How Zacchaeus Got Saved — Rolfe Barnard

If you'd like to follow in this scripture, we'll be reading from the 19th of the Gospel of Luke. Before we read the text, I'd like to take a moment of explanation. I'm not here to try to sell anybody anything.

I'm here to be of help if the dear Sovereign Spirit would be pleased to use me. But I want tonight, this morning, and tonight, and Monday night, to lay down a platform. I cannot build on anybody else's foundation, that is not the scripture of the Gospel, do you understand that?

Dear old T .T. Martin, I look out on this congregation, most of us are young, you haven't got sense enough of me to talk to you very well, I can't use good illustrations, you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

But if you've never heard of T .T. Martin, you won't be happy when you get to heaven. He's gone to be of the Lord now, I knew him in his dotage almost, but he was the greatest single Church evangelist the South has ever produced, and he always had revival or got run out of town, wherever he went.

And it ought to be that way again. Our message ought to be so positive that people would get off the fence of straddling. You see, I've had people try to shoot me, I've had bombs put on churches where I was built way back yonder.

But now, everybody believes everything, believes nothing, you know. I like to see a fellow, I like the little dog, I had a friend, he said he had a little dog, his name was Rover, and when he died, he died all over.

And I like to see people believe something, whether it's right or not, and kind of fight about it. I tell you, Martin Luther said, no man's a friend of the gospel who doesn't stand up and be counted on any issue that's the issue of the hour, and certainly there are issues today that are worth living and dying for and that are separating people.

And I like that. If you let me lay down a platform, will you, dear old P .T. Martin always went, and the first service he'd say, now this is what I'm going to talk about all the time I'm here, this is what I believe, and he'd divide the crowd.

Sometimes they'd have to have a police escort to get him down to the depot before the mob got him. And sometimes they'd have over a thousand baptisms, hundreds of churches in the South to that man's ministry.

When he died, I like to think of it, he died on the second floor of the Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. And when he died, every nurse and every doctor and every patient that could get out in a wheelchair, crutches or hobble to meet him, assembled and crowded the second floor to listen to the old man die.

And the old man who'd given some 50-odd years to evangelism, for the Lord that he'd come to know and love, he died singing, On Jerusalem's east side, Stand and cast a wish,. And he sang, I am bound, Are you?

What great society now, I don't reckon anyone ought to be interested in heaven, but I am bound for the promise. Martin died, and he died singing the chorus. And I like to lay down my platform, not that I can stand in his shoes.

The Absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ

May I say, ladies and gentlemen, there's just one issue. Before us today, yesterday and tomorrow, God says that Jesus Christ is Lord, totalitarian Lordship of Christ. No man knows, my Lord, who does not rejoice that God put him on a throne, turned over everything that writhes and wriggles into his hands, so that a Hitler or a Khrushchev reigns and rules by the grace of our sovereign Redeemer.

There is but one issue that's worth facing, and that's whether you have been by the grace of God to where you rejoice that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. You couldn't find in the city or the suburbs of Houston an individual who would deny that Jesus is Lord, but they're not happy about it.

And so it's not that you believe that Jesus is Lord that means salvation. It means you're glad he is. And no man will bow. Of course, they'll take Jesus as their personal Savior. I hope you don't use that expression around here.

If you do, I'm going to break you of it. Because you can't cut Jesus up. They've taken him, and I don't know what that means, taken him as their personal Savior. I think that's awful nice, of course. But you can't cut Jesus up.

He's Lord and Savior. And no man is ever going to bow and come to where he rejoices. That Satan, although he's the God of this present age, cannot even wink an eyelash without the express permission of him in whom is all things and for whom are all things, our Lord Jesus Christ.

God says he's Lord. That's God's verdict about it. And we need to face it, and we'll be facing it this week afresh, that his sovereignty, his right to be absolute monarch in your thought and your life daily is going to be settled before the matter of salvation is become real.

The Gospel Proclaims the Enthroned Christ

And so we can lay down as our platform three things, and I'm not preaching on them. I mention them and they get to my text. The gospel is the proclamation publicly, privately to crowds or to individuals by printed page in any way on earth.

