Luke's Gospel chapter 19. And
I want to begin reading in verse 1 down through verse 10. 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, but he could not for the press, the crowd, because
Zacchaeus was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed
up in a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to that place,
he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. For today I must abide at your
house." And Zacchaeus made haste and
came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all
murmured and grumbled and complained, saying, He is going to be guest
with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said
unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false
accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This
day is salvation come to this house. for as much as he also
is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost." The Lord Jesus often addressed
himself, as he does here in verse 10, the Son of Man. Sometimes he addressed himself
as the Son of God. I am the Son of God, he said.
I am the Son of God. Believest thou the Son of God?
Lord, who is he? I have been speaking to you.
I am he. He was always the Son of God,
but he was not always the Son of Man. He was born of a woman. God sent forth his Son from heaven,
born of a woman. And then he became the Son of
Man. Lo, I come, I come. Where does He come from? The
Son of Man is come. Where does He come from? He comes
from heaven. He comes from the Father. I came
not of myself. The Father sent me. I'm from
my Father. The old songwriter and poet said,
Late in time, behold, He came. offspring of the Virgin's womb,
He is indeed the Son of Man. Oh, the meaning behind this word,
the Son of Man. He has come. He has come in the
flesh. He has come to this world that
He made. He came to His own people. He came to His own temple. And
He came in our humanity, the Son of Man in our humanity. He came unashamed. He took to
Himself our humanity, the Son of Man. And He sanctified it. He honored it. He magnified it. He glorified it, the Son of Man. And the Son of God is in heaven
this morning And he sits and rules there in our glorified
humanity. He is this morning what he was
when he was here 2,000 years ago. He's yet the Son of Man. Having taken our humanity to
himself in a most real sense, he can never be separated from
our humanity again. He'll be in our humanity when
He comes again. The Son of Man shall come in
His glory. Oh, brothers and sisters, I think
sometimes if He is the only humanity in heaven, if there's not another
man in heaven in our humanity, I tell you what, that would please
me well, just to know He's there. Because look what He's done with
our humanity. Do you love humanity? I tell
you I love humanity. I love my humanity. I love your
humanity. You love your humanity. It's
a vital part of us. It's what we are. Well, look
at Him this morning. He's there. And He's there in
our humanity. And if no other man would ever
be saved, He's saved. And he's safe and he's happy. I wonder if that wasn't what
God meant humanity to be. Obedient, honorable, glorious,
loving. He's there in our humanity. Perfect humanity. And you know
something? He's not ashamed. He's not ashamed
of our humanity. He's not ashamed. It's fallen.
It's vile, but he's not ashamed of it. And he'll never stop working
with us and in us until that day when he's made our humanity
exactly like his humanity. Glorious, glorious. The Son of Man is come. Here's the cause of his becoming
the Son of Man. Here's the reason that he came
down from heaven. Here is the reason in verse 10
that He took our humanity to Himself. He tells us, if we had
no other verse that told us the cause and the reason of the coming
of Jesus Christ and taking Himself, our humanity, we have it right
here. The Son of Man has come for this reason, to seek, to
seek and to save that which was lost. Oh, what a blessing it
is to be lost. He seeks the lost. He finds the
lost. You say, Bruce, there's a lot
of people that's lost. Not in their own eyes. Not in
their own estimation. I tell you what, this morning,
if you're lost in your own estimation, in your own eyes, He's seeking
you. He's found you. Now, that's the
truth. You may not have found Him yet,
but He's found you. And I tell you, when He finds
you, you'll start seeking Him. And you'll not stop seeking Him
until you have found Him in your own heart, in your own apprehension. I've come to seek and to save
that which was lost. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters, and this is the truth, if a man can live in this world
and work and eat and sleep and go ahead about his business without
the Savior, without an interest in Him, he don't know himself
to be lost. And what he needs is this, for
the Son of Man to begin to seek Him and find Him. Here now in verses 1 through
9, we see the reason for the Lord Jesus coming, and we see
it illustrated in this man by the name of Zacchaeus. He tells
us this in verse 9, that the Son of Man has come to seek and
to save that which was lost, and he shows us that here in
verses 1 through 9. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save. Well, that tells us a lot of
reasons He didn't come for them. We know a lot of reasons he didn't
come. He didn't come to make the world
a better place to live. That's not why he came. A safer
place. He didn't come to put a car in
every garage and a chicken in every pot. That's not why he
came. He didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom and give peace on the earth. You told us that this
morning, Glenn. He didn't come to make men rich
and happy. Do you know why he came? To seek
and to say that which was lost. That's the reason for his coming.
