If the Lord will allow me, I
want to speak to you this morning about the purpose of our Savior's
incarnation. The title of my message is, The
Master's Mission. And we'll begin in Luke chapter
19 and verse 5. Luke chapter 19 and verse 5. The Lord Jesus is on His way
up to Jerusalem to redeem His people. to lay down his life
as our substitute. He told his disciples, he'll
go there and suffer many things, the Jews and the Romans, and
be put to death, and the third day rise again. Being confident
that his sacrifice is sufficient and effectual to put away sin,
he said, my father is going to receive me up into glory, because
the work that I do is work that satisfies Him. Now, He's come
through Jericho. As He's going out of Jericho,
we read in verse 5, when Jesus came to the place, He looked
up and saw Zacchaeus, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste,
and come down, for today I must abide at thy house." What a picture
we have here of the sovereignty of God's free, full, and matchless
grace. Here the Lord Jesus comes to
a certain man. Multitudes are around him. Crowds
are pressing him. But he has come for a certain
man, a man named Zacchaeus, a poor, needy sinner. And he comes to
the place where Zacchaeus is and saw it. And seeing him, he
looked upon him and called him. And then he did something we
don't read of him ever doing anywhere else. He invited himself. home to this man's house. He
said to Zacchaeus, today I must abide at thy house. There was a must that caused
the Savior to go to that place where this publican was perched
in a tree like a little boy. There was a must that compelled
him to look up and see this man. There was a must that constrained
the Lord of Glory to call him. And there was a must that brought
the Son of Man home to this needy soul. Is this God's method of
grace? Is this the manner in which the
Savior's work is accomplished in and for poor souls like us,
by which He brings us to Himself? I take it to be so. Notice here,
it was not Zacchaeus seeking the Savior, but the Savior seeking
Zacchaeus. I'm sure that sitting where he
was, Zacchaeus must have thought that it was his curiosity that
caused him to climb up that tree to see Jesus. His curiosity that
led him to come to this place and scamper up the tree, that
he might be in that particular tree at this particular time.
But it wasn't his curiosity that caused it. No, no. No, it was the prevenient grace
of God his Savior who roused the curiosity and brought him
to the place. Did the Savior seek Zacchaeus,
call Zacchaeus, incline Zacchaeus to receive him and bring salvation
to his heart and to his house on that day? Of course he did.
Zacchaeus, we're told, sought to see Jesus who he was. But the Lord Jesus was coming
there to bring Zacchaeus to himself and to bring himself to Zacchaeus
in saving mercy. And when the day was done, the
Savior was found of him who sought him not. Yes, salvation is of
the Lord. It is not in any way, to any
degree, in any measure, at any point the work of man. The eye
of faith The eye of faith, not the eye of religious knowledge,
not the eye of carnal reason, the eye of faith always sees
nothing but the hand of God in the salvation of his people.
When my heart was first inclined to seek Christ, it was Christ
who inclined my heart to seek him. And if you seek him, that
will be the case with you. Our faith is not that by which
we somehow have something intuitively within ourselves by which we
bring ourselves to the Son of God. Not at all. Our faith in
Christ is but the return of His gift back to Himself. When you believe on the Son of
God, you are but giving Him what He gave you. It is the return
of His gift to him. The hymn writer put it this way,
I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek
Him seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior,
true. No, I was found of Thee. I would never have looked on
him had he not first looked on me and given me the desire to
look on him. I would never have sought him
had he not come seeking me. Tell me, is that not your experience? You who know my God, of course
it is. And the grace that called us
and saved us That grace that we experienced in the beginning
of this life of faith is the grace we need and must have today. How I hurt to confess it, but I shut my door constantly
against him. constantly. And it would stay shut if he
didn't put his hand in by the hole of the door and drop in
his grace and sweetly force me to open to him. The grace by
which we were drawn to him and made to come to him in the beginning
is the grace we need and must have today. As it was in the
beginning, so it is now. Though we may have known the
master for a long time and experienced his grace in boundless unceasing
goodness, we would never cast a glance toward him. We would
never cast a glance toward him, much less gazingly look upon
him in faith, desiring him, wanting him. Wanting to know Him. Accept He. Look on us. And seek us out. Look on us in
grace. Awakening grace. Sweet, constraining
grace. Delivering, saving grace. Just
like you did, Peter. Do you remember what the Master
did when Peter cussed and denied Him the third time? The book
says he looked on Peter. Oh, what a look. It's the look
he used when he looked on Zacchaeus. Look now, oh son of God, upon
my heart. Yes, we seek him. Yes, we seek
him. If we believe him, we seek him.
