Let's go to John chapter 12.
If you want to just mark this chapter, because this is where
our second message will be this morning as well. John 12. Let's
read verse 12 down through verse 19. It says, On the next day, much
people that were come to the feast, When they heard that Jesus
was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went
forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the King
of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus,
when He had found a young ass, sat thereon, as it is written,
Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an
ass's coat. These things understood not His
disciples at the first, Though when Jesus was glorified, then
remembered they that these things were written of him, and that
they had done these things unto him. The people, therefore, that
was with him, when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and
raised him from the dead, bear record. For this cause the people
also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.
The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, Perceive ye
how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. This was the week of the Passover
feast. And during the week of the Passover
feast, all the males were required to come to Jerusalem. And they
usually brought their family with them. And so the population
in Jerusalem was far, far more than what it normally would be.
This place was just packed full of people. Thousands upon thousands
of people. And the Lord had raised Lazarus
from the grave near Bethany. He had done this on purpose.
He raised him from the grave near Bethany. And they had gone
and they had declared this. They had spread word that he
had raised a man from the grave. And all the people at the feast
were saying, whispering to one another, do you think he'll come
to the feast? Do you think he'll come up? And then they began
to spread word and said he's coming. He's coming to the feast. And so This great host of people
went out with palm branches in their hands, laying these palm
branches down before Him, and crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna,
save us, deliver us. Blessed is the King of Israel
that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now what do we see here? I want to look at the work of
God. And then we'll see an example
of grace, and then we'll hear a personal word to each of us. First of all, this was the work
of God. Everything that took place here
is God the Father and the Son of God, Christ Jesus, bringing
this all to pass. Every bit of it. Down in verse
23, here's what was happening. The Lord answered them, saying,
The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. That's
why this was happening. God had purposed this hour. It
was the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Verse 28, He
said, Father, glorify Thy name. And then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
This was God glorifying His Son. This was the Son fulfilling all
the scriptures, all the law and the prophets. He was working
this. I'll try to show you Thursday night that when Mary came and
broke open that box of ointment and anointed the feet of the
Lord. There's no good works that are done in this world except
what were ordained from the foundation of the world. And they're brought
to pass by the Lord working in the heart of his people. And
that's a good evidence of it right there when Mary broke that
box of ointment open on his feet because Song of Solomon says,
the scripture said, while the king is seated at his table,
my spikenard sends forth the perfume thereof. That scripture
had to be fulfilled. It had to be fulfilled. And Christ
worked that in Mary's heart, and she came and broke open that
box of ointment on him, and the ointment, the fragrance filled
the house. Well, the same way, these are scriptures that had
to be fulfilled. And the Lord is working everything
to bring these people there to praise Him and call upon Him. He worked this to glorify the
Son of Man, to glorify God's name in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord never lifted up His voice in the streets. He wasn't
trying to get a following. He was unlike preachers and churches
in our day. He wasn't trying to just gather
crowds. That wasn't what He was about.
And a lot of times He would work a miracle and He would tell them,
don't go tell people. Go home and tell them what great
things the Lord's done for you, but don't go broadcasting. He
didn't want them following him simply because their bellies
were full and they were looking for prosperity and things like
that. He told us, don't do your alms
before men. Don't advertise your ministries
that you're working to try to attract people by that. You know,
don't advertise all the different programs you have to try to just
attract people by that. He never attracted people with
things like that. Never at all. But this is His
hour. This is His hour. This is the
hour that He is going to be glorified and the whole world is going
to see what He is going to do for His people on the cross. And so he
went to Bethany. Whenever he heard Lazarus was
sick, he waited four days until Lazarus died. And there was a
lot of Jews that got gathered up there. And he did that on
purpose because that's close to Jerusalem and he raised Lazarus
from the grave. That was a public miracle like
hardly anything else he had done, he hadn't done anything that
publicly and that amazing. And he did it so that they would
go and spread word right here at the time of this Passover
was coming up, so that this would take place. So that this would
take place. For this cause, it said, many
bore record that Lazarus was raised, that he had raised him.
