On Saturday mornings at 7.50, I wonder
if any of you have heard it.
You did?
That's good.
Every Saturday morning, set your clock if you
can't think of it, perhaps your timer on
your stove, for 7.50 on Saturday mornings
KSIB.
And I appreciate your prayers for it.
I appreciate your prayers for the Sioux City
Conference, I have to be one of the
speakers there, along with Paul Fapp and David
Glock.
I'm anxious to hear David Glock, I've heard
good things of David, and I know Paul.
Now, in your interesting lesson this morning, this
human interest story of the conversion of Zacchaeus,
I think that you have a human interest
story without parallel.
I love it.
I'm not going to treat it like a
certain young preacher taught it, or treated it,
rather, who was in a seminary.
They were in a seminary learning how to
preach, and learning the science of homiletics, and
they were assigning different portions for these young
preachers to preach on.
And they assigned a certain young man the
subject of Zacchaeus, that we just read out
in Luke 19, chapter 19.
And he read it, and he thought, well,
that's a nice little story, but the story
is just self-explanatory.
There's nothing to say about it.
And he was very, very fearful, having been
assigned the story of Zacchaeus.
And so he got up on the platform,
and he said, Zacchaeus was up a tree,
and so am I.
And Zacchaeus came down, and he says, and
so am I.
And he got down off the platform, and
he left the platform.
He wouldn't talk on the subject.
Well, I'm not going to do that.
Don't expect that from me.
Because I'm going to stand up here and
talk about Zacchaeus, this little man, this tax
gatherer, for he is the most interesting person,
and there is so much about this account,
this narrative, in Luke chapter 19, the first
ten verses that challenge our thinking.
Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
Now, the first thing of interest is, was
where the man lived.
Zacchaeus is the picture, I think, of us
all.
Somebody says, well, he can't be a very
good picture of me, because I'm not rich.
Zacchaeus was rich.
Well, I don't know about that.
You have a good many things that Zacchaeus
didn't have.
We live in a land of affluence.
We live in a great land.
And you and I have so much more
than the richest had a few decades ago.
But Zacchaeus is a picture of us all,
and I'd like to illustrate that as we
go along.
First of all, where did he live?
He lived at Jericho.
Jericho was a city that was rebuilt under
the curse of Joshua.
Let's talk about that town.
It was down on the Jordan River, way
below sea level.
The whole course of the Jordan, from the
Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, is
over a thousand feet below sea level.
It's the lowest spot, geographically, on the face
of the earth.
The towns, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
were at the sea of, at the site
of the Dead Sea.
They are now buried, actually, beneath the water
of the Dead Sea.
Now, I don't know whether the Dead Sea
has suffered any geographical changes since the time
when God poured out his judgment upon the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But I know that the site is there,
at the Dead Sea.
That was a site of judgment, surely.
Now, the city of Jericho was the first
city that the children of Israel came up
against as they crossed over the Jordan River,
coming from the east, through the land of
the Moabites, through the kingdom of Og and
Bashan.
They came up to the Jordan River, and
you will remember that the priests were told
at this time of year, they came at
the time of the Passover, which is the
time of the swelling of Jordan, when the
snows of Hermon and Lebanon are flowing down
to the Dead Sea.
Now, as they approached the Jordan River, you
will recall the waters were overflowing all the
banks.
At this time of year, the Jordan River
is about a half mile across, so I've
been told.
I missed my opportunity to see the Jordan
a few years ago, by reason of some
illness.
We won't go into that.
Now, the priests stood in the center of
the Jordan.
They were told that as soon as they
dipped their feet in the Jordan River, that
the waters would be cut off.
And the priests led with the ark, and
they came down to the Jordan bank.
They dipped their feet in the water, and
the water miraculously receded.
They stood down in the beds of the
Jordan River, and the waters piled up upstream.
And the children of Israel, some two million
strong, went miraculously through the beds of the
Jordan River, as they had come through the
beds of the Red Sea.
Now, the first city that was to meet
them was the city of Jericho.
And the city of Jericho held out against
Joshua and the children of Israel.
Though they knew the miraculous power of the
Lord, they knew that the Og, the king
of Bashan, had fallen.
They knew that others had fallen before Joshua
and his host.
They knew the miraculous power of God, and
yet they stubbornly held out against God.
Well, you remember that Joshua and the children
of Israel overcame the city of Jericho.
The walls fell flat at the blast of
the trumpet of the ram's horn.
