Luke chapter 19, and let's read
two verses, verse 9 and verse 10 of Luke 19. Jesus said unto
him, that is to Zacchaeus, this day, today, as we read in Scripture,
today is the day of salvation. This day is salvation. This day the Savior has come
to your house, to you. forasmuch as also you're Zacchaeus,
you're a spiritual son of Abraham, forasmuch as he also was the
son of Abraham. For the Son of Man, that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, He has come on purpose, come to seek, come
to save sinners, sinners. He comes to seek and to save
the lost. I'm entitling the message for
us today, Salvation is for Sinners. Salvation is for sinners. Any
sinners here today? Any sinners here today? Any sinners here today? Well, if you know you're a sinner,
you're a blessed person. Not many people know what they
are. I'm not talking about what they've
done, I'm talking about what they are. Now when my dad passed
away in 2003, the family asked me if I would say some words
at his funeral service. And I did. I brought a message
from The Word of the Lord that I believe the Lord gave me at
that time, and the verse that I settled on was 2 Corinthians
11 verse 3, where the Apostle Paul said, I fear lest ye be
removed from the simplicity, the singleness, the oneness that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tried to preach unto that
congregation of self-righteous religious Mormons that salvation
was in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Most of my family, that
is on my dad's side and even some among my mother's family
that were there, my parents divorced when I was quite young, So that
explains some of the separation in my family. But most of my
family, especially on my mother's side, they were angry with me,
very angry with me. Matter of fact, my mother's sister,
she said to me after the service that she caught me out front
going out the door, she said to me with her finger in my face,
she said, you're going straight to hell. I said, well, I appreciate
that. That's the most kind thought. And I put my arm around her and
wanted to take her aside and tell her once again the gospel
of God's grace. So when my mother passed away
a couple weeks ago, August 9th, again to my surprise, I was asked
to say some words at my mother's funeral. And I agreed to it, knowing what
would probably happen, knowing that some folks would get upset
with me. But anyhow, I traveled out to
Utah, three days, and I was thinking all the time, driving out there,
what am I going to say? When I went to bed at night,
thoughts kept rolling over in my mind, preaching to myself
all night long. waking up in the middle of the
night and preaching to myself again, what am I going to say?
Well, Thursday morning when we got out there, we left Monday,
arrived there Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, I sat down
in the motel room where we were staying and prepared this message
that I'm going to deliver to you. I prepared this message
for the funeral service there on Friday. But due to circumstances,
I was only able to deliver a portion of what I have before my time
expired. They told me I had about 10-15
minutes. And I took 20 minutes and I tried
to give the gospel the best I could with a limited amount of time.
But today I want to bring for you the complete message. If
I had the time and I asked the Mormon bishop who was sitting
behind me, I don't know why they do that, I guess they sit up
there in case you get out of line, they can bounce you out
of the building. When I brought the funeral message
for my dad, they had three or four men up there. But not only
the bishop was sitting there, but the stake president, the
hire, he was there. And I turned to him and asked
him if I could have more time, of which I thought he said, take
all the time, but he didn't say that. He said, you can have some
time. But I took more time than what I was allowed and tried
to declare the gospel. I began the message by talking
about my mother's son. I couldn't keep from doing that. My mother, many of you know,
was an immigrant to this country. She immigrated after World War
II. She was raised in Holland. She
immigrated to this country in 1948. Needless to say, in 1939,
her homeland of Holland was invaded by the Nazis, Germany, and they
occupied all of that area for six years. My mother had 15 children
in her family. Her dad was a storekeeper and
tried to do the best he could to raise his children, but times
were very lean during that German occupation. And my mother, as
a young girl, just 12 years old, participated in what's called
the black market. That is, she stole and sold food
for money to provide for her family. And when she came to
this country at the age of 20, she could not speak a word of
English, she came with three of her sisters, and she had a
very meager, meager beginning. And she had some hard things
to come through, but my mother was a fighter. She wasn't a quitter, she was
a fighter. Couldn't keep her down, couldn't
hold her back. Someone wrote in the obituary
that she was a feisty Dutchman and that pretty well summed it
up. I guess maybe I take some of
my traits after my mother. But I said some things about
her which needed to be said. I think some folks listened to
me. And then I talked, or tried to,
I tried to tell the folks about three things, death, sin, and
salvation. Death, sin, and salvation. Now, first of all, what is the
cause of death? Do you ever think about that?
