Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to receive us,
grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
Early let us turn to Thee Early let us seek Thy favor Early let
us do Thy will Blessed Lord and only Savior, with Thy love our
bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
thou hast loved us, loved us still. Thank you, Jim. This is a very familiar portion
of Scripture to about everyone who's read the Bible or been
in church any time in their life. Any kind of local assembly is
familiar with the story of this man named Zacchaeus. Now he was
a rich man. He was a publican. And a publican
to the Jewish people was worse than a sinner. In fact, when
they put those two terms together, publican always come up first.
He's a publican and a sinner. But a publican was about the
worst person that they could have because he was a tax collector.
He collected tax for the country that was in power over Israel,
whatever country that might be. And generally speaking, he overtaxed
and took a bite for himself, a healthy bite, and publicans
became rich men. Levi was a publican. His name
was changed to Matthew and he was called out of the publican's
office to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I learned this story
in a song when I was just a tiny lad in the Southern Baptist Church.
I believe I was in the Sunbeams class in the Southern Baptist
Church. Some of you who have been in Southern Baptist know
what Sunbeams are. Some of you women know what the
WMU is and all those things. But like most Bible stories that
I was taught as a child, I cannot remember one instance where I
was taught the glory of the salvation that was wrought here by the
Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing that catches
the attention is that the Lord is proving what he said to his
disciples in chapter 18. He had said it would be easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to be saved. Yet on this day, he saves a very
rich man. a very rich man though salvation
is impossible with man all things are possible with God and taking
this into account we also see that Zacchaeus climbed the tree
he was not looking to be saved but rather like many he was interested
in the spectacle of this one who worked miracles he climbed
the tree for curiosity but unbeknownst to him he was the target of eternal
purpose and the object of eternal love He climbed the tree to see,
but on that day he was seen. It says the Lord saw him. The
Lord saw him. He climbed that tree to see Jesus,
but it was the Lord that saw him and knew him and called him
by name and brought salvation to his house that very day. That's
how it works. The Lord calls his sheep by name.
He said that twice in John chapter 10 in verse 3 and verse 27. I
call my sheep by name. Our Lord passed through Jericho.
on his way to Jerusalem. Why is he going to Jerusalem?
He's going to Jerusalem to die in the room instead of his people.
But he came to Jericho on a mission. A mission to find and to call
out one of his sheep. One of the sheep of his fold
that according to John 10 he must bring in. He must bring
in. Now the Lord was not holding
a revival meeting or carrying on a crusade. In all of Jericho
there was but one thing that was of his interest, and that was Zacchaeus. Divine
purpose had set all things in order. Zacchaeus was a tiny man,
a man who was vertically challenged, a man of short stature, a little
fellow. And for him it proved a most
victorious, fortuitous predestination that there was a tree that he
could climb along that road. Now how long that tree had been
there, we don't know. But that seed was carried on
the winds of Providence to that location, however many years
before, to find fertile soil that would make it grow to the
designated height on the day when one of the elect would ascend
its boughs and catch a glimpse of a curious spectacle that would
eventuate in the salvation of his soul. What a thing. He climbed that tree and saw
the tree of life, and the fruit of that tree was Zacchaeus. And
he was plucked that day. When he heard his name called,
he was told to make haste and come down. To make haste and
come down. And that's the direction you'll
go when the Lord calls your name. He'll go down right quick. You
won't know anything about yourself or about your sin until He calls.
But when He calls by His gospel, the first thing you learn is
you need to go down. You need to be humbled. You need
to be brought to the dust because that's where you belong. He called
His name and He came down. And when our Lord affectionately
calls His sheep, they do not need a false psychology of the
invitation system to entice them. They do not need the pressure
of so-called evangelistic trickery to seduce them. They do not need
the sad, tear-jerking story or the plaintive, dulcet tones of
a melody of some so-called invitation hymn. When they hear the voice
of the Master, they come, and they come a-running. Our Lord
said in John 10 that when He calls His sheep, they follow
Him. He doesn't say they think about
it, they ponder it, they weigh all the pros and cons. They follow
Him. when the elect are given the
ears to hear, the ears of faith to hear the gospel, just get
out of their way, don't stand in their way, you don't have
to do anything, you don't have to do any persuading. You might
get run over if you get in the way because our Lord said the
kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
The violent take it by force. When the Savior called it did
not come in the form of an offer, nor did He beg or beseech, nor
did he wring his hands at the doors of heaven and he commanded
make haste Zacchaeus and come down because I must abide in
your house today I must Christ was not standing and knocking
at Zacchaeus's heart door he called because he was coming
to abide and that's the way it always works I remember the story
of Ruth when Naomi heard that the Lord had visited His people
in giving them bread. If He's coming, He's coming with
the bread. He's going to give bread. He's
not going to offer bread. If the Lord comes, He's going
to come with bread. When He calls, you can count
on this about the Lord Jesus Christ, when He calls you by
your name, calls you to make haste and come down, He's moving
in. He's coming to your house and
He's going to stay. Now he had knocked down the door
bolt and bar if he needed to but no such need exists because
his people according to scripture are made willing in the day of
his power. He must abide is what he said.