God's good news can be disseminated. The gospel is the proclamation of a person who's sitting on a throne and who is head of this local body. He is, in Luther's words, ubiquitous. That's a big word, and I don't know what it means, but he's in two places at the same time.

There's a man in glory with a print of nails in his hands and the print of the thorns on his brow. A man, all man and all God. And he's right now the prime minister of the Godhead, and nothing moves in this earth that he doesn't move.

And also he's here, not in an invisible organism flying around in the sky, but in a local assembly of called out saints of God meeting together to represent Christ, his absolute head. And the gospel is the proclamation of this person, not simply some facts about him, but this person with the facts about him who's now sitting on a throne, and he got there by way of a bloody cross.

And salvation is not in believing that Jesus died for you. Salvation is becoming vitally united in a living way to him who did die on a cross, but he's not there now, thanks God. He's on the throne. In the second place, salvation is a sweet, willing bowing to King Jesus where he is now.

And if you want to get touched, of course if you want to make a public confession and do what's called make a decision to accept Christ, you can do all that without your heart being broken, without the work of the Holy Spirit.

But if you want to come to where Christ is real, amen? He's earlier to you and nearer to you than any human being. If you want to come to be a branch from divine, you'll have to bow to him where he is, and you always bow at a throne.

Salvation is when a man by God's marvelous grace has been so broken that he sweetly bows to him as he sits on a cross. Revival then that you're faster speaking about would be simply men in love with Christ where he is now, on a throne.

Revival, Division, and Christ’s Sovereignty

Now, I do not know about this local assembly, but prayers have come and accepted. There isn't a church in the world today that isn't split wide open here. And we cannot have revival in most places because the people are split about who Jesus is and where he is.

But praise God where you can get a group of people together who will not only believe that Christ has been exalted and put on a throne, but they're glad he's there. He'll come to walk those aisles and split people's hearts.

And miracles still happen, hallelujah. Now this morning, may I begin by a very simple message I trust from the 10th verse of the 19th chapter of Luke. Will you follow me carefully as I expound just a little while and then exhort.

The 10th verse of the 19th chapter of Luke begins with the word F-O-R, far. Immediately therefore we'll have to look at the scriptures above to find out what the far refers to, but let me read the text.

The Son of Man, he has come to make an effort to seek and to do the best he can to save everybody in the world. I must have missed it, didn't I? Did I read it right? This little defeated Jesus, bless his dear little heart.

He needs you, dear folks, and I wish you'd let him come into your heart because it's getting cold standing outside. This little defeated Jesus that's taken over Baptist ranks. A hundred years ago there wasn't a major denomination in America that didn't have a sound gospel foundation.

That's where God's to us. There isn't a denomination beside the glory now that hasn't departed from its foundation. A man asked me the other day, he said, Brother Barnes, you're up in years a little bit, I'm not as old as I hope to be.

Been in this a long time, when can we expect revival? And I said, my little old brain just says one thing. When we quit preaching a defeated Christ, then preach a Christ who came down here to do a job and come hail our high water.

He did and will do exactly what he came to do. For the Son of Man is come on earth to seek, not to try to seek, and to save, not to make salvation possible. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Salvation Belongs to the Holy Spirit

And I quit a long time ago trying to get anybody saved. I finally found out the Holy Spirit had to do that. There is a sense in which you can be a soul winner. But the deepest sense of the Bible is that the only soul winner in the world is the Holy Spirit.

You can be a messenger and you can give your testimony. I hope that you're an intercessor and all of that. But there is a place where you have to stop because nobody can penetrate the spirit of another human being except the Holy Spirit.

I quit trying to get anybody saved, but the Lord has been pleasing. Other days may strike out here to use the word to get somebody lost. Of course, I've got good news for you. Every lost person is going to be saved.

There won't be a lost person go to hell. Every last lost person in the world is going to be saved. I'll tell you why, brother. Somebody is looking for him. Somebody came down here to seek him. And somebody came down here to find him and save him.

