Verses 28 through 40. In these verses, the Holy Ghost
inspires Luke to record our Lord's ascension up to Jerusalem to
finish the work his father gave him to do, every step he took. in this world was an ascension
to Jerusalem. It was leading up, this was the
object of his coming, he had to go there, he had to be lifted
up on the cross of Calvary. And that's what Luke is recording
here under the inspiration of the Spirit. Let's read these
verses together and pray that the Lord will help us all to
rightly divide the word of truth. Luke 19 verse 28. And when he had thus spoken,
he went before ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass,
when he was come nigh to Bethphage, or Bethany, at the mount called
the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying,
go ye into the village over against you, In the which at your entering
you shall find a coat tied, whereon yet never man sat. Loose him
and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, why do
you loose him? Thus shall you say unto him,
because the Lord had need of him. And they that were sent went
their way. bound even as he had said unto
them. And as they were loosing the
colt, the owners thereof said unto them, why loose ye the colt?
What are you doing? And they said, the Lord hath
need of him. And they brought him to Jesus.
And they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus
their own. And as he went, they spread their
clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even
at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of
the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice
for all the mighty works that had been seen. Said, blessed
be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from
among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto
them, I tell you that if they should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out. Now our text this morning
has so many details. The longer you look at it, the
deeper it gets. This is true of all the Word
of God, but especially in these texts from time to time when
the Lord opens your minds and hearts to see things, you see
all these details and you're just overwhelmed with them. And
that's the way it is in this. It has so many details, it's
difficult to confine ourselves to just a few points. The passage
begins by connecting what he was now doing with what he had
just said. And when he had thus spoken, he went before ascending up to
Jerusalem. When he made clear what the kingdom
was, that was the point of his parable, was to make clear what
the kingdom of God is. And also what he was doing and
why he was doing it. Then he continued his ascent
up to Jerusalem. And he calls this walk an ascension. And I mentioned this in the Psalms
that I went through. That Jerusalem was the high ground
of Israel. And so geographically it was
the high ground, but his words go beyond the lay of the land. The words describe the spiritual
as well as the physical. And Jerusalem is used to describe
the church of the living God, whose names are written in heaven. In describing the last days,
John wrote this in the book of Revelations. He said, they went
up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the
saints about the beloved city, the beloved city. That's Jerusalem,
that's the church. In Revelation 21 too, he writes,
and I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So when he talks about Jerusalem,
he's talking about the church. The birth of Christ was a distinction
Can you imagine how far he descended from the throne of glory to the
womb of the virgin? Huh? My soul, it was a dissension. And his life, his death, and
his resurrection is an ascension. In Ephesians chapter four, verse
nine, Paul tells us, he said, now that he ascended, What is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? The same one who ascended is
he who descended. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things. This is what he was doing. He
was accomplishing our redemption. He was doing the will of his
father, of which will and the doing of it, we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
All right, as he ascends up to Jerusalem, the events that transpire
show us three things. Now it shows us many things,
but let's just confine our thoughts for this 30 minutes to these
three things. The first thing he shows us here
is that all scripture is divinely inspired. Every word of it, every
detail of it. All of it's gonna be fulfilled.
In Matthew's account of these things, he tells us, all this
was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet,
saying, tell you the daughter of Zion, behold, the king cometh
unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass and the coat of the foal
of an ass. This was said hundreds of years
before Christ was born. Every detail, and Matthew said
it happened because of what God had said. Matthew 21, four and
five. The second thing these events
declare is the omniscience of God. God is all-knowing. He's all-knowing. You don't hide
anything from God. He sees everything. He sees what
you don't see, and you see a lot. You try to hide a lot, but he
sees what you can't see. And he sees all things. He knew
the coin was in the fish's mouth. Then he said, you go down there.
cashed out, bring the fish in, go pay your taxes. He knew the
coin was in the fish's mouth. He knew the thoughts and intents
of men's hearts, and he knew every detail of the providence
of God leading him up to the cross. He knew what was coming. Otherwise, he wouldn't have prayed
as he prayed. He knew what was coming. There's
an interesting fact revealed in the scriptures that make this
point so clear to me. This is what God used to convince
me of this. Because I grew up in religion,
and whenever religion talks about the foreknowledge of God, they
use this expression. I don't know who first come out
with it, but they all copied it. God looking down through
the telescope of time. Well, over in Romans chapter
eight, verse 29, I want you to listen to these words. For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Foreknowledge,
all right? In 1 Peter 1.20, he tells us
that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the
world. That word foreordained and that word foreknow is the
same exact word. So why is it translated differently? Why does he apply this to two
different things? To show us that what God foreknows,
he foreordains. The reason he knows that ash
is tied there is because he ordained it. There was no way he wasn't
gonna be tied there. That's the providence of God. Our God, as he is revealed in
Christ, was inherently set before us in the word of God. And is
revealed, he's revealed as all-knowing. And then here's the third thing. He is the sovereign Lord and
King of glory. He said, now you go down there.
They're gonna be an ass tied, the coat or the fold of an ass.
