I invite your attention back
to Luke chapter 19. The title of my message this morning is
Providential Stature. Providential Stature. Now most
everyone who has been in church building or in a Sunday school
classroom knows this story. There's been a song about it
I used to sing in Sunbeams. However, like most Bible stories,
this one has been relegated to a children's Bible story library
And it's taken on, for the most part, a kind of fairytale flavor. This, however, is a record of
something that took place. This happened. It is a record of the Lord God,
Jesus Christ, commanding the salvation of one whom He has
chosen from the foundation of the Word. That's what this is
about. And there is a great deal here
for the child of God. The first thing to note is that
the Lord is demonstrating what he said to his disciples in chapter
18 when a rich young ruler came to Christ. And he said, What
must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord crossed his path
where his greed was and where his life was and said, well,
just take everything you've got and give half to the poor. He
said, well, I can't do that. He said, okay then. And he walked
away sad and broken. And our Lord says, you know,
it would be harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into eternal life. And the disciples
said, well, who then can be saved? Our Lord says, with men, it's
impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. On this day, just a short time
later than when He said that to His disciples, our Lord saves
a rich man. That's how He's described, a
rich man. He also saves a man who is a sinner. And he saves
a man who's a hated and a wicked rich man. He is a publican. A
publican, not a republican. He's a publican. And a publican was a tax collector,
a Jewish tax collector who collected taxes from the Jews. and overcharged
them and took a percentage for himself. And they were considered,
if you'll read how they're spoken of in Scripture, if they're spoken
of in the same sentence with sinners, it's always publicans
first. Publicans were the worst, they
were the off-sky, they were the scum of the universe. Our Lord
comes to this town where this man has robbed these people. He was a thief and a wicked man
and become rich off of their sweat. and saves this man that
day. In Ephesians chapter 2 it speaks
of, for the ages to come, He would show forth the riches of
His grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that
mean? That means forever and ever, people are going to say
just what these people said. What in the world is He doing
with that kind of person? And God is going to say, I saved
him. By my grace. He could never have earned it.
So if you're saved by grace, that is a comment on your character
and your person. That you could have never deserved
it. You never will deserve it. You will never do anything that
can recommend you to God whatsoever. By grace. And grace alone. With men, they see this as utterly
impossible. How could God save somebody like
this? But with God, all things are possible. Now looking to
see the spectacle of this man from Nazareth who
was working miracles all around, Zacchaeus, a short man. And Zacchaeus
means pure. Was he pure? Yeah, he was pure
evil. He was a pure-dyed and divorced sinner. That's what
he was. But he's a short man. He's a little guy. And he shinnies
up a tree to catch a glimpse from a higher vantage point of
what he thinks is a spectacle just like the rest of them do.
He's not looking to be saved. He's not coming to church. He's
not doing good deeds. He's a crook and a thief and
a publican. He's not looking to be saved,
but rather, like many, he's interested. Like in religion today, he's
interested in the possibility of seeing a miracle. love things
like that. That's why these so-called healing
meetings and miracle crusades are such big hits. People are
looking to see something. That's why crowds gather still
down at Conyers, Georgia, to see the face of Mary in a screen
door, or see Jesus Christ in an Egg McMuffin, anything. They
liked the spectacle. They were intrigued by that.
And that's why Zacchaeus climbed up that tree. He climbed up the
tree because he was curious. He was curious. And unbeknownst
to him, he had no idea. He was the target of a beam of
divine light that broke from glory before the world began.
And it traveled from eternity and entered into time and was
targeted to a sycamore tree where one of God's elect, because he
was providentially of diminished stature, had to climb a tree
to catch a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ. He climbed that
tree to see Christ, to see Jesus. But on that day, divine arithmetic,
sovereign geometry had drawn a line between two points. One
point was God's sovereign purpose in all eternity. The other was
the heart of a sinner named Zacchaeus. He climbed the tree to see Jesus,
but it was the Lord who saw him. That's what it says. The Lord
saw him. Who did He see? He saw Him whom
He foreknew from all eternity, and called Him by His name, as
Christ said, I will do that, I will call My sheep by name.
And He brought salvation to that house that day. And that's the
way it always works. It always works that way. God
says whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He
also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified." My Lord
said, I call My sheep by name. You ever wonder why your mother
named you what? Your name. You're named what's your name
because that's the name God's going to use when He calls you.
