We may turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 19 for our meditation this evening before we participate in the Lord's Supper. Luke 19 verses 1 to 10, hopefully a familiar passage, the conversion of Zacchaeus. We often remember Zacchaeus for one thing and one thing only, he was a wee little man. But this passage actually tells us more about Zacchaeus But even more so, it tells us about our Lord Jesus.
So Luke chapter 19, I'll read verses one to ten. Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and he was rich and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. for he was going to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for today. I must stay at your house. So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today's salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Amen.
Pastor Cam, can you pray, please? Thank you. I want to thank you again for your preaching and for the engagement of worship with my father, which is great. And bless the preacher as he opens up his passage to us later today.
To those who are saved, glory to God in the name that he enjoys. We pray for salvation again from this day on in biblical record. And may we always be close to our God, to our conversion, close to the cross, to our forgiveness of sin, and always be rejoicing in so great a salvation. We pray also, Lord God, for those who are not close to you.
Hear the word this evening. Amen.
Introduction
Well, as I said, this passage is very instructive concerning our Lord Jesus spells out very specifically what his mission was. He did not come to this world simply to start a new religion. He did not come to this world simply to be a good moral example. He did not come simply to be a new kind of teacher, but he spells it out very clearly in verse ten.
For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, and we can rejoice in our God, that that is in fact the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. And tonight, I want to look at two things in this particular passage.
The Man Zacchaeus
First, the man Zacchaeus, and then secondly, the mission of Christ. The man Zacchaeus, first of all, tells us his occupation. He was a chief tax collector. If you remember, the Bible always portrays tax collectors in a very negative light.
They were not looked on favorably by their fellow countrymen. In Matthew chapter 5 at verse 46, our Lord says, For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? So our Lord Jesus identifies and realizes that tax collectors are looked down upon.
It is not so noble of a thing to love those who are lovely. Don't even the tax collectors themselves do such things. Later on in Matthew chapter 18, the Lord Jesus says that if a man is a member of a church and he does not repent when he has been gone to for a sin, You go, you take two or three witnesses, if he will still not repent, then you tell it to the church. If he refuses to hear the church, then treat him as a tax collector and as a heathen.
Basically, the tax collector was a Jewish person who worked for the Roman government, taking taxes away from other Jews and giving it to Rome. So they were the worst sorts of sinners in this particular day. It tells us his economic status. It tells us that he was rich.
He was a rich man. Now, just prior in Luke 18, the Lord Jesus had a had a run in or a meeting with the rich young ruler. And if you remember in that particular account, Jesus tells the rich young ruler to go and sell everything he has and then to follow Christ. And the young man went away sorrowful because he had many riches.
He had many good things. He didn't want to give them up. Now, Jesus was not setting forth sort of a works righteousness about you do this and then follow me and I'll save you. Jesus was preaching the law to that young man.
That young man rattled off that he had kept the law from his youth. He never murdered, he never committed adultery, never did the big things. So when Jesus says, go sell everything you have, Jesus is essentially applying the 10th commandment to him. He was a covetous man.
You know, the scripture says, by the law is the knowledge of sin. And that was what Christ was doing, was exposing the young man's sin, exposing his evil. Well, that young man ultimately wanted to hold on to his sin rather than hold on to the Lord Jesus. And if you remember, after that, the disciples or Jesus told us that he gave that statement, that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven.
And what are the disciples respond? Who then can be saved? I mean, if the rich people who evidently have the blessing of God upon them, if they have a tough time entering heaven, who then can be saved? See, in this culture, the people who had a lot, the people who were accomplished, the people who wore nice clothes and did religious things, they were viewed as the saved ones.
So, when Christ says, that isn't the case, the disciples said, who then can be saved? And Jesus set forth this principle. He said, with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. That is in Luke 18.
So, in Luke 19, 1-10, here is a demonstration of that power. able. God is powerful to save sinners. So, he is a chief tax collector. He was a rich man.
Of course, physically he was short. That necessitated him climbing up the sycamore tree. MacArthur points out that would have been quite a humbling thing for a dignified man. I mean, it'd be much like today.
Not many of us, as adults, would be quick to shimmy up a tree just to get a look at somebody that was making an impression on the crowds. We would feel that be a bit below us. I'm not going to climb up the tree. I'm not a little kid.