But only because he seeks us. We want him. but only because
He wants us. We desire Him, but only because
His desire toward us is of old from eternity. We come to Him,
but only because He must come to us. Did I say must? Oh, yes, there is a must involved
in His work. He must come to Zacchaeus. He
must come to His people. He must because His love demands
it. He must because His purpose demands
it. He must because His engagements
for us as our covenant surety demand it. He must because His
delight in mercy demands it. He must because His very heart
and being demand it. Oh, blessed Son of God, let me
daily, hourly, moment by moment, hear Your voice calling me. calling me down from all creature
care and creature confidence and creature concern and creature
comfort down to you. Come. Come, Lord Jesus. Seek me out now and sweetly constrain
me to come to you. Constrained by love and mercy
and grace, come to you and come, Lord. not as a man to visit,
but come to abide right here in this house forever. And what I ask for myself, I
ask for these who hear my voice. Oh, come, blessed Savior. He cried, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O my God. Let him now come and glorify
himself, being found this very hour of them who seek him not."
Is that a reasonable expectation? Is it reasonable to expect the
Lord Jesus to come here today as He passed through Jericho
years ago? Inviting himself to go home with
sinners like you and me to invite himself with such sweet Omnipotent
love and grace goodness and mercy that we're delighted to take
him home That is indeed most reasonable I Know it is a most
reasonable thing to expect because in verse 10 He tells us that
this is the reason why he took on himself in human flesh and
came into this world. Let's look at it. Here he explains everything these
folks had witnessed. Here he explains everything that
up to that point had been brought to pass in God's providence throughout
the history of the universe. Here he explains everything that's
going on today. Here he explains everything that
shall come to pass in days to come. But surely you don't mean
to be so simple-minded as to tell us that the Son of God in
one short sentence, in one short sentence, all of them one-syllable
words, You surely don't mean to be so
simple-minded as to tell us that everything in the universe is
here explained distinctly and clearly. Oh, I mean to be so
profound as to tell you this is the only reason anything is. The only reason. For the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. The Lord Jesus here tells us,
and it is verified throughout the book of God, that He came
into the world to save sinners. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Thou shalt call His name
Jesus. For He shall save His people
from their sins. Let me show you three things
in this verse. First, look at our Lord's title. He uses a distinct title to identify
Himself as our Savior and to identify His purpose in coming.
He calls Himself the Son of Man. the Son of Man. Now wait. Why
didn't he call himself the Son of God? He's that. He is God
the Son. He is God manifest in the flesh. Why doesn't he call himself the
Son of God? Why doesn't he call himself the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace? All those
titles and many, many more are his rightfully to claim, titles
by which he identifies and describes himself in his glorious character
and work as our Savior. But the name and the title which
our Lord delighted to use more than any other to identify himself
is this, the son of man. How fond he is of this sweet
title. Surely, he means by this title
to keep our minds focused on his great humility and condescension
as our savior. What a stoop he made. Now, I've chosen my words deliberately. They're worth remembering. The
Son of God became the Son of Man that the sons of men might
become the sons of God. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ? How that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty,
poverty, poverty, not just his physical poverty, oh no, no,
no, no, he became poor in poverty of
soul. when he was made sin for us,
forsaken of God because he was made sin for us. You know the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich in
all the praises of eternal Godhead, rich, yet for your sake he became
poor, he emptied himself. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, emptied himself, made himself of no reputation,
took upon himself the form of a servant, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Why? That you, by
him emptying himself, might be made rich, as rich as he is, as the Son
of God. He became as poor as we are,
that we might be made as rich as He is. Oh, blessed Son of
Man. But there's something more here.