And he tells us here in verse 1, and this is sort of a sad
thing in a way, but he says that Jesus entered and passed through
Jericho. You read the Gospels and every
time you find the Lord Jesus at Jericho, He never stops. He is always entering into Jericho
and passing through. And He healed a few blind people
on the outskirts of Jericho, but He never stopped there. He
never stayed in Jericho. Hundreds of years before this
time, God tore down the walls of this city. And seemingly, when the Lord
Jesus came, He didn't have much saving work and miracles to do
in this place. That's sad, ain't it? That's
fearful. I saw a documentary or something
I was watching a few days ago, and it showed this satellite
image. And they were showing places
all over the world. And every place was lit up. They
showed the United States, and it was just lit up with all the
cities. And Russia was lit up. And they showed North Korea.
And it was all dark, just total darkness. And I thought how indicative
that is of the spiritual darkness of North Korea. The gospel is
not there. It's not preached to that people.
The Spirit of God has not visited that place. There are cities,
there's communities, there's homes that the Lord never visits. He just passes, passes by, and
there North Korea is. And obviously, for hundreds of
years, He has just passed it by. Ain't that a fearful thing? Ain't that a sad thing? But that's
where this man was. He was here on the outskirts
of Jericho when the Lord Jesus passed through. And verse 2 begins
with a, Behold, Maybe that's why it begins with a behold.
Because they saw him pass through Jericho so many times and did
nothing. But they said, behold now, he's
going to do something. Would you look at that? And you and I knowing that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I tell you, we look
at this this morning with interest, don't we? Because here's an illustration
of why he came. Behold, what's he going to do
with this man? He's going to seek him, and he's
going to save him. First thing we find out about
this man here in verse 2 is that he was a publican. He was chief
among the publicans. Now, you and I sometimes, we
read this and we pass right over it. We pass right over what it
means to be a publican. and why they were so amazed when
the Lord Jesus had anything to do with publicans. They were
tax collectors for the Roman government, and they collected
taxes from their Jewish brethren. They were Jews, and they collected
taxes from the Jews, and they were notorious for lying and
defrauding and making false accusations against the Jews. That's why
he told us there in verse Nine, that if I make any false accusations
against any, I'll restore him. They were notorious for that.
And what they would do is send other men sometime to collect
taxes. And they would say, you pay a
hundred dollars, even though you only owe twenty, or I'll
tell you what I'll do. Next time you have a visit, it'll
be by Roman soldiers. And they'll bring charges against
you. Can you imagine? You bring it into modern day.
We hear of this all the time. What if you had a little shop
in some inner city, and two well-dressed thugs paid you a visit? And they
said, you want to give us $500 a month for protection? Well,
we're going to take it out of your hide. And you said, no,
I'm not going to pay that. And they took you in the back
room and proceeded to beat your ribcage up. And while they were
beating on you, they whispered the name of the man that sent
them there. And what was his name? Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. And the next time
Zacchaeus came to pay you a visit, And he left two soldiers standing
outside on the sidewalk, and he come in and says, I'm here
to collect my $500. And there you looked at him.
And he's a man little of stature. He had the little man syndrome.