I'm not going to do that. Well, Zacchaeus was curious enough to shimmy up that tree so that he could gaze on the Lord Jesus. And remember that. He was curious.
Wasn't, wow, this is the Savior, Son of God, I've got to come to Him and believe on Him so that I'm saved. No, initially it was a curiosity. I think we learned something beautiful in that instance. Sometimes men will enter into the house of God based on curiosity.
Sometimes people might ask you a question. based on curiosity. They might be curious as to what the Bible says about this or that. Well, under God, that can be a means whereby the spirit works to draw that center onto himself savingly. And then we notice his standing.
Zacchaeus as Lost Sinner
He is a sinner before a thrice holy God. Verse ten, the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's how the Bible describes us. A lot of times, as Christians, we tell people we're saved.
If they're thinking, people, they might scratch their head and say, saved from what? Well, the Bible tells us that we are lost, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. It has to refer, or it does refer, to our ethical standing before God. We are lost.
We are far off. We have gone astray. We are undone. We are dead in our trespasses and sins.
The Lord Christ comes. The power of his gospel is applied to us and we are saved. We are found by him. He seeks us out and he saves us from our sin.
He saves us from the wrath of God. He saves us from the fury of God. He saves us from the penalty of God's law. He saves us and liberates us in that blessed manner.
So Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. He was a rich man, a short man. But most important for the narrative is that he was a sinful man. He was a wretch.
He was undone. He stood in need of God's great grace.
The Mission of Christ
Now, notice, as we move to consider the mission of Christ, there's three particulars we should notice. First, the invitation proper.
The Invitation: Christ's Condescension
Jesus invites himself to this man's house. It's the only time in the gospel accounts where Jesus invites himself to this man's house or to a man's house. Notice verse five. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for today.
I must stay at your house. Christ condescends. That means Christ humbles himself. Christ stops.
Christ addresses this man. Just prior, there's an instance where Christ saves or heals Bartimaeus. You remember, Bartimaeus was a blind beggar. And Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was coming into town.
And what does Bartimaeus cry out? I love that narrative. He says, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And the crowd all says to Bartimaeus, be quiet.
You're too insignificant. He doesn't want anything to do with you. This is Jesus. He's passing through our town.
He doesn't want to stop to listen to a blind beggar. I love it. Bartimaeus cries out all the louder. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And the text says that Jesus heard him and stopped. And then Jesus walks over to Bartimaeus and he looks at him and he says, what would thou have me to do? I mean, talk about condescension. Here's Jesus, the most important man in the world. the most glorious person in the world, but he has time for blind Bartimaeus.
He stops and he heals him. He gives him sight. Here's the most important and most glorious man in the world stopping, looking up into the sycamore tree and telling Zacchaeus to come down. He condescends.
He is gracious, he is humble, he is kind. Psalm 113 tells us of our great God. He is enthroned on high, but he humbles himself to look upon this earth. The Lord God Most High is here.
He is imminent. That means he is present with us. or in His creation. He is not His creation. He is separate from it, but He is omnipresent.
He is there. He knows what's going on in people's lives.
Christ's Omniscience and Grace
We notice, secondly, Christ's omniscience. You notice here in verse five, what does Jesus call it? He calls Him Zacchaeus. How did He know that?
Because he's God, he's omniscient, he knows all things. He didn't have to say, hey, you up in the sycamore tree, what's your name? It's kind of a crazy place for you to be on this day. What are you doing?
No, he looks straight up at Zacchaeus and calls him Zacchaeus. Bishop Joseph Hall said, what care we that our names are obscure or contend amongst men whilst they are regarded by God? that they are raked up in the dust of earth while they are recorded in heaven. Who cares if you're obscure on this earth, if Jesus looks at you and calls you by name? We see his condescension, we see his omissions, and of course we see his grace.
The fact that Christ stops and the fact that Christ is here to save him demonstrates his great grace. Certainly Zacchaeus could say that hymn we just sang. Certainly, Zacchaeus would approve with great joy Paul's statement in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And it's not of works, not by anything you've done, lest you should ever be able to boast, but it is the grace of God by which you have come into this saving relationship.
That's what Zacchaeus learned. We also learned something else about Jesus. He's operating covenantally. You might say, wow, this guy sees covenant everywhere.
We just did a series on the covenant of grace. But notice what he says in verse nine. Today, salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham. Beautiful sovereign grace is operative here.
