Anyway, let's all stand together.
We'll open this morning's service with hymn number six from your
hardbacked hymnal, number six, Come Thou Almighty King. ["Come Thou Almighty King"] Come, Thou Almighty King, Help
us Thy name to sing, Help us to praise. Father, all-glorious,
Lord, all-victorious, Come and reign over us Ancient of days. Come thou incarnate Word, gird
on thy mighty sword, our prayer attend. Come and thy people bless,
and give thy word success, Spirit of holiness on us descend. Come Holy Comforter Thy sacred
witness bear In this glad hour Thou who almighty art Now rule
in every heart And e'er from us depart Spirit of power To
the great one in three, eternal praises be, hence evermore. His sovereign majesty may we
in glory see, and to eternity love and adore. Please be seated. Good morning. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Zechariah chapter 9, please? Zachariah Chapter 9. Scott and Christine, good to
have you all with us from New Jersey. We have two Scott and
Christines with us this morning. And Yvonne is here from Cottageville,
Mike Walker Pastures in West Virginia. Glad to have you, Yvonne. that him that we're just saying we haven't talked about this
have we? I didn't ask you to pick that hymn but title of this message is behold
thy king cometh unto thee. That's what we just sang. Pray the Lord will encourage
our hearts this morning as we Look to his word and. Ask his
spirits blessings on our. On our time together, so let's
let's go to the Lord in prayer. And ask him to speak to our hearts. Our merciful Heavenly Father. We thank you for the gift of
faith. We thank you father for sending your spirit and. Causing
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ to shine upon us and We thank
you for your eternal salvation. And our dear son, secure before
the foundation of the world and made sure by his sacrifice on
Calvary's cross. Lord, we thank you that you've
made us to believe every word that you've spoken. We pray,
Lord, that you would increase our faith this morning as we
look to your word For we know that faith cometh by hearing
and hearing come by the word of God. And Father, how desperate
we are that you would help our unbelief. Lord, each of us come
to this place to worship you in spirit and in truth, but carrying
the baggage of our flesh. And so Lord, we pray that you
would once again mortify our flesh, put it to death, cause
us to know that our life is Christ and give us the grace to set
our affections on him. For it's in his name we ask it. Zechariah 9, verse 9 is a very
familiar passage of scripture, not because we go to Zechariah
to read it often, but because it's repeated in the Gospels.
And it is a prophecy of what would be fulfilled some 500 years
after Zechariah when the Lord Jesus Christ, as the King of
kings and Lord of lords, comes riding humbly into Jerusalem
on that which we call his triumphal entry, riding upon an ass. And let's read it together. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. What reasons for rejoicing we
have. Our King has come. And he has
succeeded in satisfying the demands of God's justice by the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's cross. That's what this prophecy was
all about. The Lord's telling his people 500 years before it
happened, he said, you rejoice, daughter of Zion, because this
is what I'm gonna do. And they had to, by faith, believe
that what God had promised, God would perform. We believe by
faith what God has accomplished is done. And so just as their
faith was looking forward, our faith is looking backward. And
here's our hope. And here's our reason for rejoicing. Rejoice, rejoice. In spite of
whatever else might be troubling you, in spite of what other afflictions
or conflicts or troubles God may be putting you through in
this world, you have reason to rejoice. Now what Paul said,
rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known
unto all men. Why? Because the Lord is at hand. He is at hand. Be careful for
nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication, let
your requests be known unto God and the peace of God, the peace
of God, that's better than any understanding and surpasses all
understanding will keep your heart and your mind in Christ
Jesus. He's the one we rejoice in. And
now the Lord is telling us what he's going to do. And he says,
rejoice you daughters of Zion. Oh, shout, oh daughter of Jerusalem. The daughters of Zion are the
people of God. They're God's elect, they're
God's children. And the daughters of Jerusalem
are the same. It's just the Lord is emphasizing
when, you know, repetition is for the purpose of emphasizing
the point. That's why he said, again, I
say rejoice. Why? Just in case you missed
it the first time. But Lord, you don't understand.
No, no, no, no. I understand completely. You rejoice, O daughter
of Zion. Why do you rejoice? Behold, thy
king cometh unto thee. He's your king and he's coming. And he's gonna make all things
right. He's gonna make all things right
between you and God. He's gonna put away your sin.
