the 19th chapter of the book
of Luke. And let's read the text again,
which is verse 10. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost. It said, Our Lord entered
and passed through Jericho. And as usual, a great multitude
of people followed him and gathered around him. And there was a man
who was very short of stature, a man who was a publican. Now,
the publicans were hated people, especially by the Jews. They
were a form of tax collectors. They were cheap publicans. of
which Zacchaeus was one, very rich, cheap publicans who controlled
and manipulated the economy. They were men who even loaned
money to kings. They loaned money to governors
and magistrates and rulers. They were people who were over
the smaller publicans. There were the cheap publicans,
and then there were the workaday publicans. Matthew was one of
these workaday publicans. He sat at the receipt of the
customs. He's the one that actually took the money from the people.
But the fellow up here that manipulated the whole thing and profited
by the whole thing and who used everybody, the people and the
lower publicans, were these chief publicans of which Zacchaeus
was one. He was a hated, despised man,
especially because he was a Jew. The name Zacchaeus tells us he
was a Jew. He was a Jew. And he was serving
the Roman government. He was collecting taxes and abusing
his own people. The Jews weren't used to paying
poll tax. They weren't used to paying taxes
of any kind. And the very fact that they had
to pay these taxes and poll taxes, that graded them. That went against
their grain. But the very fact that one of
their own, Zacchaeus, would come and use an office and the power
to abuse the people like this. They hated him doubly. In other
words, when our Lord described the greatest of evil men, he
used the word publican. He said, if a brother does this,
that or the other will not repent. Treat him like a heathen and
a publican. And then when our Lord talked
about a very religious man and a very immoral man, a very evil
man, he said a Pharisee and a publican. That's too extreme. Very religious
and very evil. So that's what Zacchaeus was.
He was a short man. He was a publican. Not only a
publican, but the chief publican. And he was a man who had profited.
He had gotten rich on other people's miseries. Well, this man was
concerned about something. I don't know how much background
he had. I don't know how much understanding he had of Christ.
I just know this. He wanted to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know that this evil, conniving
traitor who had profited by other people's miseries, who was the
chief leader of these publicans, who even subjected other publicans
to his will and his profiteering, he wanted to see Christ. And
he wanted to see Christ so desperately that when the Lord came through
or passed through the gates of Jericho, this man, this dignified,
wealthy leader ran and climbed up a tree. Now you think about
that. He couldn't see the Lord because
he was a short man and everybody was standing in front of him,
but he was so desperately interested in getting some kind of contact
with Jesus Christ, some kind of eye contact or some kind of
understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ that he went ahead of
the people. He went ahead and climbed up in a tree, knowing
that the Lord, if He followed the route He was taking then,
would come by where He was up in that tree. And here was this
dignified, rich, wealthy, profiteering, Jewish trader, despised by the
people, hated by them all, was up there in a tree. And when
the Lord came that way, when the Master, He looked up in the
tree. Now you think how many people
were around here. And you think of all the people. There were
different occupations. And there were the religious,
and there were the people in poverty, the workmen.
And he stopped under that tree and looked up. And all eyes were
focused on that publicus. And I imagine some of the people
thought to themselves, oh, he's fixing to get his comeuppance.
The Lord looked up there and these folks, I'm sure, thought
he's fixing to really rape that fella for his past and for his
life and for his wickedness. But you know what the Lord said?
He stopped under that tree and said, Zacchaeus! And that name,
the name rang with compromise. The name rang with low life. The name rang with all kind of
cheating. and profiteering and desperate
situations and circumstances. It was a hated name. Think what
that name, I'm sure it was a household name in that community, Zacchaeus.
Oh, Zacchaeus. The Lord said, Zacchaeus, come
down. I'm going to have dinner at your
house today. You think about that. I'm going
to have dinner with you. Think if the Lord came to Ashland,
and all of us were out there, and he came through, and all
of us were out there crowded around him. And there was a fella
in this town. Oh, you talk about a cheap crook.
