Before I read our text this morning,
I wanted to mention in the bulletin today two very special announcements
concerning our conference, the times of our services on Friday
evening at 7.30 and on Saturday at 10 a.m. and then again Sunday,
a regular time. for our services. And then also,
there will not be midweek services this Wednesday before our conference
or the Wednesday after our meeting. So those are very important announcements. I trust that everyone will be
able to be in all the services during our conference time. We
have two men coming to preach, Brother Gabe Stoniker He's a
pastor in Kingsport, Tennessee, and Brother Chris Cunningham
is a pastor in Franklin, Tennessee, and we look forward to having
them here with us. And then also I want to thank
the men who were able to come yesterday and take care of that
project, an outside project, and they got the work done before
it got too hot, so I'm thankful for them. You know, I said one
time, there's a very few advantages to growing old. One thing is,
younger men, they won't let you do anything. I brought two shovels,
and every time I had one in my hand, someone would take it from
me, so I appreciate that. If you will, let's look today
In Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter 19, read the first 10 verses in this
passage. And Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans. and he was
rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who
he was, and could not for the press, because he was little
of stature. And he ran before and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. For today I must abide at thy
house. And he made haste and came down
and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all
murmured, saying that he was gone to be the 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 it fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, this
day of salvation come to this house for so much as he also
is a son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost. There's a word in these
verses which we just read that according to the received text,
the Lord Jesus Christ only used one other time. And it is a very
precious word. It is a word that is one of the
sweetest words that any man living can ever hear. And it is the
word salvation in verse nine. The Lord Jesus Christ said, this
day is salvation come to this house. He only used that word
one other time when he was speaking to the woman at the well of Sychar,
the Samaritan woman. He told her, you worship, you
know, not what we know, what we worship for salvation is of
the Jews. As I said, it's often said to
be the sweetest word that any sinner may hear because this
word salvation includes so many other things. For instance, it
includes forgiveness of sins, pardon, reconciliation with God,
adoption into the family of God, justification, sanctification,
and redemption, all included in this one word, salvation. Now the apostles, they use this
word several times in their preaching and in their writing that is
recorded. For instance, the apostle Peter, just a couple of days
after the day of Pentecost, he was preaching in the temple and
he said, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved. He actually used the word twice
in that long sentence. Neither is there salvation in
any other. The Apostle Paul used it in this
very familiar text, Romans 1 and verse 16. For I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. unto
salvation unto everyone that believeth. And the apostle Jude,
in his very short letter, he used it when he said, Beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation. This word is translated almost
every time by the English word salvation, but there are two
places at least where the same word is translated by two other
English words. One word is the word deliverance. Deliverance. That's what God's
salvation is. It's deliverance. If you are
here this morning, you might think, well, we've been singing
about the blood of Christ, about being washed whiter than snow.
What does that mean? It means to be delivered from
the pollution of sin. Deliverance from its penalty,
first of all. What is the penalty of sin? It's
death, eternal death. And what is salvation? It is
deliverance from that penalty. And not only from the penalty
of sin, but from the power of sin. By nature, we are all captives
to sin. That's our nature, to do evil,
to do evil and wicked things. We're born that way, with a nature
that's prone to evil. And the Lord, in his saving us,
gives us power, power to overcome that new nature, power to live. for Christ and for His glory,
to live a new life and a blessed life, a blessed life. Many of you maybe were saved
when you were children, but some of us were saved when we were
more than children. And I look back I look back on a life of sinful practices, evil, and the Lord has saved me. He saved me from that wicked
lifestyle. from the power of sin. And it
also includes, of course, salvation from the presence of sin. One
day, we'll be with him forever, where sin can never molest, can
never come. Not only deliverance from sin,
but deliverance from Satan. We're all, as we're born into
this world, under the power of the prince of the air, which
is Satan. And only Christ can deliver us,
translate us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear Son, the Son of His love. And deliverance from
