FBC Daily Devotional – August 5, 2021

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. How are you doing this this week? I hope all is going well for you and Lord is blessing in your life. Well, probably one of the first choruses or songs I remember from childhood, church, from church, is the is the song that comes out of today's Bible reading in Luke chapter 19.

Zacchaeus and the Savior Who Seeks the Lost

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree the Savior for to see and he goes on and on telling the story of Zacchaeus. And it's it's got to be a favorite story of little kids because I mean they're little they can relate.

They can relate to this that you know. There's a crowd of press of people and it's kind of like being in a parade every kid can probably relate to this. They're at a parade. Things are coming down, but people are in front of them.

They can't see they're trying to look through the legs of other people. They can't see what's going on. They they got to get up on dad's shoulders to look out on the parade as it's coming by. Well Zacchaeus is like this.

He's a wee little man. Climbs up in the sycamore tree and and Jesus is very gracious to him calls him down from the tree. Says I'm going to your house today. We're gonna have we're gonna have tea. I think it's out of the song Go something like that.

I'm going to your house for tea. Maybe that's the British version anyway.

So.

Jesus does this he says this I'm going to your house today and. Then once again as is so often the case in the gospel records Jesus is criticized and he's criticized because he intends to enter the house of a sinful man.

Verse 7 says when they saw it They all complained and said he's gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner. It's a horrible thing. How dare Jesus go to be a guest in the house of a sinner and they they criticize him and it doesn't matter.

What is perp. What Jesus's purpose is. And his purpose comes out in verse 10? When Jesus says the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost and. Here's this man this wee little man climbed up in the tree Who is lost as a goose in a snowstorm.

He was lost and he needed the Savior. And this is the one this is the kind of person Jesus came to seek and to save. One who knew that he was lost. Well, it didn't matter what his purpose is. He's going to the house of a sinner and it also didn't matter the effect of Jesus's interaction with him and.

And this in this interaction because of this interaction Zacchaeus fully repented and that's clear in verses 8 and 9. And because Jesus because Zacchaeus says look Lord I I'm going to give half of my goods to the poor.

Which he probably got. Zacchaeus probably got those goods.

By.

Cheating or you know by abusing Pete taking advantage of people He said and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation I restore it fourfold. As a tax collector as it Zacchaeus was he could have cheated people and And exacted more taxes from them than Rome said they owed.

And he depocketed the prophets he says if I've done this to anybody I'm gonna restore it fourfold. And Jesus says to him.

Today.

Salvation has come to your house. Salvation has come to your house but that doesn't matter because Jesus Went to the house of a sinful man. You know that spirit Exists in some who claim to be God's people today.

They have such an antipathy for certain kinds of sinners That you durst not have anything to do with them. You don't you you don't dare go to their house. You don't dare invite them to your place. You don't have anything to do.

They're just too Unclean, they're just too dirty. So even though you might want to see them saved, you know. Throw my gospel tract or shout at him or something, but whatever you do Don't sit across the table from him.

That would be a horrible thing to do. Oh may God deliver us from such an attitude toward anyone and May he fill us all with the godly purpose of seeing sinners come to Christ because after all the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost and By his grace if you're one of his children He you were lost and he sought you out and in his grace.

He saved you and You know what when all is said and done you may not have been guilty of some of the sins other people are guilty of but sin in the sight of God is sin and The wages of it is death. You deserve the same thing.

God has grace delivered you. May he in his grace deliver.

The.

Sinner that some think.

Is taboo.

A Prayer for a Christlike Heart Toward Sinners

Our Father in our God, I pray that you would deliver us from that kind of pharisaical spirit that would. That would prohibit us from being willing to interact with someone just because of the nature of their sin.

Oh give us the heart of Christ to seek and to save that which was lost and this we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right. Have a good rest of your Thursday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.