And it says, verse 18, for this cause the people also met him,
for they had heard that he had done this miracle. That's why
they went. They already wanted to take him
and make him a king. Now listen to this carefully.
There were probably some people in this crowd that he was working
grace in their heart and they heard he worked that miracle
and they saw grace in it. They saw Christ being the salvation
of his people and they came there with a true heart. But the majority
of these people the majority of these people laying these
palm branches down and crying out, Hosanna. They had already,
prior to this, wanted to take him and make him a king. And
our Lord prevented it. But here, He just took His hand
off of them. And here they come. They've heard
He's raised Lazarus. And they come and they start
calling Him king. And they want Him to be the king.
But all He had to do was take His restraining hand off of them.
But He's working this. Listen to Proverbs 19.21. There
are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord that shall stand. They're doing what He determined
before to be done. The preparations of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. He put this in their heart to
do this. Now this is the Lord fulfilling
the law and the prophets. That's why we say the Lord is
working this because He's the only one who fulfills the law
and the prophets. And this is Him fulfilling the law and the
prophets. Let me show you that. Go with me to Genesis 49. Genesis chapter 49 and verse 10. By the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of God moved Jacob to prophesy of this right here. He's speaking of Judah his son,
but he's speaking of Christ Jesus the Lord to come. Now listen
to this. It's Genesis 49.10. The scepter. That is the rule, the dominion,
the king, the throne. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. Shiloh means him to whom the
throne and the glory belongs. That's who Christ is. He's Shiloh.
And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his
foal unto the vine, and his ass's coat unto the choice vine, he
washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood
of grapes. That's who we see in our text. We see Shiloh. Here's the king. They come out crying, he's the
king. And he is. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. He's the king to whom the kingdom belongs. And here
He comes now, and the people are gathered to Him. They're
coming to Him. And He shed His own precious
blood for His people. He washed His garments in His
own blood, washing His people in His own blood. That's what
He came for. This was the fulfillment of Scripture.
Daniel, go with me to Zechariah 9. Daniel, right before the New
Testament, Zechariah 9. Go back, Malachi, then Zechariah. Daniel had prophesied of this.
He said 70 weeks are determined and he said in the 69th week,
he said the Lord is going to be cut off but not for himself. That's what was taking place
here. That's why he came to Jerusalem, to be cut off as a substitute
of his people. But right here in Zechariah 9,
this is 500 years, over 500 years before Christ came, and Zechariah
foretold this. Speaking by the Spirit of God,
Zechariah 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having
salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt,
the foal of an ass. You know the Lord Jesus before
this and one of the other gospels. He sent his apostles to get this
donkey and her foal. He said, he told them right where
they'd be. And they went. And they belonged
to another man. And they went. And the man said,
why are you taking this ass and her colt? And they said, the
Lord has need of them. And the man didn't put up any
opposition. He just let them have it. Have them. How do you think that
happened? The Lord did it. And the Lord
knows where his people are. He sends his gospel right to
his people. Right to his people. And he calls
us to himself. And he calls us in scripture
a wild asses cult. This cult of this donkey had
never been ridden. And Christ just got on him and
rode him. And He tames His people and just
like He guided this ass's coat right into Jerusalem, He's guiding
His people right into heavenly Jerusalem. That's what our Lord
is doing. When you read this book, you
see all these scriptures fulfilled by Christ. When you read this
book, read this book looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who the book's about. He is the fulfillment of the
law. The first five books of the Bible
is the law. He's the fulfillment of the law.