Do you love that verse? For the Son of Man comes to seek and to save that which is lost. Now, we'll have to look in the verses above to get the Bible definition of that word lost. You say, well, Brother Barnes, I thought everybody in this world was lost.

Oh, no, you're dead wrong, dear friend. Most folks are just exactly where they ought to be. They're on their road to hell. Way back yonder, according to verse 9, we get a little key to it. You know the story here.

Zacchaeus Seeks Jesus and Receives Him Joyfully

There's a fellow named Jesus going along with his ex to Jericho. And this little old short fellow named Zacchaeus. And he wanted to see Jesus, who he was. And he couldn't because he was short and such a great crowd.

And he ran ahead and climbed in the sycamore tree to see Jesus, who he was. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said, Get on down out of that sycamore tree. I must survive. I must.

I must. There's no doubt about it. I've got to spend the night at your house. I must survive in your house. And Zacchaeus took all the bark off that tree and came down and received him joyfully. And he went home with him and the religious crowd, the people who weld out Sunday morning churches all over America now, people who use the grace of God as an excuse to live like hell, this religious generation.

We had them then. And they got mad. And verse 7 said, When the religious people saw what he'd done, they murmured. But they complained and said, Look at that, he's gone just to be the guest of a man who's a sinner.

That word, sinner, there means he's not in our crowd. And Zacchaeus stood up and said, Lord, I'm going to, all this money I stole, I'm going to pay it back. And $4, $7 I stole, and I'm going to give half my goods to the poor.

And then verse 9, And Jesus said unto him, Now watch this. I want to talk to you this morning about why Zacchaeus got saved. First reason. Jesus said unto him, This day his salvation comes to this house.

Zacchaeus and the Promise to Abraham

Watch this. For as much as he also is a son of Abraham. Way back yonder was signed the gospel as a covenant was preached. God preached it to a man by the name of Abraham. The record of it is in Genesis chapter 15.

You can read it and get home to your emphasis. And he took Abraham out one night and said, Look up there. Won't you count those stars? Abraham said, Too many. He said, That's where it's going to be of your seed.

And it turned out, Brother Jackson, That Galatians chapter 3, I can't remember the verse, Talks just about somebody hanging on a tree, Being made a curse for us. That's the blessing of Abraham. It turned out Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham.

Somebody said, Brother Barnes, You explain this to me. No, I can't do it. I just worship and hope that I'm also one of those multitudes of people that God gave Abraham. He said, You can't name or number those stars.

That's where it's going to be of your seed. And it turned out that Jesus Christ is that seed. And the blessing God promised Abraham was to come through Jesus Christ. And way back down in eternity, I can't explain it.

And it will humble you and knock you off your religious high horse And maybe you might get saved. If you get to the place that you'll allow God to be God. He gave Abraham that God's son hadn't found yet.

But he's going to find him. If you want to know. Now that's too deep for me and I can't explain it. But I want to talk about the human side. And the rest of these first nine verses give us the second from the human standpoint.

The Five Marks of a Person God Saves

And I can get my teeth in this. And I believe this of it. And I have some marks on my body because I do. For the glory of God. But now I want to talk to you about five things of the truth. Of a lost person that's going to be saved.

And I want to mention two of them this morning and then preach on them tonight. And then just briefly talk about three of the five things. In this passage of Scripture, five things are clearly shown. About a fellow whom God is going to save.

Now I do not know whether this is too rough or not. But God saves people on purpose. He sets out to save people. One walked up to me and said, Brother Barnard, I think I've mentioned this word here. He said, that election business.

I know it's in the Scripture, but I don't understand it. And I said, well, dear sister, are you saved? He said, I am. Praise God. I said, who saved you? He said, God saved me. I said, did he do it on purpose or was it an accident?

Here's an old on-call preacher. My body was weak this morning. I had a bad back and a weak head and a bad reputation. But you know God saved me on purpose. He aimed to do it all night. I rejoiced in that.

When all hell is busting loose, I just go into the book of the Revelation and I get over there without that blood that's responsible for the redemption of a multitude that no man can number from every side and finger.

