that our Lord is ascending up
to Jerusalem. I just want to read a few verses
to remind us why he's going to Jerusalem, because everything
that happens in this passage pertains to that. So Luke 18
31, just in the previous chapter, here's what we saw. Then he took
unto him the 12 and said unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem. And all things that are written
by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto
the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and
spitted on. And they shall scourge him, and
put him to death. And the third day he shall rise
again. And they understood none of these
things. And this saying was hid from
them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. And so we
need to understand as we see everything in this passage that
where this is gonna end up, the purpose of all this. So look
at verse 29 back in our text in chapter 19. And it came to
pass when he was come nigh to Bethphage and 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 in you shall find a colt tied, Whereon yet
never man sat. Loose him and bring him here."
Now, every word, of course, is significant. Why nobody ever
sat on this colt? Well, because of what this colt
represents in the scriptures, the spiritual lesson here. This colt is going to carry the
Son of God through town. Jerusalem to the place where
that symbolizes the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. He come
into Jerusalem to do what He came to do. And this colt is
going to carry Him there and He's going to be praised and
honored and glorified. And nobody can sit there. Nobody
can sit in that spot but Him. Only He's worthy of all glory
and praise and honor. And also this donkey is me. It's
you by God's grace, the sinner. A mule that nobody has ever been
on is not gonna cooperate. That's putting it mildly. But
this one's going to because of who's sitting on him. Because when the Lord Jesus Christ
breaks you, you're broke. You're broke and no one but the
Lord Jesus can do that. In Job 11, 12, it says, vain
man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass is cold. He's not wise. He wants to be
seen as wise. He wants to be considered wise,
but he's not. He's a donkey. But by God's grace,
we can be pretty smart donkeys if he'll give us his mind. If
we have the mind of Christ, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians, you
see that even the ox knows his master's crib if the Lord teaches
him. So that's, you remember the Gadarene
demoniac? Let me read you some of that
in Mark 5, 1. They came over into the other side of the sea
into the country of the Gadarenes, and when the Lord was come out
of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man
with an unclean spirit. Why are we pictured as a donkey
in the scriptures? Because we're also pictured this
way, and this is what we are by nature. This man had his dwelling
among the tombs, and no man could bind him. Nobody ever sat on
this donkey. You couldn't do it. You can't
tame yourself, and nobody can tame you. You can't tame anybody
else, not with chains. because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, and neither
could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshiped him. He fell down at his feet, And
we know that in verse 15 of that text, the end result of the Lord
Jesus coming where that untamable man was, is that he ended up
sitting and clothed and in his right mind. Son of God, we get a glimpse
of that power in our text this morning. He just sat down on
that donkey and it never kicked. It never bucked, it never bowed
its neck. The Son of God is worthy of all
praise and adoration. Glory to God in the highest because
he has come to this raging, insane, self-destructive sinner. And
it says he had need of that old donkey. What does the Son of
God need with a donkey? Think about that in the context
of this. Why does he need a donkey? Why not a whore? Why didn't he
just walk into town? Think of that. If any man ask
you, why do you loose him? Thus shall you say unto him,
because the Lord needs him. Now think about this for a minute.
Between Christ and the sinner, who needs who? Now we know the
answer to that, generally speaking. I always say, God don't need
you, you need God. And that's true in the sense
that God is self-sufficient. He don't need anybody or anything.