I don't want to call any names, because we'd get in trouble there,
wouldn't we? Or maybe it may be a woman that
was a, you know, question mark on a character. Real, real outstanding
sinner. in our estimation. Nobody want
to be seen walking around with her, you know. And they were
sitting up in a tree and the Lord was around and all these
religious people clapping and raising all their hallelujahs
and praise the Lord and everything, you know. And the Lord, we knew
He had to eat somewhere and everybody would have been honored to have
Him. And He stopped on that tree and called that one name, that
hated name, that a vile name, that evil name, and said, come
down. I've selected your house to visit,
and we'll have supper with you. Well, he hurried down. Somebody said he skedaddled down.
And he received the Lord joyfully. Joyfully. Oh, I'm sure the folks
began to back off, you know, and they're just him and Christ
standing there, him and the Lord. I'm going to your house, and
Zacchaeus was so joyful, he came right up to his presence, and
the people, I'm sure, backed off. Get away from Zacchaeus!
And they began to murmur, they began to punch one another, especially
the religious Pharisees. And they all murmured, verse
7, saying, he's gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner,
such a sinner. And Zacchaeus said, Lord, half
my goods I give to the poor. Something had happened to that
old boy because he was turning loose of that which was most
important to him. He was turning loose of that
for which he had been selling his soul. Something must have
happened to him. Brother Shelton said one time he was baptizing
a man and the fellow The fellow reached in his pocket, came in
the baptismal pool. And just as he got in, he reached
in his pocket, Jay, and pulled out his wallet and laid it up
on the baptismal pool. And he said, that wool preacher
said, I've got to take my wallet out. But a young guy, he put
it right back and said, let's baptize that too, you know. Let's get it all while we're
at it. That, when a fellow starts giving. The Lord's reached his
tender spot. The Lord's reached his acid test
spot, you know. God, that's because the love
of money is the root of all evil. And if something happens to Zacchaeus,
I guarantee you, because folks will go to church and they'll
do all these different things, but, oh, that man who is gracious
and generous and gives of that which God has given him, the
Lord's done something for him. And so in verse 9, And Jesus
said to him, This day his salvation come to this house, for so much
as he also is a son of Abraham. Now watch, here's my text. For
the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Why did He say that at this particular
time? To whom did He say that? What
do you think? Why did the Lord, right now,
Here he is, instead of just walking off with Zacchaeus and going
to eat with him and having this dinner that he had arranged and
purposed and planned for all eternity, no, he stopped and
addressed the whole crowd, Zacchaeus included, and made this statement.
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is
lost. He defends his practice by calling attention to his mission.
He defends what he's about. He's going to eat with a man
that's a rebel. He's going to eat with a man
that's a stranger to God. He's going to eat with a man
that's a sinner, and a known sinner, and an open sinner. And
he defends that practice by stating his mission. This is what I've
come to do, save the lost. Now he's saying that to three
people. He's saying this to three people. First of all, he's saying
it to the Pharisees. Now you can just imagine the
reaction of these religious people. They were moral, religious. They went to the temple every
Sabbath day. Zacchaeus never went. They read
the Bibles. He never read the Bible. They
prayed. They fasted twice a week. He never fasted. They had a righteousness, and
this was the foundation on which they hoped to be accepted of
God. And they did all these things, establishing a righteousness.
That's what Paul said in Romans 10 about them. He said, I bear
witness they have a zeal for God, but it's not according to
knowledge. They're going about to establish their own righteousness.
They were establishing a righteousness, and Zacchaeus was going in the
other direction. But Christ said this for the
benefit of those Pharisees. He said, the Son of Man has come
to seek and to save, not the righteous, not the moral, not
the religious. Not the man who has built for
himself a righteousness on which to stand, or a refuge in which
to hide. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save sinners, lost people, guilty sinners." Then I think
he not only said it for the Pharisees' benefit, he said it for Zacchaeus'
benefit. Now brethren, Zacchaeus had no
profession behind which to hide at all. Zacchaeus was what he
was. And he knew his condition, he
knew his great guilt, he knew his sins, he knew his past, but
the first thing he said, I've cheated people, and I'm going
to restore them fourfold. I have been greedy, and I'm going
to share it with others. I've been a wretched person.