I must abide and he will abide for he always does his will.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. When he comes in he
comes in and he sits at the head of the table. That's what he
did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. he came in their
house they bid him to stay and he came in and he sat at the
head of the table and he's the one that broke the bread he is the head
of the house when he comes to abide the reaction of religion
is on full display here in this passage when it comes to miracles
folks unilaterally praise the lord everybody likes his miracles
that's why these healing crusades and such uh... draw such crowds
because people just love miracles They were full of joy when our
Lord gave old blind Bartimaeus his sight back in chapter 18.
But they were not at all happy when Christ saved someone they
hated, their enemy, this rich man, this wicked money-grubbing
publican who had lined his pockets at their expense, became wealthy
by the sweat of their brow. It's always the same with religion
throughout Scripture. Every time he meets with a sinner,
they don't like it. This man eateth with sinners.
This man is eating with sinners. Several times in scripture we
see them say those very same things. In chapter 15, we know
when he went out to search for the lamb and found him and brought
him home, the first thing he said, the first thing he said,
the Pharisees were upset because he ate with sinners. This man
ate with sinners. In another place he was eating
with sinners, and it was called a spectacle. They were just knocked
out by what was going on. And they went to the disciples
and said, don't you understand what this man is doing? Who he's
eating with? Our Lord heard them. He said, the whole need not a
physician, but them that are sick. You need to go home and
learn what that means. I'll not have sacrifice. I'll have mercy. I didn't come
to call the righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. Religion always hates it when
Jesus Christ deals with sinners. I mean, real sinners. They like
the halfway sinners, the people who messed up a little bit and
got caught and now want to confess their sin and walk down an aisle
and weep and moan and cry and get the handshake and the pat
on the back. They love those kind of sinners. But a sinner
who can't do anything is utterly hopeless and without hope and
without help in this world. Damn, doomed, dead, and dying,
that kind of sinner, religion doesn't have anything for. Because religion says you're
going to have to do something before God does something. If
a person's dead, he can't do nothing. So religion has nothing
for them. The willingness of religion to
claim part of what doesn't belong to them is also evident here
in verses 9 through 11. It says, And Jesus said unto
them, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he
also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and save that which is lost. And as they heard these things,
he added, and spake a parable, because he was nigh unto Jerusalem,
and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
appear. They thought he had come to set
up a kingdom in the name of Abraham. When our Lord said that salvation
has come to this man's house because he's the son of Abraham,
Abraham's entire family tree jumped on the bandwagon. His
natural family tree. They thought, that's what it
said. you'll find in scripture when somebody says he thought
or they thought it was always wrong. Moses thought. Nobody saw him when he killed
that man. He thought. He thought he was
doing the right thing. He thought he was honoring God,
but he was all wrong. He was all wrong. They thought
they were sons of Abraham. They thought that being a son
of Abraham meant that the kingdom The setting up of Israel had
come, and they were the sons of Abraham too, so they thought
the Lord's salvation was theirs just because they were sons of
Abraham. They thought they had seen the
beginnings of the appearance of the kingdom. But our Lord
said, Thy kingdom is not going to come by observance. By observance. And the disciples in Acts chapter
2 said, Is this when the kingdom starts? He said, It's not for
you to know that. It's only for God to know that.
