Luke's Gospel chapter 19. I want
to read the first 10 verses to you concerning this incident
that took place here at Jericho. Luke chapter 19 and verse 1,
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, 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, forasmuch
as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost." I guess this is a continuation
really of the message I preached a couple of Sundays ago from
the 15th chapter where the Lord received these publicans and
ate with them. But the scripture says here in
verse 1 that Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now Jericho was a strange sort
of city. You remember when the children
of Israel came over into the land of Canaan after they crossed
Jordan, this was the first city that they confronted. It was
a magnificent city at that time. And it was appointed to destruction. The Lord told them before they
ever went over there that the place will fall. The inhabitants
of that place had that fear. Even Rahab the harlot said, we
know that God's given you this city. God's given you this place
and it's going to fall. It's going to be destroyed. And
it fell. And Joshua predicted that whoever built this city
would be accursed. That there would be a man who
would rise up and would rebuild this city, and he said that man
would be accursed who tried to restore the magnificence of this
city. Well, there was a man some 400
or 500 years later by the name of El. He lived in the time of
Ahab, the king. And he restored this place. Not to its full magnificence,
but he did the best he could. But he lost his oldest son when
he laid the foundation of this city. And when he hung the gates,
he lost his last son. He cursed. The Lord cursed him.
The Lord destroyed this place. And he said, curse is the man
that tries to restore it to its magnificence. luster. We have no record that the Lord
ever stopped in this city for anything. He never stopped there
to get any water. He never stopped there to get
any food to rest himself or to converse with anybody. We always
have him near the city. going through the city and out
of the city. But you never see him stop. He stopped before he went in.
He stopped after he went in. But he never stopped in the midst
of this city. He never was identified with
this inner city. You never did hear of him doing
anything on the streets of this city. Now, ain't that amazing?
I think there's a spiritual lesson here for you and for me. This city was a curse. And that
has some spiritual significance. It's, spiritually speaking, we
can identify it with our earth, our world. When sin entered into
this world, what happened? It's cursed. It's cursed now. This world now is under the awful
judgment of God. Jesus Christ came down from heaven
to this earth, and He took our humanity to Himself. But there
was a certain aspect of this world that he never identified
with, that he never entered into, and that was the course of this
world, the sinful course of this world. You never see him walk
in the streets of our depravity, did you? We fulfill the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, but he never did. He never entered
into that. He took our sins and made them
His own upon the cross. He was cursed to redeem us from
the curse of the law, but He never did enter into this system,
this sinful system of this world. He was in this world, but He
never did go there, did He? Never did go there. You and I
were there, but never Him. Jericho, that cursed, city. And something else about Jericho,
here in the miracles our Lord performed. Every miracle our
Lord performed was near this city, but never in it. Never in it. Matthew chapter
20, as he departed from Jericho, two blind men sat by the highwayside
bank. He departed from Jericho. Mark
chapter 10, as he went out of Jericho, a blind man by the name
of Blind Barnabas sat by the highwayside baggage. And here
in verse 18 and verse 35, it said, as he came near, there
was a blind man there. And here in our text, the scripture
says in verse 1, he entered and passed through Jericho. This man that he called down
from the tree was not in Jericho. He was on the outside of Jericho. And here's something else. All
the miracles that he performed near this city, all of them had
to do with sin. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that
amazing? blind man. He went outside of
Jericho, two blind men sat by the highway side begging. And
they began to cry, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And he said, what would you that I should do, Lord, that we might
receive our sight? He went out of the city in a
blind barn and bed, sitting by the highwayside, begging, What
will you that I should do to you, Lord, that I might receive
my sight? Here in the 18th chapter, a blind man was seated there
just before he went into the city. What do you want from me,
Lord, that I might receive my sight? And even this man, Zacchaeus,
said he sought to see Jesus, who he was. Everything around
this city had to do with seeing. Now, what does that tell us?
