said in Matthew 20,
verse 16, many are called, few are chosen. A call that goes out to everyone
in attendance. And a call goes out in power
and in the Holy Ghost into the heart of that chosen sinner. When our Lord called Zacchaeus
and told him to come down, he came down. When he told him he
must abide with him in his house, he was in full agreement. Come
on. And that's something you need
to know. The calling of God to his elect is effectual. It's effectual. That's how we
know their election, Paul said. Our gospel didn't just come in
word. I fear today, preaching to people,
that I'm not making this clear enough. Because they get this
idea that intellectually, if I've come into agreement with
him, I'm okay. No, that's not it. That's not it. Zacchaeus obeyed the Lord. The Lord didn't sit there and
argue with him over doctrine. He said, Zacchaeus, get down
here. Down he comes. Zacchaeus, I'm
gonna come to your house today and bide yourself over to eat.
Can you imagine? He said, come on. Oh, my soul. Irresistible, he was willing
in the day of God's power. And he was willing because he'd
chosen him. They began to murmur at Christ
over there in John chapter six. He said, all that my father had
given me gonna come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will
have no wife cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is
the will of him that sent me. that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, raise it up again the last day. And
they started to murmur at him because he said he'd come down
from heaven. And he said, don't murmur. Now
listen to this. No man can come unto me except
my Father which sent me draw him. He can't come to me. He can come to a decision, He can come to the front. He can even come to a commitment
and sign a card and pledge his income. But no man can come to
Christ by faith except his father draw him. As it's written, they shall all
be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, he comes to me. He comes to me. Now I can't explain
except to say it's of God. It's of God. Many are called,
few are chosen. And blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, the scripture said, and causes to approach unto thee. Why? That he might dwell in your
courts. And he'll be satisfied with your
goodness, the goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple.
He'll be satisfied. He'll find what he didn't even
know he was looking for. He'll find it. Not anything in his life before
Christ to indicate God's purpose of grace to include him. He was
a liar, he was a cheat, he was a tax collector, a rich man,
glorying in his riches. Nothing in it, you couldn't look
back at his life and say, I see the Lord working in it. No, there's
nothing there. Nothing there. But now see him
as God works in him. Now he's hastening to come down
out of that tree. Oh, my soul, joyful that Christ
wants to abide in his house. You can't explain the irresistible
calling of God. Nobody can explain it. It's just
so. It's just so. And it's not something you can
know until God speaks to you by a sovereign spirit and gives
you a new heart, new head, new understanding. Then you begin
to see it. And then lastly, I find this
in common, not only in the conversion of Zacchaeus, but in every conversion
of every sinner called to Christ. There is a real, a very real
and true hope of glory. If somebody come up to you and
say, what's your hope? Can you tell them? Or will you
sit there and say, now wait a minute, wait a minute, you caught me
off guard. Do you really have to sit and
think about what your hope is? My hope's Christ. I don't have
to sit and think about it. He's Christ. He's my hope. He's my hope of righteousness.
He's my hope of redemption. He's my hope of justification.
He's my hope of preservation. He's my hope of perseverance.
For me to live is Christ. That's my hope. Or do we sit
around and Try to remember all the doctrines that we've heard
and start going down through all. No, Christ is my hope. Christ is my hope. It's a real and a true hope of
glory. And if God can save one sinner,
if God is willing to save one sinner, he might save two. Oh, I love that message I heard
years ago. There's a man in glory. And if
there's one man in glory, there might be two. There might be
two. This is a faithful saying Paul
said, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm cheap. Will God save a religious sinner?
Save Paul. Will God save an adulterer? He
has and he will. Will God save men possessed? He saved legion. To those Jews, he said, think
not that I'm come to save the righteous. I'm not come to save
the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. And here's hope for the chief
of sinners. And men ask me all the time,
men and women both, how can we know if God's willing to save
me? How can I know that? Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. How do I know if God is willing
to save me. My friend, providence led you
here. You can stand on that a little
bit. There are thousands of churches,
hundreds of thousands of churches out there. You could be in any
one of them this morning, but you're not, you're here. And God's providence, as I told
you before, is gonna bring a man into that circumstance that he's
already ordained. He's already provided the means,
and that means is the preaching of the gospel. And as providence
led you here, you're hearing a message that the Spirit of
God says is the power of God unto salvation. Nobody gonna
be saved till they hear. How you gonna call on him in
whom you have not heard, and how you gonna hear without a
preacher? I didn't say that, the Holy Ghost said that. He sent you an ambassador who
on God's behalf is beseeching you to be reconciled to God. You're hearing a message that's only being preached to
a few, to a few. And even now you're beginning
to examine your own self in the light of this gospel. The evidence
of his willingness is far greater than your willingness to receive
it, isn't it? He's more willing to give you the evidence than
you are to give evidence of listening to him. Isn't that something? Oh, may the Lord be pleased for
his own glory to make his calling effectual in us. Father, use the message this
morning. We pray that you'll take these
things and use them for thy name's honor and glory, for the glory
of thy Son. Not only in this congregation,
but as we put it up on the internet, that it go out and speak to chosen
sinners. What a privilege you've given
us. Give us the ability. Give us
of your spirit that we can be faithful to these things. We
ask it for Christ's sake.