Dennis Gillett - Bible Men The Way They Were - Class 5 - Zaccheus The Poor, Rich Man

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   My brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re ready to begin our first class. We will now call upon our brother Dennis Gallop to deliver the 5th class in his series on. Bible men the way they were entitled. Zacchaeus the poor rich man to help introduce our brother Dennis’s spots this morning. He has asked that we read from Luke Chapter 19. Good morning everyone.

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   You may be wondering why Zacchaeus has been included in this list of Bible men. Because I mean only 10 verses, 10 verses tells the whole story of this little known man.

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   Now why is the case of this little known man then so interesting? Well, because it tells us. Of the recovery of a man from a life of wilderness to a life of God. And surely no man who has had any experience of the forces which arranged against the disciples of Christ can ignore the implications of this story.

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   It has to do with a man who triumphed over his hindrances. And which of us can honestly say that we can afford lightly to pass over such an example? Surely, by the very nature of our own lives, we are compelled to be interested. Light art. Life, after all, is a a varied trial that are temptations within, and there are temptations without. That are days of victory and their days of defeat. Men are not born Saints in the generic sense. They struggle to say, mortifying their members, fighting the good fight of faith.

5. 2:30

   Sometimes they fall back. Sometimes they only just hold their ground. Sometimes they push forward. Disciples know about weights. They know about hindrances. Just occasionally they live above the snow line. But. Mostly they live in the valley,

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   and their experiences are, as I say, varied. Winning New Hope out of failure, gaining strength out of the realization of their weakness, resting victory out of defeat. Sometimes men are greatest, sometimes in the hour of defeat

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   now. The account of that Zacchaeus, therefore, is interesting for people such as I have described, and that’s why we’ve included Zacchaeus in the list, A poor rich man. The first thing we need to notice, then, is a sentence in the 19th chapter of Luke.

8. 3:46

   It’s in verse 10. Luke 19, verse 10 For the son of Man is come to seek and to say that which was lost. Now you could say that the world is lost, but in this case it seems that the references to a special class of people, people who are lost in a particular sense, lost like sheep, are lost. Sometimes that is straying from the fold and being scattered in the wilderness.

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   Now, why do I say that a particular class of people? Well, because of the context in which the words were spoken, and in particular that little conjunction which introduces the words that we’ve just recalled. The Son of Man is Tom, so you can say that which is lost now. Notice the little conjunction that introduces that sentence. It says for for the son of Man has come to seek him to say that which was lost.

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    The word for is used as a means of introducing an explanation of a proof of the things which have just gone before now. Remember what had gone before, That is before verse 10. The narrative which tells us of a man who was lost in a peculiar sense, and the recovery of that man from a life of worldliness, as I said, to a life of God. This shows us what redemption can sometimes mean to certain people.

11. 5:31

    Because Jesus said salvation has this day come to this house and please God. That may be true of every house. Where the Saint Sergeant and where they assemble. But observe then that salvation comes to some men in unusual ways because they are lost in a special sense. If I could just illustrate what I mean by being lost in a special sense, some men are lost because of their own passion, as Balaam was by his. Love of gold, as Saul was by his pride, or as Heyman was by his envy, or as Judas was by his secret dishonesty. This means that some men are lost because of subjective forces within themselves, lost because of the nature of their own character.

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    That is to say, lost because of internal causes. Some men are like that, but it’s not always the case. Some men are lost because of outward circumstances which, humanly speaking, make escape impossible, mastered and corrupted by forces external to themselves, and which somehow cannot be removed or evaded. Now you see, the man we read about in Luke 19 today was in this category, Zacchaeus.

13. 7:17

    Zacchaeus was a man who was lost because of external forces from which, humanly speaking, there was no escape. That is to say, Zacchaeus was a publican and more the chief of the publicans. And you see, a publican’s profession exposed him to temptation and to the forces of evil and to corruption in three ways.

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    I’m going to ask you to think with me of those three ways in which Zacchaeus was exposed to the forces of damnation, one in the way of opportunity. You see, the public was a gatherer of Roman taxes from the Jews, as you know. But not in the way in which our England revenue officials collect taxes today. Not in that way.