And if he don't call you, it's because he never knew you. But
if he knew you, he'll call you by name. The Lord didn't say,
you old sorry sinner, come down here. The Lord didn't say, whatever
your name is. He didn't say, you publican,
you thief, come down here. He said, Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus,
I call my sheep by name and he said also my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and no
man is able to pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave
to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Our
Lord passed through Jericho. He passed through Jericho. on
his way to Jerusalem, to call out one of the fold that he must
bring in. Other sheep have I which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring." You'll note that our
Lord was not holding a revival meeting or a crusade. He was
not holding a soul-winning crusade. In all of Jericho, you think
about this, and the crowd surrounded Christ. In all of Jericho there
was but one thing that held his interest. One thing, just like
the woman at the well. One person, I must need to go
to Samaria. How come? Ain't nothing in Samaria.
Yeah, there is. One of mine's in Samaria. She's
there. She's going to be sitting by
a well at noon, drawing water. And I'm going to give her the
water of life. Zacchaeus was the reason our Lord went through
Jericho. Providence was bringing some
destined things to their appointed end. Zacchaeus was a short man,
but for him that was a fortuitous predestination, wasn't it? Else
he would never have climbed that sycamore tree, wouldn't have
had to. He could have stood in the crowd if he was as tall as the
rest of them. How long that tree had been there,
I don't know. But the seed from which it sprung was carried on
the winds of predetermination to the precise location, to the
fertile soil attended by the former and latter rains, that
that predestinated perch for Zacchaeus rose to its designated
height on the day when one of the tiny elect would ascend its
boughs to catch a glimpse of a spectacle that would eventuate
in his salvation. He had no idea. He's just climbing
a tree. I've climbed trees to get better
vantage points, haven't you? All you people hunting deer do
that. You put up a tree stand, it's way up in there. Why? Get
a good vantage point. That's all he's doing. I want
to see this spectacle. And the Lord saved him, commanded
his salvation. I don't know whether the sycamore
tree bears fruit. I know it has really big leaves.
That's what I know about a sycamore tree. I know it's white on the outside
and red on the inside, and also sometimes it's used as a derogatory
term. But that day this sycamore tree
bear fruit, and his name was Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. And when he was called by name,
he was told to make haste. Get down here. Come down. And what did he do? He made Aston
come down. The mark of the children of God. It's always the mark
of the children of God. The elect of God when they hear
the gospel. They come when they are called
and they sit where they are told. That's always the mark of the
child of God. Suffer the little ones to come
unto me. And he's not talking about children. He's talking
about His children. For such is the kingdom of heaven.
And when our Lord effectually calls His sheep, they do not
need the false psychology of the invitation system to entice
them. They do not need the pressure of a so-called evangelistic chicanery. They do not need the sad story
or the plaintive melody of some altar called hymn. When they
hear the voice of the Master, they come and they come a-running. They can't wait to get there. Look over at John chapter 11.
Here's an example of that. Zacchaeus is an example, but
here's another. In John 11, verse 28, And when she had said so, she
went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying,
The Master is come, and calleth for thee. And as soon as she
heard that, she arose quickly, and came to him. Something had happened to her
brother that day. He arose quickly and came to Christ too. And he
had been dead four days. But when the master calls, the
children come. When the elect's ears are opened
by the Spirit, they hear the gospel because the gospel is
the scalpel that operates on the ear gate. And all anybody
else has to do is get out of their way or get run over because
the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violence take
it by force. with this idea of pressuring folks and gang-saving
them, this idea of inventing ways where people can publicly
make a confession other than baptism, these ideas of begging
and pleading and cheapens Christ and His gospel. I remember years
ago I was preaching down in Spring Lake, North Carolina, and I didn't
give an imitation. And after I finished preaching,
on what it pleased God to do. It pleased God to make you His
people. It pleased God to bruise His Son. It pleased God to save
you. Those are six or seven things in Scripture. This woman came
down the aisle. I was already finished with clothes
and everything, getting ready to go eat dinner, and I was hungry. I wanted to
get out there and eat some dinner. And this gal come down crying
and moaning. I mean, she was blubbering. And
I think, oh my soul, what's going on here? Because we didn't give
an invitation. But she come down anyway. And
she come up to me and she says, I can't believe you didn't give
an invitation. And I said, well, ma'am, I told
people to close with Christ. I told them to come to Christ.
