I'm going to be speaking to you
this morning from the book of Luke. I'd like for you to take
your Bibles and open them with me to the 19th chapter of the
book of Luke. Now, here's my subject, the call
of grace, the call of grace. Now, I'll get to that message
in just a moment, but I'm going to make some opening comments
that I think need to be made. These are fundamental facts that
need to be said. Now, there are several reasons
for preaching. This is a preaching program.
This is not a program to entertain sinners on their road to hell.
This is not a program to raise money or to promote a cause.
It is a preaching time. It's a time to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, there are three reasons
for preaching the gospel. three basic reasons. As I said,
there are many reasons for preaching. But there are three basic reasons
for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first of which is
this. We preach for the glory of God. That's what Paul said,
whatever you do, in word or deed, do it for the glory of Jesus
Christ. Whether we eat or whether we
drink, do it for the glory of God Almighty. This must be our
motive, whether we pray, whether we sing, whether we testify or
teach or whether we preach or whatever we do, let it be done
for the glory of God Almighty. If I cannot preach for the glory
of God, let that be my motive, the glory of God Almighty, then
I need not preach at all. And I do trust that that's the
reason that I'm coming to you through this television ministry,
for the glory of God Almighty. All right, secondly, here's the
second reason for preaching. We preach for the conversion
of God's elect, for the calling of God's sheep. Out there somewhere,
the Lord has some people. He has some sheep. He has an
elect people. Paul said that in 2 Timothy 2,
verse 10. He said, therefore I endure all
things. And he meant by that persecution,
mocking, hatred. He was put in prison. He was
beaten. He was stoned. He was shipwrecked. He suffered
many things, even from false brethren, false teachers. But
Paul said, I endure these things for the elect's sake. Now listen
to him. That they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Jesus Christ with eternal glory. That's why
I preach, he said. I'm seeking God's sheep. I'm
on the trail of God's sheep. He was violently opposed in one
city. and took refuge in the house
of a man called Justice. The people opposed him, the mob
gathered outside, and he took refuge in the house of this man
Justice. And the Lord spoke to him that
night in a vision, the scripture says in Acts 18, 9 through 11,
and said to him, Paul, don't be afraid. But speak, don't be
afraid. Speak your message. I'm with
you. No man shall hurt you, for I have much people in this city. I have much people in this city. Christ said, my sheep will hear
my voice. One day the Pharisee said to
him, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you,
but you didn't believe me. You didn't believe me because
you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them these greater than all, and no man can pluck them
out of my Father's hand. for the conversion of God's elect,
for the finding of God's sheep, not only that, but for their
comfort. Our Lord said, Comfort ye, my people. He said to his
prophet, Comfort my people. We're not to comfort men in a
false peace and a false hope. We are to comfort God's people.
And then I'm preaching for their growth also, that they may grow
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, when our Lord ascended back to
glory, It said he left on the earth apostles and prophets and
evangelists and pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for their growth, for their maturity, till they all come to the knowledge
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that's two basic reasons for
preaching. As I said, there are many reasons.
But first, we preach for the glory of God, not for the entertainment
of sinners, not for the praise of ourselves. not to promote
our own causes, but for the glory of God Almighty. And we preach
for the conversion of his people. And then thirdly, we preach to
fulfill our obligation to all men. Paul said in Romans chapter
1, verse 14, I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. And
he said, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you folks down
in Rome, too, because I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes it, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. Our Lord told his disciples
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Again, he said, go ye therefore
and teach all nations. So we preach to fulfill our obligation
to all men. Our Lord said to Ezekiel, I've
made you a watchman. I've sent you to warn. Now if
you warn men, and they die in their sins, you've delivered
your soul. But if I send you and you don't
warn them and they die in their sins, I'll require their blood
at your hands. You remember Paul dealt with
this subject one time when he left the elders at Ephesus. He
said, I'm free from the blood of all men. For I have not ceased
to warn you and to preach to you even with tears day and night
from house to house. So we preach basically for three
reasons. I'm motivated by three things.
the glory of God, the conversion of his elect, and to fulfill
a debt, a responsibility, an obligation that I owe to every
person that can hear my voice. Now then, here's another thing
that I feel like needs to be said. And perhaps there are preachers
listening to me today. Preachers need to hear preaching.
They need to be preached to. But there are three basic truths. Now, the Bible is full of truths.
and their truths upon truth upon truth, but their three basic
truths which ought to be included in all of our messages. I mean
all of them, not just some of them, but all of them. Roland
Hill once said this, a sermon which does not contain the three
R's, and that's what I'm talking about, these three basic truths,
the three R's. He said a sermon that does not
contain the three R's is poorly prepared and certainly poorly
preached. And Spurgeon added to that, it
ought not even be preached. Now, what are these three R's?