You know what our whole problem is? We can't see. That's our whole spiritual problem. Sin has blinded us. Satan has
blinded our minds, and we need, we must have our eyes open before
we can see. One of the very things that God
sent His Son to do was open the eyes of the blind. Not so much
the natural eyes, but the eyes of our understanding. Brother
Bill read it to us, didn't he? Paul said, the Lord has saved
you. He sealed you for the Holy Spirit. But he said, this is
one thing I pray, that the Lord would give you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened. We can see the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. That's our whole problem. We
can preach our hearts out. We can study. We can preach the
best message in the world. But here's what we can't do.
We can't make you see. It takes a miracle. Jesus Himself
must come to you and say, I will see. And then you see. But not to them. That's our whole
problem. That's what these miracles around Jericho are about. Seeing. The Bible said that Zacchaeus
couldn't see Him. He couldn't see Him. Neither
could I. Neither could I. Neither could you. He couldn't
see Him for the crowd. There's always something in our
way, isn't there? We've always got reasons we can't
see Him. We may blame somebody else. But
I tell you, you can't see Him. The crowd, the crowd of sin,
the crowd of lust, the crowd of devils, the crowd of this
world and its pleasures, we can't see Him until He opens our eyes. And then we see. Rex Bartlett, he attends the
church there at Danville, Kentucky, and he read the passage of Scripture
one evening in the prayer room. And he read that passage where
the Lord partially healed the man. Remember that? When the
Lord found this blind man and he partially healed his eyes
and he said, Do you see? And he said, I see men as trees
walking. And the Lord touched him again. And he said, Now I
see all men clearly. And Brother Rex had this to say
about that. He says he saw himself clearly. What happens when we
see ourself clearly? Oh, he couldn't see himself before.
But now he sees himself. What is he? Oh, he's a miserable
wretch. He's a sinner. He's an awful
man. He sees everybody else clearly, Rex says. He sees all men. He sees everybody else is in
the same boat that he's in. Not only am I a man of unclean
lips, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. All
I have to do to preach your depravity is just look inside myself, and
you're just like I am. And Rex said he saw Christ clearly.
He saw the man Christ Jesus clearly, that he is indeed the all-sufficient
Savior that he says he is. But we've got to have eyes to
see that. Something else concerning the
Lord's work here at Jericho, and that's where I'm going this
afternoon, it was concerning being called. Now, this is strange
because everybody here that he did this work for, the Bible
says he called them. Listen to Matthew, verse chapter
20. When he went out of Jericho, Jesus stood still. and called
them and said, What will you that I should do unto you, Lord,
that we might receive our sight? Mark chapter 10, he went out
and there sat blind Bartimaeus, and Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called and said, What must I do? What do you want me
to do? And here in Luke chapter 18, Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be brought unto him. He called him. He brought him.
And then here in chapter 19 in my text in verse 5, and when
Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto
him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. Today I must abide
at thy house. That's calling. He called him. That's what I want to look at
this afternoon. Calling. of this man, Zacchaeus. And I think I've already laid
the foundation for this first point, that this was a gracious
call. A gracious call. Here was a cursed
city where this man lived. He was the chief among the publicans. They identified publicans with
sinners. He was the chief. He was the
chief sinner, you could say. He had an awful job. He had a
bad job collecting taxes, a lot of times cheating people. Even
the crowd and his shortness of stature hindered him from seeing
Jesus. There's only one thing that was
for this man, and you know what it was? Grace. It was Grace. If Grace hadn't have called this
man, he would have never been called. Everything was against
this man. Oh, listen, brothers and sisters,
Grace doesn't stop to find out if you live in a gated community
or if you live in the slums. Does it? Grace is no respected
person. Grace doesn't check you to see
if you're respected in your community or if you're shunned by your
neighbors. Grace doesn't check to see if
you have money to buy everything that your heart desires or if
you're in poverty. Grace doesn't look at that. Grace
doesn't see if you have a job on Wall Street or if you're flipping
burgers. Grace, it's a gracious call. When God calls a man by
His grace, He looks beyond all distinction, and He calls whom
He pleases. You may be the worst man in the
worst city with the worst job, but if grace calls you, you will
come. Grace. Paul made a statement like this
in Galatians chapter 1. Listen to this. He was talking
about his calling. And he said, when he looked back
upon his life before the Lord called him, this is the way he
described it. He said, you've heard of my conversation in time
past. You know what I was before the Lord saved me. He said, beyond
measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. I profited
in the Jews' religion. I don't know how he profited,
maybe financially, got himself a great name, people feared him. He profited in the Jews' religion.
