Many years ago, Brother Henry
Mahan was preaching in Scotland. He was preaching in a number
of places in the British Isles. And he told a story, a true story. It was about one day in the Preacher's
College at the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church where Spurgeon was pastor.
They had the Preacher's College there. And when Spurgeon would
come in to lecture, he would always expect the men to be prepared
to give a message on the spot. And he would call the roll, and
as he got to a name, he'd say, Dave Coleman, come up here and
speak to us. And they were expected to be
prepared. Well, there was a fellow in the class, a young man, Spurgeon
nicknamed Flame, because he had flaming red hair. Flame was called,
and he said, come up here and speak to us. And Flame didn't
have anything to say. He wasn't prepared. So he turned
to Luke chapter 19, and he said, Zacchaeus was a man of small
stature, and so am I. He said, secondly, let me tell
you, Zacchaeus was up a tree, and so am I. And then my last
point is, Zacchaeus made haste and came down, and so shall I. And Spurgeon said, that was a
great sermon, best I've heard in this class. After Henry got
through telling the story, an old man came up to him. He said,
it's good to meet you, Brother Mahan. My name's Flame. He was the man who had gone through
that. Well, let's turn to Luke chapter
19. And I hope that God the Holy
Spirit will so speak through His Word to your heart that you
will remember the message and not the illustration. Luke chapter
19. I want to talk to you this morning
as simply as I know how about effectual calling. Verse 5. 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. But the story doesn't end there.
And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. Now let me ask you a question. Do you know anything by experience
about the sweet love calls of God's omnipotent grace in Jesus
Christ? It is impossible not to know
them if you've heard them. It is impossible not to know
them if you've heard them. The soul who hears the voice
of the Son of God, though he never heard it before, knows
the sweet sound of the Shepherd's voice like that. Let me repeat it. Those who hear
the voice of the Son of God, though they have never heard
it before, know the sweet sound of the Shepherd's voice just
that quick. They know the shepherd's voice.
When the Son of God speaks to a sinner, a sinner dead and trespasses
and in sins, he speaks with a loud voice as he spoke to Lazarus
who was dead and buried. He speaks with a voice loud enough
to wake the dead. He speaks with a powerful voice.
The voice of the Lord is as the sound of great waters, as the
thunder of heaven, a voice to wake the dead. When he speaks,
that same powerful loud voice with which he calls his own is
described as a sweet, still, small voice. He speaks within
you. Within you. And it is a personal
voice. He comes to the spot where he
has brought you at the time of his love. He comes to the spot
where He will cross your path and call you by His grace. And
He says, Zacchaeus, I'm talking to you. You make haste and come
down. Oh, may He whose voice wakes
the dead speak to you this day by His Word. make three or four statements
that I think are very important, sort of prepare the way for my
message. It is my responsibility to preach
the gospel to all men as the Lord gives opportunity. Our responsibility
collectively as a congregation, my responsibility distinctively
as a man called of God to preach the gospel. He commands me and
you, but he commands me to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. What a great privilege. What
a high honor. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I wouldn't trade it for anything. But it is the most awesome responsibility
imaginable to speak to eternity bound men and women in the name
of God Almighty, knowing that if God is pleased to speak by
me, you'll never be the same having heard this word. Brother Henry Mahan and I were
talking a couple of weeks ago, just briefly, right before he
got ready to preach on Friday night over at Lexington. And
he expressed his concern about the message. He said to me, he
said, it never gets easier, does it? I said, Brother Mahan, I make
this promise. God give me grace. If this thing
of preaching ever gets to be easy for me, I'll quit. It is my responsibility to speak
to your heart for the glory of God. That requires sincerity. That requires simplicity. It
requires steadfastness. Utter separation to this blessed
work. And it's your responsibility
to believe the message God gives you. I know that people who don't
understand anything at all about gospel matters, people who don't
understand anything at all about spiritual things, will take what
I'm about to say and, you know, do with what to do with everything
else, twist it, pervert it according to their own perverse minds.