He's not saved because he promises to give half his stuff to the poor. He is not saved because he promises to give back what he has taken through extortion. He is saved because he's a son of Abraham. He is saved because he is a son of God by adoption.
He is saved by wondrous and great grace, by the mercy of God, who promised to Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. that in him there would be salvation. Jesus speaks in covenantal terms to this crowd, speaking concerning the salvation of this man, Zacchaeus. So we see the invitation. Christ invites himself.
The Response of Zacchaeus
Notice, secondly, the response of Zacchaeus. As I already pointed out, he was curious. Never discount that, brethren. A lot of us, we got saved not because we were melted by the mercy of God.
Some of us got saved because we feared hell, and then we got worried. Is that a legitimate motive? Yes. As Spurgeon well said, God uses the thunderings of Sinai.
He uses the wooings of Calvary. He uses a whole lot of different means, provided they're from his word, to draw sinners to himself. He says that sometimes we should get guest preachers in because they might bait their hook with something else than what we normally bait it with. And God is pleased at times to draw fish in with that different bait.
He was curious. It's good that people come to the house of God. It's good that people read the scriptures. It's good that people ask questions.
Somebody asks you a question about your religion. They ask you a question about your church. It may be curiosity initially, but God may use that to bring the truth to bear on their hearts. J.C.
Ryle said curiosity and nothing but curiosity appears to have been the motive of his mind. That curiosity once roused, Zacchaeus was determined to gratify it. Rather than not see Jesus, he ran on before along the road and climbed up into a tree. Upon that little action, so far as men's eyes can see, there hinged the salvation of his soul.
We know, of course, that Jesus is sovereign, it was appointed by God, all of that to be sure. But as far as men's eyes are concerned, Zacchaeus is curious, he runs ahead of the crowd, he climbs up into that sycamore tree, and that is the occasion wherein Jesus saves him from his sins. When our Lord stopped under the tree, Ryle continues and said, when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.
From that very moment, Zacchaeus was an altered man. From that moment. I love the immediate conversion here, too. Right.
He didn't say Zacchaeus, see me in three more years after you agonize over every sin you've ever committed. No, you need to be convinced of your sin and then you believe the gospel. You have to be convinced of your sin to the degree that John Gill is convinced of your sin. You need to be convinced of your sin and go to the remedy.
Imagine if you hurt your arm. You went to the doctors and he said, you need to go and agonize with that arm for about three more years and then you come back and I'll fix you. Some people teach that's the way we ought to respond to the gospel. You're sensitive, you're mindful, you're convinced of your sin, now go stew on it for a couple of years, and when you're good and ready, come to Jesus.
The Bible says you're good and ready when you're sensible of your sin. You flee to Christ, you venture on Him, you venture wholly, and He will forgive you. That's what Zacchaeus does. Notice the make haste in this text.
We'll get to that in just a moment. There is a make haste, Zacchaeus. Now is the acceptable time, Zacchaeus. Today is the day of salvation, Zacchaeus.
Don't stay up in your sycamore tree. Don't go home and ruminate on it. Don't go home and think about it. Zacchaeus, come down.
Come to me. Be safe. There's an immediacy here. He says, that very night, Ryle goes on, that very night, He laid down a Christian.
Isn't that beautiful? This guy woke up in the morning, this chief tax collector, who's a short guy, he's rich, and he's a sinner before God. He hears the stirrings and the commotion in Jericho. He asks the question.
Somebody says, Jesus is coming. He's curious enough to want to see who Jesus is. He runs out in front of the crowd, climbs up into that sycamore tree. Jesus saves him, and that night he lays his head down a Christian.
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. We must, Ryle continues, never despise the day of small things, Zechariah 4.10. We must never reckon anything little that concerns the soul. The ways by which the Holy Spirit leads men and women to Christ are wonderful and mysterious.
He is often beginning in a heart, a work which shall stand to eternity when a looker on observes nothing remarkable. That is great. We must not despise the day of small things. Sometimes God knocks a sinner down and saves him right there.
Other times it's a bit of conviction. It's something imperceptible. In this case, what started off as curiosity ended in Christianity for this man, Zacchaeus. He was curious.
Notice, secondly,
Zacchaeus Receives Christ Joyfully
he received it joyfully. Verse six. So he made haste. I love that he obeys Jesus.