What is the cause of death? Most of us realize that we're
all going to die. Especially, I find myself, as
I get older, I think about it more often, don't you? When I
was young, I don't think I ever had any thoughts of dying. And you young people who are
here today, you probably never even think about it. But, you
know, we see, if you ever walk through a cemetery and read the
date of birth, the date of death, sometimes it's the same day.
Sometimes children born don't live but one day, and they die. But the older I get, the more
I find myself thinking about the time of my departure, when
the Lord would please to call me to Himself. For we read in
the book of Ecclesiastes, and I did read this Scripture there,
Ecclesiastes chapter 3, to everything under heaven there is a purpose,
a purpose, a time to be born and a time to die. We read in
the book of Job, when God killed all of his children, he said,
the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the
name of the Lord. We know from the word of the
Lord, when sin is finished with this body, with this flesh, it
must return back to where it came from. Dust thou art, dust
thou shalt return. You remember part of the curse
that God put upon this human race, we read about it in Genesis
3. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return into the ground, for out of it
thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt
return. All flesh is grass. The more I look at myself in
the mirror, the old wrinkles around the eyes, the dimness
of the eyes, I look at my hands and I think, what happened? This
old body is crumbling. This old tabernacle, this building
is falling apart. What happened? What's the cause
of this? Well, it's just old age. Well,
why do we get old? You ever think about that? Why
don't we just stay young? You see, all flesh is grass,
and the glory of man as the flower of the field that fadeth away,
surely the people, is grass. Did you ever consider the reason
or cause of death? You ever think about it? Some
might answer, well, Brother Joe, he died with cancer. Brother
Bill, he died with heart disease, or maybe some died of a stroke,
or as my mother, she had Alzheimer's. But those things are not the
cause of death. Did you know that? Those things
are only the fruit of the disease, not the cause. The cause of death
can be summed up with one little word that just has three letters. You know what it is? S-I-N. Sin, sin, sin. We read in Romans 6, the wages
of sin is death. We're sinners. Our God said to
Adam in the garden, in the day that you disobey me, in the day
that you sin against me, you shall surely die. If not a maybe or if it could
happen, it might happen. No, you shall die. In the day
you sin, rebel against me, you shall surely die. Adam sinned,
we know the story. Adam sinned and Adam died. Instantly, in a spiritual manner,
he died. He lost spiritual life. And 930 years later, he died
physically. Death has passed upon all men. For we read in Adam, in Adam
all have sinned. God made that first man Adam
of the earth, earthy. In Adam all sinned, and Adam
all died. Wherefore, by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all
men, in whom all men have sinned in Adam." You see what he did,
you did. Now wait a minute. Yes, what
he did, you did. You were in him. He stood as
a representative man. What he did, we did. When he
sinned, we sinned. His guilt, death, sin, and condemnation
has been imputed and charged unto every one of us. We stand
before God by birth, nature, practice, and choice, guilty
before God. Sinners before God. By one man's disobedience, Romans
5, 19, many became what? Sinners. Sinners. We read again
in Romans 3, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that
seeketh after God. There is none that understandeth. They've all gone out of the way.