He's the fulfillment of all the prophets. And they all wrote
of Him. He said that plainly. They all spoke of Me. Come to
Him looking for Him. When you read a passage of Scripture,
and you see a sinner in that passage of Scripture, and you
see somebody faithful in that passage of Scripture, in the
sinner, see yourself. And in the faithful one in the
passage, see a picture of Christ. See a picture of Christ. When
you read the scripture and you see a sinner, who are you in
that passage? The apostles when they read a scripture, or were
the apostles when the Lord said, one of you is going to betray
me. One by one they went around the table saying, Lord is it
I? They knew what they were capable of. They saw themselves as sinners. If you want to get the value
of this book, read this book, seeing yourself, your own self,
as the sinner, in whatever passage you're reading, and see if it's
a man that's faithful, look for how that pictures Christ, because
I guarantee you it pictures Christ. And look for him in his scriptures
and you'll get the most out of it. It's all about him and the
works he does. It's all about him. Now, secondly,
let's see an example of grace. Now this great host, they cried
out, Hosanna, Hosanna. That means save us now, deliver
us now. That's what it means. That's
what it means. They said, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh
in the name of the Lord. Now Psalm 118, why don't you
go there and look, Psalm 118. This is where they are quoting
from and here I want you to read it because I want you to see
this one phrase here and we are going to understand something
about what they intended and what they meant. Psalm 118 verse
25. Here is where they got that from. Save now, I beseech thee O Lord. That's what hosanna means, save
now. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee,
send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We've blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. Now, without a new heart and
without spiritual understanding, that's the majority of these
people that came there laying these palms down. Without a new
heart, without spiritual understanding, the majority only wanted temporal
prosperity. That's all they wanted. They
are under Roman rule right now. It would be like the folks in
Ukraine right now. They want to be delivered from
Russia. Well that's what the Jews wanted.
They wanted to be delivered from Rome, from Romans rule. That's
what they want. And they wanted just a political
deliverance. And they had heard he raised
Lazarus from the grave. Imagine if you thought you could
have a king that could deliver you from a political bondage and also could give you
good health and keep you from dying. But they wanted it right
then, they wanted it now, they wanted prosperity in this life.
So they wanted to take him and make him an earthly king. Make
him their king. And all he had to do was take
his restraining hand off of them. And by leaving his restraining
hand off of him, Our Lord, when He went and He permitted Himself
to be arrested, and He permitted Himself to be brought before
that kangaroo court that He stood before and they are charging
Him, these same folks, just a little while later, within the same
week, are crying out this. In John 19.15 they said, ìAway
with him, away with him, crucify him.î Pilate said, ìShall I crucify
your king? You were just calling him your
king.î They said, ìWe have no king but Caesar.î Why? Because he didnít give them the
prosperity. They didnít see, they said, ìWeíre
not going to get what we want in this life.î Our Lord said, ìMy kingdom is
not of this world.î My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom
were of this world then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from
his. The salvation our Lord came to work out for His people. He
provides temporal things in His life for His people. We don't
have anything but what we receive from the Lord. He provides and
He knows you have need of these things and He shall provide carnal
temporal things for His people. And he's appointed the exact
hour that you're going to die. He knows the time, the place,
the means, everything about it. And you're not going to go, that's
one appointment you're going to keep. You're going to keep
every appointment that he said. And here's the thing about it.
But that's not salvation. Him providing these things in
His life is not our salvation. His people suffer a lot of things
in this world. He said He would bring His people
through the fire. He's going to refine His people
bringing you through the fire. You're going to suffer in this
world a lot if you're a child of God. The psalmist looked at
men who were prospering and said, Lord, your people aren't like
these people. They have no bands in their death.
They live rich and prosperous and then they die the same way
and here we are suffering. Why does He do this? To keep
His people knowing salvation is not in this world. His kingdom
is not of this world. Salvation is not in health and
wealth and prosperity in this life. Christ is salvation. And
the salvation He worked out is to put away the sin of His people
forever and make His people righteous. And when He gives you a new heart,
He makes you behold Him who is eternal life. And the promise
He's promised His people is a new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness, which is all His creation, all made
by Him. So that the things in this life,
if you just decide you don't want him to be the king, when
things go south for you in this life, then you'll prove you never
was his. Because his people are going
to suffer. And they're going to be things that as soon as
they saw that they weren't getting what they wanted, that was it.