How many people don't obey Jesus? You hear the gospel, you hear the command, believe the gospel and you will be saved. For some reason, we actually think it's okay to disobey Jesus. That's wrong.
Acts 4.12, there is one name given under heaven by which we must be saved. You need to believe. You need to come. Jesus says, make haste and come out of that tree.
Then you make haste and come out of that tree. He is, after all, God. He owns you. He will judge you.
He will have a final disposition for you. So Zacchaeus obeys. He makes haste and came down and received him joyfully. Do you love that?
Receives him joyfully. John Hill says this, not only into his house, but into his arms and heart. Christ was a welcome guest to him as he is to every sinner who, by faith, receives him as the father's free gift, as the alone Savior and Redeemer, as the great mediator in all his offices of prophet, priest and king, and in every relation and character he bears. and embraces his doctrines and submits to his ordinances, and that with the greatest joy, as there is reason for it, since with him he receives the full and free forgiveness of his sins, a justifying righteousness, an abundance of grace, and a right unto and meekness for heaven. He received him joyfully.
That ought to be our response. When we come to the supper tonight, I realize there's always a sense of our own sin. I realize there's always a sense of our own unworthiness. But let's cast a joyful eye upon our Lord Jesus.
Let's cast a joyful eye upon the one who went through what he went through to save us from our sins. Now, I'm not one of these Christians, as you well know, that walks around with a big smile on my face all the time. You ever meet those kind of people? How are you?
Great! Everything's great! Everything's great! Great, great, great!
I don't roll that way. Not all of us roll that way. Some of us may have a streak of melancholy. Some of us may wish the calendar went from December to February, but it doesn't always do that.
Some of us may struggle, but all of us in Christ must reach down in there and find some joy in the Savior. We must receive Him joyfully, not just initially, but each and every day. There should be joy in our Christian life. Paul the Apostle says that God takes our joy seriously.
God has called us to rejoice. God commands us to rejoice. See, the idea is, is that when we're joyful, other people are going to say, what's up with you? And it gives us the opportunity to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
He received him joyfully.
Confession of Christ as Lord
Notice thirdly, he confessed Jesus as Lord. He confessed him as Lord. Verse eight. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor.
You see, a Christian confesses Jesus as Lord. A Christian sees Jesus, as the Bible sets him forth, as very God of very God. I know I've quoted a few guys tonight, Ryle, Dill. Listen to Whitefield, that famous preacher, George Whitefield.
He says, having believed on Jesus in his heart, he now makes confession of him with his mouth to salvation. Zacchaeus stood forth. He was not ashamed, but stood forth before his brother publicans for truth casts out all servile, sinful fear of man. And he said, behold, Lord, Whitfield comments, it is remarkable how readily people in Scripture have owned the divinity of Christ upon their conversion.
Thus, the woman at Jacob's well, is this not the Christ? Thus, the man born blind, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. Thus, Zacchaeus, behold, Lord. An incontestable proof this to me, that those who deny our Lord's divinity never affectionately felt His power.
If they had, they would not speak so lightly of Him. They would scorn to deny His eternal power and Godhead. You see what he says? A man who won't confess Jesus as God knows nothing of saving grace.
A man who does not look upon Jesus and say, my Lord and my God has never looked upon the cross itself. That is, as Whitfield said, an incontestable proof that they never effectually felt his power. And then notice,
Repentance and Its Fruits
he received him with repentance. He believed the gospel. And then fruits of repentance flowed. It's always the manner, it's always the means.
We're justified by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Those fruits of repentance do not add to our justification. They simply manifest that we are justified. This is what he says.
Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. He is not doing this to make satisfaction for his sin. He is not doing this to make up some sort of a righteousness before God.
He is doing this because God Most High has justified him by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This naturally flows as a result. Sanctification always follows justification. If we say we've been justified, we will manifest fruits of sanctification that Gordon Clark makes the connection beautifully in his commentary on Titus.
He says what passes so apparently as good works are not good unless preceded by justification. And if a claim justification does not inevitably produce good works, it simply was not justification. not say by those words to say unto good words you say by grace you say by looking to Jesus you say by receiving him joyfully faith is the instrument that brings a sinner in the saving contact with the Lord of Glory and then these things flow These fruits follow. Lord, he says, in the presence of all, I give half my goods to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.