I'm going to do something about it. That's the first thing he
said. He knew his great sin. The words of Christ think what
good news. Here we assemble here this morning.
We have different types of people in this congregation. We've got
some folks who are very, very strict moralists. I read the
other day in a magazine about a religious leader, a preacher,
and he was what they call a paper hanger. That means a fellow that
made $40,000 a year on bad checks. $40,000 a year on bad checks. He served two years in the penitentiary
in Florida. He served time in Dayton, Ohio
in the penitentiary. He served all this time. He was a crook. But you know
what he said? This was under his picture, right
under his picture, his name, Reverend so-and-so, and he said,
one thing I've never done, I've never drunk or smoked, never
did. And you see, they're folks that
got real moral principles. They've got some real moral principles
and religious principles. They're dedicated to these things.
And they're dedicated all the way to these religious principles.
There are people in this congregation that haven't had much dedication. Your past has been one you just
wouldn't like to write a book about. It's one that you just
don't care to bring up. It's one that you're not proud
of. There's things you've done and said and thought and taken
part in that's embarrassing to you right now. You're troubled
about them right now. Well, let me tell you something.
The good news I have this morning is not for the folks that have
never done this, that, and the other, but the folks that have.
My good news this morning is not for the rigid, strict moralist
and the righteous religionist. I don't really have any good
news for you. I really don't have anything
to say to you. I just don't have anything to communicate to you
at all. Except to say this, except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you're not in the kingdom of God. Except to say this to you,
if you're going to hang on to that personal behavior as your
righteousness, it better be good. It better be better than what
I think it is. It better be as good as Christ.
But I have some good news for the folks that have seen. The
Son of Man has come to seek and to save you. God sent His Son personally on
this mission to find you and to save you. Now that's good
news. Turn to Matthew chapter 9, if
you will. I've got good news for you. To those in the congregation
who sit there in your smugness and, well, I've lived with the
same wife, I've never been divorced, I've been moral and clean in
my behavior. I've always been an upstanding,
outstanding citizen. I've never gone to the nightclubs
or the honky-tonks. I've never cheated anybody in
business. I've been in church since I was
a child. I've made a profession of faith.
And I've been a dedicated woman, a dedicated man. I've been this,
that, and the other. Let me say this to you. If that's
your hope, if that's your foundation, if that's what you're standing
before God, if that's what you're standing on, I'm troubled for
you because it's not good enough. We always sin and come short
of God's glory. We're wretched creatures. It's
the heart God looks at. It's not the outward behavior.
It's not that which goes into the mouth that defiles a man.
It's that which comes out of his soul, his heart, his mind,
his thoughts, his imagination, his attitude. You say, well,
preacher, you think it'd been better for me if I'd have been
a vile, wretched rebel? I don't think it would have helped
your health a great deal. I don't think it would have helped
your relationship with others a great deal. It probably wouldn't
have helped your children or your marriage a great deal, but spiritually
it might have helped you. Now, I hate to say something
like that, but it just might have helped you if you could
realize, if God can bring you to realize what a wretched sinner
you are without opening the floodgates, wonderful. But if he can't bring
you to see what a crook and what a rebel you are by nature without
letting you hit the skids, I wish he'd let you hit them. I do. I wish you'd just hit the bottom
of the barrel so hard that even the dust would be over the top
of you. that you could see how wretched you are. In God's sight,
I'm not talking about in the sight of men, all have sinned,
all have come short of the glory of God, all we like sheep have
gone astray. One worm bragging on another
doesn't help either one of them. But I wish men could see what
God sees when He looks at us. And it says in Matthew 9, look
at it, and this same thing occurred again, verse 10. It came to pass
as Jesus sat at meat in the house, Many publicans, see that word
again, and sinners, openly evil, people with no church attachment,
people with no temple attachment, people with no religious tradition,
people with no ritualism and ceremonialism, people who were
sinners, sinners, sinners! One day our Lord looked at these
Pharisees, these men that were so rigid and strict and so full
of discipline and so righteous and so critical of everyone else,
and He said to them, the publicans and harlots will enter heaven
before you. Man, that was a tough one, but
Christ said that. The publicans and harlots will
enter heaven before you. And it says in verse 10 that
they came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the
Pharisees saw it, here's these religious fellows, you know,
these strict, disciplined, ceremonious, they said to his disciples, why
does your master associate with people like that? Why does your
master eat with people like that? We don't eat with people like
that. We don't pray for people like that. We don't associate
with people like that. Why does he do it? And when he
heard them, he said, they that are whole do not need a physician.