Our Savior, using this term, tells us something about that
which we ought ourselves to practice. We ought to follow His example. How foolish and vain it is for
mere worms of the earth, and that's what you are, that's what
I am, just worms, just worms. How foolish, how vain, for mere
worms of the earth to try to distinguish themselves from one
another. Oh, what pride. What stupid,
insane, foolish pride. We take titles. Preachers are
the worst. Call me Reverend. Call me Doctor. Call me Father. Call me Holy. Not God's servants. No, no, no. Not God's servants. I try not to be abrasive, but
folks say, what should I call you, Reverend? Sometimes I ask,
should I call you Father? I say, call me Don. That'd be
fine. That'd be fine with you. If you
insist on addressing a man who's a little older than you as something
other than his first name, call me Mr. Fortner. That'd be all
right. But not Reverend. Not Reverend. Not Dr. Fortner. I heard years ago about a fellow
called, and that preacher's name was Twiddle. And they got him
a doctor's degree. And ever since after that, they
called him Reverend Twiddle D.D. And that's just about how important
it is. Insignificant. But we seek to
distinguish ourselves from one another in so many ways. I want you to look at me and
think I'm better than you. God forgive us. That's one worm trying to distinguish
himself from another worm. Ain't much to them. They're just
worms. Our Lord's delight was to identify
himself with us. He calls himself the Son of Man. He delights to be bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh one with us. Let us make it our business
not to distinguish ourselves from one another, but to identify
ourselves with one another, being one in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's something else here,
even sweeter than this. Our Savior uses this title, the
Son of Man, to identify himself Because He loves men. And He loves being a man. Now
I've said more than I can ever talk about explaining. Or think
about explaining. He loves men. God Almighty loves
men. Just as we are. And loves being
a man. He loves being one with us. He loves being bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. He loves loving his church, loves
sacrificing himself for his church, loves being one with his church. He loves men and loves being
one of us. This is something that was done
publicly. You remember when our Lord Jesus
came into the world? There's no room for Him in the
end, so Joseph and Mary make their way to a stable. And the Lord Jesus is born, I
suppose, on a bed of straw and laid in a manger. But, oh, how God marked the spot. There was a star in heaven that
said to the universe, look here, This day have I begotten thee. Look here! God has come down
to earth in human flesh. The angels of God gathered to
the place. The cherubs sang his praise. Wise men are gathered about him. This was not done in secret.
The Lord God gathered the universe to observe this thing. And while
men today do all they can to deny it, do everything they can
to deny it, it can't be denied. It just can't be denied. The
fact they raise so much fuss about it means they just can't
deny it. It's a fact of history. Look here in John chapter 1.
Let's see what happened. John chapter 1. Here is John's description of
this Son of Man. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Quite literally,
this is how it reads. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. God was the
Word. The same was in the beginning
with God, face to face with God, one with God. All things were
made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made. In Him was life, and life was the light of the world. And
the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not. But somebody comprehended it. Look in verse 14. And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He pitched a tent right
here in this world. The same kind of tent He pitched
for you, flesh. And we beheld in this man, this
man, we beheld in this man, His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, the eternally begotten Son of the Eternal Father. This man is He, and He's full
of grace and truth. No wonder the hymn writer is
saying, oh, hail, thou once despised Jesus. Hail, thou Galilean king. Thou didst suffer to release
us. Thou didst free salvation break. All right, here's the second
thing. Back here in Luke 19.10. And I wish I had the ear of the
world to hear this. Our text tells us plainly that the Son of God, to become
the Son of Man, that He became the Son of Man, that He might
do a specific thing. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost. What's the meaning of the Incarnation?
Oh, how many fools you're going to hear trying to explain that
in the next few days. What's the meaning of the Incarnation?
Oh, it means this. I think it means that. I think
it means this. This is what it means to me. Hell doesn't care what it means
to you, and I don't either. What it means to you makes no
difference in hell or in earth. None at all. What does it mean? Now, that makes a difference.
The Son of Man has come to seek. and to save that which was lost. That's what it means. That's
why he came. In other words, the Lord God
Almighty came down here on this earth in human flesh. God assumed
our nature. God came down here in order to
accomplish a specific mission. The Lord Jesus, as the Son of
God, our mediator, our surety, and our substitute, came here,
the Son of Man, with a mission to accomplish, with a work to
perform, with a job to do. And either He did it, or this
Son of Man is not the Son of God. He came to do the will of
God by which we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ one time, to do the will of God by which He
saves His people from their sins. I state this as a self-evident
truth. And I think it's worth writing
down. Whatever the incarnation of Christ or the intention of
Christ was in His incarnation, Whatever the intention of Christ
was in coming into this world, that intention shall most assuredly
be accomplished. Whatever He came here to do,
if this Son of Man is indeed God the Son, whatever He came
to do shall be done. There's no possibility of failure
within. The prophet Isaiah says, he shall
not fail. He shall not be discouraged till
he has set judgment in the earth. It won't happen. He shall not