And the children of Israel took the city,
and only Rahab the harlot and her family
were spared from the judgment of that city.
Now, when that city fell, Joshua pronounced a
curse upon the city of Jericho.
And he predicted, and accurately, that the man
who would rebuild the city of Jericho would
set up the gates when his youngest son
was born, and complete the wall when his
oldest son was born.
And that was actually carried out to the
very letter.
And the city was rebuilt again, and assumed
considerable prominence in the cities of the land
of Palestine.
Now, the judgment had not fallen, and it
had not fallen in the Lord's time.
The Lord went to Jericho.
But it was a city that was built
under the curse, and that is where Zacchaeus
lived.
Now, you and I are living in a
scene that is going to be cursed by
the judgment of God.
We will not go into the prophetic aspects
of what is coming upon this poor world.
But this world was the scene of the
murder of our blessed Lord.
The children of Israel said that when they
clamored for his blood, his blood be upon
us and upon our children.
They have demonstrated, as no other historical fact,
the power of God.
They have been under the judgment of God
all these years.
Some five or six million Jews were slain
during World War II.
Oh, the terrible curse that they brought upon
themselves.
His blood be upon us and upon our
children.
A curse is something to be dreaded.
Now, Joshua cursed the city of Jericho.
The law curses you and me.
We don't think so much about curses now
as we did.
We relegate them to more or less superstition.
But a curse can be real.
And the Lord Jesus Christ himself died under
a curse.
A lot of people don't realize that.
I'd like to refer you to that.
I was speaking in the mountains of Colorado
a number of years ago, and I was
speaking on this verse.
And it left an impact upon one of
the ladies that was sitting in the audience.
I'll tell you about it after we read
this.
We read in verse 10 of the third
chapter of Galatians, For as many as are
of the works of the law are under
the curse.
For it is written, Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do
them.
Now, are we cursed?
Are we living in the city of the
curse?
I'd like to read this scripture over again.
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of
the law to do them.
Have you kept the Ten Commandments perfectly?
Well, I haven't.
I'm sorry to say, I haven't.
I don't think it would do much good
to tell children of this day and age
that when you disobey your parents, you have
broken the Ten Commandments.
Because the Ten Commandments say, Honor thy father
and thy mother.
And that means to obey them.
Well, I had.
I suppose that was my most flagrant disobedience
of the Ten Commandments, was that I didn't
always obey my parents.
Well, that put me under curse.
And everybody that does not keep the Ten
Commandments perfectly is under a curse.
That's what the scripture says.
But I'm glad I can read the 13th
verse of the third chapter of Galatians.
Here it is.
Verse 13 of the third chapter of Galatians.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us.
For it is written, Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree.
Christ was cursed for me when he hung
on the cross.
The law put me under a curse because
I had not kept it.
Christ died under that curse that I might
be freed from the condemnation of the law.
Now, here was a man who lived in
the city of Jericho, the city of the
curse.
And you and I, apart from the salvation
that's in our Lord Jesus Christ, is living.
You and I are living under a curse.
It's the curse of the law.
But Christ bore that curse for me.
As I was telling you, I was preaching
on this subject in the mountains, a little
town in the mountains of Colorado, a number
of years ago, and there was a lady
sitting in the audience.
And this really struck her.
And she was reported to have gone to
her place of business the next morning.
She and her husband commuted to Boulder.
And she said, Do you know that Christ
was cursed for you and for me?
Now, I don't know whether that was a
proper subject of conversation in that office.
But she was so struck with that fact
that she talked about it.
I didn't know, she said, that Christ was
cursed.
But he was.
He was cursed for me.
That I might not have to bear the
curse of the law.
Well, that's where Zacchaeus lived.
Now, Zacchaeus was a publican.
We read of him, Behold, there was a
man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among
the publicans, and he was rich.
Now, the publican was a traitor as far
as the nation of Israel was concerned.
He was a quisling.
The Romans demanded so many taxes from the
children of Israel.
But the children of Israel had a way
of hiding their real estate and their property
that was subject to tax, so that the
Romans couldn't collect it.
So the Romans said, We know what we'll
do.
We'll set your own people over you to
gather the taxes.
They know you.
And you'll pay.
Now, the people that volunteered for that service,
or that were selected, volunteered sometimes like they
volunteered in the army, perhaps, they were given
the responsibility of collecting those taxes.
Now, their pay, the pay of the publican,
was whatever he could collect over and above
what the Roman government demanded.
