FBC Daily Devotional – August 5, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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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.

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Well, probably one of the first choruses or songs I remember from childhood, church, from church, is the is a song that comes out of today's

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Bible reading in Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.

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He climbed up in a sycamore tree, the Savior, 4 -2 -C, and it goes on and on, telling the story of Zacchaeus.

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And it's got to be a favorite story of little kids because, I mean, they're little.

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They can relate. They can relate to this that, you know, there's a crowd, a press of people, and it's kind of like being in a parade.

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Every kid can probably relate to this. They're at a parade. Things are coming down, but people are in front of them.

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They can't see. They're trying to look through the legs of other people. They can't see what's going on. They got to get up on Dad's shoulders to look out on the parade as it's coming by.

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Well, Zacchaeus is like this. He's a wee little man. Climbs up in the sycamore tree, and Jesus is very gracious to him.

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Calls him down from the tree, says, I'm going to your house today. We're gonna have tea.

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I think that's how the song goes, something like that. I'm going to your house for tea. Maybe that's the British version.

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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

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Gospel records, Jesus is criticized, and he's criticized because he intends to enter the house of a sinful man.

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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.

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It's a horrible thing. How dare Jesus go to be a guest in the house of a sinner?

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And they criticize him, and it doesn't matter what Jesus' purpose is.

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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.

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And here's this man, this wee little man, climbed up in the tree, who is lost as a goose in a snowstorm.

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He was lost, and he needed the Savior, and this is the one, this is the kind of person

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Jesus came to seek and to save, one who knew that he was lost. Well, it didn't matter what his purpose is.

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He's going to the house of a sinner, and it also didn't matter the effect of Jesus' interaction with him.

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And in this interaction, because of this interaction, Zacchaeus fully repented, and that's clear in verses 8 and 9.

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And because Zacchaeus says, look Lord, I'm going to give half of my goods to the poor, which he probably got,

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Zacchaeus probably got those goods by cheating or, you know, by abusing, taking advantage of people.

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He said, and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore it fourfold.

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As a tax collector, as Zacchaeus was, he could have cheated people and exacted more taxes from them than Rome said they owed, and he depocketed the prophets.

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He says, if I've done this to anybody, I'm going to restore it fourfold. And Jesus says to him, today salvation has come to your house.

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Salvation has come to your house. But that doesn't matter, because Jesus went to the house of a sinful man.

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You know, that spirit exists in some who claim to be God's people today.

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They have such an antipathy for certain kinds of sinners that you durst not have anything to do with them.

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You don't dare go to their house. You don't dare invite them to your place. You don't have anything to do.

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They're just too unclean. They're just too dirty. So even though you might want to see them saved, you know, throw them a gospel tract or shout at them or something, but whatever you do, don't sit across the table from them.

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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.

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Because after all, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost.

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And by his grace, if you're one of his children, he, you were lost, and he sought you out.

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And in his grace, he saved you. And you know what?

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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.

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You deserve the same thing. God in his grace delivered you. May he in his grace deliver the sinner that some think is taboo.

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Our Father and 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.

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

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Amen. All right. Have a good rest of your Thursday. I trust the