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    The publicans paid the Roman government a rent for the privilege of collecting the taxes. They paid the Roman government a lump sum, and then they themselves, as it were, collected the taxes. For themselves they paid a rent for the privilege of collecting the taxes, and and they bought through that rent the right to take for themselves whatever taxes they could ring and rest from the poor taxpayer. There was consequently A temptation to overcharge and to oppress.

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    Blackmail was sometimes used to extort tax from the victim of this vicious system, and in consequence the very nature of the work made Republicans to be hard men and dishonest, and men corrupted and men degraded. They were the very nature of their work. The avarice of it made them to be men without feeling, without sympathy, and without honour.

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    So that in that way, first of all the publican was exposed to the forces of corruption, and then secondly, another aspect of their temptation was to live satisfied with the low morality which was torment amongst publicans. In a sense, I suppose, every profession has its conventional standard of what is right and what is wrong.

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    We know this, I expect from their own experience. Let me give you an example to the kind of truth which is often they must be safe, mustn’t say often, perhaps, but the kind of truth which is sometimes recognized amongst lawyers seems to be to plain men falsehood. Or in the armed forces, That which is reckoned as reasonable to us seems sometimes to be unfair and twisty. Or business.

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    Business has its special kind of honesty, if that’s the right word. Which to plain men seems to be fraud. Now, by these examples I mean

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    there is a kind of conventional standard of that which is right and wrong. And in all these cases, therefore, the temptation is to be content with the standard of one’s own profession or or or society. Indeed, that may be the difference between a worldly man and a man of God. And a worldly man accepts the standards of his own age and lives below them, or certainly no higher than, whereas a man of God lives above the standards of his own age. But in the case of these publicans you see in the way of goodness, well, very little would count as a great deal. That perhaps, which would be utterly shameful to a fallacy, would be reckoned as strict morality amongst the publicans. So that was the 2nd way, the temptation to live satisfied with the low morality which was common amongst the publicans, and then the 3rd way in which they were exposed to corruption and temptation.

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    They made no profession of goodness, and therefore they had no character to support. See, when a man has a reputation to live up to, it is a spur to keep him up to scratch. Indeed, it’s the only thing that sometimes keeps people on the right way. Their reputation, if they’ve got a reputation they’re so anxious to.

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    Live up to it that it keeps them straight. But when a man has no reputation, when he has no character to support, gradually he becomes degraded. I mean, his fellows regard him as bad. They say he is bad, and so bad he becomes in a way. To stigmatize a man could very well be to ruin him.

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    To take away a man’s character is often to take away the one thing that. That keeps him good. When a man has lost his self respect, when he’s no respect for himself, even sin becomes much easier. A man who you. You can see this a man who is near the end of his tether financially, for example.

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    Think of that. A man who’s near the end of his tether financially and knows it. You will discover that he will indulge at the last in some extra, extra, extra extravagance in the spirit. But it doesn’t matter. No, the great bankruptcy is here. It doesn’t matter if a man is or Seal feels himself to be hopelessly bad. He will plunge more deeply into dark sin. This is human nature.

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    You can test it. Let anybody. And you might not be able to enter into this experience, I realize that. But let let any man out of a number of transgressions, compare the 1st and the last, and and this will be shown to be true with the first, with the first transgression of a particular failure, shall we say. There is a an utter should that it could happen. There is a feeling of horror.

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    There is a violent struggle, a feeling of impossibility. That’s the first. With the second, there is a a feeling of impossibility. There is a a feeling of revulsion, but it’s not so strong as the first. With the next, the feelings are there, but less strong. With the next, they are milder, much milder.

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    With the last, the job is done almost unconsciously, without conscience, without remorse, without turning a hair. That’s the measurement. It’s a picture of a man who has lost self respect, a man with no character at last to believe in, nor to support. In short, a publican.

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    Well, that’s an assessment of this man’s life. These are the forces which compassed him about, that made him to be lost by circumstances which humanly possible, provided no escape. And the passage in Luke 19 is telling us that Christ came. To save such as this, the Son of Man has come to seek and to say that which was lost in this peculiar sense to deliver them from this present evil world.