We don't know when this kingdom is going to be set up. We don't
know. I read a lot of stuff in the
papers and I have friends and relatives who write me on Facebook
or email me and tell me this is a sign and that is a sign
and all this stuff. You don't know. When's the Lord
going to come? When he is purposed to come. When is that? Whenever
he's purposed to come. You don't know when it is. I
don't think, I don't see anything in scripture withholding him
from coming. So he can come in, and everybody who believed in
scripture at the time of our Lord and the time of the apostles,
they believed it was imminent. They said, he's coming. They
thought he was right around the corner. And every generation
since then has thought the same thing, he's right around the
corner. And I believe he's right around the corner. But I may
die and lay in my grave for a thousand years. I don't know, because
you see, with the Lord, a thousand years is a day, and a day is
a thousand years. Time nothing with him. That's
our bailiwick. That's what we have to live by,
but not the Lord. These folks thought that the
kingdom was going to come because they were sons of Abraham. They
were wrong on two accounts. First, they were wrong in believing
that when our Lord said, sons of Abraham, that he spoke of
the natural lineage of Abraham. Sons of Abraham are elect of
God. Our Lord said, if you were Abraham's son, you'd love me. That's what he said to the Pharisees.
They said, where Abraham's seed? He said, if you use Abraham's
seed, you'd love me. So I'd say if you're Abraham's
seed, you've got to love the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's
what he said would happen. The sons of Abraham are the elect
of God throughout Scripture. Those who believe Christ alone
for justification and righteousness before God, they are the spiritual
seed. Heirs according to promise, according
to the Word of God. Galatians, that's what you're
called. All who believe on Christ. Well, the sons of Abraham, Galatians
chapter three, throughout scripture, the same thing. The sons of Abraham
are sinners saved by grace. And Christ said, I came to seek
and save that which was lost. Now these folks didn't believe
they was lost. They believed they were sons of Abraham. They
believed they were entitled to this kingdom. Everything was
going to be all right because they were sons of Abraham. He
said, and then he goes and he says, I came to seek and save
that which was lost. The sons of Abraham are sinners
saved by grace. Secondly, these people were wrong
in that they thought the kingdom of God was of this world. A visible
kingdom. You see, Christ's kingdom is
invisible. It's not of this world and it's
only perceived by faith. It's a miracle and a wonder.
Those who believe the gospel know that the kingdom they reside
in, the kingdom that runs the universe, can't be seen except
through the eyes of faith. It can't be seen unless God graces
a person to see it. His kingdom is an invisible kingdom.
His rule is an invisible rule. He is the invisible God. Jesus
Christ is the image of the invisible God. How can that be? How can
something invisible have an image? I don't know, but Jesus Christ
is. In Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. An invisible
kingdom. They said, well, you set up a
kingdom, aren't you? And since we're sons of Abraham, everything's
going to be all right. They didn't understand. Our Lord told Pilate,
my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom of this world, we'd
fight. But our kingdom is not of this world. Here also is the
nature of true repentance revealed. It's not the cause of salvation,
but it's the product, the result of salvation. It was after Christ
called, commanded, and told Zacchaeus that he was coming to abide with
him that he brought forth fruit of the meat for repentance. It's
a half of everything I'll have. And if I've stolen from anyone,
I'll give them back fourfold. What he was doing was following
the principle set forth in Exodus chapter 22 as the law, because
he was still a Jew. He was granted repentance, and
his confession was that he was a thief. He said, I stole. When
he said, if I've stolen, he said, since I've stolen, I'll repay
fourfold. Give half of all I have. What
is he saying? I'm a thief. We thought he was a tax collector.
Same thing to the Jew. He's a thief. The religion was
taught two great truths this day. First, they were taught
that Christ came into the world to save sinners. This is the
gospel. Christ and Him crucified is the
declaration that Christ came into this world to save sinners
and nobody else. He didn't come for good people.
He didn't come for righteous people. He didn't come for religious
folks. He came for sinners. Sinners. And when we talk about
sinners, we're not talking about somebody that does these things
that are against societal rules. We're talking about somebody
who hates God by nature. Somebody who wants to kill God.
Somebody who wants to stick their finger in God's eye. Somebody
who wants to jerk God off His throne and put themselves in
His place. That's what it is to be a sinner. What it is to
be a sinner is to be dead in trespasses and sin without any
ability to see anything spiritual and anything good. Not able to
do any righteousness or be righteous. Not able to do any good or be
good. This is what it is to be a sinner. That's who Christ came
to save. The worst of the lot because
you see he saves men by grace and not by works. He saves them
by grace. What does that mean? They can't
save themselves and they had nothing to do with their salvation.