But I'm not here, Larry, to offer you an opinion about anything. Don't go out that door and say
to me this morning, well, you've given me some good things to
think about. I haven't given you something to think about. If
all I've done is given David Coleman something to think about,
I haven't done what God sent me here to do. I've come to bring
a message to be believed and obeyed right now. It's your responsibility
to repent and believe the gospel. Not to receive the grace of God
in vain. Not up here debating matters.
I'm not up here offering opinions. I'm not up here discussing things. I'm here to bring a message.
Everything these days, folks want to be sweet. And preachers
have gotten to be the most effeminate of the whole bunch of effeminate
men. They're worse than politicians. How often do you hear people,
well, I want to share with you this morning. I'm not here to
share with you. I'm here to tell you something. I'm here to tell you what God
has taught me by His Spirit right now. And it's your responsibility
to hear it. And yet, I know, I know that
no man by nature can or will believe the gospel. No man by
nature can or will come to Christ No man by nature can or will
obey the word. The fact is you have neither
the desire nor the ability in yourself to trust Christ. Folks,
we use all kinds of illustrations and folks talk about faith as
though somehow it's something that a man musters within himself. Somehow you have within you this
sixth sense. A sense by which you can believe
on Jesus. Nothing is further from the truth.
Our Lord said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
Because it does not lie within the scope of your heart's desire
to come to Christ. You don't have any desire. Men
desire religion. They desire a fire escape from
hell. They desire to go to heaven when they die. But no man desires
the Son of God. No man. You will not come to
me that you might have life. But not only is there no will
to come, there's no ability to come. Our Savior said, no man
can come to Me except it were given him of My Father. Well,
preacher, it sounds to me like you're telling us that while
we're responsible to believe the gospel, unless God does something
for us, we're going to hell. That's exactly right. That's all it'll take for you
to perish is for God to leave you alone. All it'll take for
you to go to hell is for God to let you have your will, have
your way, and leave you alone. And I know that true saving faith
is the gift of God. I call on you to believe on the
Son of God. I do not hesitate to declare
to you as our Lord did the blind man whom He saved in Luke 18,
thy faith has saved thee. I don't hesitate to declare that.
But I'm here to tell you that faith is the result, not the
cause, of God's grace. By grace, you say, through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. Saving faith is created in us
by the mighty, sovereign operations of God the Holy Spirit in omnipotent
saving mercy. It takes the same power to believe
on the Son of God takes the same power for you and me to believe
on the Son of God as it took to raise Christ up from the dead. Well, how can it be? Because
the new birth is not a decision to join the church or start serving
Jesus. The new birth is a resurrection
from the dead. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,
on such the second death hath no power. This creation of faith
in the heart by which a person is drawn to Christ is called
effectual calling. Well, why do you call it effectual
calling? Because it's effectual. It gets the job done. Again,
I told the folks in the first service this morning, In the
context, you remember our Lord said when the rich young ruler
went away from him that it's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven? And then he shows us a rich man here who with the
hand of his grace is shoved through the needle's eye into his kingdom. That's the operation of his grace.
He brings us by omnipotent, irresistible grace into His kingdom. And He does so in such a way
that when we get through the needle's eye, we look back and
say, well, I didn't have anything to do with that. I didn't have
anything to do with that. That's God's grace. The effectual
calling of the Holy Spirit is the irresistible, sweet constraint
by which God the Holy Spirit graciously causes sinners to
come to Christ. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. It is the tender influence,
the overpowering love, the compelling grace, the irresistible power
of God, the Holy Spirit that makes sinners willing in the
day of Christ's power to come to Him. Now, pictures of this
in the scriptures are numerous, but perhaps one of the best,
if not the very best, the most instructive is this picture before
us here in Luke 19 in the calling and conversion of Zacchaeus.
You remember the story. Zacchaeus was very curious about
the man, Christ Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, this man whose doctrine
was turning the world upside down, this man who had been known
all over the region for performing great miracles, this man everybody
talked about as being a prophet, one of the prophets, maybe come
back from the dead. And some even said, this is the
Christ, the Son of God. And Zacchaeus heard his fame.