The well man doesn't need a doctor. Folks that need doctors are sick
people. Now you go learn what that means. I will have mercy. This is what our Lord deals in,
mercy. Not personal righteousness, mercy. Not personal righteousness,
not personal merit, not sacrifice, but mercy. I deal in mercy. I
will have mercy. I am not come to call the righteous.
You say, but preacher, there's none righteous. No, not one.
I know what they think they are. God will meet a man on the ground
he chooses to stand on. If he chooses to stand on the
ground of his personal righteousness, that's where God will deal with
him. If he chooses to take his place or her place before Christ
as a sinner, that's where Christ will meet him. And I didn't come
to show mercy or call that man who's standing on the ground
of righteousness. No, he's not righteous, but he
says he is. No, he's not clean, but he says
he is. No, he's not accepted, but he
says he is. But he said, I've come to help
those who are really sick, who are really troubled. I've come
to clothe those who are really naked. I've come to raise those
who are really dead. I've come to give sight to those
who are really blind. I've come to give healing to
those who are really lame. I didn't come to call the righteous.
I came to call sinners. Don't you know that was good
news to Zacchaeus? Christ will be valued depending
on a man's understanding and sense of his sin. That's so. You know the man that values
a cup of cold water in here more than anybody? The man with the
greatest thirst. You know the man who values the
warmth of the fireplace? The man who's the coldest. That's
right. You know the man who values a
shot or some kind of medication? The man who's hurting the most.
That's right. Now, as far as I can determine
right now, I don't have a thing wrong with me, and I don't have
any plans to visit a doctor this afternoon or tomorrow. Now, one
thing. Now, some of you and some of our friends in the hospital
are so glad when that physician comes by this afternoon. The
person in the bed's waiting on him, the wife or husband's waiting
on him, the children are waiting on him to see what good news
or bad news he has to convey. I have no interest in physicians
whatsoever. And let me tell you this. The
man who has the most interest in Jesus Christ is the man who's
the sickest. That's right. The man who has
the most interest in the cleansing blood is the man who's the dirtiest
and knows it. The man who has the greatest
interest in the healing balm of Christ's mercy is the man
whose heart is so bowed down with sin. And here's the good
news. Christ stands out here identified with Zacchaeus. Of
all the people with whom he could have been identified at that
moment, they were there from the top to the bottom. He chose
the bottom. They were there from the cleanest
to the dirtiest. He chose the dirtiest. That's
right. They were there from the strictest
to the crookedest. He chose the crookedest. That
ought to be good. I tell you, that ought to make
every sinner in here's heart just leap for joy. I know it's
depressing to the religious. You mean I've done all this and
I'm going to be just like them? That's right. One man said that
in Detroit not long ago. He said, you mean to tell me
that I've been to church all my life, and I've given my time,
and I've taught Sunday school, And I've read the Bible through
many times. And I've lived a moral life.
And in heaven, I'm going to be just like anybody else. That's
right. That's right. In fact, actually,
he that's greatest will be least in the kingdom of God. And he
that's least will be greatest. You see, that's the mercy of
our God. We don't, if we could just see, we don't deserve anything. We're not worthy of any of the
least, this is what the prophet said, I'm not worthy of the least
of your mercies. And the man with the greatest
grace and the greatest understanding of mercy doesn't want to be the
chief. He wants Christ to be the chief.