He's going to present himself on your behalf for all your righteousness
before God. I said last Sunday, I said, what's
going to be important to you in your last moment on this earth? your last moment of life on this
earth, and you're lying there on your deathbed, and you're
drawing your final breath, what's important to you then? Because
that's what's important now, isn't it? That's what's important
now. And all these other things are
a distraction from us being able to rejoice in the fact that our
King has come, and He has finished the work, and He has presented
us in Himself before the Father. And we have acceptance before
God almighty in the beloved. Now that's reason to rejoice. All this other stuff is going
to fade away quicker than we think. And the Lord saying, rejoice,
O daughter of Zion, thy King, he's coming unto you. And look
how he came. Look how he came. He is just, and we're gonna deal
with that in a moment, and having salvation, lowly and riding upon
an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. Now, this is for the purpose of showing
us the gentleness, the love, the compassion, and the sympathy
that our king has for us as sinners in his first coming. He came lowly, riding upon an
ass. Never was a sinner in the life
of our Lord Jesus Christ felt that they couldn't come
to him. He didn't, he didn't intimidate
folks, not sinners. Now the self-righteous Pharisee
was intimidated by him, but sinners were drawn to him. They were
drawn to him. They didn't feel, they didn't
feel put off by him. They didn't feel like they weren't
welcome. He always drew the most sinful
and the most shameful to himself. You know, we have examples time
and time again in the scriptures, don't we? Think about that woman
at the well. How shameful was her life and how ashamed was
she? She was ashamed. She'd had five husbands. I mean,
she was the talk of the town. And she had to go to the well
in the middle of the day because she couldn't be around the other
women in the town. And when our Lord said to her,
oh, if you knew who it was that saith unto thee, give me to drink,
and I'd give unto you eternal life, living water. And she said,
Lord, we know that when Messiah comes, he's gonna set all things
straight. And the Lord said, I am speaketh unto thee. And immediately she left her
water pot and went back down into town and gathered up the
men of that town that otherwise wouldn't have, and brought them
back. Come meet a man who told me everything I ever did. She
wasn't ashamed. She wasn't afraid of him. She
was drawn to him. Why? Because of his love for
her, his compassion toward her. What about blind Bartimaeus?
I mean, he was the embarrassment of his town, wasn't he? Shut
up, Bartimaeus. You're just, you know, look at
you. You're dirty, you're blind, you don't know anything. Just
keep your mouth shut. And he cried all the louder,
son of David, have mercy upon me. And what'd they say? Bartimaeus,
be of good cheer. The master's calling you. He's
not talking to anybody else, but he's calling you. He's calling
you. What about that man over there
in the Gadarenes? The Lord crossed the, he crossed
the Sea of Galilee for one man. It's what the scripture says.
He went over there to a graveyard and found a man possessed with
a legion of demons, chained to whatever, cutting himself with
rocks, completely out of his mind. Nobody in town wanted anything
to do with him, And the Lord put him in his right mind and
clothed him, didn't he? And he wanted to go back with
the Lord, and the Lord told him, no, you stay here and you go
tell them what I did for you. You see, regardless of how desperate
a person's life was in our Lord's or how sinful they were, in our
Lord coming, this is the symbolism that the Lord is communicating
to me and you. I came to save sinners. I'm gentle
and lowly, riding upon an ass. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke
is easy. My burden is light. Why? Because
I've already satisfied the demands of the law. You get in yoke with
me and you're going to be at peace. You're going to be at
peace. I'll give you rest for your soul.
Isn't that what the Lord said? That's the picture here. And I'm here to say to you, the
Lord Jesus Christ is the same right now as he was then. We all come into this world at
enmity with God. And all the enemies of God will
either be constrained by his love or they will be consumed
by his wrath. That's the only options. Constrained
by his love. And that's in light of how he
came the first time, riding upon an ass lowly, speaking peace
to sinners. Or how do we see the Lord Jesus
Christ coming the next time? How do we see him coming the
next time? He's not coming lowly riding upon an ass. He's coming
with a tongue like a sword and eyes like fire riding upon a
white stallion as a, as a sovereign monarch. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to revelation chapter 19. This is, Oh, this is such an encouragement
to me. Because I'm blind Bartimaeus. I'm that woman at the well. I'm
that demoniac in the Gadarenes. I need God to have mercy on me. I need for Him to pity me. And that's how He deals with
His people now. But there's going to come a day
when that's gonna end. In Revelation chapter 19, look
at verse, look at verse 11. And I saw heaven
opened and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. The first time the Lord Jesus
Christ came, he came as a suffering servant. The next time he comes,
he's coming as a conquering king, exercising justice and wrath. That's why I say every single
enemy of God will either be constrained by his love or they'll be destroyed
by his wrath. Here he is coming. And this isn't
to, this isn't to, to instill fear in your heart and to say,
you know, no, this is to say to you, it's the love of Christ
that constrains us. It's His mercy that calls us
to Himself. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on His head were many crowns. And He had a name written that
no man knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. And His name is called the Word
of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon
white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Do you
see a difference? Do you see a stark contrast between
the first coming of the Lord and the second coming of the
Lord? He comes riding upon an ass, lowly, in an obscure town
called Jerusalem, and it would have been in those days just
a... And the armies which were in
heaven followed upon him on white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword with
which he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness
of the wrath of almighty God and on his vesture and on his
thigh, his name is written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Come to him now. Come to him
now. All men, every person in the
sound of my voice and every person in this world is gonna have to
deal with the Lord Jesus Christ. either as a compassionate, merciful,
suffering servant and savior, or as a ruling monarch, a conquering
king. He came the first time riding
upon an ass. He comes the second time on a
white stallion. Turn to me to John chapter 3.