Grace is unmerited favor. What does that mean? Whoever
he saves cannot merit it. They did not merit it. I came
to seek and save sinners." And that crowd didn't think they
were sinners. They thought they were sons of Abraham. They were
entitled. Secondly, they were taught that
they were ignorant of Him who stood before them, and since
they were unwilling to use the means that they had before them,
that the Lord was going to take from them what they had and give
it to those whom He had given the most to, or had done the
most with what they had. That's the whole parable, you
see, is about two people. It's about Zacchaeus, and it's
about these so-called sons of Abraham. Zacchaeus was given
one thing. Just one thing. All these people
were given one thing. These three people were given
one thing. Zacchaeus was given one thing. What was he given?
He was given a tree. That's all he was given. But
he made use of that tree. He climbed that tree. That's
what he was given. Now the Jews were given things
too. They were given the oracles. They were given the law and the
ceremony, the priesthood, the rites, the rituals. They were
given the word of God. They were given all of that.
And they had kept it. The Pharisees through the Maccabean
wards had kept this word. The problem was the Pharisees
then had made it their word rather than God's word and they were
the protector of the word and they were the interpreter of
the word and nobody understood the word but them. Therefore
they ran everybody's show. What had they done with all they
had had? They had buried it. They had wrapped it in a napkin
and buried it. Because when all that that Bible taught was standing
right in their presence They rejected him and cared not
for them. They buried him. And he said
to them, well I'm taking that from you and I'm giving to him
that hath. I'm giving to the guy that climbed the tree. Giving
to the guy that climbed the tree to see me. A parable, much like an Old Testament
type, never sets forth the truth in a precise and exact manner.
It is a tool of language designed to teach the singular truth by
comparative story. Our Lord added this parable for
those who praised Him for His miracles, but rejected Him for
how and who He saved. The tree that Zacchaeus climbs
was a metaphor for making use of whatever means is available
to you for Christ. What is available to you? The
means you have in this world is the church. That's all you've
got. The church where the gospel is
preached. I'm not talking about any church, I'm not talking about
any assembly, I'm talking about where the gospel of Jesus Christ
is preached. That's what you have. That's
the tree in your community. That's the tree. You may believe
that the Lord is sovereign over disease, but unless you come
to Him for salvation on His terms, He'll take even that from you
and give it to His children. Christ was passing through Jericho.
Gospel churches are here for a time for the purpose of calling
Zacchaeus' out of trees. Do not think that proximity is
salvation. Do not think that you have part
in the salvation of God if you have not made haste to come to
Jesus Christ when He called. Do not think that the gospel
will be there when you decide to partake of it. He's passing
through. If that gal hadn't reached out
and touched his garment while he was passing by, she'd still
be bleeding to death today if she lived that long. You see,
we're short. We're short in stature. We're
short of glory. We've come short of the glory
of God. We've come short of His righteousness. We've come short
of salvation. We're short of ability. We're
short of will. We're short of everything. Our
only hope is that tree that God has provided for us to climb
up to see Jesus Christ. And I say to you, if you have
a church where the gospel is preached, avail yourself to it. Because it may be if you don't
make use of it, God may give it to one of his children who
will. It's that simple. That's the language that's being
taught here clearly. Do not presume that what is before you now will
be there tomorrow. It may not be. You may not be
here tomorrow. Got a doctor's report this week.
My cardiac guy. You know, I'm feeling great.
Doing exercises and eating right. Feel real good. Doctor's is your heart rate's
33%. You're going to have to put a
defibrillator in you. Well, I'm feeling good, he says.
Your heart rate's 33%. What's that mean? 66% of my heart
ain't working right. That's what that means. What
you going to do? Well, I'm going to get a defibrillator.
Hope it never pops me, but I'm going to get one of them things
and have them put in me. Why? Well, that's what's available
to me. That's what I'm going to make
use of. Gospel available to you? Make use of it. Make use of it. The Lord has commanded all men
to believe. The Lord has commanded all men
to repent. You reckon since He's commanded
you to repent and believe that He's
going to keep you from it? You'll keep yourself from it.
If He's commanded you to believe and commanded you to repent,
you have permission to do so. You have permission to do so.
But you'll only see Christ where Christ is. He's in this Word
faithfully preached by one whom He's called and put in the ministry. That's where He's at. That's
the tree that the Lord plants in their community. Father, bless
us to understand and pray in Christ's name.