Paul preached in Acts 17, 24. He said, God that made the world
and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshiped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. He don't need anything
from you. He's the one that gives you what
you need. That's what Paul's preaching
here. If you look up that word hands in that passage there,
he's not worshiped with men's hands. That word hands means
by the help or agency of one. He don't need your help. He don't
need to use you. He might. He might do it, but
he don't need to. And the word worship there, he's
not worshiped with men's hand, that word is served. You look
it up. He's not served by the agency
or the help of somebody else. That's not what it is. Serving God is not you doing
something for God. We, on the other hand, need him
for everything. Paul said you live, you move,
you have your being in him. There's nothing you don't need
Him for. But listen now, since the Lord obligated Himself in
the eternal covenant of grace to be surety for the people that
the Father gave Him, John chapter 17 and elsewhere in scripture,
He must need save every one of those that He came to save, that
He obligated Himself to save, that He became mediator and surety
for in eternity. He must, He needs. It's necessity. That word there in our text,
it means necessity, but also it means business. He said to those two disciples,
he said, you tell whoever asks, I've got business with this one. And he had business to take care
of on this earth that involved me, it included me. It was necessary
that I be in on it. He needed me. But now you have
to qualify that, don't you? You gotta qualify that. You can't
just go around saying the Lord needs me. That's not accurate
if you just say it like that. But he does, doesn't he? What
did Christ come to do? What did he come into this world?
Well, he came to glorify his Father, didn't he? He came to
glorify his Father. This donkey pictures that. He's
gonna ride that donkey into town, and you know what people are
gonna say? Glory to God in the highest. They're gonna praise
God because Christ is come. How is it that God is glorified?
Why in the person of Christ? Why did he send his son? Well,
because God is glorified in the saving of sinners. Paul talks
about in Romans chapter nine that the riches of His glory,
the riches of the glory. Now God's glorified because the
sun rose this morning. Because we know He did that.
And He's glorified in that. The heavens declare the glory
of God. But if you're gonna see the riches of His glory, Paul
said you're gonna have to see Him having mercy on sinners.
Romans chapter nine. Oh, and he does that in the person
of his son, in his redemptive character. He come to Jerusalem,
why? To be killed, to lay down his
life for his sheep, and that's how the father's glorified. Remember
where this donkey's taking him, or rather, where he's taking
that donkey. He's gonna use me and you to
glorify his father. He's gonna subdue my godless
will and make me a willing servant for the glory of his father.
He requires me, but not as I am in myself. Religion says give
the Lord your heart. What does he want with that thing?
There's not much to it. Not as I am in myself, but as
I am in him. I'm in on this thing, this thing
of Christ being honored and praised. I'm that donkey, and I'm in on
it. What's my point in it? Just to
hold him up. To hold him up. As lights of
this world, what's our purpose? To reflect him. To shine his
light. He's the light of the world.
And I'm not going to buck, are you? I don't want to buck that. I don't want to harden my neck
one bit. in that he's sovereign. And he does as he pleases, and
I like it that way. Lord, what would you have me
do? Want me to go that way or that way? Just pull on the reins,
and here I am. You know how to get a wild animal
to do what you want it to do? Just in practical life? Well, it's called a goad. You
use a stick, you use some kind of something to get it to do. You
try to get it to do what you want it to do and it bows up
and you goad it. You show it that there's consequences
for not doing what you want me to do. You know what the Son
of God said to Saul of Tarsus when he was turning him into
the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 9? He said, is it hard for you
to kick against the goads? It says in 9.3 of Acts, as he
journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for you to kick against
the bricks, the goad. You look that word up. It's a
goad. And he, trembling and astonished, said, What does an animal do
when you goat it? It does what you want it to do.
Lord, what would you have me do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. That's humiliating, isn't it?
People don't like the idea of the Lord goading them. You know,
the Lord can woo them and all that kind of stuff, you know.
and give them choices and that kind of thing. This is not a
picture that the world is real proud of or happy with. But that's what happens when
sinners are saved. There's not any glory in it for
you. You're going to be saved, somebody said, against your will
with your full consent. What does that mean? No man's
willing, no man can come except the Father. Draw him, and his
people are willing in the day of his power. You don't come
because you want to come, but it's because he breaks our will. He said, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
When he has mercy on you, your will will change. to come
to Christ and own Him as all of our righteousness before God.