Zacchaeus heard the commotion. Zacchaeus understood that the
Son of God had come up to Jericho and is going through Jericho.
And now he's about to go out of Jericho on his way up to Jerusalem,
where he would redeem his elect, where he would die for sinners,
where he would shed his blood to satisfy the justice of God.
And from the time that our Savior said back in chapter 18, I'm
going to Jerusalem, He seems to just perform one mighty work
of grace after another. As if to say, now boys, I know
you don't understand what I've said to you. You'll understand
after a while. But I'm going to show you now what the sure
result of my redeeming work is. Watch the blind as they're made
to see. Watch the publican made to be
converted. Watch the poor made to be rich. Watch it, and I'll show you what
I will do because of my work of redemption. Well, Zacchaeus,
because of his curiosity, scampered up a tree like a little boy.
He was a little fella. He was a little fella. And he
sits up there in that sycamore tree, and this crowd of people
watching for the Savior to come by. But before Zacchaeus ever
heard of the Son of God, before Zacchaeus was ever born, before
ever God created the world, the Lord Jesus had his eye on Zacchaeus. And he was from eternity walking
in a marked, determined path in all things to this place at
this time to call Zacchaeus by his grace. Now, make sure you
get the facts straight. It was the Lord Jesus who came
to Zacchaeus, not Zacchaeus who came to him. It was the Son of
God who called Zacchaeus to make haste and come down, not Zacchaeus
who called the Son of God. And when the Lord Jesus had called
him, Zacchaeus made haste and came down the sycamore tree and
gladly received the Savior. There is a time appointed. It's
described in Ezekiel 16 as the time of love. It's called the
day of grace, the day of salvation, the coming of our God. There
is a time appointed when every sinner loved of God from eternity,
chosen in eternal grace, and redeemed by the precious blood
of God's darling Son, shall be called and brought to Christ. There's a time appointed when
Christ will come to the place where chosen dead sinners are
and call them to life. And when he calls, you're coming. He never comes early and he never
comes late. And his chosen are never called
early And they are never called late. Sometimes we kind of tend to
think, well, you know this man, you were what, nearly 60 years
old when God saved him. Well, look at what a wasted life.
As far as you're concerned, yeah. Oh, but at exactly the hour appointed,
He calls you to hear His voice. For exactly the good purpose
of His grace, and effectually brings His own to Christ. Let me show you some things about
this blessed call of our Savior. First, it is a gracious call. Oh, how gracious. Of all the
people in Jericho and around Jericho that you might think
would be the object of mercy and grace and salvation, Zacchaeus
would have been the last, the very last. I sometimes hear
folks, even preachers, say things like this. They ought to know
better. Well, I believe the Lord's going to save him. And I've heard
folks say, I just don't believe God's going to save him. Because
we look at outward things, and we think, well, here is a man
who is a likely candidate for grace. Here's a fellow. Ain't likely. Ain't likely. Not likely. Well, Zacchaeus was one of those
that we'd look at and say, well, he's not likely to be saved.
He's like David. In his father's house, the last
one you'd suspect, the last one. But blessed be God. Our God is
no respecter of persons. He saves the most unlikely. He chooses. to be his sons and
daughters, those whom we would cast away forever. Zacchaeus
was a despised, vile, notorious publican, a man who made his
living by stealing from others, by cheating them, by cheating
them, a tax collector. And I don't mean to suggest that
such is the case with our modern-day tax collectors. I'll leave that
alone. But this was common in those
days. He was a citizen in a wicked
city of Jericho. He was rich and he was vile. But that which seemed most likely
to exclude him from all heavenly bliss made him all the more a
candidate for mercy. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. The calling of God the Holy Spirit
is always a gracious call. He's called us out of darkness
into light, out of bondage into liberty, out of death into life.