I was exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father.
I tell you what, he had some bad things against him, didn't
he? But listen to this, when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace." You
see, grace makes no distinction. Grace doesn't look to see who
you are or what you are or where you are. Since grace is free,
it's not obligated, it can call and does call whosoever it will. That's why this man was called. What was Saul of Tarsus? Did
he have anything to offer? All he had was a deceived heart.
What did Zacchaeus have to qualify him for a call? A call to come
to the Savior? A call to be saved and obtain
eternal life? He had nothing to qualify him,
did he? Everything stood against him. One thing you and I have in common,
all of us together, when the Lord finds us, We're always up
one tree or another, aren't we not? That's the only thing we
have in common. We're up one tree or another.
When I look back upon my calling, I can't find one single thing
that was for me. Can you? If you had to know anything,
if you had to be anything or to do anything to commend yourself
to God, to say, call me, call me, you'd still be lost because
you had nothing to commend you. And you would all agree with
me when you look back upon your calling, you'll have to say,
surely it was a gracious calling. I of all people did not deserve
to be called to Christ, to be called to salvation. The Lord comes to you. Just like
you are, He comes to you right where you are and finds you in
an awful, awful situation. And what does He do? He calls
you. He says, Make haste and come
down. What do we see first then? It's
a gracious call. I tell you, I bet these Pharisees
could have put their finger on a lot of people rather than this
man. Nothing qualified this man to be called. Oh, he's going
to be guest with a man that's a sinner. He's a sorry man. And
I tell you, the only reason he's called is because of grace. Brother
Bill read it to us, didn't he? You know why you're saved this
afternoon? Because of free grace. The free grace of God. If you
have to qualify yourself to be called, then you'll be lost forever. Grace! He called me by His grace. Secondly, in this call of Zacchaeus,
we see this. It's here in verse 5. It's a
personal call. Did you notice that? Zacchaeus. Jesus came. Look at this. Jesus
came to the place and looked up. He came to the place. Now,
there's a message in there, did there not? He came to the place. Not a place, but he came to the
place. Isn't it a blessing when you
remember that He knew exactly where you were while you were
lost? You didn't know that, but He
knew that. He separated you from your mother's
womb, and look how far you wandered. Look at the wilderness. Look
at the messes you were in and out of. And all along, He knew
right where you were. Every moment of every hour, He
was keeping an eye upon you, watching you and preserving you,
though you never knew it. And then He comes to the day
that He called you and He knew right where you were. He came
to the place, the place. And He said, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. Look what a personal call this
is. He said unto him, Zacchaeus, Make haste and come down. That's
personalism. That's a personal calling. Some
people don't believe in personal calling. They tell us there's
a general influence that God has sent out all over the world,
and it's just an influence. And the reason some people are
saved is because they yield to the influence, and other people
are not saved because they reject the influence. I see a person
here, don't you? I see this glorious man who came
down from heaven and took our humanity. And here he's walking. And all of a sudden he stops
and he looks up and he speaks. And he said, Zacchaeus, that's
more than an influence. That's a person. That's one person
giving a personal call to another person. Zacchaeus. Make haste
and come down. The Lord Jesus said, My sheep,
hear My voice. And listen to this. Listen to
this. He calls His own sheep by name
and leads them out. Why do they follow Him out? How
in the world does He get their attention? He calls their names.