And I just take my hand and put it right back here over my neck and I believe and I will congratulate you. And I ask God for forgiveness for being such a dumb fool and getting in so much trouble myself and all of that.

And I just have a revival. I have to have it once in a while, most of the churches are so cold you couldn't sprout a pea in them, much less a revival. And I just rejoice in the eternal purpose of a God who set out to have a crisis of the Lord Jesus forever, come hell or high water.

The Saved Person Becomes a Seeker

John Bunyan has old Faithful finally get up to the pearly gates and St. Peter meets him and lets him in. And Faithful said as soon as he did get inside the heavenly city he heard such singing as he'd never heard in his life.

And he said he saw down there the great heavenly choir and he started walking toward it. And he said the closer he got to it the better the music sounded. And he saw that there was an empty seat. And finally he came and he saw there was some letters on it and he came closer and he saw there was a name on it.

He came closer and he saw it was his name. And he said he went and took his seat and joined in singing. He said he knew the tune. He'd been practicing it all. And the gospel that heals them all because God Almighty on purpose determined to rescue a people for his blessed son out of the ruins of Adam's sin.

But this thing I'm going to talk about now and understand a little bit. I sing first. Anybody that ever gets saved, dead or killed, become a seeker. Zacchaeus sought to seek Jesus, Jeremiah. Who he was.

The greatest miracle I know is not divine healing although I believe God heals people. The greatest miracle I know is not an old slapper, or a penny, or a drugstore cowboy, or a big business man, or a society sister, in the future of the Lord.

But it took no reason. Reason abiding. Once you get into a situation, you know, of course there's a little occasion there because you don't need a reason. But if you want to know Christ, you're going to find a reason.

Mr. Spurgeon said the man's a fool to commit his eternal destiny into the hands of an unrevealed Christ. Decision has its price, but it always must come as a result of the person of Jesus Christ. That's faith.

That's the battleground of this hour. There's only one question worth answering. Who is Jesus? But I'm going to preach on that tonight. In the second place, he became a persistent seeker. He went ahead, you couldn't see him because he was short, and he went ahead and climbed the chicken war tree.

Those are incidents. That old boy said, I'm going to find out who he is. I feel so sorry for dear church people. You know, the safest place to hide from God is to be a church member. That's about the surest way to be dead certain you'll go to hell.

Just go through the motions. And I'm telling you, honey, if you get to Christ in a real relationship from hell or high water, grandpa, grandma, mama, business, pastor, deacons, church, everything else to the contrary, you're going to have to spit on your hands and roll up your sleeves and seek the Lord.

Persistent Seeking and a Real Relationship with Christ

A couple of young preachers, one I'm leading to sing and the other's a pastor, graduated from one of our Bible institutes. I think it's different. Boy, I'm interested in this school. I've been looking all over America for things like starting schools.

I've got millionaire friends that want to pour money into a school that would keep salving other Americans, unless this is it. After I'd been preaching four or five days, they came to see me and said, Brother Barnard, you are our elder.

We wouldn't rebuke you, but you've torn us all to pieces. We've been taught that no man seeketh after the Lord. You come around and say, if a fellow ever gets paid, he's going to have to become a seeker and a persistent seeker.

I said, yeah, miracles have got to take place. But I want to speak, God willing, on that tonight. In the third place, if a man ever gets paid, he'll become a hearer of God's word. The Lord spoke to Zacchaeus and said, Zacchaeus, things have got to get personal.

What Mama heard from God won't help you, and memorizing John 3 .16 won't help you, and getting your doctrine straight won't help you. This has got to be a miracle where you hear God speak into you through his word.

I became a crank, as they called me all these years, in Southwestern Seminary. I had the honor of going to school with Dr. W .T. Conner, who is now in glory. I had a good deal of trouble with Dr. Conner.

I was young, and I just had my first pastor like this, and started with seven members, and baptized 2361 people in 16 months. A few of them got paid. I was a big shot when they all told me I ought to go to the seminary and learn how to be a priest.