the law, you know, the law of God which curses us. Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the law of God for to do them. And a lot of people have the
Ten Commandments hanging up in their house, or they can quote
them, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you know, it's
one thing to have the commandments, but it's something else to keep
the commandments. Not only actually keeping them,
but keeping them in the heart. You know, we're deliverance,
and the law, when we break the law, the law curses us, and the
curse of the law is death. and salvation, deliverance from
the curse of the law. We're not under that law as a
covenant any longer. We've been made free, free to
serve God and to worship God. What a blessing, right? Salvation,
the sweetest word, deliverance, and it's also translated one
time by the word health, health. And that's a good description
of salvation. Because we're born into this
world with the most awful disease, the disease of sin. And there's
only one cure. That's the blood of Jesus Christ. By his stripes, Isaiah the prophet
wrote, by his stripes, by his being punished in our stead,
in our place, by his stripes, we are healed. Healed. from that awful disease of sin. I want us to consider some things
this morning from this passage that relates to this man by the
name of Zacchaeus. If you had been enabled by God
on that day that the Lord moved through Jericho, And you had
the privilege somehow, the power of God allowed you to look at
every person in Jericho, everyone who lived there, everyone who
was there that day. And you were told, now the Lord
is going to speak to one of these people, only one that we know
of. And he's going to tell that person,
today is salvation come to this house. If you could have looked
at all of the people there, I would imagine Zacchaeus would have
been the one no one would have chosen. Of all the people the
Lord may say that to, it won't be Zacchaeus. It surely won't
be him. Oh no. But you know, God's ways
are not man's ways. And God's thoughts are not man's
thoughts. No, the Son of Man, as our Lord
says here in verse 10, the Son of Man is come to seek and to
save that which is lost. And Zacchaeus was lost. I want us to look at five things
we're told about him. First, he was chief among the
publicans and he was rich. He was a publican. He was chief
among the publicans and he was rich. Now, you know that a publican
was a tax collector for Rome. But think about this. The Lord
associated publicans and harlots. That's who the Lord associated
publicans with. The Lord did that when he said,
the publicans and the harlots will go into the kingdom of God
before you do. That is, before this religious
group that was around him at that time. The publicans and
the harlots. As far as the Jews were concerned,
you couldn't get any farther down than to be a publican or
to be a harlot, man or woman. I mean, this was the dregs of
society. As to the thinking of the people,
Zacchaeus, no one would ever think God would save such a one
as him. He was a public, he was a sinner. As they used to say, John Bunyan
said, double-died, double-died sinner. He was a public. And not only that, but he was
rich. And he was rich, no doubt, by
cheating, by doing unrighteous acts, which being a publican
allowed him to do these things. And just a few days before this,
the Lord Jesus Christ had made this statement about the rich
being saved. He said, for it is easier for
a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And here this man, he's a publican
and he's rich. Now keep in mind, when the Lord
Jesus Christ made that statement about it being easier for a camel
to go through an eye of a needle, he wasn't saying, this is really
hard. This is really gonna be hard
for a rich man to be saved. No, he said, it's impossible.
A camel cannot go through an eye of a needle, and neither
can a man or a woman be saved apart from the power of God,
from the work of God. Our Lord wasn't saying it's hard
for rich men to be saved. He's saying it's impossible,
and not only rich but poor, learned and unlearned, all men. It's a difficult thing. If the
righteous scarcely be saved, the Apostle Peter said. With
difficulty is what that means. If the righteous with difficulty
be saved, what about the unbelievers? None would have thought. I don't
think anyone would have ever thought. It would have never
crossed anyone's mind that this man is going to hear those sweet
words, that sweet word today. Salvation has come to this house. He was a rascal. He was a publican
and he was rich. How do you explain that? How
do you explain it? There's only one answer. There's
only one answer from the word of God. Zacchaeus was an object
of God's eternal love. Before the foundation of the
world, God had set his love upon Zacchaeus and chosen him unto
salvation. Our Lord said that, didn't he,
in verse six, when he said, he also is the son of Abraham. Now, I believe he was a Jew. But from what I've read, you
cannot prove that by his name, but I believe he was a Jew. But
many Jews were not saved. No, for him to be a son of Abraham
means that he was a spiritual son of Abraham. He was one that
the Lord had chosen, just like he chose Abraham. He was one
of his spiritual seed. And Zacchaeus' name had been
written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the
world. You say, is that a literal book? I doubt it. I doubt it. But in