He wants to be the chief of sinners, but he wants Christ to have the
chief glory. What good news! This is a true saying and it's
worthy of acceptation by all men that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. Sinners! Turn to Romans chapter
5. I wish we could see. Well, no
man can see it unless God opens his eyes. But I'm going to still
preach it in the hopes that they will. Oh God, strip me that I
may be clothed. Humble me that I may be Exalted,
slay me that I may be raised. Do what you have to do to let
me see my sins and my guilt. The problem is that we've made
sin, we've confined sin to actions of the body. We've confined sin
to touch not, taste not, handle not. And sin, my friend, is a
principle. Sin is a spirit. Sin is an attitude. Sin has to do with pride. It
has to do with ambition. It has to do with covetousness.
It has to do with greed. It has to do with lust. It has
to do with rebellion against God's will. It has to do with
the will. Sin is a thing of the will. These deeds of the body,
what makes a fellow hit another man? Now this is not, the sin
is not in hitting him. The sin was already, the sin
made this hand do that, that he hit him because he hated him.
Bob, you see that? This isn't the sin. And the man
that takes his whiskey and just keeps drinking it until his body
reels, this is not, the sin is not in the liquid, because the
liquid may be used for medicinal purposes. Some of you have taken
medicine that's 50% alcohol, So the evil is not in the alcohol,
the evil is in the spirit, the will of the person that misused
this. He misused it, he put it in the
wrong place. He abused it, you see. You go
on down the line with these things, it's not these things that are
evil, it's this heart that's evil. And it's greed and it's
jealousy and envy. We're just, these old kings that
had people beheaded, we're just as evil because we think the
same. This old king, his enemy, man
was his enemy, didn't like what he did, didn't like what he said,
so he cut his head off. Well, we can't do that because
we'd go to jail. But if we had supreme power and
supreme authority and were answerable to no man, I bet nobody better
cross us. You talk about heads rolling.
Now that's the truth. The only thing that keeps us
from giving expression to our most evil imagination is the
bars that are about us. You take the lion down there
in the zoo, he's a good lion. Why is he a good lion? He's got
some bars around him. But you remove the bars and you'll
find out just what his nature is, just exactly. And you remove
the bars from some of us and you'd find out what our nature
is. We needn't take any credit for it. Christ came to save the
lost, the lost, the lost. And I believe he said this to
someone. I was going to read Romans 5. Look back over there
a minute. Romans 5, beginning with verse 6. For when we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, we may not be ungodly in
our actions. We may be very pious and very
religious outwardly. But we may be ungodly in our
spirit. Now that's where it is. And God
does not look on the outward countenance. He looks on the
heart. God weighs those thoughts of envy. God weighs those thoughts
of hate. God looks at those thoughts of
lust, covetousness, discontent, murmuring against his providence.
This is sin. I will. I will. My will. Not thy will. Christ died for
the ungodly, and we're ungodly. What is godly? Godly is to love
God with all your heart. Godly is to love your neighbor
as yourself. Godly is to prefer others to
yourself. That's God. Godliness is to be
totally content with where you are. Godliness is to be totally
spiritual in your thoughts. And we're not godly. Thank God
He died for the ungodly. It says in verse 8, God commended
His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Now, let's go back to Luke 19.10. Christ said the Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which was lost. He said that
for the Pharisees' benefit. He said that for Zacchaeus, the
sinners' benefit. Oh, what good news. But now wait
a minute. It's got not good news if you're
going to go on in your rebellion. It's not good news if you're
going to go on in your rebellion against Him. It's good news for
sinners and for the lost who close with Christ, who receive
Christ, who believe on Him. Zacchaeus came down. When the
Lord said, Zacchaeus, come down, he came down. When the Lord dealt
with him and extended his mercy, Zacchaeus received it and rejoiced
in it. You see that? Zacchaeus didn't
stay up in the tree and say, well, if you're going to be good
to me here, I'll just stay in the tree. No, he wanted to be
with the Lord. He came down and met Christ. His will was broken. His pride was broken. His spirit
was broken. He was changed. That's what happened. He was changed. No, he wasn't
perfect. We're not perfect. We are in
Christ. We are positionally. And someday we will be in actually. But he did submit to Christ.
