This message was recorded July 24, 2022. The speaker is David Simpson. Now please take your Bible and look in the New Testament and find the gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 19. We're finally back to our study. I'd gotten this away for a few weeks. Somehow that happened. But now we're back to talking about Zacchaeus. The story of Zacchaeus is far more than the story about a little man, a wee little man that climbed up in a sycamore tree. It's a story about God's calling It's also a story about a man who's called the son of Abraham. I won't get to that till next week, but today I want to talk with you about the calling of this man, Zacchaeus. We're actually trying to get to a parable because we're studying the parables, but this is too important not to go over before we get there. But this is the parable of the pounds that we're trying to get to, and one of the reasons it's important, not the only one. is it is the last one that Jesus gives before he goes up to Jerusalem, gives over himself to the soldiers, is tried and ultimately crucified. But nevertheless, we're still talking about this man. Now I feel the need to go back just a little bit and give you what I gave you in the last message, which I'm sure you do not remember, from Luke 18, because what Luke does, I think very intentionally, is he shows the depravity of man and the necessity of an effectual, irresistible call of grace. It's not just a doctrine. It's not just a position. It is very necessary, very essential that this is the way it is. So the first thing that I would want you to see, you don't have to go back and look, but in the 18th chapter after the account with the rich young ruler, Jesus used the word impossible, talking about it being impossible for the ruler to come to him. And that word impossible is anadute, and it means no power. The alpha on the beginning means no, and the dunamis or dunate means power, so it's no power, no ability, no power to come. So what it says about the rich young ruler that of his will It was impossible for him to depart from the false religion and the world religion. He was too entrenched. It was impossible for him to leave it. Of his will, it was impossible there for him to gain what he said he really wanted. What he said he wanted was everlasting life, eternal life, to inherit it, eternal life. But it was impossible for him to get what he wanted because his will was bound up. His mind and his heart and his affections were all bound up in his false religion and his false thoughts and his riches. He could not leave it. So that's what I'll call spiritual inability. The second thing that Luke gives to us is ignorance, because it says that Jesus had taught his disciples, yet in verse 34 it says, they understood none of these things. They did not understand, and that's the problem also that man has. He cannot understand. To spiritually discern is of the Spirit of God, and the natural man cannot discern things that are spiritual. So what happens is, in natural religion, they get people who are not born again to submit to their works submit to their religion, and they're still just as ignorant as they were before. So they do not know. So Jesus had suffered, they had seen great accomplishments, and yet they understood not. That is a picture of man in his natural state. And then you have a picture of unresponsiveness. In verse 35, it says, there was a certain blind man. So what do I mean by being unresponsive? Well, you could take a spotlight and you could put it in the face of a blind man and it would be no different to him whether the spotlight was there or not. He just cannot see it. And you can talk to people, therefore, about the gospel of God's grace, Jesus bearing the sin away in his body, God accepting the work of Christ and reckoning that to his people. therefore redeeming them and forgiving them and justifying them. But since their eyes are darkened, they cannot see it. They're bound up in their old religion. So you have spiritual inability and spiritual ignorance and spiritual unresponsiveness, but still there's one more thing. When you come into this ninth chapter, well let me read verse one to three. Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was chief among the publicans and he was rich, and he sought to see Jesus, who he was, but then just these first three words, he could not. He could not. And that speaks of man's spiritual helplessness. Man is not only without ability, he is ignorant and is unresponsive, he's helpless. Man cannot in his natural state help himself. He just can't. So you can talk to your loved ones, you can pray for your loved ones, you can want them to see, but they're helpless to see. Seeing together These people, including Zacchaeus, could not get to Christ. So their spiritual inability of man, the spiritual depravity of man is fully revealed. Therefore, what you have to have is a call that is irresistible. a call that is enlightening, a call that changes a person from the inside out. And only that change from the inside