And you looked at him. You know, he had a snare on his
face. And if you even thought about not paying up, all he did
was look at those soldiers out on the street. And you knew what
he was thinking. You pay up or I'll call these
soldiers. And boy, you'd grit your teeth. You rotten little
scoundrel. I'd like to pound that tiny head
down on your petite body. And I would if it wasn't for
those soldiers out there. What would you think about a
man like that? Would you like him? Oh, you wouldn't like him
any more than I would. You know him. It's no wonder
they said here in verse 7 that they murmured and complained
and said he is going to be guests with a man that's a sinner. What
would you say? They complained about these publicans
all the time. A friend of publicans. He eats
with publicans and sinners. Well, no wonder they complained
about it. They were thugs. They were crime bosses. And here
was one of the cheap among them. No, I wouldn't have liked them,
and you wouldn't have liked them either. But here's something these Pharisees
didn't understand. They didn't understand that Christ
didn't go along with their crimes. He despised their crimes. But
He come to save them from those things. They didn't understand
that. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. And when He saves the lost, what
does He do? He takes them out of that crime,
and sin, and shame, and brutality, and false accusations. But you know one of the things
that galled the Pharisees when the Lord Jesus saved one of these
Peblicans? I'll tell you one of the things
that galled them more than anything. Because these Pharisees had worked
most of their life to justify themselves. They worked hard
to save themselves. They fasted twice a week. They
paid tithes of all that they possessed. They were careful
not to fall into any open and profane sin. And they reached
the place where they said, I've done it. I've worked my way to
the presence of God, oh, He's so pleased with me. I've saved
myself. I've justified myself. That's
what the Lord Jesus told them. You are they who justify yourselves. And here comes these sorry, low-down
publicans, and the Lord Jesus saves them by His grace and justifies
them immediately. without him doing anything, but
believing on him. And boy, that galls him. Don't
you think that made that publican mad when, or that Pharisee mad
when he heard that publican over our prayer, God be merciful to
me, the sinner. And immediately the Lord justified
him and he went down to his house to save man. Don't you think
he said, this ain't right. This ain't fair. I've worked
hard, and I've got blisters on my hands, and my belly's empty
from fasting. And look what I've given. Look
how I've prayed. Look how I've read. Look how
faithful I've been. And this sorry man that's cheated
me and false accused me and took my furniture and got me whipped." The Lord saved him. Can you see
why they said he's gone? To be guessed with a sorry cuss
like this. I've had thoughts about that
myself. Don't you still have to cope
with this self-righteous legalism that's in you? Boy, that ain't
fair now. Just ain't fair. Man, look what
I've done. Look how I've labored. Stayed up late at night. Went
and done. Hurt and denied myself. And you,
you come over here and bless this sorry man that ain't worthy
of anything. But you know something? None
of us are worthy of anything. All of us are publicans by heart
and nature. And why does the Lord Jesus save
them? That's why He came. That's why He came. Something
else about this man, we're told here, that he was a rich man,
and he was rich. Now, he has this, and I think
the Lord did this because he had just told his disciples in
the 18th chapter and verse 24, that how hardly shall a rich
man enter into the kingdom of heaven. This young ruler came
to him and he had riches and went away sad. And the Lord Jesus
said to them, how heartily shall they who have riches enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And he added this phrase, he
said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And they
were amazed. And they said, Lord, who can
be saved then? The Lord said, with man this
is impossible, but not with God. I can save a rich man, he said.
And he turns around and does it. He saves this rich man. But
one of the things I love that describes this man more than
anything, I think, is this. He was the chief of the publicans. He was the boss. He's the one
that gave the orders. It seemed like when the Lord
Jesus came into this world, From the time he came into it to the
time he left it, sometimes he almost looks around and says,
find me the worst sinner in this place. I'm going to save him. That's the way he does it. He
already saved the chiefest of the Pharisees. Nicodemus was
a ruler. He was a teacher. He taught other
Pharisees. The Lord Jesus saved him. The
Lord Jesus went to Gadara, and He saved only one person in that
whole country, and that was the worst man there. A man full of
devils, lived in the cemetery, and wore no clothes. And the
Lord went all the way across that sea to save the chief sinner
in that whole country. It wasn't enough for Him to save
those who were blind, He found a man who was barn blind and
saved him. Never had it been heard that
anyone gives sight to a man who was barn blind. And on the cross,
He not only saved a thief and a murderer, but He saved one
who had one foot in the hell already. What does the Lord Jesus do?
It seems to me like he says, I'm going to get myself a great
name. I've come to seek and to save the lost, and I'm going
to save the chief of lost sinners. The chief of sinners. Man don't
get too good and man don't get too bad for the Lord Jesus Christ
to save them. He may be a Pharisee, a moralist,
or he may be a sorry publican, low down as they get. But I tell you, he's not too
good or he's not too bad for the Son of Man to save him. A person may seem good, as the
Pharisees did. I remember when the Lord Jesus
was teaching in a certain place, and those Pharisees brought this
woman to Him, taking an adultery, and I remember that occasion.
And they said, Lord, Moses set stone this woman to death. What
do you want us to do with her? Those men had no knowledge that
they were guilty of anything. They were good men. And the Lord Jesus stooped down