You listen to my messages each Sunday and see if my messages
contain the three R's. And I'm not talking about reading,
writing, and arithmetic either. I'm talking about the three R's
of this message of salvation, the three R's of the gospel.
Now, here they are. You listen to them. Every message preached
ought to contain these three basic truths. I do in preparing
messages for our congregation. I look back over the message.
Do I preach these three R's, these three basic facts and truths
that men need to hear? Here they are. Number one, ruined
by the fall. Ruined by the fall are, my friends,
what happened in the garden of Eden. You say, is that important?
Well, it's this important. There is no way that a man can
understand the gospel, no way, unless he has some understanding
of what happened in the garden. There's no way. A man cannot
understand the gospel, let alone preach the gospel, unless he
has some understanding of ruin by the fall, what happened in
the garden. The scripture says in Adam, all died. That's a pretty eventful happening. All died. When a man dies, that's
quite an eventful happening, isn't it? That's quite a traumatic
experience. If I died in the Garden of Eden,
I ought to find out something about it. What does that mean?
What's included? What took place? In Adam, everybody
died. Died. What happened? The scripture says, by one man's
sin, by one man's sin, Death and judgment passed upon all
men. Judgment and condemnation passed
upon all men. When Adam fell, when Adam sinned,
death, judgment, and condemnation, eternal death, eternal judgment,
eternal condemnation passed upon all men. And then the scripture
says in Romans 5, by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners. My friend, sin is not just an
act. Sin is an act. It's a transgression
of God's law. It's an offense against the Holy
God. But sin is more than an act. Sin is a nature. A nature. That's why men need
to be born again. Our Lord said that which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. And sin is more than just an
act. I know most people confine sin
to an act. And if they could not act in
certain ways, then they would figure that they were not sinners.
But sin is a nature. It's a nature. It's called in
the Scripture a body of sin, a nature of sin, the reign and
rule of sin. Isaiah 1 describes it in this
way. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart is faint. From the sole of the feet to
the top of the head, there is no soundness. Paul described
it in Romans 3 this way. There is none good, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. They've all gone out
of the way. So sin is a nature. David said,
I was shapen in iniquity. I was conceived in sin. I was
brought forth speaking lies. The inward part, that's where
the problem is. What is a sinner? According to
the Bible definition, what is a sinner? According to the Bible
definition, you know, our Lord said he came to save sinners.
He came to call sinners, not the righteous, but sinners. What
is a sinner according to the Bible definition? Well, it's
threefold. Number one, a sinner is a son
of Adam. In Adam all died. A sinner is a descendant of Adam,
as we bear the likeness of the earthy, the first Adam. So first,
a sinner is the son of Adam. Secondly, a sinner is a transgressor
of God's law, not man's law especially, but God's law. Man may make unjust
laws. God's laws are all just and righteous
and holy as God is. So sin, a sinner, is a transgressor
of God's law. The scripture says, What the
law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth they be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. Now here's the third thing. What
is a sinner? in the Bible definition. He's
a son of Adam, he's a transgressor of the law, and he's one who
knows it. He's one who knows it. The publican
stood in the temple and said, God be merciful to me, thee sinner. A man who's a sinner in a Bible
definition, a Bible description of the term, is a man who's a
son of Adam, a descendant of a fallen father. He's a transgressor
of God's law, and he knows it. And he mourns over it and grieves
over it and seeks deliverance from it. So that's the first
basic truth that needs to be included in all of our messages
and our preaching. What happened in the garden?
What is man? What is sin? You're not going
to be able to deal with a problem if you don't understand the problem.
We're not going to be able to understand the gospel that reconciles
sinners to God if we don't know what a sinner is, what he's charged
with. The difficulty of salvation,
the difficulty. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How can he be pure in God's sight
when even the heavens are not pure in God's sight? And the
sun and the moon and the stars are not pure in God's sight.
So sin, ruined by the fall. The second truth that's got to
be preached, and that is redemption by the blood. Redemption by the
blood. This is what the scripture is
all about. Redemption by the blood. Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. Paul said to the church at Collins
in 1 Corinthians 15, I preach to you the gospel and you receive
that gospel and you believe that gospel and you stand in that
gospel and you're saved by that gospel and that gospel is that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. that he was
buried and rose again according to the scriptures. That's what
the scriptures are all about. The Bible's not just a love story.