out then results in the coming of the heart and the mind and the body to Christ and to His message. And that we call effectual or irresistible grace. So today I want to give you six characteristics of the effectual call of grace that we see right here with Zacchaeus. These six characteristics that will result in him coming. So I'm not going to talk about from verse 9 forward, but I'll talk about these verses that give us information about his calling. because these characteristics are true for all of us, no matter what your situation is. Mine's different from yours. Yours is different from mine. But if you've come to Christ, these characteristics are here. The first thing is, if you'll look in verse five, you'll see the first one. It's in the very first word that Jesus spoke. When Jesus came to the place, verse five, He looked up at him and he said unto him, and here's the first thing, Zacchaeus. So the call is particular. There are people all around him, people everywhere, all around him. And yet he picked out this one man. He was out of the way. He's up in a tree, my goodness, up in a tree. I was up in a tree when the gospel came to me and I came to the gospel. I was in a bad place. I wasn't unhappy, but I was still in a bad place. I wasn't insecure, but I was still in a bad place. And I was out of the way. Here is a man whom Jesus called his name, Zacchaeus. It is particular. It's not general. If Jesus had just said, come, Zacchaeus wouldn't have known what he was talking about, because Zacchaeus would have thought I'm already there. All around him they would have thought. This wasn't a general call, and the general call spiritually that goes out never results in a true repentance, a true faith. and a true conversion. There is a false repentance, a false faith, and a false conversion. That's absolutely true. That's why there is so much apostasy. But it's never accompanied with spiritual awakening if it's only the general call. Jesus spoke of this general call when he said, be called, in Matthew 20 and 16. That's the general call, meaning be called. So the general call went out to all of Israel, all of the nation, and all that any preacher, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, Jeremiah, or David, any of us, all that any of us can do is issue the general call. We cannot extend a particular call, an effectual call. And the general call never results in light that overcomes darkness. There may be a little bit of light. We've had a number of people who thought they found light in coming and hearing this message of grace with us, and yet they end up departing from it. The general call, that's what it results in. It never overcomes darkness. It is shallow and it is inept. But this particular call is definite, powerful, enlightening. He knows each sheep of God and in due time he awakens them and calls them. He said, the sheep follow me for they know my voice. He knows their name. We don't know their name. We call all to faith. I trust a man when he tells me that he believes, until I'm proven wrong. But always in the light of saving grace do I call, always in the light of imputed righteousness and redemption by the blood do I call to come. I don't preach election just every now and then, do I? I mean, it's in the course of the fabric of my message. There may be a time that I may not mention an election, but it's always in the course of what I preach because I don't think that someone can come in by the ignorance of a blind message and then learn that message later on. We learn from the start what the gospel is. This call, number one, is particular. He said, Zacchaeus. The second thing that I see here when I look at what Jesus said, I see that this call is an imperative. Make haste and come down. Make haste and come down. It is an imperative. One is called when he is struck with a sense of urgency. He or she knows that he cannot, she cannot remain on the present track that they're on. They cannot hold to their professions of faith. They cannot and will not let go of that and hold on to this irresistible call of grace. They cannot hear the message of sovereign grace and continue hearing the message of free will. If they do, the effectual call has not been empowered to them. They cannot do it. I go back to Joshua 24. I won't ask you to turn, but Joshua called a meeting. It says that he gathered the tribes. Joshua then identified their problems. You have served other gods. It's not a question of just difference of opinion about God. It's a different God. The God of the free will is a different God. The God of Armenian religion is a different God. Different gospel. Different spirit. That's what Paul said. Joshua said they served other gods. Now they still named the God of Elohim. But Joshua said, you served other gods. And then Joshua recalled the acts of God as we recall the work of Jesus Christ. And then Joshua called them to repentance, choose you this day whom you will serve. And I say to you, choose you this day which gospel you will believe. Will you believe the