And this world is wanting, they want deliverance now. Deliver
me now, right now, whatever it is. That's not how Christ works.
That's not how He works. He'll leave you in the fire a
long time, however long it takes to make you know He is the only
one that will deliver. He's the only one. But here's
where we see the grace of God in this. John confesses that
he and the other disciples, even the apostles, did not know what
these things meant either. I get that. They didn't know
either. They thought too Christ came
to establish an earthly kingdom. We get so quick to call somebody
false because they don't agree with us just exactly on doctrine
or whatever. Look at verse 16. These things
understood not his disciples at the first. And brethren, that's
so with most of the things with God's people. We don't understand
at first. Well, if they just had a better
teacher, they walked with Christ Jesus the Lord for three and
a half years. He taught them for three and a half years over
and over, my kingdom's not of this world. He told him, for
three and a half years, I must go to the cross. I must be rejected
of the elders. I must be lifted up like Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. I came to put away
the sin of my people. I must be lifted up. And we're
going to see a little later, they're going to argue about
him not going to the cross. Don't go. Don't go. How did they come to know? How
did they come to understand? When did they understand? Verse
16 says, But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they the things
which were written. Here's grace. There was no difference
in them and this multitude that turned around and cried, Crucify
Him. His apostles are going to deny they know Him and they're
going to leave and depart from Him as well. But He came to them
after He arose, and He opened the Scriptures to them, and He
made them understand, and He taught them. They still didn't
get it. Even after He did it, they saw
Him raised, He sat down, He ate with them to show that He said,
touch me. I got a real body, touch me.
He sat down and ate. And even when He told them now,
He said, now go back to Jerusalem. He was going to pour out the
Holy Spirit and send him to preach. He said, go back to Jerusalem.
After he had told them again, his kingdom is not of this earth,
after he had shown them again, opened the scriptures to them,
they said, Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom now? Slow,
slow to understand. Slow to understand, but you see
the grace of God, you see the long-suffering of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He keeps teaching His people
and teaching His people. When are we going to understand?
It says, after he was glorified, they understood. In everything,
when he first comes to you, God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, shines in your heart to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in Christ's face. He makes you
see Him. who He is, the Son of God, what
He accomplished. He put away the sin of His people.
Where is He now? He's at God's right hand. What's
He doing? He's the King of kings ruling everything. He makes you
hear this miracle of grace that He's worked for His people. And
when He does this, you believe Him. But you don't know everything
all at once. These children running around
here don't know everything at once. You're teaching them little by
little by little and they're growing up. And that's his people. The wisest one in this world
knows about as much as if you took a thimble and dipped it
in the ocean. And he's teaching us, little
by little by little, being gracious to even when we don't believe,
even when we sin, even when we act like we never even knew him.
He just keeps being gracious to His people and teaching us
and growing us and weaning us all along. He takes His child
and He binds His fold into the choice vine. He's the choice
vine. He binds us to the choice vine
inseparably united to Him because He won't let us go. Why? Because He poured out His
blood for a particular people, redeemed us, and He made you
justified, and He's not going to let you go. He's not going
to let you go. They bowed with these palm branches,
crying, Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name
of the Lord. And He brings His child to bow before Him in spirit
and in truth, giving Him all the glory for our eternal salvation. He's King of Kings. He is. He's
the King of Righteousness. He's the King of Peace. He's
working everything that's coming to pass in this world right now.