He speaks their names. I remember when I was in school. And I wasn't paying any attention.
The teacher knew how to get my attention. Mr. Crabtree, that
got my attention. That's my name. That would get
my attention. The Lord has to get our attention,
doesn't He? He calls His own sheep by their
name. I don't think, brothers and sisters,
that that means He comes and says, Bill Harris, But what he
does when he speaks, that means that he gets our attention. When
he says he calls us by name, that means when he speaks, we
listen. When he instructs us, we receive
his instruction. He gets our attention. Listen
to Acts chapter 22 and verse 9 concerning Saul of Tarsus when
the Lord struck him down on the Damascus road. Listen how personal
this was. They that journeyed with me saw
indeed the light, and they were afraid, but they heard not the
voice of him that spake to me. See that? They trembled. They
saw a light. But they did not hear His voice. Who was His voice speaking to?
Saul. Saul. Why persecute a servant? Why did the Lord come to this
tree and look up and say, Zacchaeus? There may have been a half a
dozen men up that tree. You've seen these old pictures
of where they used to have parades in towns and everybody was up
light poles and on cars and sitting on tree limbs. Can't you imagine
that's the way it was then? There was a whole bunch of kids
and men sitting up in that tree. So the Lord comes here and He
stops and He identifies one man. Zacchaeus. Now, brothers and
sisters, that's personal. That's personal. We cannot come
to the Lord Jesus Christ until He gives us a personal call. It has to apply to me. And looking
back now, I see it more clearly than I ever did. I see it more
clearly now than I did then, that He was speaking to me. He
was speaking to me. And you'll know it when He's
speaking to you. You'll know it. You'll know it. The third thing about this call
of Zacchaeus is this. It was an urgent call. Zacchaeus,
make haste. Make haste and come down. Now, you may hear a general call.
You may hear my voice. And you can go on in your sins. You may be like Agrippa. Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And then you can go on. You may be like Felix. You may
hear a message and you tremble. And you say, when I have a convenient
season, I'll call for you. But I'm telling you, when you
hear this call, when the Lord Jesus Christ calls you this way,
you will get serious. You cannot go on in your pleasure
and your sin when He calls you. It's urgent. It's now come down. Urgent. When you begin to seek
the Lord, didn't you feel like it was now or never? Do you feel
like that? Could you have just left off
seeking Him and went on? Could you? No, you could not
have. Why? There was this urgency about
it. Those Jews on the day of Pentecost,
I'm telling you, when Peter said, You have crucified Him, the Lord
of glory, what did those men do? Well, we need to go home. The wife's got dinner ready.
If he's still preaching, we'll be back a little bit later while
they've never said anything like that. What did they say? Men
and brethren, what must we do? We're in trouble here. We've
got no rest and we'll never have any rest until we find out what
we must do to be saved. They were in trouble. In trouble. And that's what this call is.
It gets us in trouble. It makes us urgent to be saved,
to seek the Lord. That publican stood in the temple.
Wasn't that an amazing thing in itself? A publican going to
the temple. You've just never seen a publican
in the temple. And here he comes in the back door and some people
almost fainted. There's a publican. What in the
world is he doing here? This is amazing. A publican in
the temple. But then what he does next is
even more amazing. He starts to pray. What's he
praying? What's he doing? He's got his
head down. Look at him smiting up on his chest. But what he's
saying is the most amazing thing. God, be merciful to me a sinner. Why would he do that? Why would
he leave his receipt of custom? Why would he leave his job deceiving
people and come into the house of worship and seeking the Lord?
He got a call. And he couldn't resist it. It
overwhelmed him. He said, I've got to have mercy.