There is none righteous, no, not one. We've all sinned and
come short of the glory of God. We are sinners. Sinners, born
in sin, shaping in iniquity. Why do infants die? Sin, plain and simple. Sin brought judgment. Sin brought condemnation. Sin
brought guilt. Again, we read in Romans Chapter
three, let every mouth be stopped and all the world become guilty,
guilty, guilty before God. We are not sinners by what we
do. It's not what we put in our mouth
that defiles us. That's not our problem, is it? Turn over here to Matthew chapter
15. Matthew chapter 15. Now, a lot of folks have the
idea, if they just refrain from putting certain things in their
mouth, that they will be righteous before God. Matter of fact, my
brother, who also spoke at my mom's funeral, stood up after
I gave what I gave, and he said that his stepdad and his mother,
my mother, that they threw out their cigarettes and threw out
their beer bottles and now everything's okay. They just threw out some
bad habits. The problem with that is sin's
not in a box or a bottle. You can throw out all the boxes
you want. You can throw out all the bottles you want. The problem
is right here. the nature that we have inherited
from our father Adam. Matthew 15, look at this, verse
16. Are you also without understanding? Do not you yet understand that
whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly,
and is cast out into the commode? This is Matthew 15, 16, 17. But those things which proceed
out of the mouth, they come forth from the heart. They defile the
man. You see, by nature we have a
wicked heart, a sinful heart. Where the heart proceeds evil
thoughts out of this fallen sinful nature. Evil thoughts, murders,
murderous thoughts, adulterous thoughts, fornicating thoughts,
thievery, false witness, and even evil speaking against God
blasphemy. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashing hands, that's not the problem. You see, it's not what goes in,
it is what comes out, out of our wicked heart, out of our
wicked nature. We are sinners by birth, born
in sin, shaping in iniquity. We're sinners by practice. All
of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. We
are sinners by choice. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. O wretched man that I am! The
only thing this flesh can produce is one thing. Now, think with
me. The only thing this flesh can
produce is S-I-N. Everything I think, do, touch,
and say is contaminated with what I am. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Now, secondly,
is there any hope for a sinner like me? I'm a sinner. I take my place with the Apostle
Paul, and I tell him to move over. I'm the chief of sinners.
Paul, you're not. I am. Is there any hope for a
sinner like me? Yes, there is. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to save sinners. We have a good hope and an everlasting
consolation through grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Him, we have a good hope. Now, let's see if we can find
some help here in the Scripture. Turn back to Matthew chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9. Is there any hope for a sinner
like me? Now, if you're not like me, you
don't need a Savior. But if you're like me, we need
a great Savior. In Matthew chapter 9, it came
to pass, verse 10, Jesus said, Meet in the house, behold, many
publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. They mocked him and said, you're
the friend of sinners. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said to his disciples, why does your master, why does he
eat with publicans and sinners? Zacchaeus, a sinner. Matthew
was a publican, wasn't he? And when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but those
who are sick. Sick! Guilty! Go ye and learn
what that meaneth. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the
righteous sinners. Sinners! Any sinners here today? He came to call sinners unto
repentance. We read here in Luke chapter
9, that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which
is lost. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save his lost sheep. He said, I'm the good shepherd,
I lay down my life for the sheep. He said, of all that the Father
has given me, I'll lose nothing but raise it up again at the
last day. We read a moment ago in 1 Timothy 1, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save good folks. Uh-oh. I didn't quote that right,
did I? That's what most people think.
Just make yourself, just clean yourself up good enough and you'll
be okay. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. This is a faithful saying, a
word of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. I'm the chief one. I'm the chief
offender. We read in Scripture that the
Lord Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. We read in Scripture
that God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. That gives us sinner hope, doesn't
it, you? If you're not a sinner, you don't
need a Savior. But since you are, you do need
the only Savior of sinners, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, one thing I noticed in the
funeral service of those who spoke before me and after me,
they all concluded their words with saying, I say this in the
name of Jesus Christ and everybody there was 400 some people there
in that large auditorium auditorium they all said Loudly they all
said amen didn't they? One thing I noticed they didn't
say they said Jesus Christ, but they didn't say the Lord Jesus
Christ Because they don't they do not believe that Jesus Christ
is God and They do not believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Even though they pronounce His
name, Jesus Christ, they have a different person. Have you
ever done this on the internet? Googled your own name? I found
out, if I Google Thomas Harding, that there are a lot of people
named Thomas Harding. You see, a lot of people use
the name of Jesus Christ, but they have a different person. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that's
God, our Savior, that saves. You see, we need a great Savior,
one who is greater than our sin, the one who has all power to
save. If He's not God, with all power to save, this vile sinner
has no hope. We must have a Savior that is
able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.