This man, Christ Jesus, is in glory. He's in glory and He's
working everything that comes to pass in this life. If you
ever get a hold of that or He gets a hold of you with that,
that's going to settle you and give you some comfort knowing
He is working everything for the good of His people because
He promised the Father from eternity He would. and He's going to bring
us to Himself. And when He gives you that new
heart, after He's made you see His glory, He doesn't just show
you His glory one time. He's got a lot of glory. We couldn't
take it all in if He showed us His glory all at once. But He
shows you a little glimpse of Him, and a little glimpse of
Him, and you're growing, and you're learning more and more
about Him. And every time He shows you some of His glory,
after that He showed them His glory, they remember it. How
many times is that? I try to point this out and then
somebody asked me a question and I realized that maybe I didn't
make it clear. Like Mary. Mary came there, we
saw where she poured that ointment out, and I don't know, I mean
she said it to the Lord's feet all the time. She probably did
know more than the other apostles did. She realized he was going
to be buried, but I doubt seriously she understood the fullness of
what she was doing when she poured that ointment out. But after
she did it, the Lord said, she did this to anoint my body for
burial. And that's just how it is. After you've gone through something,
after you've done a good work or you've done a sinful deed
or whatever it is, after you've done it, the Lord comes and teaches
you and makes you know Him in whatever way He's revealing Himself
and you know Him more fully. It's His glory. It's His light. It's Him making you know Him.
And He makes you keep knowing His electing grace, His redeeming
grace, His regenerating grace, His preserving grace, His resurrecting
grace, His glorifying grace, so that beginning and end, we're
learning this thing is really all of grace. It's all of grace. And the best way to find out
it's all of grace is for Him to keep you and teach you and
be merciful and long-suffering to you when you don't deserve
it. That's when you really know this
thing's of grace. This thing is of grace. Undeserved,
unmerited, free favor of God. Now here's a personal word. It says there in verse 12, it
says, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they
went forth, they went to Him. They heard He was coming. Now
let me ask you this. Have we heard the Lord Jesus
is coming to Jerusalem? Have you heard He's coming? He
has come. All the Old Testament saints
were looking forward to Him coming. And He has come. He has come. He accomplished the redemption
of His people. He's come. And right now, He's
coming to Jerusalem. Wherever He's assembled His people
and wherever He's sending His gospel forth, that's Jerusalem. That's His heavenly Jerusalem.
That's His church, His people. There's Jerusalem in glory and
there's His people in the earth and they're all one. But wherever
He is and has established His gospel, as that gospel is going
forth, He's coming to Jerusalem. He's coming forth. Conquering
and to conquer in the hearts of His people. in those that
don't know Him and in those that do. Conquering and to conquer. And He's coming again. He's coming
again. When He comes back, this time
He came lowly, meek and lowly. When He comes back, He's coming
like they thought He was coming the first time. They wanted Him
to come on a big stallion, impressive. Israel couldn't have horses.
Horses were forbidden in Israel. Too much pride and glory and
strength and too much trusting in horses for that. That's why
He came on a donkey. You wouldn't picture a king come
riding into town on a donkey, would you? He don't do things
the way we would do things. The Lord came lowly, meek and
lowly, serving His people, serving the Father to save us from our
sin. Not proud, not high lifted up,
not some mighty general lowly, meek and lowly, but he's the
king. He's the king of kings and lord of lords. That's how
come he came that way. But now when he comes back the
next time, he's coming in judgment. Go out to Him now, go to Him
now just like they did and bow down at His feet and give Him
the glory as the King of salvation now while He's coming meek and
lowly. You can't get to Christ by trying
to go up high. He said He forbid them in the
law if you make an altar you can't put steps on it. I hear
men talking about the steps to salvation, or the steps to be
born again, or the steps to this or that. Our Lord said if you
put steps on that altar, trying to go up by steps, all you're
going to do is discover your nakedness. What's that about? It means it's not of works. It
means it's of Him. Everything from beginning to
end is of Him. But He comes and He reveals Himself
to you and right now while He's meek and lowly and willing to
show Himself and reveal Himself in the hearts of His people,
come down lowly. That's where you're going to
meet Christ is down low. He won't despise the broken and
contrite. He delights in the broken hearted,
the contrite hearted. He does. He does. Let's not be like the Pharisees.