I've got to be saved. Until the Lord brings us there,
brothers and sisters, let's just be honest about it. We never
will come to Him. If the situation doesn't get
urgent, we will not seek His face. If there's someplace else
to go, if there's something else to believe, if there's some rest
for our conscience someplace else, then forget about it. We're
not going to Him. We only come to Him when the
last resort That's it. We have to be anxious. It has
to be urgent. And that's what this call is
about. Zacchaeus, you make haste. Make haste. Today I must abide
at your house. We could say this about this
call. Look at this also in verse 5. Today. Zacchaeus, today. Isn't it a seasonal call? Today, I must abide. Not tomorrow. I wasn't here yesterday. I won't be here tomorrow. I'm
just passing through, you know. Today. Isn't that seasonal? This has scared a lot of folks
to death, and it should. I had a young man that sat down
one time and talked with me, and he was almost trembling physically. And he said, I think I've missed
it. I think I've missed it. He said, there was a time not
long ago when I knew in my heart of hearts that I should break
off my sins and seek the Lord. But he said, I didn't. He said,
I rebelled against that and I went on in my sins. And he said, now
I am scared to death that I have missed it. I don't know if that's
true or not. I have no idea. I hope he finds
out different. There is a passage in Hebrews
chapter 3 sometime that sure puts me on edge. Listen to what
it says. As the Holy Ghost saith, the
Holy Spirit said this, today if you will hear his voice, today
if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation. In the forty years when your
fathers proved me and they tempted me, and I was grieved with that
generation, and I said they do always err in their hearts, therefore
I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest." Boy,
they had a season when they were to go into the land of Canaan.
They missed that season and they never went in, did they? Ain't
that a fearful thing? Zacchaeus today. It must be today. It's seasonal. It must be now. And fifthly, look at this. It's
a humbling call. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down. That's the call. You know how
you know you've been called. You always come down. One of
the reasons I don't give altar calls, ask somebody to come up
front, You know, really, honestly, the reason I don't ask people
to come up front, it has the word up in it. And when I study
the call, it don't have the word up. Don't come up front. Come
down. The Master always calls us down. I tell you, I worry about people
that say they've been called and they start bragging and they
get proud. And they say such things like,
well, it was up to me. That's pride, isn't it? Up to
you? The Lord hasn't taught you better than that. He hasn't brought
you low enough to say, if it had been left up to me, I'd have
never came. If it had been left up to me,
I'd have been in hell. The Lord's not humbled you enough
to say, no, it's not up to me. It wasn't up to me. The only
difference between me and somebody else, they say, is I made the
difference. Oh, what pride! Have you come
down? Make haste and come down. Oh,
you're up this tree of self-righteousness. You're up this tree of self-sufficiency. You're up this tree of open and
profane sin. You're up your own tree. And
you come down one limb. No, that's not enough. Oh, you
must come down another limb. No, that's not enough. Just keep
coming down until you're level with the ground. That's where
He brings you. In the dust. Come down. Come all the way down. Oh, brothers
and sisters, it's so contrary to nature. The calling of God's
people is contrary to nature. Nature lifts you up. Motivational
speakers, they lift you up. They pump you up. They've got
you doing something. But when Jesus calls you, it
brings you down. It brings you down. I think about the Whitehead family. And a good example of humiliation. I remember Brother Glenn called
me a number of years ago now, Glenn. I was at my house and
I got a phone call and it was Glenn on the other end. And he
said, Brother, I'm lost. I don't know if you remember
your call to me, Glenn, I'm lost. Here was a man who sang in church
all the time, testified. And here he's calling me and
telling me, Brother, I'm lost. How humbling is that? I remember
when Terrence, Glenn's son, back in the prayer room, you remember
this Terrence? We were all sitting back there,
and here come Terrence in, wanting to sit in the prayer room with
us. We were taking turns. We'd start on this end and go
around the room. One would pray, then the other would pray. And
Terrence was sitting there in the center. They were just going
to pass him by. But when it came to him, he started calling out
on the Lord for mercy. Have mercy! How humbling that
is! But that's what you do, you see.