How can anybody be saved without an invitation, is what she said.
I said, people get saved because God saves them by His grace and
gives them faith to believe. And she blubbered. She said,
I've never heard of a Southern Baptist preacher that didn't
give an invitation. And I said, well, I'm going to hurt your
feelings more. I'm not a Southern Baptist preacher. And then she
really started bawling. But those things were invented
for one reason, because God don't save people that way. Men have
to come up with something to show people and to say that they're
saved. And I know because for years
I counted on that day when I was about 12 years old, walking down
some aisle in a Southern Baptist church. And I counted on that
day as my salvation, though I had no interest in Jesus Christ whatsoever.
And thank God He showed me that that was all false. When the Savior called, it did not come as an offer or an
invitation or some silly bargain. Zacchaeus was a thief and a crook
and he had nothing to bargain with. The call came in the form of
a command from the Lord God, Zacchaeus, come down. Make haste. Come here. Come here. I must
abide in your house today. What? Come here. Get down out
of that tree. I'm going to your house today.
I'm going to abide in your house today. Does that sound like an
invitation? He didn't say, Zacchaeus, let me come into your heart.
Did he? He didn't say, Zacchaeus, won't
you make me Lord of your life? He said, Zacchaeus, come down,
I'm going to your house today. I'm going to abide in your house
today. Christ is not standing and knocking at Zacchaeus' heart
door, hoping that Zacchaeus would allow him entrance. He called
because He's coming to abide, to live. And when He calls, He's
moving in. You can count on that. If He
calls you, He's moving in. He's taking up residence, and
He's taking up residence as the head of the family. He ain't
going to sit at the kids' table at meal. He's sitting at the
head of the family. Now if He needed to, He could
knock down some door with bolt and bar, but no such need exists
because hearts don't have doors. They have ventricles and they
have orders, but they don't have doors. The inward man doesn't
have a door. He is just what he is. No such
need exists because the promise given to our Lord in Psalm 110
when David said, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my
right hand, for thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Zacchaeus come down. Why? Because
he is willing. Why? Because the Lord told him to. He must abide, he said. He will
abide because he always does what he will, and he always does
what he must. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. When he comes in, he sits at the head of the table.
That's what he did to those disciples on the road to Emmaus. When he had talked to them and
they were interested in what he had to say, and he opened
the Scriptures and told them about Christ, they begged him
to stay. They said, please stay with us
in the house. But when he went in the house, he didn't sit. He didn't
sit anywhere but at the head of the table. He broke bad. That's
the job of the patriarch of the family. He sat at the head of
the table. And after he was finished, they
said, did not our hearts burn within us when he told us this
thing? Did not our hearts burn within us? On that day, the normal
reaction of religion was on full display. When it comes to miracles,
folks unanimously praise the Lord. They do. They were beside themselves with
joy when our Lord gave poor old helpless Bartimaeus his scythe.
That's what it says back in chapter 18. In verse 43 it says, And
immediately he received his scythe, and followed him, glorifying
God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto
God. They love miracles. They love
miracles. But a real miracle went on that
day and they didn't know it. A greater miracle than opening
somebody's physical eyes who one day will close them again
in blindness and death. Zacchaeus was given eternal life
this day. And that was the real miracle,
but they didn't like that at all. They didn't like that at
all. They were all angry and not happy
when Christ up and saved their enemy, the wicked publican that
had gained his riches at their expense, became wealthy at the
sweat of their brow and the bend of their back. It's always the
same in religion. Give me a miracle, I can draw
a crowd. Let God save a sinner, especially
if you don't like him, and you're not going to be happy about it. You're not going to be happy
about it. It's always the same. Look at verse 7 of our text. And when they saw it, they all murmured. Spurgeon said,
murmur is a sound any beast could make. Murmur. Saying, what is wrong with this
Jesus? He's going to be the guest with
a man that's a sinner. What's wrong with him? Were they
happy about Zacchaeus' salvation? Were they happy about the true
miracle that happened that day? No, not ever. In Matthew chapter 9, when our
Lord was sitting down and eating with sinners, the Pharisees came
by and said to His disciples, Don't you know that your Master
is eating with the worst kind of people in the world, the vile
kind of people in the world? And our Lord looked at them hearing
their thoughts and said, You see, fellas, I didn't come for
you. I didn't come to call you. I didn't come to call the righteous,
but bring sinners to repentance. You go and learn what that means.