Well, now, Zacchaeus must have done quite well.
He was the chief of the publicans, and
he was rich.
He evidently had been able to very successfully
sell his countrymen on the fact that they
owed more taxes than they really did, and
he pocketed the difference.
Well, the publicans were hated by the rest
of the children of Israel.
Now, they hated the publicans because of their
collaboration with the Roman government, and because of
the fact that they charged them too many
taxes.
So Zacchaeus was a hated man.
He was a marked man, and he was
a man of infamy.
They hated people like these Quislings.
And, of course, Quisling is the name that
was of the man, you remember, in Norway,
that turned the Norwegian over to the Germans
in World War II, and so a traitor
has earned for himself the name of Quisling.
Well, Zacchaeus was a Quisling of sorts.
Now, he was chief among the publicans.
He wasn't just one of the tax-gatherers.
He was the chief, commander-in-chief of
the tax-gatherers, and he was rich.
Now, I sought to see Jesus, who he
was.
The Lord Jesus Christ visited the city of
Jericho on this occasion.
Now, so far as I'm able to determine,
and I haven't researched this, so don't hold
me too tightly to this statement, but as
far as I'm able to determine, the Lord
Jesus visited the city of Jericho just once.
Now, I may be wrong, and I may
be assuming too much, but this was a
rare opportunity that Zacchaeus could not afford to
pass up.
He had heard about this wonderful man, Jesus.
But Zacchaeus was a little man.
He was a little man of stature.
He was short, and he picked out the
route that he knew the Lord Jesus Christ
was going to take, and he sought to
see Jesus, who he was, and could not
for the press, that is, the press of
people, because he was little of stature.
The people on this occasion were so determined
to see this man, Jesus, the one who
had done all those mighty miracles.
His fame had spread abroad, and they were
so determined to see him that when Zacchaeus
tried to elbow his way to the front
of the crowd, he couldn't do it.
He could not see the Lord Jesus.
They would not give way, because of the
people's curiosity to see this wonderful person that
could heal the sick, give sight to the
blind, that could raise the dead.
And so Zacchaeus ran before, and he climbed
up into a sycamore tree.
I think the Bible dictionary would call this
perhaps a fig tree, not the sycamore as
we know it.
But he climbed up into this tree on
the route that he knew the Lord Jesus
would take, because he wanted to see him.
Now this is quite unusual, to see a
small man calling attention to his smallness.
Ordinarily, small men don't like to be reminded
of their littleness of stature.
Actually, as far as I'm concerned, there would
be no disadvantage in not being tall, even
as tall as I am.
I have a son who is much less
tall than I, and I have not seen
that he has suffered any great disadvantage by
it.
You have less to fall on ice.
But he does come in handy in parades.
But Zacchaeus was a small man.
Now, lots of small men are very sensitive
about that problem.
But this man was so excited about the
fact that he was going to have a
chance to see the Lord, that he went
and climbed up in a tree.
Robes and all.
You know, I like a sanctified imagination.
I like to see Zacchaeus climbing up that
tree.
He was all set.
The Lord was coming that way, and he
had now devised a way where he was
going to see this wonderful man called Jesus.
Well, the procession came down that way, and
here Zacchaeus was up in that tree with
his flowing robes.
And there he was.
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 as I have.
You know, when the Lord came to the
tree in which Zacchaeus was stationed, and looked
up and said, Zacchaeus, I think I can
begin to see Zacchaeus grabbing for limbs to
keep from falling out of that tree.
Here is a man so famous that he,
willing to show off his lack of stature,
climbed up in a tree and made a
public example of himself, to see the man,
this great person, came to the foot of
the tree, he looked up and he called
him by name.
And he did more than that.
He said, Zacchaeus, I must stay at your
house tonight.
This was an honor that Zacchaeus did not
feel that he would ever be accorded.
So much had been heard about this wonderful
person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think probably with that he was surprised
that the Lord would speak to him and
call him Zacchaeus.
He says, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down,
for today I must abide at thy house.
Pardon me.
How did the Lord know Zacchaeus' name?
He was an evident stranger.
How did the Lord know Zacchaeus' name?
Well, I'll tell you something.
It's a big word, but I'm going to
use it.
Our Lord is God and therefore is omniscient.
He knows everything.
He is God, manifest in the flesh, and
here is an example of his omniscience.
He knew a man that he had never
seen before in the flesh, I'm sure.