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    And the man we see Christ delivering is Zacchaeus. Now let’s notice how the deliverance was accomplished when Jesus came to Jericho. He came as a rabbi, that is, as a teacher, as a man of religion. Without them knowing it, the Redeemer came to Jedica. Now it could well be that Zacchaeus has heard had heard about this rabbi.

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    It could well be that he heard that this one was able to shed peace upon restless spirits. He was able to revive weakened consciences. He was able to enlighten and and and enforce stifled wheels. But there was one hindrance. There was one difficulty. Zacchaeus was a little man. Is he is. The Bible says he was.

31. 17:24

    He was small of stature, and a great a great crowd surrounded the rabbi. Therefore it says, he ran and climbed into a Sycamore tree. Now we ought to be thinking that. Carefully about this because I do not think it was an act of mere curiosity. That is to say, climbing the tree was an act of faith.

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    It was an act of religion. This was man’s part in the great salvation. You can see that Zacchaeus was in earnest. He was prepared to take steps to overcome the difficulties which seemed to prevent him from seeing the Redeemer. He was in earnest.

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    He had a peculiar difficulty being short of stature. He invented a peculiar means of getting over it. He climbed a tree. Now that was his part.

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    Let’s notice God’s part. God’s part is expressed in these words. Zacchaeus. Make haste and come down. For today I must abide at thy house. It’s interesting in a way. That man’s part was climbing up the tree. God’s part was getting Zacchaeus to come down.

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    But notice two things in God’s part, invitation and sympathy. You might think as you read those verses that Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus. He is running. He is looking. He is running. He is climbing up the tree. You might think that he was seeking Jesus, but surely it’s more true to say that Jesus was seeking him because for whatever reason that Jesus come to Jericho. But to seek and to say that which was lost. You see, for long years perhaps this man had lived in Jericho, this man Zacchaeus, and in a difficult situation and in a bad profession.

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    Having only perhaps a dim consciousness of God and his service and his purpose. And then one day the Redeemer is born into the world, comes to Nazareth and to the synagogue, and then appears in Judea, and then eventually comes to Jericho Zacchaeus’s town, and passes down Zacchaeus’s street and right by Zacchaeus’s house. And right up to Zacchaeus himself. Now I put it to you, What is that in God’s name? What is that?

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    But seeking the Father seeketh such to worship. And one word was an invitation, One word, Zacchaeus. That was the word Zacchaeus. The son of man has come to seek him to say that which is last. Zacchaeus Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and shop with him, and he with me. Self invitation.

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    That’s what we mean by grace in the matter of our salvation. God is first. In the matter of our redemption. He has taken the initiative and he comes to men self invited, and names them by name and gives them a sense of personal recognition. And the blessing is on their house. I wonder how long it was, how many years it was that anybody had ever said Zacchaeus in that tone. Zacchaeus, This day is salvation. Come to this house for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. Now they did you notice the personal pronoun they? Well, you know who they are, don’t you? They?

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    They said that Jesus had gone into shock with a man who was a Sinner. They were indignant. They were protesting. They were shocked. They were outraged. They thought that they knew Zacchaeus very well indeed. They weighed him up, they categorized him, they’ve named him, they defamed him and they dispensed with him. Because if you will use your imagination, think of Zacchaeus walking along the High Street in Jericho. And what happened was that when they went by, they would lift up their skirts, lest they should be contaminated or step aside, or if that wasn’t possible, crossover the street onto the other side.

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    That’s what they did. He was despised and rejected De Sacchis and they knew him well. They said about the rabbi, he has gone in to Sup with a man who is a Sinner. But you see, here’s the mystery. Jesus knew him better than they did, said Jesus of him. He also is a son of Abraham, which was, which was something that he was not able to say about them. Ye are of your children, Ye are of your father, the devil. Now this is grace.

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    Notice the grace of Jesus, the sympathy of Jesus. Let’s notice what happened as we read the verses we we could see Jesus didn’t conduct condole with Zacchaeus about his difficulties. He didn’t talk to him about the state of his soul. He didn’t preach to him about his sins. They didn’t force his way into the house and give him a lecture.