But look at verse 9. And Jesus said unto him, This
day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is
a son of Abraham. Does that mean anything to you? Well, yeah. Preacher Zacchaeus
was a Jew. He was a son of Abraham physically.
That wasn't what the Lord was talking about. That whole place
was full of sons of Abraham physically. Our Lord said, my mercy has come
to this man, my grace has come to this man, because he's a son
of Abraham in a spiritual sense. He walks in the steps of Abraham
by faith. All Israel is not Israel. All
that are of the circumcised are not of Israel. What our Lord
is saying is this, Zacchaeus is one of those in the covenant
of mercy. of whom God spake when he said
to Abraham, I bless you and your seed, you and your sons. And you may be a Gentile here
this morning, but our Lord Jesus Christ is declaring this, my
covenant mercies will not be frustrated. I found one of my
sheep. I found one of my sheep. And
here's what he's saying. He's saying to all that bunch
of religious, self-righteous Jews, The Son of Man has come
to seek and to save the lost. Not the religious, not the moral,
not the self-righteous, but the lost. He's saying to Zacchaeus,
Zacchaeus, I know what you are and you know what you are, but
I've come to save you, lost people. And he's saying to the whole
crowd, this is one of my sheep. I said to you, my sheep, hear
my voice? I've found one of my sheep. The shepherd, the son
of man. The Son of Man, our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord of Glory became a man. He has come to seek. I
want you to look at something a minute on this word seek. The Son of Man has come to seek.
Now, it's the duty of all men to seek God, right? Zacchaeus
ought to have been seeking Christ, but instead Christ was seeking
him. The woman at the well ought to have been seeking God, but
she what? God was seeking her. Turn to Isaiah 55, verse 6. We're commanded in the Scripture.
Now, this may help you. We're commanded in the Scripture
to seek the Lord. Every person ought to seek the
Lord. It's the duty of every man to
seek the Lord. Look at verse 6 of Isaiah 55.
This is a commandment. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. It's a commandment of God to
repent. God commanded all men everywhere to repent, but men
will not seek God. Romans 3.10 says there's none
that seeketh after God. John 3.19 says light is coming
to the world. Men love darkness rather than
light. John 5.40, Christ said, you will not come to me that
you might have light. So if we're going to be found,
God's going to have to seek us first. Now we do seek Him, but
in response to His seeking, We do choose him, but in response
to his choice. Zacchaeus came down, and Zacchaeus
responded, and Zacchaeus believed, and Zacchaeus received Christ,
and Zacchaeus opened his home, and Zacchaeus restored to people
from whom he'd stolen. Zacchaeus was a different man.
But our Lord Jesus Christ came to seek Zacchaeus. He came to
seek him. How does the Lord seek men? He
seeks men by His Spirit and by His Word. is done, the great
transaction's done, I am my Lord's and He is mine, He drew me and
I followed." Charmed to confess His voice divine. Turn to Psalm
110, verse 3. I want you to see this briefly.
Psalm 110, verse 3. Psalm 110, verse 3. Now this
is what our Lord's saying. He is the son of Abraham. He
also is the son of Abraham. That Roman centurion was the
son of Abraham. Cornelius, the Gentile, was the
son of Abraham. Timothy, who was half Greek and
half Jew, was the son of Abraham. Psalm 110, verse 3, Thy people
shall be willing. They're not willing. You will
not come to me that you might have life, but they shall be
willing. There's none that seek God, but they shall seek Him.
You didn't choose me, Christ said, I chose you. But they will
choose him. You didn't love me, I loved you.
But they will love him. Because thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. That's when they'll be willing.