That's where He brings you to. You're not ashamed anymore. You
need mercy. And you don't care to put your
mouth in the dust and say, Lord, have mercy upon me. Glenn's wife,
Jean, one morning about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, she
called me early that morning, and she said, the Lord has humbled
me. And He saved me. Lamentations chapter 3. And you
can read that sometimes. She said, He used that chapter
to humble me and save me. And she got up and went up to
your house and told you the Lord has saved her. What does calling
do? It brings us down out of our
trees. It gives us the mind of Christ,
the meek and lowly Savior. Can you imagine? Here's the Savior,
and He's looking up at this man. Ain't that strange? He, he from
heaven. And he's looking up at this man.
That shouldn't be that way. And it won't be that way when
he calls us. He'll come down and give us his
attitude. He'll put this meek and lowly
heart in us that he has. That's why nobody will ever look
up to us again when the Lord calls us. Because we're on the
bottom. We're in the dust. It's hard to look down at anybody
when you're in the dust, ain't it? It's hard. And that's where
he brings us. To the dust. Come down. Come down. A humbling, humbling
call. And think of this. It's a necessary
call. Look at this. Isn't it amazing,
all this in this one little verse? Zacchaeus may taste and come
down, for today I must. Abide at your house. I must.
That word means binding, necessary. You must be born again. Boy, how necessary is that? There's
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. How binding is that? We must. We must be saved. I love that
word, don't you? I must. I must abide at your
house. And I don't think he's going
to trade that for I might. But there's a chance. Now when
he says I must, he means I must. I must. The Lord must need to
go through some area. One man was commenting on that.
He said, well, He said these fellows talked about, you know,
the Lord must need to go through Samaria because he had one of
his people there. But he said really and honestly,
there was no other road that went through Samaria. That's
why he must go through Samaria. He said that's the lot of it. Okay, let's just assume then
that he's right. That there's no other way for
him to go around the city or anything. Let's just assume that
that's the only road that went back to Galilee, so he must take
it. Why was that the only road? That's strange, ain't it? Can
we ask that question? Why was Samaria built there? Well, you know why it was built
there? The Lord said, I've got one of
my elect people right there. You build this city, and I'm
going to have one of my elect people there, and there's just
one road, and I want it to go right through the middle of Samaria."
And Jesus said, I must go through Samaria. I must. You see, everything in this world,
brothers and sisters, is happening. Everything exists and everything
that's going on out there is happening for the salvation of
God's elect. You know what's going on out
there? That's what's going on. He's fulfilling his purpose to
save his people. He has a thief. And he's going
to save him, and he's going to save him while he hangs on a
tree next to him in his dying hour. So what does God do? He
says, you plant a tree. You plant a tree. I've got a
man I'm going to hang on it. And I'm going to save him in
his dying hour. They plant a tree. Somebody uses it for shade. Some
other people uses some for Firewood and kindling. But the main purpose
of that tree is what? To hang that elect thief on that
the Lord may look over at him and say, this day shall you be
with me in paradise. You had to have Zacchaeus up
a tree. There must be a tree. So God
said, plant a tree. Plant a tree. This is my purpose.
Everything that's happening, all the planting of trees and
building of cities, And people gathering together, that's for
one thing. It's for the salvation of the
Lord's people. One man said it like this. He
said the building of the church is like this magnificent building
going up, and it's surrounded by all this scaffolding. But
he said when the building is finished, all the scaffolding
is taken down. And that's what's happening,
isn't it? The world exists, and men are running to and fro inventing
all of these things. And it's scaffolding that the
Lord is using it to build His church. And when He's finished,
there stands this magnificent church, and everything else is
swept away, and the church is all that's left. He must need
to go through Samaria. I personally believe there are
many ways He can go around Samaria. But He must. Must. I must abide at your house. It's a must call. A necessary call. Doesn't that
encourage you? That really encourages me. The
Father has a purpose. And this is what it is to save
this sinner. The Lord purchased this man. He'll have him. The Holy Spirit promised to call
him. He'll be called. You study those three things. God's purpose. That's what we
see in Zacchaeus. The woman at the well. The thief
on the cross. His purpose. We see Christ's
purchase. And we see His promise. All the
Father gives to me, they shall come. Make haste and come down. Sabbath day. Two or three more
and I'll go. Consider this, it's an affectionate
call. I must abide at the house. At the house. What an affectionate
call. Lord Jesus, why in the world
would you go to this man's house? Do you realize what's been going
on in his house? Oh, don't you know that he has
taken poor widows there and spoken to them and threatened them and
left them weeping? Threatening them if they didn't
pay their taxes. Don't you know that all the people
he's got in there and intimidated them? And robbed them of their
money? Don't you know what's going on
in that house? And you're going there? Oh, that's
what these people here said. That man's a sinner. You're going
in his house. Oh, isn't that affectionate?