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    Now I got to Porsche for a moment because you’re going to say Dennis Skillet said at the Midwest Bible School that lectures are no good. And I’m not saying that I know that it’s important to condole with people about their difficulties. I know that although it’s important to speak to them sometimes about the state of their soul, and I know that we ought to be preaching about sinfulness, and I know well enough that lectures are very important, I know that I’m only saying in this case this was not the method the rabbi said to Zacchaeus, I must abide at thy In other words, he identified himself with a rejected man.

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    He identified himself with a man who had lost his self respect. He identified himself with Jacchaeus the publican, with Zacchaeus the Sinner. Why? Well, he may be Zacchaeus the publican and Zacchaeus the Sinner, but he is a man. Say what you will he is a man. Perhaps he feels the cut of harsh words as other men do.

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    Perhaps he has a sense of human honour, as other men have. Perhaps he longs with a kind word. Sometimes, as all of us do. Perhaps he feels the shame of disgrace as well as we Well, perhaps he’s lost now. The Son of Man is brother to the lost. That’s what the sentence means. Salvation came that day to the House of poor Zacchaeus. Did the gospel come to that house that day as well? Well, I think it did on this occasion. Of course not in the form in which it’s come to most of us, and certainly to myself.

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    Not in the form of strong theology and doctrine and dogma. Not on this occasion, not at first. It came at first. In its essence the very centre of the gospel came to Zacchaeus, That is the personal love of God manifested for this man in the face of Jesus Christ. And you see, so great was the power of it, but it caused him to open the floodgates of his own heart and his own soul.

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    That is to say, he was touched, this man, to tell him the tale of his secret life. He said, Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I’ve robbed any man, I restore him full fold. Now here is something to meditate upon. Brother and her sisters was Zacchaeus, in those words, revealing that he was not as black as he had been painted. Touched by the sympathy of the Redeemer, was he constrained to tell out the secret of his life.

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    But while he was being slandered and despised and scorned, there were acts of secret benevolence in his life which he’d never paraded, and through which he’d never sought to be vindicated,

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    and, being touched by the sympathy of the Lord, found himself no longer an outcast. You see the tense of the words in that passage, the tense, the present tense suggest that that is what Zacchaeus meant. In the minds of some Bible students, that is. Some Bible students think that’s what he meant. Now I must tell you that for my part, I am inclined to the view that Zacchaeus was not telling out what his life had been like hitherto, but what it was going to be like hereafter. He was confessing A reformation, He was revealing a conversion, He was to be a changed man, so that really the tense, by the very nature of the case, is future. Behold, Lord, half of my goods I will give to the poor, and if I have in the past robbed any man, I will now restore him. For for Zacchaeus was the man who was lost, and it wouldn’t have been true to have called him lost, if secretly he was one of the best men in Jacob.

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    He was a man not only who was lost, but who had lost his self respect. As I said, a man despised A rejected man by his fellow citizen, a man who was rich, as it says, but really desperately poor, without friends, without love, without hope. And then on a certain day, on a certain day in the calendar of God, the Redeemer, whose high purpose is to seek and to say that which is last, came to Jericho, sought him, found him, named him Zacchaeus, and saved him the process of personal recognition.

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    The rabbi identified himself with a despised publican. It was the divinest sympathy of the divinest man, the fellowship of the Son of God. Now it could well be that Zacchaeus had spoken to God from the loneliness of that Sycamore tree should never know. Perhaps he spoke to God, heart to heart, and pulse to pulse, and the son of God had sensed it, knew it, and treated him like a son of Abraham.

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    And so the God of Abraham pronounced upon that lonely man the benediction of grace, and it fell from the lips of the man who once said before Abraham was I am.

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    Well, that’s that’s the story of Zacchaeus as it appears to me. The thing to ponder now is on this day, so long afterwards, how shall we mark it and measure it? Remember, at the beginning I said we are concerned with this story because it reveals a method of triumph over hindrances. That’s why it’s interesting.