gospel of free will or will you believe the gospel of free grace? Choose you this day whom you will serve. And if God gives you a will to move away from that gospel of free will, then you will. And Joshua restated his own commitment saying, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And I can say to you, as for me, I intend to serve the Lord and his gospel. I intend to preach this gospel. I don't have to preach, but if I'm going to preach, I'm going to preach this gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. That I must do. This call is particular It is imperative. I see here that it is also authoritative. Jesus said, for today I must abide at thy house. But let's stop at the word must. Authoritative. For today I must. You see, the Lord Jesus was on a mission. He didn't come here just sort of haphazard about what he was doing. He came here to please the Father. He came here to do His will. He came here to save the ones given to Him by the Father. That's exactly what the angel said. He shall save His people. He knew that. He came for that. And He could not, and He would not, and He cannot fail. fail. Christ couldn't fail to bear their sins upon the cross, and he will not fail to enlighten them by the sound of the gospel. His mission was and is, remains today, one of authority. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 and 25, he must reign. He must reign in His work and He must reign in His ascension. Indeed, He is reigning today and calling His sheep from every tribe and every nation by this one gospel of His grace. It is an authoritative cause. Particular, it's imperative, it is authoritative, and then it is personal. Abide at thy house. Jesus didn't come to start a new religion. He didn't come to provide a new set of rituals. He didn't come to create a new society. Connie and I lived one time in a town called New Harmony, a beautiful little town down in southern Indiana on the Wabash River. I loved to go down to the river. At that time I had German Shepherd dogs, sometimes one, sometimes two. And we would go down close to that river, and I loved to be close to the river, and I would take them down there. We'd run and play. I was young then, so we'd get away, and I would take my dogs down there. But New Harmony was all about a new religious society. It was about that new society. But Jesus didn't come to create a new society, not at all. Rather, he came to create a new abiding place in His people. He said to His sheep, I have come that they might have life. And it says in 1 John 5 and 12, He that has the Son, meaning in Him, has life. If you have the Son in you, you have life. If you have life in you, it's because the Son is there. If you aren't awakened first by the Son, you have no light to believe, no life to believe. You see, truth isn't cold. Truth isn't empty. Truth is warm. Truth is full of life. So Jesus said, I must abide at thy house. It's particular, it's imperative, it's authoritative, it's personal. It's powerful. It says here that in verse number six, it's so powerful that what he did was he made haste and he came down and received him joyfully, made haste and came down. That's what a truly awakened person does. He awakens, he's awakened, he makes haste and he comes. The call extended by the Lord was not, it was not an invitation. Jesus didn't say, will you come down, did he? He didn't say, open your heart to me. He didn't say, oh, Zacchaeus, won't you accept me? Not an invitation. It's a call. And he got the job done. Now hear me carefully. Jesus did not extend this call to the rich young ruler. You go back and read it. He didn't extend this call to him, but he did to Zacchaeus, to the rich young ruler. a nice house, I'm sure you would think Jesus would want to go to his house. You would think that Jesus would think he could make pretty good contributions to the coffers, but he didn't, did he? He let him walk away. He didn't preach the gospel to him. He preached the law to him. But this man This man, he's going to his house because he's going to tell him about his gospel and going to show himself to him. He let the rich young ruler go his way, and he went away sorrowful. But this man, what's the word that describes him? Not sorrowful, but joyful. Isn't that what it says? Joyful. So the general call only leaves a man sorrowful in the end. But this effectual call makes one joyful in the heart because he's seen himself and he's seen the gospel. This effectual grace never fails, never fails. Now why did he let the one go and call the other? Because Jesus said, with man it's impossible, with God it's possible. All things are possible. It was possible to call him. Why didn't he? That's sovereign grace. That's unconditional election. That is God's will. It was His will to call this man, it was not His will to call the other. You can be mad at God, you can question God, be angry at Jesus, but that's exactly what happened. And these two men are set at the bookends of this discussion before it goes into the parable for us to see the nature of