I'm going to have mercy. I'm not going to have your sacrifices.
I don't care nothing about your sacrifices. The whole need a physician. Or
the whole need not a physician, but them that are sick. You need
to go and learn what that means. Christ came to save sinners.
That's what he says here. And he says it for the benefit
of these people who think they are already saved or they are
part of the salvation that went to Zacchaeus. The readiness of
religion to claim part of that which doesn't have to do with
them to assert their entitlement into what has nothing to do with
them is also evident here in verses 9-11 back in our text.
It says, And Jesus said to them, This day is salvation come to
this house forasmuch as he is the son of Abraham. For the Son
of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. And as they
heard these things, He added and spake a parable, because
He was nigh in Jerusalem, and because they thought that the
kingdom of God should immediately appear. That's why He gave this
parable, and that's why He spoke these words. When our Lord said
that salvation had come to this man's house because he was a
son of Abraham, The multitude jumped on that like a duck on
a junebug. They jumped on that, the son
of Abraham. And they thought. That's what it said. My dad used
to say, I ain't paying you to think. Your dad ever said such
a thing. I didn't ask you to think. Well, dad, I thought,
shut up. I didn't ask you to think. They thought. They thought, well it ain't like
what they thought. They thought that being a son
of Abraham meant that the kingdom, the setting up of Israel as a
nation and them having a part of it had come and they were
the sons of Abraham too. So they were going to be in good
shape. This old sorry son of Abraham, he's going to his house
and the kingdom of God has come to his house today. It's for
us too. It's for us too. That's the sense of entitlement
that most people think. People think God's there to save
them whenever they get ready. That's what they're for. So after
I've done all my rebellion, all my life, and I'm sitting in my
rocking chair and I ain't got the strength to rebel, though
I still want to, then I'll let God save me. That ain't going
to happen. But that's what they thought. They thought that they
had seen the beginnings of the appearance of the kingdom. In
Luke 17 they did that. In Acts chapter 1, they said,
Lord, is this the beginning of the kingdom? Our Lord said, it's
not for you to know that. That's for the Lord to know.
Just shut up. In Luke 17, the Pharisee says, show us the beginning
of the kingdom. He said, it's not going to come
by observance. It's not going to come by observance. It's going
to come when it comes. And it's going to come like the dew of
the morning. That's how it's going to come. It's going to
come like in a big crowd of religious folks loving miracles. He looks
up at a tree at one little short wretched man and says, I pick
you. And none of these. And none of
these. They thought. They were wrong
on two counts. First, they were wrong in believing
that when our Lord said, sons of Abraham, that He spoke of
natural lineage of Abraham. Listen, serpents bit the sons
of Abraham, didn't they? And they died in the wilderness
because they hated Christ. They hated that light bread. The earth opened up and swallowed
the sons of Abraham, Korah, Bithar, Nathan, all those. Our Lord said
the sons of Abraham were children of the devil. He said that to
their face in John chapter 8. He said, we have Abraham to our
father. He said, if you were Abraham's children, you'd love
me. If you want to kill me, Abraham would never want to do that.
Abraham would never want to do that. You are your father the
devil. He's a liar from the beginning
and a murderer and so are you. And you won't hear me. You can't
hear me because I tell you the truth. They'd hear you if I told
a lie, but not the truth. The sons of Abraham, who are
they? In Scripture, the sons of Abraham are the elect of God.
We're talking spiritually now. Those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ alone for justification and righteousness before God.
That's who the sons of Abraham are. I'm sitting and I'm standing
here preaching to a bunch of sons and daughters of Abraham.