the decree of election, Zacchaeus' name appeared right there. It
might have been Saul of Tarsus, a religious Self-righteous man,
and right underneath, Zacchaeus, a publican. His name had been
written in God's book of election from before the foundation of
the world. You say, well, he fell in his
father Adam. Yes, he did, just like you did,
and I did. But he didn't fall out of his
father's love. His Father's love, God's love,
is eternal love. The apostle writing to the church
at Corinth made these statements. He said, For you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. No one would have ever accused
Zacchaeus of being noble. Not many noble are called. Well,
he certainly would never have been accused of being noble. But then Paul goes on to say,
but God hath chosen, hath chosen. And you know, the religious world
of false religion, they just hate this doctrine, this truth. God chose his people from before
the foundation of the world. Apart from God's sovereign election,
no one would be saved. You know, people put up a straw
man and then they punch him down, they knock him down. Well, you
folks believe that people want to be saved and God won't save
them. Oh, no. Don't believe that at
all. We know that by nature, no man
wants to be saved until God does something for him, God does something
in him, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And
every person who sincerely desires to be saved, as we sang a few
minutes ago, Christ has never said no. He said, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, nothing to bring
to naught things that are. Why would God do that? Well,
he tells us, doesn't he, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. Every person saved. Every person
who walks the streets of God, every person in glory, all going
to be saying the same thing. Not unto me, not unto me, but
unto thy great name given glory. Here's the second thing we see
about Zacchaeus. The scripture here says in verse
three, he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for
the press, for he was little of stature. Well, how do we explain
that? Well, it may have just been curiosity.
I'm not sure. We don't know. It may have just
been curiosity. But, listen, perhaps, maybe,
just maybe, he had heard, Zacchaeus maybe had heard that something
very strange happened to another publican. Look back, if you will,
in Chapter 5. Just maybe he had heard this
story. There was another publican named
Levi or Matthew, as his name is in the scripture. Luke chapter five, verse 27. We read, and after
these things, he went forth. Now, Matthew, Levi lived in Capernaum. It's true. Zacchaeus lived in
Jericho. So maybe he hadn't heard, but
maybe he had. Maybe word traveled among the
publicans. Something strange happened here
a while back. What was it? Well, you know Levi? You know the publican Levi? Well,
he just got up one day and walked away. Walked away from his job,
his lucrative job, and left the money on the table and everything
else. And not only that, but he gave
a big feast and invited all of his other publicans to come and
feast. And he also invited the Lord
Jesus Christ to be there. Look at it here, Luke 5 and verse
27. And after these things he went
forth, that is Jesus, and saw a publican named Levi sitting
at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him, follow
me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made
a great feast in his own house. And there was a great company
of publicans and of others. that sat down with them. But
their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples saying,
why do you eat and drink with publicans? The disciples of Christ
were there along with the Lord. Why do you eat and drink with
publicans and sinners? Maybe, just maybe, Zacchaeus
had heard, I know this, I know this, that when God saves a person,
people around him, They know something's different. They know
something's different. He may not have a big Bible under
his arm when he comes to work the next day, and he may not
have a shirt that says Jesus on it or something like that,
but they just know he's a little bit different than he used to
be. Something strange has happened to him. And of course, When they
have the opportunity, they speak of Christ, of their Lord. For
some reason, Zacchaeus, and I know it was the Lord, he works by
means, doesn't he? For some reason, Zacchaeus got up that morning and thought,
you know, I'd like to see that man. I'd like to see that man
called Jesus. Everybody's talking about him.
A whole lot of people following him. I'd like to see him. But
he had a problem, didn't he? Because he was little of stature,
the scripture says. He had to run ahead. He knew
the pathway the Lord would take, and he knew there was a tree
up there. He could climb up in that tree,
and when the Lord Jesus passed by, I just want to see him. I
just want to put my eyes on him. That was his intention, wasn't
it? It wasn't to invite him to his
house. Oh, no. But listen. While Zacchaeus
couldn't see the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, with his eye
of omniscience, he saw Zacchaeus. He saw Zacchaeus that day. And he saw him when he got out
of bed that morning, when he got up and ate his breakfast,
and when he ran and got up in that tree. He knew. Zacchaeus couldn't see Him, but
the Lord Jesus saw Him. And He sees all of His elect.