and began to ride on the ground. And they said, do you want us
to stone this guilty sinner or not? And they got so bold, they
thought they'd got the best of it. And finally, the scripture
says, he lifted up himself and said to them, you who are without
sin, you cast the first stone at them. And the Bible says they'd
been convicted in their conscience. A man may never know himself
to be guilty of anything, but just let the Lord Jesus Christ
be lifted up. Oh, you behold Him lifted up
upon a cross, that bleeding farm, and we'll not only see our sins
clean, but we'll see them as the blackness and the darkness
that they really are. I want you to look here with
me, whole Luke 8 and 19, and look here in Zechariah chapter
12. This is what I'm talking about.
Look in Zechariah chapter 12. You go to Matthew, you go to
Malachi, then Zechariah, the gospel of Zechariah. And look at this. This is what
I'm talking about. You don't get too good. We sometimes
talk about you don't get too bad. You don't get too good either. When the Son of God is lifted
up upon the cross before your eyes of your understanding, when
you see Him, I'm telling you what, He'll change the whole
picture of yourself. Look what He says here in verse
10. Zechariah chapter 12 and verse
10. And I will pour upon the house
of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and supplication. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced." And look at this, when they look upon
him hanging upon the tree, they shall mourn for him. as one that
mourns for his only son, and they shall be in bitterness for
him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Verse 12, And the land shall
mourn every family apart, the families of the house of David
apart, their wives apart, the family of the house of Nathan
apart, their wives apart. And verse 14, "...and all families
that remain, every family apart, and their wives." I'm telling
you, when you see Christ, when you see Him lifted up upon the
cross, see it through this Word. See it through the eyes of your
understanding. You see His pierced brow. You
see the hole open in His side. And you know your sins was laid
upon Him. Oh, I tell you what, you'll see
them in a different light then. You'll mourn then. You'll get
off by yourself. You'll find you a silent place
where nobody can bother you. And you'll say, Oh Lord, my sins,
my cruel sins, your chief tormentors were. And then you'll see this in verse
13 and verse 1, And that day there shall be a fountain opened
to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and uncleanness. I tell you, I don't care who
you are. I have no idea who you are. I don't care who you are
or what you've done, good or bad. I tell you, the Son of Man
came to seek and to save that which was lost. Look back over
in chapter 19 of Luke and look in verse 4. I laughed with turn
when I read this. And he ran before, and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass by that
way. I wonder what the motive was
for this man doing this. I mean, it seems strange. Here's
a grown man, and he's a chief. And he had sort of a reputation
to uphold, but here he's acting strange. You see him running
around through the crowd, and he's climbing up this tree. Ain't
that strange? You ever wonder why that tree
was there to begin with? I wonder if the fellow that planted
that tree, I wonder if he had any idea of what was going to
take place in this tree. I don't know who planted that
tree, and I don't know why they planted it. I know why it was
there. I don't know his motives for
climbing this tree, but I know why that tree was there. Do you
know something? Everything that takes place in
this world, the chief reason that it happens is for the salvation
of God's elect. Do you know that? Last Sunday
morning, there was a young lady here, and she was going to go
someplace else. Another young woman was going
to pick her up, and they were going someplace else. But this
other woman that was supposed to pick her up got sick, and
she couldn't go with her, so what did she do? She came here.
Do you ever wonder why that other
woman got sick? I don't know, really. Time will
tell. But I know this young woman that
came here last Sunday morning, I know this much about her. She's
very careless in the salvation of her soul. Ain't that right? And I know a song that was sung
in her hearing. Oh, careless soul, heed the warning,
for your life will soon be over. I know that. And I know she heard
the gospel here last Sunday. Why was that? For the same reason
that this man found this tree to get up. I don't know what
his motives were. They may or may have been right
and good. I'm doubtful. What lost man can
have good motives anyway? He was probably filled with curiosity. Jesus of Nazareth was a famous
man. I want to see him so I can tell
everybody I saw him. I even heard him speak. I don't
know what his motives were for climbing that tree, but I know
why he climbed that tree. I know why. I know why I left
Banner Springs, Tennessee in 1970 and came to Indiana. I know why. to be saved. That's why. I know
why you were born to your dad and mom, to be saved. I know why you came out the house
that night, to get a steak. But you've got Christ instead.
You say, oh, so-and-so, he shouldn't even be reading the Bible, his
motives are bad anyway. So-and-so, I don't even know
why he's coming to church, his motives are probably bad anyway.
I don't care why he's doing It makes no difference. When the
Lord's pleased, he can use anything he's pleased to use to save his
people. We have it here in verse 5. Look
at it. I don't know why that tree was
there. His motive's for climbing. But look at this. When Jesus
came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at your house. That's why that tree was there.