You're gonna be tied up down there. You go down there, and
when you go to untie, somebody's gonna say, what are you doing? Where are you going with that
ass? The Lord. Who? He didn't say the Savior. He said the Lord. And that was it. There was no
arguing about it. There was no, Well, do you have
something from the Lord that tells me that? No, no, that was
the end of it. That was the end of it. And you
know what? Families ask the same thing. Why? Why do you preach
this? Why do you do this? Why does my son go down there?
Why, why, why? Because the Lord hath need of
him. That's why. And his need is to manifest his
glory and the salvation of him. A foolish man spoke to me one
time of the taking of the wild ass's coat as an act of thievery. He stole it. He didn't ask permission. In Psalm chapter 50 in verse
10, he said, for every beast of the forest is mine. It's mine. And the cattle up on a thousand
hills is mine. And I know all the fowls of the
mountains and the wild beasts of the field. They're all mine,
he said. And if I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. If
the Lord has need of something, he's gonna take it because it's
his. We're too want to say my, my,
my, my, my house, my land, my money, my this, my that. You
don't have anything. It all belongs to him. And if
you have anything, he gave it to you for a purpose. And if
I were you, I'd pray that that purpose is a good purpose. And
that you use it in that direction. God our savior is king of glory
and he's lord of the whole universe. He's the creator of all things,
the sustainer of all things, and all things were made by him,
now listen, and for him. That wild ass's coat had its
being because of Christ. And then, if somebody asks what
you doing, listen to this. He said, cannot I do with my
own what I please? Huh? Now these are the obvious, the
undeniable facts, but let's look a little deeper and see what
the Lord's manifesting as he ascends up to Jerusalem to his
people. He separates a few from the multitude. They're gonna go down here to
a certain village, to a certain house, and there to loose a coat
tied up. And he tells us in Mark 11 in
his, in his description of these things, he said, this coat is
gonna be tied up where two ways met. There are two ways that
meet when you come back. There's a crossroad. And there,
that's where the ass is, you loose him. I don't wanna wear
you with a lot of turning, so I'll just tell you where this
passage is, and you can read it a little bit later on this
afternoon. In Job 11, verse 12, he tells
us that vain man, that's what man is, he's vain, he's full
of vanity. Man in his best state, altogether
vanity. Well, Job says, under the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, that vain man is born like a wild ass's
coat. Hollywood always portrays those
little burros and donkeys as gentle and submissive. There
ain't a meaner animal on the face of the earth than an unbroken
burro or a donkey. They'll bite you. They'll kick
you. They'll spit on you. And they'll
run from you. They're always portraying these
little creatures who just gladly bear the burdens that you put
on their backs. Try it someday. Try to put a
burden on a wild-ass's coat and see what happens. Not until they're
broken. Before they're broken, they'll
do all these things. They'll bite you, buck you, run
away from you. You can't make one stand still
long enough to put anything on his back. Our Lord rides before his church
on the wild-ass's coat. Every chosen sinner brought into
God's church gladly seeks the Lord of glory. He don't buck
him off. He don't try to bite him. He's
not fighting. They brought this wild-ass's
coat to our Lord and set our Lord on his back, and he didn't
do a thing. He took him where the Lord wanted
him to take him. He gently seats the Lord of glory
on his back and goes where he's directed, carries what the Lord
puts on him. Now, let me point out just a
few details to you this morning. First of all, the sovereign Christ
could have willed the ash to come to him without anybody involved. Couldn't he? Well, sure he could.
He directed the ravens to go down and feed his prophet. Didn't he? He didn't have to
use anybody. Nobody had to go down and lose
that ass. He could have done it himself. He could have just
willed it to happen, and it would have. But he didn't purpose it
that way, because he's teaching us something. He's pleased to
use means. Instead, he selected certain
ones to go to such and such a place and take the coat with him, bring
him back. God has an elect people, they're here and there, scattered
abroad all over the earth, and he knows where they are, and
he set the means in place to bring them to himself. Well, where are they? Mark chapter
11, verse four. They found the colt without. That's where they found him,
without, on the outside. They found him without. and they
found him in a place where two ways meet. Every chosen sinner's tied with
that, where two ways meet, every one of them. He's restrained
by the providence of God because of his nature and he's held in
a place where two ways meet, the way of grace and the way
of works. That's where they come together. The way of mercy and the way
of sacrifice, the way of imputation and the way of self-righteousness,
the way of love and the way of threats and punishment. They found a coat where two ways
met. Well, what's his hope? Well, if left there, he'll always
be the servant of his owner. He always will be. Always bear
whatever his owner lays on his back. But here's where hope begins. A disciple of Christ, chosen
and sent, looses the wild ass's coat. He unties him. He's bound, isn't he? Just like Lazarus was bound in
that tomb. Until the word of Christ was
heard. How'd he hear him? He was dead. Yeah, we all are.
until he speaks. Come in a time, he said, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. That's exactly what happens when the gospel
goes home in your heart. You're dead and trespassing,
but you hear. You hear. He comes to him, and God the
Holy Ghost makes him willing to be led. He didn't fight the disciple.