He came to seek. And very quickly he came to save. How does the Lord save us? Two
things. He saves us by merit. He saves
us by power. By merit, we're talking about
his meritorious sacrifice. Our Lord had to deal with the
Scriptures. He had the Son of Man had to come down here and
deal with the Scriptures because He had to die according to the
Scriptures. He had to deal with the law, what the law could not
do, and it was weak through the flesh. God sending His own Son
obeyed that law. He had to deal with justice,
that God might be just and justifier. He had to deal with death. He
had to deal with the grave. He had to deal with resurrection.
The Son of Man came down here to save by His meritorious sacrifice,
but by His invincible power, He also saves us, for we're saved
not only by His death, but by His life. He said, because I
live, ye live. We're not only saved by His death,
but by His life. And by His death, we're reconciled
to God. By His power, God's reconciled
to us. For in that power, we're renewed
and regenerated and we become new creatures. Take this, for
example, Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was a rebel, a
wretched persecutor, blasphemer, injurious. But he was redeemed
by Christ. He was reconciled to God by Christ. In the fullness of time, in God's
purpose, he came and broke that stubborn rebel He came and conquered
his heart, and God was reconciled us all. So that's by merit and
by power. Christ redeemed us by merit and
by power. Now one other thing I want to
show you, one thing, Luke 19, 10. The Son of Man, and I'll
make this two or three minutes, because I preach too long, but
the Son of Man, we can't overemphasize His deity, we can't overemphasize
His humanity. He's the Son of Man. Son of God
and Son of Man. He came to seek. We must be sought. He had to come to us. We wouldn't
come to Him. He had to choose us. We wouldn't choose Him. He
came to save by merit and by power. Whom did He come to save
and to seek? The lost. Three things I want you to see.
All men are totally lost. From the sole of the feet to
the top of the head. That's what Scripture says. No goodness.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his
own way. There's no difference at all if sinning comes short
of the glory of God. In Adam, all men die. I was born
in sin, shape and iniquity, the wicked are strained from the
womb. All men are totally lost. Now watch this, this is important.
Some men are totally and finally lost. Totally and finally lost. Judas was one. son of perdition
from the beginning. That's what Scripture says. Pharaoh
was one. For this same purpose, God said,
I raised you up that I might show my power in you. The Pharisees
were some. Christ said, leave them alone.
You know what He said? His disciples said, what about
the Pharisees? He said, leave them alone. Romans 1, verse 2,
4, verse 24, 26, and 28, Christ gave them up. gave them up, men who are given
up by God are finally lost. That's totally and finally lost.
And then in 2 Thessalonians 2, 10 through 12, it says God will
give them strong delusions that they'll be damned for believing
a lie who receive not the truth. So all men are totally lost.
Some men are totally and finally lost, judicially blinded, cut
off. left alone, given up, raised
up for God's power and for the purpose for which God ordained
them. While some men are totally, that's
us, they're totally lost, but they won't be finally lost because
Christ came to save them. Now if He hadn't have come, we'd
have been finally, totally and finally lost. Like the angels
who kept not their first estate. They were totally and finally
lost, reserved in chains, in darkness unto that day. Now,
wait a minute. The only reason I'm not finally
lost is Christ came to seek and to save me. Like that sheep out
yonder wandering, that sheep belonged to the shepherd, and
the shepherd went to seek it. Now, if he hadn't have gone,
if he hadn't gone, that sheep would have been finally lost
for good. But he went after it. That silver
piece, the woman lost, she lit the candle, that's the Word of
God, the light, and she looked for it, and she swept till she
found it. And that son, he came home, and
the Father received him. You see, he seeks the lost, and
by his merit and power he saves them. And we're totally lost,
and the only reason we're not finally lost, I wish we could
see it, is he came to seek and to save us. Our Father, use the
word for your glory and for our good. What good news, what glad
tidings to those who are sinners. Christ came to save the lost.
We're glad you revealed to us our sins. We're glad you haven't
left us to our own thoughts about sin and about salvation, but
you've shown us what we are by nature. You've shown us our hearts,
our thoughts and imaginations, how wicked but you've shown us
Christ who came to seek and to save, who will not be frustrated
or disappointed for we who are the sons of Abraham will be found
because of his grace and love. Use the word. We pray for Christ's
sake. Amen.