That's why nobody ever did cut it down. That's why nobody ever
did cut those lower branches off, even though they bumped
their heads on them. Don't you touch that tree. Don't
you touch that tree. Little old kids playing in it
when it was just a sapling, bending it over. And there's the Lord
upholding it. When it got real dry, y'all got
to water that tree. It's in the rain. Lord, why are
you taking care of that tree? Now you know. Now you know. What's the first thing the Lord
Jesus does when He takes in a hand to save a man? Well, we find
out here in verse 5. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down. That's the first thing the Lord
does. I tell you this, I tell you this,
brothers and sisters, and you've seen it yourself. If a person
is coming here and they're lost, and they feel good about themselves
and they're enjoying themselves, the Lord has not called him yet.
I love to see lost people come here. I want them to keep coming
back, but I'm telling you this much. A man cannot sit under
the gospel and be lost and enjoy it. He can't. When the Lord takes
a hand to save a man, Oh, he comes down to the dust. He always
comes down. Every time he comes down. Without
any doubt, he comes down. You say, well, what if he don't?
He will. You say, how can you prove that? Right here, verse
5 and verse 6. He said, make haste and come
down, in verse 6, and he made haste and came down. I wonder, we studied on effectual
calling last Wednesday night, I wonder if Zacchaeus believed
that. He experienced it. Don't you
know he went around telling these other publicans, he said, I tell
you this my fellow publican, if the Lord speaks to you like
he spoke to me, you'll come down. Don't you feel that way? People go on and say, oh, it's
my will, it's my choice, when I get ready and all this, and
you're telling me out? Yeah. Just let Him deal with
you like He dealt with me. He'll save you. And I tell you
what, Jesus Christ could save every man in this world if He
wanted to. You know that. You say He's done the best He
can do, and He's trying His best to do it, but He can't. No, no,
no, no. No, God help us. No. You may be trying your best to
get men to come to Christ. I'm trying my best. But I tell
you what, you let me go there and look up at Zacchaeus and
say, make haste and come down. Get out of my way, you bald-headed
fellow. Leave me alone. I'm comfortable
setting up here. But that's the difference between
me and the Son of Man, you see. When He speaks, boy, He speaks
with authority. And when he speaks, you hear
that fellow that's set perched up there on this little limb
of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and self-promotion and self-willed. What does he do? Down he comes. And I'll tell you one thing,
he never said a word, did he? He never held on to a limb until
his knuckles got white. He never sat up there and argued.
What did he do? He came down and he hurried about
it. And another word was not spoken
to him, and he never spoke a word until he found himself on the
ground. Old Jeremiah in Lamentations
chapter 3, he said, This is what happens to men when the Lord
takes them hand to save them. They shut their mouths, and they
put their mouths in the dust, if so be theirs hope. Clarence asked me one time if
I could come over to his house. There were two young ladies,
they were Mormons, doing missionary work. And we went over there,
and Clarence and Gail sat and talked with those two young ladies
for quite some time. And this one lady would not shut
her mouth. I mean, she had an answer for
everything, and she argued about everything. And she would not
shut her mouth. Remember that? And I told her,
we were standing out the door, the last thing I said to her,
I said, young lady, if God ever takes a hand to save you, He'll
stop your mouth. He'll shut your mouth. That's what He does, ain't it? Why? Because we come down. We
come out of our trees and we come down. See, we're up here
looking down on everybody else, even the Lord Jesus. We've got
such low opinions of Him. We're above Him. It's not up
to Him. It's up to me. He can't do nothing
unless I let Him. Well, I've got His hands tied.
Look at Him down there pouring on a puny Jesus. Until you hear
His voice. And then you stuff your mouth,
boy, and you come bouncing off of them branches, and you don't
stop until you're in the dust. And saying what? Lord. Remember when Paul, Saul of Tarsus,
that self-righteous Pharisee, was on his way to Damascus, killing
the Lord's people. And the Son of God spoke to him
from heaven. Spoke to him. Saul! Saul! And he said, Who are you,
Lord? Oh, Lord, what would you have
me do, Lord? And you know what the Lord Jesus
said to him. Arise and stand upon your feet. You mean He wasn't standing on
His feet? No! No! And the Bible says He rose up
from the earth. Do you know where He was? He
was down on the ground on His belly. That's where the Lord
brings us to. That is, make haste and come
down. Come down. And look at this,
for today I must abide at your house. I must. That word means something that
is essential. It must take place. The Son of
Man must be lifted up. You must be born again. There
is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. There
are some musts. And the Lord Jesus said in Zacchaeus,
I must abide at your house. I can't pass you by. I can't
go on and leave you up that tree. I can't go on and let you come
down and go home to yourself. I must abide at your house. You know, there are some lost
people in this world who must be saved before they die. They
must be saved. I don't know who they are. They
don't know who they are. But they must be called before
they die and saved. Just like this man here. And
if they must, then they shall be. They shall be. That's why
we don't have to come here and compromise and try to get people
on the profession. We just preach Christ to them.