And we've been called by His grace into a state of peace,
righteousness, joy, and fellowship, and communion with Christ. Now
look who he calls. Ye see your calling, brethren,
verse 26, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. I've known a few, but not many. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are
despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
now I fit there. Nothings, nobodies. To bring to naught the things
that are. How come? God saves such things
as us. How come? How come God Almighty
calls such a man as the one now talking to you to preach the
gospel of His grace to other sinners? How come? How come God
takes an assembly like this? This rag-tag, ragamuffin crowd
that gives us the treasure of His grace to carry into all the
world that no flesh should glory in His presence. Now this is
what that means, Merle Hart. If you get the glory, God gets
the praise. If you do anything for the benefit
of any soul, God gets the praise. If God uses you and me for anything,
he gets the glory. Because we're nothing. We're
nothing. That's all. Secondly, the call
of our God is a personal call. The Lord Jesus came to Zacchaeus
and said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. He still calleth
his own sheep by name. And when he calls them by name,
he leads them out. There were many in the crowd. I expect the trees around there
might have been lining the streets going out of Jericho, might have
been full of little boys and one man. And lest there be any
mistake about who he's talking to, the Lord Jesus comes to Zacchaeus
and says, Zacchaeus! Brother Don, do you mean when
God saves a sinner, He'll come directly to him and
speak directly to him. That's exactly what I mean. That's
exactly what I mean. And you'll know it. You'll know
it. The difference between believing
the gospel of God's grace and not believing it is that those
who believe the gospel Those who believe God, those who believe
in the power of God are willing to wait for God to do his work
with his word. Other folks think we've got to
do something to make his work effectual. Now, there is a general
call. I preach the gospel to all men
everywhere. We cast the net into the sea. But there's another call. this call that comes in the power
of God the Holy Spirit. You see your calling, brethren?
Our gospel came not to you in word only, but in power, and
in much assurance, and in the Holy Ghost. What's that talking
about? When God calls, He speaks to you, He gives you faith in
Christ, and He does it by the power of His Spirit through this
Word. Every time our Lord called one
of his disciples in the gospel narratives, every time, he called
them by name. Peter, come follow me. Matthew,
come follow me. Mary, your time now. He calls
them by name. You who are believers were brought
to Christ by a personal call, a call you could not resist.
The call of Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth, beautifully pictures
what I'm talking about. And thirdly, the call of God
is a demanding call. The Lord said, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. God's grace always comes to sinners
with urgency, demanding an immediate response. If the Lord speaks
to a man's heart, he'll run after him without delay. If there's hesitancy, if there's delay, if there's
debating, call it what you will. It's not
God's call. When God called you, Bobby Estes,
Right now, you gladly follow. I called you for years. For years. Oh, but when God calls, surely after that I was turned,
I repented. After that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh, draw me, and we will run after them. Here's
the fourth thing. The call of God is humbling. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down. Come down. Come down. Come down. The way up is always
down. Come down. Come down from your
lofty opinion of yourself. Come down from your proud self-righteousness. Come down from your haughtiness.
Come down from your imaginary goodness. Come down from your
thoughts that somehow you're better than another. Come down!