fail until justice is set in the earth. Now, you're aware
that there are multitudes who tell us that redemption, the
redemption work of our Lord Jesus Christ, was not a matter of certainty. It is not something that has
certain accomplishments. That our Savior didn't actually
redeem anyone when he died. That he merely made it possible
for sinners to be redeemed if they would give God consent to
redeem them. How often we hear folks talk
about The Lord wants to save you. The Lord wants to redeem
you. The Lord wants to have you. But
now, there's this matter of your will. There's this matter of your choice. And God's a gentleman. He won't
come where he's not invited. The Lord Jesus came to Zacchaeus'
house uninvited. And when he came, Zacchaeus was
tickled to death to have him. He brings his welcome with him. Your will is so utterly insignificant
and meaningless and weak that it is ludicrous that religion
makes your will to be your idol. Paul calls it will worship. Folks
who believe in salvation by free will are will-worshippers, not
God-worshippers. Will-worshippers. That's what
Paul calls it in Colossians chapter 2. Will-worshippers. Well, not
me. You make the redeeming work of
Christ depend on your will? You don't worship Christ. You
make the redemption work of Christ depend on your obedience? You
don't worship Christ. You make the redemption work
of Christ depend on your righteousness? You don't worship Christ. You
worship yourself. And that's the most foolish form
of idolatry in the world. I'd rather worship a stump covered
over with moss. Dr. Magruder out in Louisville,
he said to me one time after I got done preaching, he said,
isn't it amazing that man takes the weakest aspect of his character
and makes it his God? Well, I have a free will. Really? Well, I'll give you that. It
is. It's just as free as a frog in a snake's belly. Brother Scott
Richardson said one time, if you jump around all it wants
to, you just can't get out. Your will is limited by the constraint
of your nature, and your nature is nothing but sin. the will
of man. I do what I want to. Do you? Do you really? No. No. The scriptures teach nothing
of the kind. The scriptures declare that Jesus
Christ came into this world on a mission to lay down his life
as the good shepherd for his sheep. The Scriptures declare
that the Lord Jesus came here to die for His people and save
them. The Scriptures declare that when
He had finished His work as our Savior, He obtained eternal redemption
for us by virtue of the fact that He entered into heaven once
with His own blood. And that blood obtained redemption
for those people for whom He died. Yes, in a word I assert
dogmatically that the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never
be discovered a miscarriage. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Now, because this one whom we
worship, the Son of Man, is God in human flesh. It must, it must
be recognized that whatever his intention was in stepping down
here in this thing called humanity and coming down here from heaven
to earth and bringing the infinite incomprehensible God to be compassed
about in the womb of a virgin in human flesh so that he comes
forth God manifest in the flesh. Whatever his intention was, that
will be the result. Does that make sense to you?
Now, I wouldn't say that about us. But I'll tell you that there
are some things that make it impossible to think otherwise
if you think. Not only is it revealed in the
scripture, but there are some things that just make it impossible
for anyone who thinks about it. Just stop and think about it.
Now, I realize when folks go to church, generally, they check
their brains at the door. Bring your brains in with you
and listen and think for a minute. The character of God demands
that his intention and the result of his work be exactly the same.
Now, I wouldn't say that about us. We plan and fail. We begin to build and quit. We will and don't do. We desire
and don't obtain because we're men. And we don't control anything. We don't control anything. I
love to be in control. Any circumstance around me, I
try my best to act like I'm in control. But we don't control
anything. The first baptismal service I had, I got out of college. We didn't have a baptistry at
the church building where I was pastoring and lookouts, so we
went down to the creek. And I was baptized in a big fellow. This
is the second baptismal service. The first one's another story.
That fellow's that tall. He's that tall. Big young man.
And we were down in the creek, and I never baptized anybody
in the creek. And he stood up on a rock. He's that tall. And I started to, I said, well,
I don't want to disturb anything, I'm in control. So I laid him
down. Downstream, about lost him. I
grabbed him by his breeches and caught him and shoved him under.
How come? Because I don't control anything.
Nothing. Not even my thoughts. You either. But God, oh, that's another story. He controls everything. Even
your thoughts. Everything. God Almighty is not
a creature like us. He is the eternal God. The eternal God. He is the Almighty. A God who could intend something
and fail to accomplish it is no God at all. No God at all. Let me ask you something else. I'll give you a challenge. I'll
give you a challenge and you can repeat it to anybody, anywhere,
anytime. And so this is a challenge from
Don Fortner. I'll give you a challenge. Show me anything, anything in
the history of the universe, anything in heaven, earth or
hell, anything among angels or men or devils in hell or Satan
himself. Show me anything. anything in
all history where God Almighty purposed what He did not bring
to pass. And I'll throw this book away,
and I'll never preach again. Anything. Show me anything. When
God uttered His word by the lips of His servants, the prophets,
that which He spoke, He performed exactly as He said He would do
it. Exactly. Children of Israel are
in Babylonian captivity. And the hundreds of years, I
think it was 250 years before he ever sent them down there
and then brought them out, do you know what he said? He said,
call this fella here, Cyrus. Bring my people out. Ungodly pagan was born. You know what his mom and daddy
named him? Well, let's see, what did God say we were supposed
to name him? No! They said, we'll call him Cyrus.