And if they must be saved, they will be saved. Why is that? Look here in verse 9 again. When
the Lord Jesus saved this man, he said this to him in verse
9. This day is salvation come to thy house because, forasmuch
as he also is a son of Abraham. What in the world does he mean
by that? He says salvation has come to
you because you're son of Abraham. There was a lot of sons of Abraham
around here, wasn't there? You know, Abraham had more than
one son. Ishmael was his son by that slave
woman. And when Sarah had died, he had
some more sons by his last wife. But you know something? He had
only one son by Sarah. That was Isaac. And you know
what he was called? The child of promise. God appeared to Abraham and said,
Abraham, I promise you that I will give you and Sarah a son. And he was called Isaac. The
child of promise. And you know what Paul said in
Galatians 4? You brethren, you that he's called and saved, You,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. God has promised to his son a
great host of people. He says, Son, ask of me and I'll
give you the heathen. I promise they're yours. And
Galatians 3, Paul said, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen. God has given his son. A bunch
of heathens. And He's going to save them.
I'm looking at some of the heathens. But you're His heathen, aren't
you? And He saved you because of it. Your children are promised. And I tell you what, there's
some more out there. I just about bet you there's
some more out there. And God has given them to His
Son. And they don't even know it. They don't care. And we shouldn't
let that bother us that they don't care. They're just not
interested. No, they're not. But that don't
make any difference. If they're the child of promise,
if they're one of Abraham's, they must, they must and they
shall come to Christ. He'll see to that. That's not
our business. He'll see to that. And here's
the first evidence of it. When you come down in your own
esteem and receive the Lord Jesus Christ joyfully, that's the first
step of this. When you quit thinking highly
of yourself, and you quit holding on to your little limbs of self-will
and self-righteousness and sin, and you come down, and you say,
oh, my life is Christ, my salvation is Christ. My justification,
my righteousness is Christ. And you receive a full Christ
into your empty heart. That's the first evidence. Now
you're one of them. You're one of them. When will a man have Christ?
He came down and received Him joyfully. When will a man have
Christ truly? When he has nothing but Christ.
when he has nothing but Christ. If he's got something else, he
won't receive Christ joyfully. Somebody said, well, I've got
this other person, you know, and I'm afraid if I let go of
them and, you know, if I take Christ, I'm going to lose that
other person. Well, my suggestion would be
just hang on to that other person then, because you can have Christ
under those terms. You can't have Him in somebody
else. You've got to receive the full Christ into your empty heart. And you've got to do it joyfully.
Thankfully. If you can't do it that way,
you can't have Him. You can't have Him. And in verse 8, lastly and in
conclusion, look at this. Zacchaeus stood and said, Lord,
Half of my goods I give to the poor. That's a lot of money,
because he was rich. That's a lot of money. I've got
$150,000 in one bank account. $75,000 of it is going to the
poor. That's a big deal, wasn't it?
And if I falsely accuse a man just to get taxes out of him,
I restore him fourfold. Man, what a change come into
this man's heart. That's a big change. Why did he do that? Why was he
so willing to joyfully let go of the treasures of this world?
I'll tell you why. The treasures of heaven was in
his house. I'm going to abide in your house.
I'll tell you what, when Christ comes to abide, you'll give the
furnace away. You'll give my house away. It don't matter anymore. Here's the true treasure. Why
don't you look over one verse and I'll close with this. Look
in Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45. Joseph has sent his brother back
out of Egypt, his brethren, to get their dad and his family,
Jacob and his family. And he sent a bunch of wagons
to haul them back on down to Egypt. Egypt was the only place
that had any corn. Egypt at this time was sustaining
the whole world. And Joseph was the governor of
Egypt. And Joseph revealed himself to
his brethren and sent them back with all these wagons and a great
abundance of food. And here was the message that
Pharaoh sent back to Jacob in verse 20. Genesis chapter 45
and verse 20. Here is the message he sent back
to Jacob. Regard not your stuff. Don't be concerned, Jacob, about
your stuff. For the good of all the land
of Egypt is yours. Oh, brothers and sisters, if
Christ comes in to abide in our house, don't worry about your
stuff. All the good and riches of heaven
are yours. Don't be concerned about your
stuff. What are we going to eat? What
are we going to wear? Don't be concerned about it.
Christ is yours, and He's the good of heaven. Let's pray.