Zacchaeus' deportment here on this occasion, his anxiousness
to see the Lord, is evidence that the
Lord had never seen him before.
He'd never seen the Lord and he was
determined to see him.
For that we must admire him.
So here on this occasion, the Lord comes
and calls him by his name.
Our Lord is omniscient.
That means that he is all-knowing.
He's omniscient, he's omnipresent, he's omnipotent.
He's all-knowing, he's everywhere, he's all-powerful.
Well, now, you and I are just as
open before the eyes of the Lord today
as Zacchaeus was on this occasion.
Let me tell you something.
The Lord knows your name, he knows your
birthday, he knows your characteristics, he knows your
pet peeves, and I hate to say this,
but he knows your sin.
This is the one that Zacchaeus was dealing
with.
He knows all about us.
He did that and he knew all about
Zacchaeus.
Just as well.
This is an example of the omniscience of
the Lord Jesus.
He knew all about Zacchaeus, but yet he
said, Zacchaeus, Make haste and come down, for
today I must abide at thy house.
You know, that caused a storm of protest.
We read here, And he made haste, and
came down, and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, the people that
were standing around, they all murmured, they complained,
saying that he was gone to be guessed
with a man that is a sinner.
Now, this shows us the character of Zacchaeus.
This shows us his reputation.
These people knew who he was, and they
complained about the fact.
Now, I really suppose that what they would
like to have said and didn't say, Why
couldn't he stay overnight with decent people like
us?
Now, isn't that human nature?
Isn't that human nature to point the fingers?
And we shouldn't be pointing fingers.
I think it was Robert Burns that coined
the phrase, There is so much good in
the worst of us, and so much bad
in the best of us, that it ill
behooves any of us to speak poorly of
the rest of us.
Now, maybe that was Samuel Clemens.
But isn't it true?
Here these people said, He's gone to be
the guest of a man that's a sinner.
Well, now, if the Lord Jesus didn't associate
with sinners when he came into this world,
who would he have associated with?
Some didn't realize it.
Others did realize it.
These people are critical of the Lord Jesus
because he went to Zacchaeus' house.
And they said that Zacchaeus was happy about
it.
He made haste and came down and received
him joyfully.
I know a good many preachers that have
made much talk of the fact that the
Lord wouldn't let Zacchaeus remain up in the
trees.
He said to Zacchaeus, in effect, Zacchaeus, come
down to my level.
Don't stay up there.
Come down to my level.
I think of a preacher that some of
you knew years and years ago by the
name of David Lawrence.
David Lawrence was a little man like Zacchaeus.
As a matter of fact, he drew the
parallel himself.
David and I sang a duet together.
That was years ago, incidentally.
And I stood on the floor and David
stood up on the platform so we could
both watch the same book.
We sang out of the same book.
That was quite a duet, incidentally.
And I may have to add that he
drownded me out.
Well, David Lawrence says, I was like Zacchaeus.
He said, lots of people are brought up
to be Christians.
He says, I was brought down to be
a Christian.
Zacchaeus had to be brought down out of
his tree.
And there are a lot of other people
in the world today that I think need
to be brought down out of their tree.
Zacchaeus came down, but this was a wonderful
day for Zacchaeus.
This man, of whom he had heard so
much, the Lord of heaven and earth, though
he didn't know him as such, was going
to be his guest.
And Zacchaeus' joy was abounding.
He had made contact with the Lord.
And now the Lord went home to be
with Zacchaeus.
Well, not before Zacchaeus had engaged in a
bit of self-assessment.
We read in verse 8 of our text,
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 him fourfold.
Now, this does not accord with the estimation
of these people who were murmuring on this
occasion.
Somebody's wrong here.
Zacchaeus says, 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.
That doesn't accord with the estimate of the
crowd.
They said he's gone home to be guest
of a man that is a sinner.
Pardon me.
Zacchaeus on this occasion, I think, has reacted
like so many other people since that time.
And other people, incidentally, in the Bible.
He got religion in a hurry.
He got into the presence of the Lord
and he started talking about all the good
things that he'd done.
Well, nobody likes to be faced with the
fact that he's a sinner.
We like to think that there's something good
about it.
And he talks about his fancy goodness.
You know, it's interesting to me that the
Lord doesn't buy his story to use a
very modern expression.
The Lord makes no comment upon this great
generosity that Zacchaeus speaks of.
Now, that's quite a proportion, isn't it?