Truly, God is able to take a man who cleaves to his riches and cause him to give that money away. I mentioned Whitfield before. Whitfield had a good friend in Benjamin Franklin. one of the early founding fathers in the United States of America. Well, Benjamin Franklin was a deist.
I know we like to think everybody that was in America was a Christian, but that's simply not the case. Benjamin Franklin was a deist, but he had a lot of respect and a lot of personal admiration for George Whitefield. And this man had a vow never to do anything for the poor, never to give his money to the poor. And one time he comes, hears Whitfield preach, and then he empties all of his money and gives it to the orphans that Whitfield's getting money from.
Now, he wasn't saved by that. It was some outward work upon him. It was guilt. It was some sort of a whatever it was that was the impression made through Whitfield's preaching.
But ultimately, God caused that man to give up his money. That's not what's going on here. This guy doesn't just feel bad. This guy's saved.
He's been justified. He's a new creature in Christ Jesus. That money no longer holds the allure it once held for him. Is that the case with us?
We profess faith in Christ. It's the case with you young people, the children here. You might profess faith in Christ, but is there an attachment to this world? Is there an attachment to stuff?
Is there an attachment to self? Is Jesus first? Do others come before you? Are you the same selfish, me-centered person that you were before you professed faith?
What's the case with Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Lord, look, I give half my goods to the poor. Great! It's a fruit. manifestation of God, the spirit is at work in his life and in his heart.
The fifth observation,
Communion with Christ
he enjoyed communion with Jesus. What happened? He came down that tree and he went home and Jesus came and had a meal with him. That's beautiful.
He saved, now he gets to commune with his Lord. He's saved, now he gets to sit at the feet of the master. Remember, this is Jesus' promise to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, verse 20. It says, Behold, I stand at the door of none.
It's not a gospel invitation. It's an invitation to communion. It's an invitation to fellowship. It's an invitation to enjoy more of Jesus.
He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens up, I will come in and I will sup with him. I will dine with him. I will be with you.
You come into church. Don't come thinking about everything else. Think about the Lord. When you come to church, prepare your heart and prepare your mind to have communion with God.
A lot of people, a lot of churches, they might say, wow, that that church is messed up. I couldn't find Jesus there. You know, a lot of times it's what you put into it. That's the implication of Revelation 3.20.
I stand at the door and knock, Jesus says. If you hear my voice and open up, I will come in and I will dine with you. You need to come looking for Christ. So we've seen the invitation proper, the response of Zacchaeus.
Notice the crowd.
The Self-Righteous Crowd
Notice the crowd. Boy, isn't there a picture of us in this passage? Yes, we can identify with Zacchaeus. Can't identify with the Lord Jesus, but we can certainly identify with this crowd, can't we?
Notice in verse six, so he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. the judgmental, self-righteous, self-congratulatory attitude of man in Adam. As if they're not sinners. As if Zacchaeus is the only one in Jericho that has an ax to grind with the living God.
You see, self-righteous men like to blame others, but they never look at themselves. Or when they do, it's simply to congratulate themselves that they're not like tax collectors, they're not like adulterers, they're not like extortionists. This crowd imitates the Pharisees and the scribes in Luke 15. When the Pharisees and the scribes saw the crowds coming to Jesus, they grumbled and complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.
How is it with us? We might hear that some notorious sinner we once knew is now saved. Does it rise up in our hearts to say, How could God save him? Or you might have heard before, That's not fair.
That guy's going to heaven. Of course, it's not fair. The gospel is about grace. If we got what was fair, we'd all be in hell forever and ever and ever and ever.
Right? Be careful that you're not one of these self-congratulatory, self-righteous people that look down on the Zacchaeuses of our day. I think it's in us, brethren. Our Jeffrey Dahmer made a confession of faith before he died.
You don't know who Jeffrey Dahmer was. He was a notorious serial killer. Everything rises up in me to think that guy shouldn't be saved. That guy shouldn't go to heaven.
He did wretched and horrific things. Now, I don't know the validity of his profession or of his confession if that was even true. But isn't it the case that I deserve the same wrath as a Jeffrey Dahmer? Maybe not to the degree.
I mean, I do believe in degrees of punishment in hell. The servant who knew his master's will and didn't do it will get more strikes than the servant who didn't know his master's will. The servant who didn't know his master's will still get strikes. But it's in us.
Might be a Jeffrey Dahmer. Might be someone you know. Somebody that you thought of before. You hear that they've made a profession of aid.