John chapter 3. Don't be afraid of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There will be a time when men
will fear him. Now I'm not talking about the
reverential awe and fear that God puts in His children's hearts,
causing them to bow before Him and worship Him. I'm talking
about the kind of fear that Adam, that gripped Adam's heart, that
caused him to do what? You see, fear will either, the
fear of God will drive you to Christ, and the fear of man will
do what? It'll cause you to hide from
Him. It'll cause you to hide from Him. run from him. Look at John chapter
3. Everybody loves John 3.16 because
they don't understand that the Lord Jesus Christ was
talking to a Jewish leader who would have heard the word world
as those Gentiles outside of Israel. And that's exactly what
the Lord was talking about. For God, Nicodemus, you think
the love of God is just for the Jews, the physical descendants
of Abraham, but I'm here to tell you that God has people outside
of Israel and they all must come. And those are the men and women
out there in the world. And look at verse 17. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might
be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
exercising his wrath today, at least not right now. Maybe he
will today, I don't know. I know this for sure, there's
gonna come a day when he's gonna do it. There's gonna come a day. But he's not doing it right now.
Right this very minute, he's not doing it. So why? What do we do? Come. Come to
him right this minute. In your heart, bow in submission
to him. Seek His mercy. He's tender-hearted. He's lowly. He's compassionate. He's not going to... He's not
going to stand in judgment of you. He's going to save you.
I didn't come to judge the world. I came to save the world. Remember
what He said? Now there's going to come a day, we just read in
Revelation 19, when He will come to judge the world. But right now, right now, the
Lord Jesus Christ is saying to you and to me, come, come. The spirit and the bride say,
come. Verse 18, he that believeth on
him is not condemned. Believe God, just believe him. Just bow to Him. Say, Lord, I've
got no place else to go but to believe everything You've said
and everything You are. Cast all my hope on You. Believing
that You care for me. And the Lord says, You're not
condemned. Do you believe on Me? You're
not condemned. There's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
There's no wrath. The wrath of God's fury has been
spent when the sword of his justice was sheathed into the heart of
his own son on Calvary's cross. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. or saying, believe me, trust
me, rest your hope in me. Because if you don't, condemnation
is on you. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I'm the light of the world. You're in darkness. Without the
light of the gospel shining in your heart, in my face, without
the truth of my word, you've got no hope. You're just groping
in darkness, looking for some direction, looking for some hope,
and there's no light in this world. I am the light of the
world. Light, here's the condemnation, light has come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. Why won't men come to Christ?
Why won't they come to Christ? Because they don't want to be
told that the best thing about them is it will send them to
hell. They don't want to be told that
all their deeds are evil. If God should mark iniquity,
who should stand? When we say that we're sinners,
we're not justifying sinful behavior. We're not excusing it. We're
not saying, well, you know, I'm just a sinner, so that's, you
know, that's the excuse for that. No, what we're saying is that
if God judges me by the very best thing I've ever done in
my life, I'm going to hell for it. Because in me there is no
righteousness. And God requires perfect righteousness.
My righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. That's what
I mean when we say we're sinners. We're not justifying bad behavior. What we're doing is we're saying
that all of our behavior is sinful. Christ Jesus, the Lord, is our
only righteousness. And He's coming to the world
as the light. And men love darkness rather
than light because they're desperate. They don't want to be told the
best thing about them is we'll send them to hell. Men boast
in their righteousness. They talk about the good stuff
they've done and they expect God to reward them for it. To
tell a man that he's going to go to hell for going to church,
if going to church is what he's trusted in for the hope of his
salvation? Well, I'm not. I don't believe that.
Well, you don't believe on Christ. You don't believe on Christ.