Lord, the half of my goods I give
to the poor.
I doubt that.
However, I'm not going to fault Zacchaeus.
I'm not going to fault him because I
don't know him.
And if I have taken anything from any
man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
Well, I would like to ask a question.
Zacchaeus, why are you so rich?
Why are you so rich?
Well, his story availed nothing because the Lord
says in the next verse, Jesus said unto
him, this day his salvation come to this
house.
Now, he didn't say to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, this
is wonderful.
Very, very few people that I ever meet
that are rich give half of their goods
to the poor.
Zacchaeus, you're a wonderful person.
The Lord doesn't say a thing.
Zacchaeus' little speech was to no avail.
The Lord set it aside.
He took no note of it whatsoever that
he purportedly gave half of his goods to
the poor and restored that which he took
unlawfully away fourfold.
He wouldn't have remained rich very long if
he had paid back in that proportion.
But the Lord does say, this day his
salvation come to this house.
Now, that's significant.
This day.
How could the Lord say something like that?
He could say it because salvation pertained in
the person of Christ.
The Savior had come to his house.
Now, it hadn't happened if Zacchaeus was talking
about that prolific giving that he had engaged
in in days gone by.
It availed him absolutely nothing because the Lord
says, this day his salvation come to this
house.
Zacchaeus is talking about history, historical facts, what
he had done in the past.
But the Lord set it all aside and
he said, this day his salvation come to
this house.
For so much as he also is a
son of Abraham.
Now, salvation came in the person of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Savior.
It is not what Nicodemus did.
The Lord ignored it.
And incidentally, the Lord will ignore our fancy
goodness as well.
He can only see one thing.
And that is our sin.
He died for our sin.
Now, Zacchaeus was just as natural as he
could be.
You know, it's even fashionable to be religious
on occasion.
I think probably this is true more in
the small towns of the Middle West.
I've spent most of my time living in
cities, but I'm living now in the small
town of Greenfield.
And we love it, incidentally.
There's only one thing you've got to be
careful of when you take a walk in
Greenfield.
Don't walk too fast or too far or
you're going to be walking out of town.
But I love it.
We love that small town.
But you know, this is characteristic of small
towns.
People want to be well thought of.
If you will permit me to use the
preposition to end the sentence with.
People like to be well thought of in
small towns.
And there's quite a bit of church going.
I wonder.
Are they like Zacchaeus?
I wonder about this.
It gives me some real thoughts.
He brings up his religion.
Now, there's another woman that brings up her
religion in the fourth chapter of John.
And looking at the clock, I shouldn't have
even mentioned it.
She was a sinner.
An out-and-out sinner.
And the Lord cornered her about her sins.
And she brought up the subject of religion
immediately.
Now, salvation came in the person of Christ.
When he walked in, salvation walked in.
Salvation is not a creed.
It's not a list of good works.
It's not my tears, my alms.
It is making a vital contact with Christ.
And thank God Zacchaeus made that contact.
That is so wonderful.
He knew the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
I'm glad Zacchaeus was so anxious to see
the Lord.
I wish there would be a lot of
other people that would be as anxious as
Zacchaeus.
To make that vital living contact with the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And then the Lord, when he mentioned the
fact that he was a son of Abraham.
Incidentally, his name is Zacchaeus.
So we have the whole story of salvation
from A to Z.
Excuse the pun there.
I can't resist these things sometimes.
We have the whole story.
From Abraham to Zacchaeus.
And the Lord loves them all.
And he died for them all.
And then the Lord comes out with one
of the most wonderful statements in all the
Scripture.
He says, after this, And Jesus said unto
him, This day of salvation come to this
house.
Forasmuch as he also is a son of
Abraham.
For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost.
Zacchaeus was lost until the Lord came that
day.
Now, that verse, Luke 19 and 10, contains
all monosyllable words.
A whole verse of one syllable word.
Notice them, please.
For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost.
One syllable word.
You know, when it comes to speaking the
matter of salvation, we can't be too plain.
Can we?
We want to be plain.
I think it was C.
H.
Spurgeon that said, God forbid that I should
make the cross of Christ a peg upon
which to hang my oratory.
Thank God for the simplicity of Scripture.
I may know the Lord.
I may trust the Lord.
I can have a faithful relationship with him.
Thank God for the story of Nicodemus.
And now, after a closing word of prayer,
My brother, Bruce, if you will, please.
I'm going to come down.