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    Here is a man who triumphed over his hindrances, the things which were setting. He triumphed over them, mastering the forces which we call weights, which hold us back, which impede our progress. Now what does it teach us, this narrative of Jericho about mastering hindrances? Well, this surely, brother sisters, that in the process there is God’s part and there is man’s part, and both are essential. What I mean is, the Divine Grace cannot dethrone that which we insist on not repudiating.

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    The Divine Mercy cannot master that which we insist on nursing ourselves. So man’s part is your part and my part. Now it may not be identical, your part and my part, but in principle it will be the same. I mean, no man ever tried exactly the path of his brother. Every life is a new life. Every day is a new day.

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    Every case is a new case. But making allowance for that our part, it seems to me, is a definite act of commitment. To detach ourselves in some way from the forces which are hindering us, facing the forces which are hindering us. We have got to make an effort to detach ourselves to some extent from those forces. I know it may not come all at once, but we’ve got to commit ourselves to an act of detachment, a clear act of our will.

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    Now I know it’s not easy. I know when you’ve lingered in the valley, the light on the hills gets dim. I know it may mean going home 2 miles further round in order to avoid the thing which is tempting you.

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    Perhaps after all, well, you’ll just have to tell the truth that you’ve been hindering so long. You better come out and tell the truth and take the consequences and be done with the association. Finish it.

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    Perhaps, after all, you will have to refuse the claimant cry of the fresh, because if you refuse it once, then the next time it is less claimant. But there is no escape from this act of detachment. The fight is in the economy of your salvation and my salvage who? What does hinder you that you should not obey the truth, Said the apostle. We, you and I, we have got to do it sooner or later, and later is bad.

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    So here is an argument to help us. You see, the awful thing about hindrances is this. That to go on keeping them and to go on nursing them and to go on fostering them is in the end to defame Christ on the highways and in the city. And everywhere we go. We name His name, we are called after His brethren.

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    We we own his allegiance, and yet other men, seeing our unloveliness, noticing our two facedness, measuring our emptiness, will think badly of the one we profess to follow.

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    They will esteem his gospel of no value because we have devalued it. That is the awfulness of persistent refusal to face hindrances. So whatever our individual problem is, the one problem we must all face and master is this problem of procrastination.

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    There is in the Hebrew letter in chapter three one word which you will remember well. Or it’s about verse 12, as I remember it, Chapter Hebrew. See about verse 12? And there’s one word in the sentence there which is dignified with a capital letter in the middle of a sentence. Grammatically speaking, it’s an unusual thing because the word itself does not deserve a capital letter.

63. 35:19

    And yet the Hebrew man has given it a capital letter, and it’s the word today. Today, if you will hear his voice harden, not your hearts. Today is a word warning us solemnly of the possibility of peril. But also it’s the good news of immediate possibility, of good. If we put it off any longer, we may lose the sense of urgency.

64. 35:43

    And if we lose the sense of urgency, we may lose the resolution. Too often, I think it’s been like this. We’ve said to ourselves, the thing must be done. Yes, it shall be done.

65. 36:00

    And it’s not done. That’s the trouble. We’re always going to do it. That’s my experience, and we don’t. Did you hear that story about the philosopher who was instructing his students one day? And he said to them, my sons, the real point of our philosophy is that we shall be ready for death when it comes. And one of the students said, O master, thou hast spoken wisely and truly.

66. 36:33

    I intend to be ready for death when it comes. And the master was very pleased. And he said, well done, my son. And when do you intend to start preparing? And he said, well about 12 months before I die.

67. 36:49

    It makes us laugh. Yes, it makes us laugh. And, you know, too many of us are living on that philosophy. We’re going to do it. There’s always time. We’ve measured it. And the truth is we don’t have that sort of calendar. I believe that more people miss the highest and descent of the lowest through this matter of postponement of the one thing that ought to be done.