God's effectual grace. This irresistible call always results in life and light. It always results in repentance and faith. He came joyfully. Here's my last one. Particular, imperative, authoritative, personal, powerful. One more thing. Life-changing. When he saw it, they all murmured, saying that he'd gone to be the guest of a man that's a sinner. Well, Zacchaeus knew he was. And here's what Zacchaeus said, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I've taken anything from any man by false accusation, I knew he'd had. He said, I'll restore that to him fourfold. Well, for Zacchaeus, this was life-changing, life-changing. I want you to go back to the place of our reading in 1 Thessalonians. Look at that again, 1 Thessalonians. Can't spend a long time with this, but the key to all of this is in verse number 3, the will of God. It's the will of God that we pursue a life of sanctification, which means being set apart to God. We were set apart by the death of Christ, but now we are to pursue that sanctification. And he gives several things here. One, in verse three, abstain from fornication. And then in verse four, all of us ought to possess our vessel our mind, our heart, what we are, our inner man, and sanctification and honor. Verse five, be the third or fourth thing here, not in the lust of concupiscence. You've got to like the word concupiscence. It's the word passion. It means unruly passions, even as the Gentiles who know not God. Furthermore, in verse number six, don't defraud others, your brother. Then down to verse seven, for God has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. So you see, some might look at the gospel of free and sovereign grace and say, well, I can say that I'm saved by that grace, then I can just go and do whatever I want to do. I can live my life however I wish to. I can be a sinful person. No, God has not called us to a life of libertinism, but a life of liberty in grace by his power unto holiness. It was life-changing for Zacchaeus, and it is for all of us who come to this gospel. The word call is made of two words. Ekklesia is the word, that's the word for church, but it's also a similar word for this word, ekkleio, and it's the word to call out. But it's not an invitation. Rather, it's a summons. I have taxes that I have to pay in September, I'll just tell you. Those taxes are not an invitation. It's a summons. I'm either going to pay them or I'm going to be in trouble. I mean, that's the short of it. I'm not like these powerful people who can fail to pay their taxes and get away with it. I don't have powerful attorneys fighting my case, so I pay my taxes. But it's not an invitation, it's a summons. If I got something from the court for me to go, for example, to serve, let's say that I had been called to come in and look at jury duty. It's not an invitation to go, it's a summons to come. The call that Jesus gave to Zacchaeus is not an invitation, it's a summons. And the summons is described in Psalm 110 in verse 3, which we'll come to in our study. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. They shall be. It's declared in Jeremiah 31, verse 18. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. It's observed in Lazarus when he said, Lazarus, come forth. It's limited because many are called, but few are chosen. It's sure because the calling of God is without repentance, meaning it's without change, full of purpose. It's as the psalmist said, I've gone astray like a lost sheep. That's me. I'm like Jeremiah. I could no more change myself than the Ethiopian could change his skin color or the leopard could change his spots. I'm like the apostle said, dead in trespasses and sins. As Paul, I know that in me dwells no good thing. As Jesus said, I love darkness rather than light. I was among those, the Lord said, no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. Or as he went on to say, No man can come unto me except it is given to him by my Father. I read in Acts 2 and 39, the promise is unto you and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's the limitation, the calling. Jesus said, I lay down my life for the sheep. Them I must, not might, not maybe, I must bring. They shall hear my voice. Evidence of the effectual call of grace is that I repent of all false professions, believe the gospel, and persevere in its promises. My move from Indiana was in my heart, and my family that came, it was in our heart to come. Had no temptation to go back. Had a preacher friend who said, you'll be back. I said, I won't. He said, yes, you will. I said, you don't know me. I will not be back. Never been tempted to go back. I could. Never been tempted to go back. brought me here, brought me out of that false religion. As you, I was snatched from the claims and the claws of false religion. I was brought to embrace Christ, this effectual redemption, and to declare it to you. I hear the summons in the song we sing, come, Ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus only is our surety, full of love and grace and truth.