You see, that's what we buck against. We buck against Christ
as righteousness. Because that makes me useless. That makes all of my religious
decisions and obedience and service, it makes it useless. It is useless
when it comes to the salvation of your soul. By the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. Paul said they being ignorant,
the religious Jews being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. They're too proud of
their own righteousness to bow as Paul did and say, Lord, what
do you want me to do? What's your will? Self-righteousness is a proud
beast that hardens its neck against the truth of Christ's lordship
and rebels against him as the sovereign redeemer. But when
he breaks us, we say with Paul, what's your will, Lord? Forget
about mine. And we rebel against him as Redeemer,
as effectual Redeemer. It's okay for him to do his best,
to try, you know, to do enough to give you a chance to do something,
to save yourself. But a Redeemer that actually
redeems? Oh boy, you ain't seen a mule
kick until you've seen one kick against that. I've seen it. And listen to this now, so he'll
bring us into the dust, he'll goad us like a mule, and you'll
thank him for it. He breaks the wild ass's coat.
And listen to this, in order for him to associate himself
with me, he had to humble himself too. Turn to Zechariah 9-9, Zechariah
9-9. Well, I'll read it to you. If
you can get over there quickly, I don't want to take too long
this morning, but Zechariah 9, 9, listen to this. It says, rejoice. You probably should find it because
I'm going to refer back to it a few times here in the rest
of the message. Zechariah 9, 9, rejoice greatly. O daughter of
Zion, Zion pictures his church, the church of God, the people
of God, all through the scripture now. Rejoice greatly, shout,
O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. That's good reason to shout.
He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass
and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. He is lowly riding upon
an ass. Why isn't he riding in a great
chariot of some kind with white horses pulling it? Because he's
lowly. He condescended to associate
with a donkey like me. That's why. He eateth with publicans
and sinners. This was spoken as a slur against
him. You know who doesn't have a problem
with that though? Publicans and sinners, that's who. In order
to save me, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, Philippians 2.8. But in his very
humiliation, as sin bearer, at his lowest, at the lowest anybody's
ever gone. Nobody's ever been such a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But in his very humiliation,
As our shin bear in that very character, he shall be praised
forever. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Not worthy is the
king, although there wouldn't be a whole lot wrong with that
song, would there be? But worthy is the one that was slain. Worthy
is the one upon whom humiliation was heaped. Worthy is the lowly
one. And look back at our text at
verse 32. And they that were sent went
their way and found even as he had said
unto them. Boy, that'd be worth remembering,
wouldn't it? They went their way. What was
their way? To do what he told them to do. And they found that
it was just like he said it would be. You know, the Lord's told
us a lot in this book. We've been looking at it together
for 16 years, we ain't even scratched it. And have you ever found it,
not a single word of it has fallen to the ground, not a single word. The Lord has sent us and we go
our way and we find everything he said is exactly the way he
said it is. Look at verse 33. And as they
were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose
ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath
need of him. And they brought him to Jesus.
It doesn't say there was any rebellion, no argument. And they brought him to Jesus
and cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus
thereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
And when he was come nigh, even now 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
they had seen, saying, blessed be the king that cometh in the
name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest. When they told the owners, the
Lord hath need of him, there was no resistance, and there
wasn't, no other explanation was needed, is there? Well, you
see, he's gonna ride into Jerusalem, and this, you know, he's been
planning this for a while. The Lord needs him. That's it.
That's it. No questions, no resistance.
May there never be any. May there never be any resistance.
And the Lord don't ask permission. He didn't say, be nice of you,
if I could just use your... He don't ask for permission,
does he? When he needs something, he gets it. With you, without
you, without me, with me. What an honor and a privilege
if he ever gives us something that he needs. In Matthew's account of this,
it says in Matthew 21, 9, the multitudes that went before and
that followed cried saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
And when he was coming to Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying,
who is this? Well, the Lord answered that
question in the original prophecy. And I just want to look briefly
at this, but if you still have Zechariah 9, I should have told
you to kind of keep that marked. But look at it with me again,
Zechariah 9, 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. The Lord's people are called
upon to rejoice. Nobody else is going to. The
Lord's being the king, thy king reigneth and comes to you. That's
not good news to everybody, but it is to the church. It is to
those whom he was sent to redeem. O daughter of Jerusalem, behold
thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass. Now these same ones who praised
the Lord that day would soon be crying crucify him. Same people
now, just about all of them. Same ones that said, Hosanna
unto the king. Later they're gonna mockingly
put over his head, this is the king. And they're going to mock
him as king with a mock scepter and a crown of thorns. But God said in Zechariah 9,
9, he's your king. He is your king. Who is this? He's your king. He's sovereign.