The Bible's not just a book of science. The Bible's not just
a book of history, unless you want to change that to read his
story. But the Bible is a book of redemption. It's about redemption by the
blood. It's about redemption through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Listen to Luke 24, 45. It says,
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
scriptures. Do you understand the scriptures?
Well, here our Lord opened the understanding of his apostles,
that they, the apostles, might understand the scriptures. Now,
what does he say? That they might understand the
scriptures, and said, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer, and to die, and to rise again the third day. that repentance and remission
of sin might be preached in his name to all nations." That's
what it's all about. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. From the shedding of the first
blood, do you know the first blood that was shed on this earth?
You say, well, King killed Abel. No sense. There was bloodshed
before then. There was bloodshed in the Garden
of Eden before Adam and Eve ever left there. God slew an animal
and covered the nakedness of his fallen children. God took
an innocent victim and shed the blood of that animal and took
its skin and covered the nakedness of these fallen creatures. That's
a picture of Christ. From the very beginning in the
book of Genesis, God begins the message of redemption with the
shedding of blood. And all the way from the shedding
of that first blood to the cross of Calvary, there's one message
set forth in this book. God will be reconciled to sinners
only through a suitable sin offering, a suitable sacrifice, and that
only suitable, sufficient, effectual sacrifice and sin offering is
the death of his son. In the Old Testament, Christ
is promised, Christ is prophesied, Christ is pictured all the way
through the scriptures. And in the New Testament, he
came in person. And my friends, as one old-timer said years ago,
our gospel may be summed up in two words, and those words are
substitution. Christ died for our sins, according
to the Scripture. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. The just
died for the unjust. The one who knew no sin was made
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him, our substitution. And the other word is satisfaction. God's holy law, which man has
broken, must be satisfied. God's holy justice, which man
has violated, must be honored. So the second word is satisfaction. And by one offering, he, Jesus
Christ, have perfected forever them that are sanctified." So
a message that does not contain this message and this truth and
this gospel is certainly not a scriptural message. You say,
well, I wasn't preaching on the cross. Then you ought to. Somebody
said one time, every verse in the Bible points to Calvary.
And when a preacher reads a passage of scripture, he ought to find
the road to Calvary from that verse and get there as quickly
as he can. Paul said that, I'm determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
God forbid that I should glory. And this man, Paul, he had some
things in which he could glory. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees,
a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was seated many his equal
in his day. He was a man who founded churches.
He was a man who saw the Lord, one born out of due time, supernaturally
called, supernaturally endowed, a man gifted above all men in
his day. But he said, I glory in nothing
but the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. Redemption. Redemption. And then
the third truth. Our messages must contain, ruined
by the false, men will not flee to Christ unless they shut up
the faith, unless they know their need, unless they're made to
feel and weep over and mourn over and grieve over and agonize
over and repent of their sins. And unless they see the depth
of it, the double-dodged stain of it, the depravity of it, the
death of it, the awful condemnation because of it, the wrath of God
against sin from the Garden of Eden. God is angry with this
world. God is angry with the wicked.
God hateth the workers of iniquity. That's what the Scripture says.
God cannot look upon sin. He cannot fellowship with sin.
And we've got that nature, that evil, awful, guilty nature. And Christ's blood cleanses,
putteth away our sins. Christ's blood satisfies God's
justice, reconciles us unto God. But then the third truth that
must be preached. That's regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. The effectual call of the Spirit
of God. That's what I'm talking about.
That effectual, invincible, irresistible, result-getting call of the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby men hear, not with these ears only, but
with the ear of the heart. Whereby men see, not with the
natural eye, but the eye of faith. Whereby men understand the beauty
of Christ, the glory of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, the
necessity of Christ, whereby they understand how God can be
just and justified, whereby men hear the gospel, believe it,
and embrace it with their very souls and hearts and minds. God said in Psalm 110, verse
3, Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing,
willing to turn from sin, willing to repent of sin, willing to
receive Christ. willing to embrace him, willing
to trust him, when? In the day of thy power. That's
when. Our Lord said, no man can come
to me except my Father draw him. No man. Whatever his natural
ability can come to me, whatever his natural wisdom, except my
Father which sent me draw him. We must be taught of God. It's
a supernatural revelation. It's a mystery. Salvation is
more than a mere moral reformation. A lot of people quit drinking
and cursing and they call it salvation. A lot of people, you
know, join the church and call it salvation. Salvation is more
than just church membership. It's more than moral reformation.