We must have a Savior that's one sin of God, provided of God,
by purpose, the one who came to actually accomplish salvation
for His covenant people. For we pray, Father, I've glorified
Thee on the earth. I've finished the work You gave
me to do. Here's the third point. Salvation's
in a person. Death, sin, salvation. Salvation is in a person. Salvation is in a person. Our
Lord said to Zacchaeus, salvation this day has come to your house.
Now what's he talking about? He's talking about himself. He
is the Savior. He is salvation. You see, salvation
is not being in a certain church. with a right name. Salvation
is not in a certain organization or right denomination. Salvation is not in our righteousness,
is it? We have none. Not by works of
righteousness, which we had done, but according to His mercy, He
saved us. Salvation is not in our good works. We have none. Salvation is not in our church
membership or our baptism. Salvation is in Christ. Salvation
is not in our morality. I'm all for morality, but morality
does not equate with salvation. Salvation's not in our religious
ceremonies, our traditions. Those Jews had plenty of those.
Our Lord said of them, you or they would justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16, 15. You see, my friends, salvation
is in a person. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
God said in Isaiah 45, He said, I am God, the only just God and
Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved.
All the ends of the earth, I am God and there is no other. Our God said in Matthew 11, 28,
Come, all you who are laboring and heavy laden. Our Lord said,
Come to me and I'll give you rest. And we studied clearly
in John chapter 14, the Lord said, I am a way. No, he said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man come to the Father but
by and through me. You see, Adam lost the way. Adam lost life. Adam lost truth,
he believed the lie, but thank God where sin abounded, grace
does much more abound. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there's no other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved." You see, the truth of the matter
is, salvation is in a person. You know that, don't you? You've
been taught that, haven't you? He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Fourthly, how does a sinner come
to Christ for all of salvation and righteousness? Now there's
an article on the back of the bulletin entitled, How Was Salvation
Received? How does a sinner come to the
Lord Jesus Christ for all of salvation and righteousness?
Not by works, not by deeds, not by ceremony. We come by God-given
faith, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ that just shall
live my faith. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God to our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, true faith,
God-given faith, cries out unto the Lord, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. The sinner. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. They sinned. Turn, you got Luke
19 there, turn back one page. Luke 18. The Lord, in verse 9,
spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. Two men went to the temple
to pray. The one was a Pharisee, the other
was a sinner, a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself.
He didn't pray at all, did he? He just stood there and bragged
on himself. God, I thank you I'm not as other men. I'm not
this. I'm not that. I'm not certainly
like that rotten publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of everything that I possess. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm
not a sinner. That's what he's saying. I'm
not a sinner. The publican The mercy beggar, standing afar off,
would not lift up so much his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon
his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner." The sinner. Now look at the conclusion the
Lord gives in this parable. The Lord said, I tell you this,
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other. The Pharisee stood and bragged
on himself, didn't he? The Pharisee justified himself
and was condemned. The publican condemned himself
and was justified. See the difference? I tell you
this, this man went down to his house justified rather than the
other, for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, but
he that humbled himself shall be exalted. You see, the way
up is not up. The way up is down. Before God
ever raises us up, He must strip us and put us in the dust and
teach us what we are, sinners in His sight. Now, some might say, or some
might think, well, I don't agree with you about sin in Adam and
about salvation in Christ. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous. In Adam all died, in Christ shall
all be made alive. Some might say, well, I don't
agree with you on those things. Okay. Your disagreement's not
with me. No? If you have a disagreement,
it's with God, not with me. You have a disagreement with
God's clear, plain revelation and testimony. This is the testimony
of God. This is the witness of God. We're
reading it right here. And closing, let me give you
this. Over the years, when I would have the conversation
with my mother about these sayings of sin and salvation. And we
talked about these sayings many times. She'd been here, visited
with me when we lived in Ashland. She came and listened to Brother
Mahan preach the gospel more than one time. She visited with
us here. And I preached the gospel to
her then, and we would often have conversations about how
God saves sinners. She would always end the conversation
by saying something to this effect to me. She would say, when I
die, I'll find out who's right. Well, mom, you know now. God is right. about everything
he says. But isn't that a sad thing to
think about? When I die, I'll find out who's
right. My friend, I want you to know
now. Don't die and find out. It'll be too late then. When
you meet God, the point of the man wants to die after that judgment.