That's what the Lord's saying. The Lord Jesus said, if you had
faith as a mustard seed, you could say unto this mountain,
be ye cast into the sea, and it would be removed. Now, a mountain is a barrier. It's a barrier between me and
God. And the barrier that stands between man and God is his righteousness. It's the trust that he has in
something other than the Lord Jesus Christ for the hope of
his salvation. And God says when you have faith in Christ, all
that goes away. That mountain gets buried into
the depths of the sea and it's remembered no more. Now you have
perfect access before God, don't you? Now, if we go to Revelation
chapter six, verse 16, let's go there. Revelation chapter
six. Verse 15. And the kings of the
earth, those are the mighty ones. Those are the ones who are trusting
in their strength rather than trusting in Christ. the kings
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men." He's not talking
about material wealth. He's talking about the wealth
of one's righteousness. And the chief captains and the
mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid himself
in the dens and the rocks of the mountains and said to the
mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face
of him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.
For the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able
to stand? Now if those mountains and rocks
are men's righteousness, what the Lord is saying here in symbolic
language. Revelation is written in symbolic
language. It's not to be understood literally. We understand it spiritually. When the Lord said, when I separate
the sheep from the goats, the goats are gonna say unto me,
but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name. We've cast
out demons, we've been working out of the soup kitchen, we've
been a good person, and what's the Lord say to them? Depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. That's
exactly what Revelation 6.16 is saying. that those who have
to face God riding upon that white stallion who refused Him
as the lowly Savior coming upon a cult, an ass, are going to plead
for their good works to fall on them to hide them from the
wrath of God. Let the mountains fall on me.
I'm going to hide in my good works. None of that's going to
work. Why? Because man's works are not good. They're not good. Can't save him. His work is though, isn't it? All the enemies of God, which
all men are, will either be constrained by his love or consumed by his
wrath, period. Period. Come. Come, just like you are. Don't try to fix anything. Don't
wait for a feeling. Don't look for an experience.
Just come. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rest your hope in Him. There is a day of wrath coming,
and you're going to be like the... If you don't come now, you'll
be like those men hiding in the mountains, calling upon the rocks
to fall upon them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. And
it won't work. It won't work. You see, it's either confessing
my lack of righteousness now or having your lack of righteousness
exposed then. What we uncover, God covers. What we cover, God one day is
going to uncover. So come before God in all the
nakedness of your need. Confess your dependence upon
Him and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Saved from what? From that day of wrath. We just
read about it in two different passages, didn't we? The means by which the Lord brings
his people to himself is the preaching of the gospel. It's
why we're doing what we're doing right now. It's why we go to
God's word, because faith in Christ is the only hope of salvation. No other name has been given
under heaven whereby men must be saved. And the Lord gives
faith through the hearing of his word. And that's another
symbolism to this ass that the Lord Jesus Christ is riding upon
as he comes into Jerusalem and he says, your king is coming.
Those who take the gospel, those who carry the message of the
Lord Jesus Christ out into the world are just a bunch of asses. They are. They're just lowly,
humble beasts of burdens. You see that symbolized? You
remember when Samson took the jawbone of an ass, which I have
hanging in my office on the wall to remind me what I am, and he
slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. And that's
what the Lord does. He uses the jawbone of an ass
to defeat his enemies. You remember when Balaam, that
false prophet, was riding upon an ass, and the Lord himself
appeared to Balaam. Balaam couldn't see it, but the
ass could. And the ass warned Balaam, didn't
he? And Balaam got mad at the ass. That's happened so many
times, hasn't it? You've had that experience in
your own life as you've tried to share, that you've been a
beast of burden carrying the message of Christ to your family
and friends, and they get mad at you. Why? Because they love darkness
rather than light. They're not gonna have their
deeds exposed for what they are. David's father, Jesse, the scripture
says, took an ass and laid in it with bread and with meat and
sent it by David to his brothers out at the field as they were
in battle. There we are, we're just taking
the bread of life. to those who are fighting in
this spiritual battle. False prophets are in a couple
of places referred to as a wild ass who, unlike Balaam's ass,
don't have anything to say. The scripture says, stay away
from their mouth because they will bite you. They'll bite you. Rejoice, O daughter of Zion. Shout for joy, you daughters
of Jerusalem. Your king has come, riding upon
an ass, lowly. That's why the Lord uses preaching
to save his people, because it's such a humbling experience for
everybody. It's humbling for you because
you don't have any input. The congregation sits, God shuts
their mouths, opens their ears, and faith comes by hearing. And
take my word for this, it is most humbling for the man who
stands in this pulpit. God says, I'm going to share
my glory with another. I'm going to come riding upon
an ass, lowly. He is just having salvation. We're going to take a break and
I want to get into that part of this text with more time than
what we have right now. So let's, let's take a break. Thank you.