68. 37:20

    And for any other course, Zacchaeus was short of stature, but he was not short of resolution. He ran to the trees. It says Every word in the Bible is important. He ran to the tree. That was his eagerness. He had a sense of urgency. That’s why he dined with the Redeemer that day and doubt this was dying again. Now, Burner sisters, if you’ve read your Bible carefully and reverently, if you prayed humbly and sincerely, if you’ve listened to your enlivened conscience openly and attentively, then you will not need any speaker to tell you the one thing you have to do, because it’s not his business and he wouldn’t know anyway.

69. 38:08

    You know, if you’ve done those things that I’ve just related, you know that Christ has put His finger upon the thing which you have got to do. It may be the thing that must be abandoned. It may be the new duty which has got to be faced, or the new attitude which has to be assumed, or the restitution that must be made.

70. 38:27

    You will know. And now the word which He speaks to you and to me in the light of the realisation is this. Today, today, if you will hear His voice harden not your heart.

71. 38:43

    Now that is your part and my part in the process of overcoming hindrances. Let’s think finally of God’s part. God’s part is discovered in the sentence from the lips of the King today. I must abide at thy house. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He was susceptible then in Jericho. He is susceptible today in Midwest. If that’s not true, then we have been grossly deceived and LED astray.

72. 39:20

    So let’s be sure there is nothing in our house that makes his present impasse, his presence, impossible. And then we can depend upon the promise.

73. 39:31

    It means in practice that in your act of resolution you will be encouraged. You will be strengthened. You will be fortified by His word, by commerce, with heaven in prayer, by the fellowship of the Saints in this place and everywhere else. And if that’s not true, then the Bible is false. It says that if we yield to Christ’s words, we can translate our resolution into victory.

74. 40:00

    Faith creates power. That’s what it says. It’s doubt and procrastination that make for weakness and cramps their energy. This is the victory which overcometh the world, the hindrances, our faith.

75. 40:18

    You know, in the Philippian letter the great apostle Paul said something with superlative confidence, which you’ve already remembered this week. I know I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Now surely that’s he wouldn’t deceive us, would he? Not this man, he said. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. He wouldn’t deceive us again.

76. 40:47

    Now unto him who is able to guide you from stumbling, would such a good man lead his comrades astray? But again, work out your own salvation, for it is God that worketh in you. Would he speculate only? Isn’t this? Isn’t this the truth? Isn’t it telling us something vital? That is, telling us that the man or woman who truly progresses is the man or woman who is truly linked with God.

77. 41:20

    Acknowledge him in all thy ways, and he shall direct thy paths. And when he directs, it must be for our good and for our victory. It’s in the path of progress. Always, Of course. Not always in the way we would have expected, nor perhaps in the way we would have wanted. Many a disciple has lived to thank God that he didn’t grant their most urgent appeals. They’ve lived to see that had he done so, it would have been a disaster.

78. 41:47

    An act of love was that which provoked the answer. No, he refused their most urgent appeals for Love’s sake. He is so careful about your progress that he will make no truce with anything, but can hinder and harm those upon whom his love is set. Our God, it says, is a consuming fire. Now that might seem to be quite out of harmony with what I’ve been saying about his tender care and compassion, but it isn’t.

79. 42:23

    He is a consuming fire for the destruction of that which halts and hinders and hurts the progress of his servants. If they will yield themselves to him, he will restore the years that the Cankerwormeth Eaton. His care is constant. He care for you. Either that’s true or this is false love. The Prince of poets, Yes, the Prince of Poets once said, love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds and his love never alters.

80. 43:17

    His love does not falter when we fail. It may be that the voice is saying to somebody in this house today, today I must abide at thy house, and that self invitation a sense of personal recognition, Zacchaeus, or your name upon the soul who is willing to respond Now upon search, upon search, wherever they are, in whatever condition they may be.

81. 43:50

    If they respond, he will pronounce his benediction. And so, for our souls sake, brothers and sisters, let us each one now this day avow ourselves to be his. More and more listen to the voice which speaks to us the thing we must next do. We shall know. We shall know without any doubt what it is.

82. 44:14

    Let’s listen carefully, and knowing it, let us be true, and let us do it, consenting without demur without argument. This one thing I do, said the man. I forgot This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind I press forward toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ. May God grant to us this day to feel in our deepest heart that that is true.