Look at verse 19. The Pharisees therefore said
among themselves, when they saw this, they said, perceive you
how you prevail nothing. They had told some among them,
they said, go find him and arrest him and we need to kill him.
And they said, see how you prevail nothing. Behold, the world has
gone after him. Now let me ask you a question. Were they saying everybody in
the whole world, without exception, in every generation is going
after him? That's not what they meant, was
it? What do they mean? They mean a lot of people. A
lot of people went after him. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
lay down His life for everybody in this world without exception.
When you read the world, it doesn't mean everybody without exception.
There were people in hell when He died. He said, Jacob have
I loved ye, so have I hated. But He did lay down His life
for those He chose in Christ. You know why He declares that
to us? Because we are by nature proud
Pharisees and we have to be humbled in our heart to realize salvation's
not in your hands. Salvation's in His hands. To
give to whomsoever He will give it. He might not give it to you. He don't have to. You ever been
told that by a preacher? He don't have to give you salvation. He's not obligated to save you.
It's called mercy. He saves whom He will. Why tell
a sinner? That's just going to make sinners
angry. Until God reveals it in their heart. And when He reveals
it in their heart, it won't make them mad, it will make them glad. And He will humble you down at
His feet. That was like laying all the
glory down at His feet and giving Him all the praise and the honor
for coming to save and deliver. And when He's made you know Him
for real, you come and bow down to Him and thank Him for saving
you in spite of you. And you realize then, if He hadn't
chosen me, I wouldn't have chosen Him. If he hadn't given me a
heart to know him, I'd have never knew him. I was going after the
God everybody in this world is going after. The poor little
pitiful God that can't save you unless you let him. Do you want
a lifeguard that can't save you unless you let him? Is that the
kind of lifeguard you want if you're drowning? Do you want
a lifeguard that can't save you unless you give him permission?
I want one of them to come out there and knock me in the head
if they have to and make me quit flailing and get me out of there,
don't you? Well, this is the Lord. He will break your bones. He will break your heart. And
He never stopped breaking them. David was a believer. David sinned.
And God broke his bones. He said, Lord, please heal the
bones that you've broken. But He's going to put us out
of joint so that we can't do anything but flee to Him and
beg Him for mercy to save us. And that's how He saves His people.
See, when they said, blessed be the king, they really didn't
mean he was the king of Israel. They thought they were making
him the lord of their life. No, he's the king of Israel.
The king of his elect Israel, his people. Jew and Gentile. He's been king of them from eternity. He's God ruling over all. He's
been king of them. He was born king. The wise men
came and said, where is he that's born king of the Jews? That doesn't
just mean those people over there in Israel. That means His people,
His elect, Jew and Gentile, true Jews, circumcised in the heart.
He was the King when He came here that day. He was the King
when He was hanging on that cross. He's the King right now in glory.
He's really God. He's really saving His people.
What about my free will? Your will's in bondage to your
nature. Why don't a cow crawl off in the river and swim around
under the river down there and eat other fish? Why don't he
do that? That ain't his nature. And until God gives us a different
nature, a new nature, a willingness to trust him and bow to him,
we're proud and arrogant and we're gonna condemn everybody
but ourselves. He has to break our heart. Break
our heart to bow down to his feet and say, I don't have no
business condemning anybody. Trust him. That's God. That's the King. That's the true
King. That's the true King. All right, brethren, let's be
dismissed. Father, thank you for this word. We pray you bless
it to our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for being sovereign
in salvation, our sovereign king and ruler. Keep us always looking
to you. Lord, we pray you would bind
your fold to the choice vine today and call out one of your
people and keep us inseparably united to you. Lord, we pray
you bless it. Thank you, Lord, for all your
mercies. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.