Now I could understand if the Lord got a hold of him, but here's
a disciple of the Lord. And he just looses him, and he
just follows him, dropping along behind him all the way back to
the Lord. He comes to him, and God the Holy Ghost makes him
willing to be led. And Paul said, I know your election
of God because our gospel came in power, came in the Holy Ghost,
Now listen, and you become followers of us and the Lord. My soul. He that's of God heareth us.
Isn't that what John said? If you're made willing to follow
the Lord, you will without a doubt follow his servants. Ain't no
doubt about it. Our Lord said, he that heareth
you, heareth me. He that despiseth you, despiseth
me. And here's where the sovereignty
of Christ is manifested in the hearing of faith. The wild ass's
coat followed his disciples because God made him willing. That's
the miracle of faith. I don't care how good you are,
how good your vocabulary is, how well you've been trained
to speak. All you, the best you can do is make a proselyte. The
best. You can't make that man willing
to come to Christ. You can't do it. But God can. And here's another thing. His
owner's permission. If any man ask you why you loose
him, you tell him. The Lord had need of him. Why did the Lord need that coat? To fulfill all scripture. That's what Matthew said. He needed him to manifest his
Lordship. How'd I know he's Lord? Look
at what he does. Our Lord said, if you don't believe
me by what I'm telling you, believe me for the very work's sake.
Here's a dead man, I called him back to life. Here's a leper,
I cleansed him. Who else can do that besides
the Lord? He manifests his lordship and
he needed him to manifest his glory. That's why God saves sinners,
to manifest his glory. Now let me tell you something.
What God needs, God supplies. Huh? He supplies. Thirdly, what does the disciples
do with this coat? I'm up here preaching to you
and preaching to you and he tells me, he knows where they're at. I don't know who they are. I
don't know until God does something for him. I don't know. His providence
leads you, you stand up, you preach. I don't know who God's
elect are. But I just know what they do. Well, what do I do with
this? Now I got it. I found the ass,
I unloosed him, I dealt with his owner, now I got it. Now
what am I gonna do with him? They brought him to Jesus. Ain't nothing else to do, is
there? Huh? Oh, I'm trying to reform this
man. I'm trying to get him to do this.
I'm trying to get him to dress this way and act this way. No,
I'm not. I'm just bringing him to Jesus.
He'll do those things. All I gotta do is get him from
where he told me he was and bring him over here. That's what I'm
doing. That's what I'm doing up here every time I stand up
here. Trying to bring you to Jesus. They brought him to Jesus, verse
35 of our text. Joshua, Savior. And true gospel preaching, evangelical
preaching, Holy Ghost-empowered preaching brings chosen sinners
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it does. I have nothing
for the sinner but Christ. That lady got so mad at Scott
Richardson. She saw him after the service
one day and she said, Christ, Christ, Christ, that's all you
know. He said, would somebody please
write that on my tombstone? The only thing this man ever
had to say was Christ. Only thing this man ever preached
was Christ. And then fourthly, also in verse
35, and they cast their garments upon the coat, and they sat Jesus
thereon. It's an often overlooked kindness
that God fetches sinners through the preaching of a man. It's a kindness that he preaches
to us by one who have themselves experienced the grace and mercy
of God. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, he
said, Nicodemus, If I told you earthly things and you believe
not, if I stood here before you as a man and talked to you about
the things of God, and you believe not, what are
you gonna do if I stand up here as God and tell you heavenly
things? What are you gonna do? How are
you gonna understand? It's a kindness. The means that
God, it's the wisdom of God. Isn't that what he says over
there in 1 Corinthians 1? In the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God, but it pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching. This is a kindness. It's a kindness
that God himself don't speak. I tell you, when God spoke to
Israel, they trembled in their boots. They said, Moses, you
go talk to him. Why did that help? Oh, it's a
whole lot softer coming from the mouth of a man than it is
coming from the mouth of God. It's an often overlooked kindness
that God fetches sinners through the preaching of those who have
themselves experienced the grace and mercy of God. Preaching that sympathizes with
the sinner is a padding, so to speak, isn't it? It's a padding. And it's a padding on the back
of the wild ass's coat. They took their garments and
laid them on the back of the ass. What are those garments? The
righteousness of Christ. The faith of Christ. He said,
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. They threw their garments on
the back, not to comfort the Lord, but to soften the load
on the back of this wild ass's coat. And then lastly, see his love
displayed. They didn't come as cruel taskmasters
with a whip to beat this little wild ass's coat back to the Lord. They just loosed him and led
him. Just a gentle hand to unloose
the binding cords and lead him back to the Lord. And then I'll
close with this, verse 35. They set Jesus their own. Every chosen sinner, every chosen
wild-ashes cope will receive the garments put on his back
and receive the Lord of glory and bear him up in the midst
of the church. Amen. and they'll glorify him. He got
on the back of this wild ass's coat. He didn't say a word. It doesn't say that the Lord
said anything. He just rolled up to Jerusalem.
And as he neared the descent from the Mount of Olives, coming
down into Jerusalem, boy, all his disciples began to glorify
the Lord, didn't they? Glorify the Lord. Next week,
Lord willing, we'll look at the rest of our text. All right,
thank you.