You are. Well, I'm not a Jew. Yeah, you
are. You're the only true Jew. The church? The church is the
true Israel. Didn't Paul say that in Romans
chapter 2? He said, He is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, that is the circumcision of the flesh. He
is a Jew which is one inwardly, the circumcision of the heart,
whose praise is of God and not of men. and not of men. In Romans chapter 9 he says,
All that is of Israel is not Israel, but in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. In Isaac! What is that? Well,
Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Both of them were
sons of Abraham in natural lineage. One of them was not a child of
God. The other one was. One of them
was made into a great nation and is a great many nations,
ten great nations today. And the others just a group of
crazy poor sinners who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Isaac shall thy seed be called. Then he goes on to say in Galatians
chapter 3 that all who believe on Christ are the children of
Abraham and heirs according to promise. And then he takes you
to chapter 4 of Galatians and says, you remember that story
of Ishmael and Isaac? Well, Ishmael's mother was Hagar.
She was a pretend wife. She was a pretend wife, and she
represents the law. Sarah was the real wife, and
she gave birth to a son, not by the power of Abraham's manhood,
which Hagar did, But by a miracle of grace, whose
bodies were both now dead, it says in Romans chapter 4. But
Abraham being fully persuaded that God could accomplish what
he promised, he brought forth his son Isaac, a seed of promise. He says, do you understand all
about that? He said, that's an allegory teaching us the two
covenants. the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Then
in Philippians chapter 3 he said, we are the circumcision. We are the circumcision who worship
God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. Follow two words if you want
to know who true Israel is throughout scripture. Start in the Old Testament
and work all the way to the New Testament. The word circumcision
and the word remnant. Get your concordance and do it,
and you'll find out who true Israel is. True Israel is the
church of the living God. It is the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Secondly, they were wrong in
that they thought the kingdom of God was of this world. Our Lord said to Pilate, My kingdom
is not of this world. If My kingdom was of this world,
My people would fight. My kingdom is a kingdom of peace,
and it's not a kingdom of this world. It's an invisible kingdom.
You say, well, we have a visible church. Yes, you do. But within
that visible church, you have wheat and tares. And we don't
know who they are. And they don't either. And they
won't until, not talking about the elect, but talking about
the tares, they won't know until God gathers them out and wraps
them up and casts them out to eternal damnation. The kingdom of Christ is invisible.
It's not of this world. And it's only understood and
perceived by faith. So they were wrong. They thought
they were right, but they were wrong. Here also is the nature
of true repentance revealed. It's not the cause of salvation,
but the product of salvation. It was after Christ called, commanded,
and told Zacchaeus that he was come to abide with Him, that
He brought forth fruit to speak for repentance. John said, Don't
say you're of Abraham's seed. He didn't. He didn't. He said, I'll give up everything
I got. Half of everything I got, I'll give back to the poor. He
said, if I've wronged or stole anything, I'll give a man fourfold.
That's the fruit of repentance. Repentance is changing your mind
radically toward God. He said, I'll pay back fourfold.
That's Exodus chapter 22. It was one of the laws of God.
If a man stole a sheep, he'd pay it back fourfold. He was
granted repentance, and his confession was, what? I've been a thief, and I welcome you to my house.
I welcome you. The religion was taught two great
truths this day. First, they were taught that
Christ came into this world to save sinners. The only kind of
people He came to save were sinners. Paul said that. This is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. And that crowd didn't
think they were sinners though. We look back at verse 7, and
when they saw it, they were all murmured saying that he has gone
as a guest of a man that is a sinner. He ought to come to my house.
I ain't no sinner. He's gone to a sinner's house. Secondly,
they were taught that they were ignorant of Him who stood before
them. This miracle worker was the Lord of Glory, the King of
Kings, the sovereign substitute for sinners that God had sent
into this world to save His people. And they were ignorant of Him
who stood before them. And that since they were unwilling to
employ the means that they had before them, that the Lord was
going to take from them what they had and give it to those
who had used what was available to them. Now what could that
possibly be talking about? That's a whole parable. Verses 11 through 27 speak of
that parable. A certain man, powerful man,
went on a journey and he left three servants with some money.
He said, now go make me some money. Go make me some money.
Use this money and invest it and start a small business or
do something, put in a bank and get me some interest at least.
Gave one man one pound, one man five pounds, another man ten
pounds. In another place it's called
talents. But that's not talking about singing and dancing, that's
talking about weight. When he came back, the man who
had given him ten pounds said, I have invested it and I've earned
you ten more pounds. He said, well, that's good. I
appreciate you doing that. I'm going to give you power over
ten cities. And the one that had five pounds, he came back
and said, I've gained your five pounds. I've gained five more.