And in your heart of hearts, you know that can't be true. Because he's just too bad of a person. He's horrible, he's wicked, he's miserable. I really believe, brethren, when we enter into Emmanuel's land, there's going to be a lot of surprised people to see us.
There's going to be people that say, you made it? You're here? Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, all praise be to God.
It is amazing. That's why we sing, amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. You see, it's all about the grace of God. It's not about Zacchaeus' performance.
It's not about Zacchaeus' giving money to people. It's about God who made a covenant with Abraham and whose son is the surety of that covenant, who comes to affect it and apply it and to implement it. And then, as we saw in our reading of the scripture,
The Mission Stated: Seek and Save the Lost
the mission stated, verse 10, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Many of you come out of a reformed background. Many of you have not been exposed to broader evangelicalism in the altar call of the gospel call. A lot of times the gospel is presented like this.
It is said, accept Jesus into your heart. The evangelist will stand up before a mass of people and plead with them and appeal to them to accept Jesus into your heart. Do you know that the glory of the gospel is not that sinners accept Jesus into their hearts? The glory of the gospel is that God accepts sinners through Jesus Christ.
The gospel is not, hey, why don't you just open your heart and receive Jesus? The gospel is, believe on him who seeks and saves that which is lost. Believe on him who died and who rose again. That's the important thrust.
From the very beginning, the Bible presents us with a seeking and a saving God. When Adam and Eve plunged themselves into sin, they ran. For you McShane users, you've just read Genesis 1-3. It's gotta stand out at you that when these two stand before an omniscient, sovereign, holy God, how futile an exercise it is to make fig leaves to try to hide themselves and then to find a patch of trees so that they can try to avoid the all-seeing eye of God.
If you're like me, you're reading that and you're going, no, you can't hide from God. He's gonna find you. But he not only finds them, he seeks them out. He's the one who initiates covenant.
He is the one that initiates salvation. He is the one that kills the animals and clothes them with the garments. He is the one that calls Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. He is the one that makes that promise to him.
He is the God who orchestrated the monarchy in Israel. He is the God who preserved Judah. He is the God who made it such that 2 Samuel 7 would come to fruition in the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of that demonstrates precisely verse 10.
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's what God's about. So if you're lost, to believe the gospel is not presumption. It is what God calls you to.
If you are lost, you make haste and you come to the Savior. If you are lost, don't play games of rebellion. You might say, well, I don't know. Just believe the truth.
Jesus died. Jesus rose. You believe on him and you will have salvation for your sin. Commenting on the necessity to make haste.
I'll close with this. John Gill says this. Such who come to Christ must quit. All their exalted thoughts of themselves, of their riches, their fullness, self-sufficiency, and come to him as poor and needy.
For such only he fills with his good things and of their health and soundness. And come to him, the great physician, as sick and diseased. They must come and quit of their purity and goodness, holiness and righteousness, and come to him as sinners. But it must be mighty grace to cast down imaginations and high things that exalt themselves against Christ and the knowledge of him and to humble a proud sinner and bring him to the feet of Jesus.
With men, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. If you have heard any of this tonight, if you have not believed on the gospel, if you have not made haste, If you have played games, if you have rejected, if you have disobeyed, if you have reasoned in your mind that you shouldn't come, then I tell you to stop and believe the gospel and you will be saved. And for those who have believed, those who like Zacchaeus, by God's grace, have been brought down that tree into the loving arms of Jesus Christ, rejoice tonight. Receive him joyfully as we eat the bread and as we drink the cup.
Think on Christ and be joyful. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for this account in Luke 19. We thank you for what it demonstrates concerning your mighty power and your great grace. And our Father, we just pray that many people would hear this message throughout the earth tonight. We pray that many people in 2010 would hear this message and would come to the Lord Jesus.
They would receive him joyfully, that the church would know a time of revival, that the church would see a time of awakening, that we would be able to witness firsthand the mighty outpouring of your Holy Spirit. God, we know you are sovereign. We know you are powerful. And we would pray to you and beg you to rend the heavens and come down.
Do mighty and glorious things in our day. But if you choose not to, give us grace not to despise the day of small things. Help us to be faithful. Help us to be an encouragement to those around us.
And help us to be like Jesus in the sense that we point men to the one who seeks and saves that which was lost. And we ask in His most blessed name, Amen.