He sees all of His people and keeps them by His prevenient
grace until the time that we read about in Ezekiel chapter
16, a time of love. A time of love. A time, we call
it conversion. most likely, but a time of love
when the Lord Jesus speaks and says, live. Live! And man lives and looks to Christ. A third thing, I've got to move
on now, but a third thing, Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus. Now who's
the first here to speak? Zacchaeus, he's up in that tree.
He's not saying a word. He's as quiet as a mouse. Oh,
but the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to where he was, looked
up. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down, for today I must abide at thy house. I must. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. There are just a few things that
we read in the scriptures that tell us that Christ must do something. This is what he said, I must
abide at thy house. He called him by name, didn't
he? You say, who told him? He knows all of his sheep by
name. And he calls his sheep by name. And he looked up and
said, Zacchaeus, come down. His sheep were given unto him
by his father in that everlasting covenant of grace. And Zacchaeus
was one of his sheep for whom he would give his life. Look
at verse six. And he made haste. You say, well,
that's surprising. Not really. Not really. When the Lord gave the command,
come down. Doesn't surprise us that he's
coming down, does it? This is the one who spoke the
worlds into existence. Let there be light. And light
was. And now he says, Zacchaeus, come
down. Doesn't surprise us. that he
came down. And notice the fourth thing,
he received him joyfully. He received him joyfully. And when Zacchaeus received him,
he received salvation. He is salvation. This is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. I am the living bread. I am the
resurrection and the life. And you know, the apostle John
in his first chapter of the gospel says, to as many as received
him. Here's one of them, Zacchaeus.
He received him joyfully. And to as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of the will of man, nor the will
of the flesh, but of God. He and He alone, that is the
Lord Jesus, satisfied God's justice for His people and shed His blood
to make that all-sufficient atonement to cover the sins, take the sins
away of His people. One other thing, the fifth thing
that I notice here in verse 8, people I guess the neighbors,
you know, they knew Zacchaeus. They knew what kind of man he
was. They began to murmur, verse 7. They began to murmur and criticize
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was going to be guests with
a man that's a sinner. Can you imagine that? People are saying that he's the
Messiah. That's what's being rumored about.
He's the Messiah, the long-awaited Messiah. And do you see this? He's gone to be the guest of
a sinner. How can that be? How can that
be? But I noticed something this
past week for the first time. You know Zacchaeus, he makes
his confession. And when the Lord saves a person,
We want to make a public confession, don't we? We want to confess
the Lord in baptism. That's one of the ways that we
confess the Lord. Confess that we believe in Him,
believe His gospel, want to be identified with Him and with
the Church of God. But Zacchaeus, I noticed this
for the first time, he spoke to the Lord. Notice that in verse
8. He wasn't talking to the neighbors
that were murmuring and all of the criticism that was going
on. He spoke to his 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. Was he
a new man? Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Was he a new man? Salvation brought
deliverance from the guilt and the filth and the power of sin. Now I have two other things I
want to say very briefly. First of all, think over the
years, over these 2,000 years, How many people have read this
story, heard this story proclaimed, preached like we're doing here
this morning, and God used it to call them? How many? I remember Brother Groover, Walter
Groover, he loved to preach about Zacchaeus. And he would always
say the same thing, I believe, because the Yucatecans, the Mayan
Indians, usually pretty short, and he would apply that to them. How many people, how many people
over the years have heard this story and God spoke to them,
just like the Lord here spoke to Zacchaeus? And maybe someone
here this morning, the Lord speaks to you and says to you, come
down, come down. and you receive him joyfully.
And the third, the other thing, the second thing, where do you
think Zacchaeus is today? And what do you think he's doing?
Well, I'll tell you what, he's not up in a tree, but he's in
glory. He's up in glory. And what's
he doing? He's praising the Lord like everyone
else, every other saved sinner in glory. Praise. Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures here
below. Praise Him, ye heavenly hosts,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I like for us to sing that, don't
you? I think we'll sing it again. Let's close with singing the
benediction.