And so I went down there. I didn't know one doctrine from another, but I think I knew the Lord, and I called him on. I had a lot of trouble with Dr. Conner. Poor fellow, he didn't know much. Oh, I had so much trouble with him, and I argued with him.

And one day I went down to the second-hand bookstore and the brew, where everybody was around, and picked up a book of sermons by Dr. B .H. Carroll. Everybody in Texas knows him, founder of the seminary.

I took that, paid a dime for it, and I read that night a sermon, John 5, 27, or whatever it is. The voice of authority, verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the kids shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall live.

And Dr. Conner made a statement. I can quote it. He said, I will not, Dr. whatever his name is, Carroll. He said, I well know that my poor voice is the only voice you hear. You'll go away from this service, nothing better.

But if in the providence of a sovereign God through my humble lips you hear the voice of him who has authority, just say, Lazarus, come forth, and he'll come. You'll go away saved. I didn't have any more trouble with Brother Conner after that.

He taught me the great doctrines of grace, and I rebelled against them, but that was the fact, that key. I saw then, and we just well have an understanding about it, this is it. I won't budge from this.

Fire me out. Men are not saved by summoning up all of their feeble will and making a decision. Men are saved through the grace of God enabling them to answer and respond to that voice that speaks in dead men live.

That's how men are saved. The tragedy of my life, the cost that I bear is with me 24 hours a day is the complexity of the hours which will live. Nobody's got time to listen to God's word. Hey, for you, be somewhere else from now on if it's typical.

You'd like to get to heaven, but you haven't got time and some fool preacher or some fool evangelist will come along and talk you in to making a decision and let you go on to hell. Men are saved when they hear his voice.

That's when men are saved. And it's not apart from this word. It is God speaking through his word, but it's not just believing the Bible. It's believing the word of him who speaks through the Bible. That's the way men are saved.

I wish you had time to listen to my voice. You might hear from God. It's a miracle, but we have this faith in earth and heaven. And I've seen it happen. If you just had time. But most of you have already decided for Christ and you're happily going to hell.

And you'll never hear from God for faith isn't yours. It's a gift. When you hear and listen to him as he speaks through his word, I beg you, for your soul's sake, off the brain of present-day religiosity and become a faithful, persistent, continual listener of God's word.

Who knows? He might call you. My people, listen to my voice. Everybody that's saved or ever will get saved. The time comes when he becomes a listener. In the fourth place, he receives the Lord Jesus your soul with emotion.

Receiving Christ Gladly

I've got this ice-cold stuff they call today, whoop, emotion. Emotion. This is the deepest thing they'll ever cut through you. He receives them gladly. He came down that boy, he slid down that train, received them gladly.

On the day of Pentecost, they gladly received his, Peter's word. Gladly received it. They said, this is for us. This is good news. Hallelujah. Emotion. I long for a return of that. When I was a young fella, I used to listen to old Bud Robertson.

Whoo! My, I've already preached to him. I used to listen to old Bud Robertson. He was a Methodist and got saved and they kicked him out and he joined the Nazarenes. He butchered every doctrine in the Bible, but he loved Christ.

And he had a list. And I heard him tell a dozen times what he called his expense. He said, you know, folks, he said, I'm the most miserable person this side of hell. He said, I was lost and unnoticed.

And he said, I sought the Lord and I sought him and I sought him and I sought him and I couldn't find him. And he said, I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and he wouldn't listen to me. So I went to all the preachers and they told me what to do and I done it and it didn't do no good.

He said, I was awful. Oh, he said, I didn't know what to say to whoever saw him. He said, one day the old lady told me to go down and unsteep the towel. I had a steeped towel. And I went down and I bent down on my white knee to untie the warp and said when I got down there I couldn't get up and said I put the other knee down and I said, Lord, I'm going to stay white here.

Can you save me or damn me? And he said, when I done that the Lord dropped a chunk of glory in my soul. It's been burning ever since. Receiving remorse. Now, it's been hard on you. I know it's late. In the fifth place, we experienced a change.