He says, well done. I'm going to give you power over five cities. And the one that had a pound
said, well, you know, I know you're a sovereign. You're the
businessman and you're the king and you're really powerful. You
get stuff from stuff you don't even invent. You pick up where
you didn't lay down and you got power. So I figured, I'll just
hold this for him. I'll just hold this for him.
And when he comes back, I'll give it back to him. He'll be
pleased. So I put it in a napkin and buried it in the ground. And the man said, you should
have put it at least at a bank and got me some interest on it.
But since you don't have it, since you didn't use it, since
you knew what God had given to you, since you used the means
that God had given you, I'm taking that from you and I'm going to
give it to the guy that used ten pounds. Now we have a lot
of talk this day about redistribution of wealth. Here's the biblical
example of redistribution of wealth. taken from those that
don't have, and refuse to use the means that God has given
them, and take it away from them and give it to somebody else.
That's what this is talking about. The parable, much like an Old
Testament type, never sets forth the truth in a precise and exact
manner. It's a tool of language designed to teach a singular
truth by comparative story. Our Lord added this parable to
those who praised Him for His miracles, but rejected Him for
saving this man, and for how He saves sinners, and who He
saves. You see, the tree that Zacchaeus climbs was a metaphor
for making use of whatever means is available to you in order
to see Christ. It's a metaphor. The sycamore tree you have is
the church where the gospel is preached. That's what you have.
That's all you have. And I know many people who believe
that the Lord is sovereign, who lay claim to believe in the gospel,
but never have an interest in God's people or being with God's
people where they meet. They have great relationships
with old, dead prophets. They have big libraries, and
they read all the time from old, dead men, and they act like maybe
they had them to dinner. I don't know, but I don't think
it would be very pleasant. You may believe that the Lord is
sovereign over disease. You may believe that He has power
to work miracles, but unless you come to Him for salvation
on His terms, you'll remain in your sin, because the means that
God has given you is the local church to preach the gospel.
Gospel churches are here for a time and for the purpose of
calling Zacchaeus out of a tree. That's what they're here for. I know many people who think
that proximity is salvation. They believe you're close to
the people of God, or close to somebody who preaches the gospel,
or so close to somebody who believes the gospel. That's salvation. That's not salvation. Do not
think that you have a part in the salvation of God if you've
not made haste to come to Christ. Because you see, as I stand here
this morning, I say to you that He has said unto you in His Word,
He has commanded all men everywhere to repent. He has commanded all
men everywhere to believe. You say, well, I can't. Well,
the problem is with you. It's not with Him. He commanded
you. Zacchaeus was short. So are you. So am I. Short of
righteousness, short of salvation, short of ability, short of glory,
short of will. But there is a tree. It's a sycamore. I say to you,
climb that tree. Trust Christ now for your soul's
salvation. Let go of everything you hope
in Him but that. Rip it loose and throw it in the garbage where
it belongs. Do not presume that what is before you now will be
there tomorrow. The Lord said to the church in Ephesus, if
you don't repent, I'm going to take away your candlestick. I won't let
you have a place to worship. The Lord has commanded all men
to believe and repent, and that command comes with permission
to obey. Well, I can't. You can't because
you won't. You don't want to. Just admit
it. Well, I don't feel anything. Well, I don't either. About 99%
of the time I don't feel like I ought to. I know that. You
will only see Christ in the truth of this gospel where this gospel
is preached. You're not seeing Him anywhere.
You won't see Him in a cloud. You won't see Him in a religious
crusade. You'll see Him right here in
this book. as He's given eyes. As He said
to you, Zacchaeus, come down. Well, if He has, I know what
you'll do. You'll make haste. You'll come down. You will. I'm not going to do anything
for you. Can't do anything for you. I'm not going to ask you
to do anything. Wouldn't dare do that. But if He said, come down,
you'll be down here real quick. Not down here. To Him. To Him. Zacchaeus, a wee little
man. Climbed up a sycamore tree just
to see a spectacle. And Christ came to his house.
Never left. And if he's come to your house,
he ain't leaving. Because he's the head of the
house now. Fly to Christ. Right where you are without moving
a muscle. Whenever you do, don't try to do something to do this.
Fly to Christ. Father bless us for understanding
and praying for Christ. Amen.