That's the first answer now. Who is he? That's the way David
answered, wasn't it? When they said, where's your
God? Our God, we got our gods here, you know, we've made them
out of wood and different things. And they said to David, where's
your God? And he said, he's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. That's the first answer, isn't
it? Who's your God? Where's your God? Who is this? He's your king, whether you like
it or not. He made all things, he rules
all things, and he saves whom he will. And it says, he cometh. The gospel message to sinners
is come to Christ. There's no question about that,
but you can't come to him unless he comes to you first. Your king
cometh. The glory is all his, and notice
it says he is just. He's the holy king. He's the
righteous one, and that's our hope. He satisfied the justice
of God for us. He is the one man that pleased God, that obeyed
the law, that is just, no other man is. And because he is though,
all those in him are just and righteous in the sight of God.
Everybody he represented as mediator, as surety, as representative,
as Adam represented all the human race in the garden, Christ came
and represented a race, a people. And all whom he represents are
righteous and just in him. All fell in Adam all died in
him all sinned when Adam sinned and all for whom Christ came
are just because he's just First Peter 318 Christ also hath
once suffered for sins the just Well, I know people like to argue
don't they And we, you know, people try to be smarter than
God. He suffered for sins, the just. That's what the scripture said.
The just one suffered for sins. Well, whose sins were they then?
They were mine. That's kind of clear, isn't it? He's the just
one. He suffered the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. That's pretty simple,
isn't it? What did He do it for? Because
our sins have separated between us and our God. And the only
way we can be brought back to God, communion with God, fellowship
with God, is if Christ suffered for sins, the just. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit, the just one is going to Jerusalem
in our text to suffer for my sins. Me, the unjust, and he's doing
it for this express purpose. To bring me to God. I'm not giving
to God any other way. And notice it says he has salvation. He is just and having salvation. I like this now. Christ is salvation. He is salvation. But also, it's
important to see that He has it. It's His to give. He has salvation in His holy,
omnipotent hand. He said to Zacchaeus in verse
9 of this same chapter of ours here in Luke, salvation has come
to this house today. What does salvation look like?
Looks like the Son of God. It looks like God's son. He has
salvation because he is salvation. Simeon said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. What are you looking at, Simeon?
I'm looking at God's son. Lowly and riding. Lowly and bringing willful beasts
into submission. Thank God our King humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
And thank God he included me. Thank God he needed me. Turn
to Ephesians chapter one. I'm gonna close with this, Ephesians
115. What are we to Christ? Well, that's a good question. The Lord have need of him. Look at Ephesians 1 15 wherefore
I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love
unto all the saints, I cease not to give thanks for you. Making
mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ The father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him. People say God revealed this
to me and God revealed that to me. I tell you what God reveals
to sinners, him. If you know him, God showed you
something. If you know some far out weird
thing, God didn't show you that. The eyes, verse 18, of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his
mighty power, which he brought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places. far above all principality and
power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him. The church, us, we are his body,
the fullness of him, which filleth all. You know,
the Lord needs him. And he's not gonna lose a single
one. Not one. And because he must have me,
I'm set free. He sent some messengers into
town, into a village one day, and said, set him free. I have
need of him. And you know what, that old donkey,
He walked through the town, and everybody was throwing their
clothes down in front of him. You know who that really benefited?
The donkey. Nobody was praising the donkey,
and they're not going to. He don't want them to. But because of who's riding,
my way is easy. and cushioned and soft. His yoke
is easy and His burden is light. And we find rest unto our souls. Let's pray.