Down, down, down to the foot of the crucified Son of God with
your face in the dust! Come down. Well, I won't do that. No, you won't. I know you won't. Unless God brings you down. But
God Almighty knows how to bring His own down. He'll cause you
to reel to and fro, and stagger as a drunken man, and when He
brings you to your wits end, when He convinces you that you're
a dead sinner, cursed by His holy law, lost, undone, and utterly
helpless, convinces you that soon you will perish under His
holy wrath unless He alone does something for you. Then, when
you're at your wits' end, you'll cry unto the Lord. And He hears
your voice. But not till then. Not till then. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. The Lord God demands that you
come down in utter surrender to Christ the Lord. And I make
you this promise, God will never plant the white flag of peace
in your heart until he causes you to raise the white flag of
surrender in your soul. Come down. Come down. And the call of God is an affectionate
call. The Lord Jesus said to Zacchaeus, today I must abide
at thy house. The Pharisees, when they saw
what he did, they murmured, said, why, this man's going to be the
guest of a publican. Think about that. The God of
glory steps down from infinite eternity into this
world to die upon the cursed tree so
that He can from His lofty throne and His ascended majesty stretch
out the omnipotent arm of His grace and come here to dwell
with you. He goes home with publicans and
sinners because he came here to seek and to save that which
was lost. I cannot imagine a more unfit residence for the
Son of God than this one. But he's guest right here. And
the guest is the master. I must abide at your house. When he came to abide at my house, I wasn't even welcome at my own
house. And I wouldn't have been welcome
at your house. But he came to abide at my house because he
said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. How can I put this? It's a necessary
call. Oh yeah, the call of grace is
necessary. Our Savior said, I must abide
at thy hand. You see, the salvation of a sinner is necessary. It's necessary. Absolutely necessary. There is
no sinner ever saved who doesn't have to be saved. I mean necessary. Necessary. You remember our Lord
said, I must needs go through Samaria. He said, the son of
man must be lifted up. I've got to go through Samaria,
I've got to go through Samaria today because there is a woman
whom I've chosen and I'll meet her at Jacob's well and give
her the water of life today. I must, needs be lifted up because
there's no other way to redeem and save my people. He must increase. He must reign until he's put
all his enemies under his feet. The scripture must be fulfilled. Well, Brother Don, how can you
say that there are some sinners who must be saved? Because the
Savior did. You remember what it said in
John 10 and 16? Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them
also I, what is that? Must bring. Must bring. How come? Because my Father loves
them. Because my Father purposed it.
Because I swore to do it. Because I died to save them,
I must bring them, because the purpose of God shall stand. Our Lord. sings here to say to
Zacchaeus, I must come to your house with all the blessings
of my bounteous grace, my love and grace toward you compel me.
I told my father before the world was that I would save you. Now
I must come. I'm determined to make you willing
in this day of my power to have me. And when he came to him, you know, there was No indication at all of any resistance
in Zacchaeus. The Lord said, make haste to
come down. Down he came. Just like that. Just like that.
How come? Because thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Now notice this. His call is
immutable. The gifts and callings of God
are without repentance. The Lord Jesus will come to you
today and take up residence in your house. He will not come
as an overnight guest. He comes to reside forever. One more thing, this call, this
call of God's grace is effectual. The Lord said,
Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. And Zacchaeus made haste and
came down. And when he did, He received
the Savior joyfully. I sat where some of you are sitting
for months and months and months, and I heard men preach the gospel,
heard it preached clearly and distinctly, and I heard Them
speak in God's name, calling me to Christ. And I said no. And I said no. And after a while,
I began to be terrified in my soul. Terrified. Oh, I can't tell you how terrified. I'd cry to God for mercy, try
to make a bargain with him. Let me live through this night
and I'll serve you. And the next morning I said no.
I was horrified of hell, horrified of God's holy law, aware somewhat
of my guilt. I said no. But God wouldn't take no for
an answer. One day He sent His Word and
revealed His Son to me. And when I saw the glory of God
in putting away my sin by the sacrifice of His Son, my heart
cried, give me Christ or else I die. I've got to have Him. I've got to have Him. He called. I said, oh boy. He called me. And when He called
me, I knew His voice. And I followed Him. The hymn
writer put it this way, Come ye sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, joined with power, He is able. He is able. He is
willing. Doubt no more. Come ye needy,
come and welcome. God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance. Every grace that brings you nigh
without money. Without money, come to Jesus
Christ and buy. Come you weary, heavy laden,
bruised and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
You will never come at all. Not the righteous. Not the righteous. Sinners, Jesus came to call.
Let not conscience make you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to feel your need of him. And this he gives you. This he
gives you. Tis the Spirit's rising beam.
Lo, the incarnate God ascended, pleads the merit of His blood.
Venture on Him, venture wholly, let no other trust in truth. None but Jesus, none but Jesus
can do helpless sinners good. Come, O come to the Savior. May God sweetly force you to
come. Amen.