It's more than acceptance of Bible facts. It's more than ceremonial
ritualistic activities. Salvation is a call of God. It's
exactly what it is. It's a birth, a new birth. It's
a call of God. Christ said, he that heareth
my word. He said to them one day, he said,
whom do men say that I am? They said, well, some say you're
John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah, some say you're one of
the prophets. He said, whom do you say that I am? Who am I?
Who am I? And Peter spoke up and said,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And our Lord
said, blessed are you, Simon. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. You didn't learn that from a man. You wasn't taught
that in school. You didn't discover that by natural
inclination and wisdom. My father revealed that to you.
They asked him one day, they said, why do you speak to the
multitude in parables? He said, because they got ears,
but they don't hear, and they've got eyes, and they don't see,
and they've got hearts, but they don't understand. Blessed are
your eyes, they see, and your ears, they hear. Have you heard? Oh, I've heard preaching all
my life. But have you ever heard God speak? Have you ever heard
the Holy Spirit speak through the Word? Have you ever heard
Christ speak through His Word? Has the Word ever become anything
but a word? Has it become life and truth
and beauty? Has it lived for you? Has it really become the words
of life or just words? or just words. Word! Salvation
is a call of God. He that heareth my word, we are
the called of Christ Jesus. He hath saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And I'll tell you something else.
This call of God, this regeneration, this effectual work of the Holy
Spirit, is not just a general call and a general invitation. It's not just a general warning,
but it is an effectual personal call. One day our Lord came through
the city of Jericho, wicked, bad city. And there was a man
there by the name of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a short man, a
man of short of stature, a very small man. And he kept trying
to see trying to see, and all the people were standing in front
of him, and he ran ahead. He knew the route that the Lord
Jesus would take, and he ran ahead and climbed up in a tree.
Now, I want you to think about this. Here is a publican, a prominent
man, a rich man, a very rich man, and probably up in years,
who climbed up in a tree to see who Christ was. And it says when
Christ came that way that he looked up in that tree and he
said, Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today
I must abide at your house. And he made haste and came down,
and he received him joyfully. You see that Luke chapter 19,
verse 5. And when they saw it, when the
people saw it, they murmured, saying that he was gone to be
the guest of a man that was a sinner, a man that was a sinner. And
Zacchaeus said, Lord, behold, half of my goods I give to feed
the poor. And if I have taken from any
man by false accusation, I restore him forth hope." And Jesus said
unto him, Zacchaeus, this day is salvation come to this house.
For as much as he also is the son of Abraham, for the Son of
Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. This is
the call of grace. This is the divine call. Do you
see our call illustrated in the call of this man? Let me give
you just briefly, as I close, four or five ways in which our
call, this effectual, divine, supernatural call of God, whereby
he reveals to us himself, like he revealed himself to Zacchaeus,
whereby he calls us to himself. Let me show you how to illustrate.
First of all, the call of Zacchaeus was a gracious call, a gracious
call. I suppose if you were considering
the people of Jericho as possible candidates for salvation, old
Zacchaeus would have been at the bottom of the list. He was
a bad man from a bad city and a bad business. He was a crook. He was a man who made his fortune
off other people's misery. But that's the kind of folks
our Lord is pleased to save, sinners. Are you a sinner? Have
you ever been a sinner? Christ died for sinners. He said
he didn't come to call righteous. You know, there are a lot of
people who are too good to be saved, but there's no one too evil to
be saved, no one too bad to be saved. Amazing grace, how sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me and you. All right, the
second thing, his call was a personal call. Zacchaeus, he was the only
one there by that name. Our Lord called him by name.
There were a lot of people there, but there was no doubt about
whom he called, no mistake at all. You know, men don't come
to Christ by nations. I hear people talking about converting
America. They'll never do it. Men don't
come to Christ by groups or families, personally. If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, Jesus, to be Lord. and believe in thine heart.
God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt receive. His call
was an imminent call. You say, what does that mean?
Right now, right now. Make haste, Zacchaeus, make haste.
God's call is never for tomorrow, never for tomorrow. Boast not
thyself of tomorrow. A general call may be, you may
say, tomorrow, you haven't heard his voice yet. When you hear
his voice and you're confronted with his spirit, you'll come.
And his call was a humbling call. He said, Zacchaeus, come down.
Come down. There's never been a call to
come up. So the man's heard the call, come down. God always strips
before he closed. He always slaves a sinner before
he raises him. He always speaks in judgment
before he speaks in mercy. His call was an affectionate
call, an effectual call. Zacchaeus heard his voice and
he responded. He said he received him joyfully.
He embraced him. He received him.