The Lord said, this is the way he's coming in, and this is the
way he's going out. Do you know how he went in? Do you know how he went out?
Just the way God said he would. Do you reckon he read the prophet
to find out? No. No, he did what he wanted to.
What God wanted him to. When Lucifer thought he would
topple God's throne, he said, I will ascend up in heaven. I will be like the most high. I'm going to take over the God
business. The Lord God said, he didn't really. Oh, yes, he
did. Oh, yes, he did. He that said it in the heaven
shall laugh. What book said? He laughed. He said, What this fallen star wants doesn't mean
a thing. For even his will to do it, this
is the purpose that is purposed in all the earth. when Adam plunged
his race and himself into sin and death and ruined us all by
the fall in the garden. God's purpose did not fail. It
didn't take God by surprise. Now, I don't know how to explain
everything I know about that, but I know this. If the first
Adam didn't fall, the last Adam wouldn't come. And it was God's
purpose from eternity for the last Adam to come. When Pharaoh
sat on the throne in Egypt, The Lord God said this to Pharaoh,
who said, I won't let these people go. He said to Moses, who is
this Lord God that I should worship him? I've got my own little toothpaste
God I'll use whenever I want to. And this is what God said. Go ahead and worship your little
toothpaste God. He may make your teeth sparkle,
but he ain't worth nothing. For even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up. That I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth. When Herod sought to destroy
the Lord Jesus in his infancy, as a child, because Herod was
scared somebody was going to topple him from his throne. And
he sent out a decree for the slaughter of the infants. The
Scriptures tell us in Matthew 2, that he did it that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. which said, Out of Egypt have
I called my son. In Ramah there was a voice heard
of lamentation and weeping and great mourning. When the Lord
Jesus was crucified, Judas came and betrayed him with a kiss,
because God Almighty said his son must be betrayed by his own
familiar friend. The Jews took him and with their
wicked hands delivered Him over to the Romans, who with their
wicked hands nailed Him to the tree and crucified the Lord of
glory. And God explains it was done
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. When the
Jews rejected Christ and said, we will not have this man to
rule over us, do you know how much difference that made to
Him? We won't let you rule. Oh, you
won't. You're not going to have your
way with me. Oh! Is that right? Stand back and
let's see. This same Jesus hath God made
to be Lord and Christ. And you're going to bow to Him.
And you're going to do His will. Willingly or unwillingly! Do His will, you shall. It shall
be brought to pass. He's the King. He rules. The Jews despised Him. And because
they despised him and hated him, he cast off that nation because
they deserved it. But the casting off of the Jews
is the gathering of the Gentiles. And he cast them off. They rejected
him that the gospel might go into all the world. And now all
Israel, all God's elect shall be saved because he sends out
his word to gather his people from the four corners of the
earth. If God's purpose in providence has never been frustrated, Are
we to imagine that his purpose in this, his most glorious work,
might possibly be frustrating? Oh, perish the thought. It's
not to be dreamed of for a moment. Come to Calvary and consider
he who dies there. Consider the facts. Just consider
the facts. And you'll come away from Calvary
and cry like the amazed, teary, and surely, that man right there,
he is the Son of God. Behold the darkened sky, and
hear the Savior cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? and hear him again in triumph
declare, it is finished. What? A man who hangs there in
this agony, which would have killed other men already, that
man cries triumphantly, he musters strength and cries in victory,
it is finished. Into thy hands I commend my spirit. Does that mean anything? Let's
see. In the temple, in the holy place,
there's a veil that separates the holy place from the holy
of holies. And when he cried, it's finished,
that veil was split in two, not from the bottom up like it was
worn out, from the top down because it was ripped open. Torn in two
because he finished everything represented there. He finished
the law and finished sin, made a way of access unto God for
sinners. Finished! Who is this? That man right there. He's the Son of God. Listen now! For the earth quakes, the stones
are ripped open, and say, Amen! He is the Son of God! It's God
Almighty. says, so shall my word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void,
but shall accomplish that which I please, and shall prosper in
the thing whereto I send it. Do you reckon that if His word
won't return void, His blood will? Oh, never, never, never. This is the reason He came, the
Lord Jesus, to put away sin. and to save sinners by the sacrifice
of himself. Now, give me just a second. Just a second. This is what he does. He who now sits on the throne
of glory, he seeks and saves that which was lost. He seeks them. And he saves everyone
he seeks because he redeemed them. Amen.