Genuine Conversion Produces a Changed Life

He said, I'm going to pay back $4 if they want us to. And I'm going to have my good. Something happened to that old boy. That's the mission, this religious revival we've been having the last 20 years.

Everybody done got converted. Nobody's changed. Nobody's changed. I have a way of saying if somebody got saved in our churches it might start a revival. Put the rest of us folks been going through the motions.

It's a shame. He got changed. Oh, this is the attribution. No change, no conversion. Not perfect yet, but wants to be and on the road. Still in the flesh, but loving Jesus with all of our hearts. With a new motive and a new ambition.

Something to make life worth living. That's what we need. Change. Change! I have a black Pearl 610. I wouldn't take a million dollars for it. Tell you how I got it. I started a church in a saloon in Borger, Texas.

Right after I was saved. Had seven people converted in that saloon. Organized the Baptist Church. It began to grow. It was the only church in the city that boomed to around 50 ,000 people. I'll tell you about it next Saturday night.

The Conversion of C. J. Collins

And, uh, I moved into that community. A man by the name of C .J. Collins. He was a big shop. His wife joined our church. He'd been connected with Rockefeller and Carnegie and other big businessmen. He'd gone broke.

He'd come to that border, boom town to recoup his fortunes. At the present time, he was engaged in legal but crooked operations. He got to come in the enemy place. He'd read the Bible for years to argue about it.

Smart as a razor there. He'd sit down and listen to this kid preach. One week his wife came to see him and said, next Sunday I was single. You'll have Sunday dinner with us. Said, my husband's interested.

Said, he'd listen. He said, soon as I get through eating, I'm going to have to run an error and I'm going to leave you with him. I won't keep tackling. And I did. And he chewed me up and spit me out. I didn't know much about the Bible.

It was starting. I couldn't explain a lot of things. Man, he knew it. Oh, he butchered me. I sat at that table and cried like a baby. That fellow butchered me. And I finally got up and ran out. And I said to my heart, let me go on to hell.

I didn't want to change anymore. And that afternoon, that's West Texas. It came a downpour. It don't rain there often. And it rained all afternoon. The streets were flooded. And I had a sermon. Boy, it was a crackerjacket.

I could never have preached the list a good day. I'd worked on it for months. And I had all the I's dotted and the T's crossed. And I was going to expound to the light of the angels that night. But a raised soul didn't have a little corporal guard that night for people God couldn't keep out of him with a crowbar.

And I couldn't rest one of those big sermons on that. And I was mad anyhow. And I was blue and disgusted. And I stood up there and bowed around a little bit. And that's while I said, we'll stand for an invitation.

Before we get the invitation started, there came C .J. Carnes sobbing like his heart was breaking, running down the aisle. And he came for his arm around me and hugged me like to crush me to death. And he said, Priest, I can resist.

And I surrendered to him. And the next Sunday, I called on him to pray. And he said, Our Father which art in heaven, I never did this before. And I don't know how to go about it. I remember his prayer.

If you'd come down and help us and bless us, we'd be much obliged. Amen. Time went, we made him a deacon. And then he began to write millionaires and helped me build a great plant there and raise a lot of money.

And his testimony spread over that city. He went out of all of his crooked business and got a good job. And one day he called me up and said, Pastor, he called me Pastor. He said, Come down, I want to talk to you.

And I sat on the opposite end from him on the desk. And he said, Kid, that's what he called me. Kid, you're my pastor. He said, I heard all the big preachers in America started to argue with him. Had to come way out here to this God-forsaken country.

And here, boy, I wasn't dry behind the ears. Boy, he kept pressing the claims of Christ for me. So I couldn't resist. Then he got up from his seat and came around and put his arm around me and kissed me on both cheeks.

He said, Pastor, I'll always love you because you wouldn't let me alone. You coveted me for Christ. I left there and went to Southwestern Seminary to send a telegram to me. Somewhere another got to leave.

And this man Carnes is dead before I got the telegram. He asked that I come before he died. By the time I got the telegram and got on the phone, he is dead. A week later, his wife came from Borgia, Texas to Fort Worth just to bring me a present and his last words.