We need to know now that salvation is of the Lord. Today is the
day of salvation. God is right. His Word is true. Our Lord said, The Word that
I have spoken to you, the same will judge you in that day. God's
appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness
by that man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, after the funeral service, My mother requested, it was eight
children in her family, two girls, my oldest sister, my youngest
sister, and there were six boys. My mother requested that her
six boys be the pallbearers. And after the funeral service,
after the bishop had the last word, the Mormon bishop had the
last word, we were escorted out of the chapel into the hallway. which they pushed the body out
on that cart and we walked toward the funeral hearse and loaded
her body into the car. And as we did that, I walk over
to my truck and in the parking lot, and I noticed people streaming
out of the front of the building. We went out the back door. I
walked over to my truck, and it was a hot, sunny day. And
I opened up the doors and started up my truck and turned on the
air conditioning. It was just too hot to get in
there. And as I was waiting for the truck to cool down and for
the people to come out and for the funeral procession to start,
I noticed a lady started coming down my way. And I recognized
her as someone I had met the previous evening at the funeral
home. My mother, as I said earlier, had 15 children in her family,
and they all had large families, and I have on my mother's side
over 80 cousins, some of them that I met there at the funeral
service and before. Some I haven't met for over 50
years. But as I was standing there waiting
for things to get started, this woman, my cousin, walked my way. And I thought to myself, and
you know what's going through my mind. I'm thinking, she's
going to tear me up one side and down the other. She's going
to give me a no-good-you-rotten scandal. You know, just the opposite
happened. I was shocked. She came up to me, and this is
what she said. She said, I don't really know
how to say this, and I feel a little bit awkward about saying this.
And I'm thinking to myself, what in the world is she going to
say? You know what she said? She said, I'm lost. I'm lost. And I said to her, that's a good
thing. That's a good thing. And I quoted her this verse, there in Luke 19. I quoted this
verse. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save the lost. I said, told her, I said, salvation
is not yet. This lady is Mormon, raised just
like I was, works religion. She said, I'm lost and I need
what you're talking about. I need that salvation in Christ. Well, I tell you what, we drove
1,800 miles out there and 1,800 miles back, but I would have
driven 18,000 miles to hear a sinner say, I'm lost. Not many lost
people around, do you know that? The old songwriter said, a sinner
is a sacred thing. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. He said, I'm lost. My whole trip
was worth hearing that sinner cry out for mercy. I told her
the Lord never turned a mercy beggar away, and the Lord came
to seek and to save lost sinners. Well, in what little time I had,
just a few minutes, I gave her my contact information, my phone
number, my website, my sermon audio website, and I told her
to listen. Sit down and listen to the gospel. Now, who knows what the Lord
will do with His Word? Who knows? I know the Lord said
in Isaiah 55, but will not return unto him void, but will always
accomplish his purpose. And I thought of this. When the
Apostle Paul went down to Philippi, there was a bunch of women down
by the creek side praying. And the Apostle joined himself
to them, and there was one woman there named Lydia, whose heart
the Lord had opened, and she heard the words that Paul said,
and God saved her. God raised up a church there
in Philippi. Do you reckon, do you reckon
that the Lord would be pleased to raise up that one lost sheep
and cause a gospel church to be established there right in
the heart of Mormonism right in the heart of Salt Lake City,
Utah? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe that will
happen in Utah. I know this, anything too hard
for the Lord? With God all things are possible,
right? This might be the beginning of
a revival of God's truth in Salt Lake City, Utah. Who knows? Who
knows?