Oh, he's going to change that house. He's going to change it.
He doesn't go in there with all the sin and all the corruption.
He washes it. He changes it. But isn't it wonderful
that He even goes there? Don't you think it's a wonderful,
affectionate thing that He came to live in your heart? You think
this house is bad. What about your heart? And here's something else just
as amazing. This isn't an abiding call. I must abide at your house. I'm not just coming there for
a visit. I'm going to abide. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters, the Lord didn't just come and say, well, I'm going
to stay here a week or so and visit with you, then I'll be
gone? It's not like that, is it? What did He say? I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. I'll go with you always, even
to the end of the world. He said, I'm going to give you
another comforter, and He's going to abide with you for how long?
Ever? Forever? Oh, sometimes you don't
feel like he's there, do you? Or he seems like he's hit himself
off in a room somewhere. And you knock and you pound and
say, Lord, show your face. Please show your face. I've got
to know you're still in the house. Well, listen, when he comes in,
he comes in to abide forever. It's not an abiding call. And
lastly, we can say this about it. It's a manifacture call.
The word effectual means having the power to gain the ends desired. What was the ends desired? Make
haste and come down. Wasn't that what the Master desired?
Well, what happened? Well, verse 6 says, And he made
haste and came down. How do you know the Lord has
called you effectually? You've obeyed the call. He tells
you to repent, you come and humble yourself, and you forsake your
sins. He tells you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you come and believe on Him. Through grace, you believe on
Him. That's how you know that you've been called effectually.
And I tell you, it changed this man. It changed him morally,
didn't it? It changed him spiritually. He'd
never seen the Lord Jesus before, but now he comes flying out of
that tree, and the Bible says he received Him joyfully. He
received him with all of his heart. Received him into his
heart. Changed him spiritually. Changed
him morally, too. He said, Lord, half of my goods
I give to the poor. Boy, he's gone to bed that night
a whole lot poorer than he was when he woke up that morning,
wasn't he? But you know, he's a lot richer spiritually. He possessed this rich Savior
now. He possessed an inheritance that's beyond measure. reserved for him in heaven. Oh,
he had an unburdened conscience. The guilt was gone. His hands
were washed from all of his lying and cheating and defrauding.
He's a new man. He'd been called a fetcher. Now,
if you say you've been called and you're just the same old
person, all you've done is made a profession, and you're the
same old person, dear soul, listen. Listen. Don't believe that. Don't
believe that. Look at this man. He lived in
a cursed city. He was the chief of these publicans.
He was a rich man. But when the Lord Jesus called
him, it completely changed this man. He wasn't that anymore. And if the Lord hasn't changed
you, then He's probably not called you. If He's called you, you're
changed. You've received Him with all
your heart. You've given all that you have
and all that you are up to Him. Brother Steve asked the question
the other night, jokingly, I hope. He was talking about tithe. And
then Steve said, I don't know about giving 20%. I almost said,
well, what about 100%? Do you know what Paul said about
that? They first gave themselves to the Lord. 10%, 50%, 100% is not enough until he gets you. And when does he get us? When
he calls us. When he calls us.