All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19, we'll be looking
at verses 29 to 40 this evening. I'll go to verse 28 to 40. Thought
I told you wrong, didn't I? 28. It says, and when he had
thus spoken, he went before ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass when he had
come nigh to Bethphe and Bethany at the mount which is the mount
called the Mount of Olives. He sent two of his disciples
saying, go you into the village over against you in which at
your entering you shall find a colt tied. Whereon yet never
a man sat. Loose him and bring him hither. And if any man ask, why do you
loose it? Thus you shall say unto him,
because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went
their way, and found even as he had said unto them. And as
they were loosing the coat, the owners thereof said unto them,
why loose ye the coat? And they said, the Lord hath
need of him. And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their
garments upon the coat, And they sat Jesus thereon. 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 his mighty works that they had seen, saying,
Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace,
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 these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out. The title of this message, Salvation
of an Ass. salvation of an ass. Now, before
this, our Lord had put down the notion of an earthly kingdom
by that parable of the servants and their master. The servants
were given those talents, remember? And our Lord put down by this
parable the notion of his earthly kingdom in verse 13, when he
said that they should occupy until he come. that they should be his faithful
servants until he returned. Jesus has for us accomplished
all our righteousness, all our atonement for our sins, and now
he has given to each of his saints the gospel, which is represented
by the pound. And every faithful servant that
has received the gospel of Christ by faith, the gospel is made
effectual to our hearts We have been given the gift of the Holy
Spirit. We have the imputed and imparted
new nature given to us, spiritual life. And our Savior encourages
us by this promise that everyone that hath, it shall be given. We that have the gospel, we that
have salvation, by that parable he tells us, he that hath shall
be given more. What does this mean? It means
that we shall increase. Every believer shall increase
in faith, in love, in joy, in peace, in meekness, in all these
spiritual, these gifts of the Holy Spirit. As he hath planted the seed in
our hearts. The gospel says this. Remember
the parable of the sower? He said some a hundredfold, some
30, some 60, but all increase. All increase. Every one of God's
people grow in grace and knowledge. And notice the words then that
come at verse 28. And when he had thus spoken,
he went before ascending up to Jerusalem. Now you that have
received this, you that believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, how
is it that you were made to differ from that unfaithful servant?
There were two that were faithful in that parable, but one of them
was not. What made the difference? What
made the difference? How is it that you have been
given the same gospel, you heard the same gospel, You heard the same message as
others, and yet this word was made effectual to you. How is
it that you grow and desire to grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ? How is it that you love the word
of God and others, they bury it? Like that servant, he took
that talent that he had and he put it in the earth. How is it that we believe on
Jesus Christ as all our righteousness and see no righteousness in ourselves? How can you see that? While others
see much righteousness in themselves. They see a lot of merit in themselves
and you don't. How is it that others are duped? to trust a God that is dependent
upon their will and their works while you trust and believe in
the living and true God. What made the difference? Here's
the reason for all our salvation, for all our faith and practice.
Jesus went before ascending to Jerusalem. Consider in your heart that before the world was made,
Christ was made your surety. Who went before who? Christ went
before you. Before there was anything made,
Christ went before. He went before to be your surety. All the elect of God were in
union with him. as He covenanted to be our Savior,
our Redeemer, and our King. Scripture declares Him to be
as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He was set up to be our Savior. If you read that in Proverbs
chapter 8, I think I got 22 and 23, He said this about Himself.
He says, I was with Him before He did anything. Before there
was any work, I was with him. I was his son. And then it says
in verse 23, I was set up. You know what that means? I was set up to be the Christ.
He went before in that he was purposed to be the Christ, to
be our king. He was purposed to be king. Isn't
that what they said when he came in the world, when those when
those wise men came, what they say? They said, where is he that
is born king? Most kings have to be made king.
He wasn't made king when he was born. He was born king. He went
before us. He was before us. He is our king.
It says of the son, not thrown. Oh, God is forever and ever.
The scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom. even as it was ordained and written
by the prophets in the word. Even so, Jesus Christ was to
ascend up to Jerusalem. Why was he ascending? He went
before us in this. He was our savior. He was our
redeemer. He was our surety. But now he
is ascending to Jerusalem to do what? To save us. He was going to save us. In Hebrews, we read that, it
says, Hebrews chapter 10, I'm gonna
misquote it. Hebrews chapter 10, lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. Though in the volume of the book
it is written of me to do thy will. Then he said, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ, Jesus Christ, once
for all. What was he doing ascending to
Jerusalem? He was doing the will of God, which was to sanctify
us, which was to redeem us. How? By his death, by his suffering. I don't know about you, but I
run from suffering. Isn't that true? I run from it. Matter of fact, I think I suffer
more trying to avoid suffering than if I just faced it. I think
I think I prolong it. But our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he was headed toward Jerusalem, noticed this. He did not flinch. He did not flinch. So faithful
was Christ that Isaiah the prophet declared his determination. In
Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 5, listen to what it says. It says,
the Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. Jesus Christ confesses that he
is the bond slave. Remember, that's the illustration
here, that bond slave. He, at that moment when his freedom
was up, he could have gone himself out and left his wife and his
children there with his, as slaves. But no, if he loved his wife
and children and his master, he was to bore through his ear
with an awl. And what Christ is saying, I
have borne through mine ear with an awe to become a bondservant
to God. Why? I love my master. I love God. I love the Father. And I love my wife and my children. What is that? His elect. He's
confessing his love. That he became a servant. Therefore
he gave his back to the smiters, verse 6. I gave my back to the
smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked out mine hair. I
hid not my face from shame and spitting. Behold, Jesus came to do was
to bear our guilt. Consider him. He came and set
his face to Jerusalem. He ascended to Jerusalem for
this purpose, to bear our guilt. And he turned not his face from
it. He turned not away from the cross,
the suffering to suffer the just for the unjust so that he might
bring us to God. And yet, before it took place,
notice his faith and zeal to accomplish it. For the Lord,
God will help me. He trusted God in ascending up
to Jerusalem. Therefore I will not be confounded. You know what that word means?
Blush. I will not blush. I will not
be, I will not be ashamed. I will not be confused. How shameful and confused is
the God of this religious age? Have you thought about that?
The God of this religious age is often confused. The God of
free will works religion is so confused he doesn't understand
why men won't come to it. The false antichrist who died
for all men and not for anyone in particular. He just died for
everybody. He's confused as to why he's
an absolute failure. Listen to what one of their teachers
said. This guy finally understood his own religion. He said, hell
is a result of the failure of the triune God to save the multitudes. Because God Almighty himself
could not save them. He did all he can do and he failed. That's a man that understands
Armenian religion right there. This is utter blasphemy, this
matter of universal atonement. Jesus went before to Jerusalem,
and listen, He did not fail. He was not confounded. He said,
I will not be confounded. I will not blush. I will not
be ashamed. You know, you're only ashamed
when you fail. He said, I'm not going to be
ashamed. So as we read of him going up to Jerusalem, he was
going up to suffer, he was going up to die, he was going up to
save his people. And he said, the Lord God will
help me and I will not be confounded. Therefore, have I set my face
like a flint. You know what that is? Steel. He
would not be deterred. from his work. He would not be
moved from it. You realize, you remember how
the Pharisees, they said, hey, we can't kill him. We can't kill
him on this time. We have to wait. You know when
they killed him? They killed him exactly the time
the Lord purposed. They killed him exactly as he
determined. He set his face like a rock and no doubt that he would
suffer, no doubt as to what he would accomplish in his sufferings.
He said this, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. I know
I will not fail nor be discouraged. And so to reveal to us then his
great confidence and assurance, we have before us what God had
purposed even that he should, how he should ride into Jerusalem. Go back to your text. You see
Christ? He ascended up. This is the reason
why we are saved. This is the reason why we have
hope. It's because he ascended up before
us into Jerusalem. But notice how he was to ascend. It was a very specific way. And
it came to pass, verse 29 in our text, and it came to pass
when he was not at Bethphath, Bethany, at the mount which is
called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples saying,
go into the village over against you, in which you shall enter
and you shall find a colt whereon yet never a man sat loose him
and bring him hither. Our Lord had determined to ride
into Jerusalem on the colt, the foal of an ass. Now, This is
what is termed the triumphant entry. The triumphant entry. The account of this entry into
Jerusalem, it should be considered and highly
esteemed by the saints of God. You know why? This is one of
very few things that all four Gospels record. All four Gospels record this
entry into Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit does something
once, we pay attention. When He does it four times, we
should really pay attention. We should really pay attention.
Now one of the reasons that the Holy Spirit surely does this
was to prove, to prove that Jesus is the Christ. I confess that many times I had
come to this passage of scripture and I passed over it because
it is simply a fact of his of his being Christ. It is. It is a historical fact and fulfillment
and of scripture. It's undisputable. Look at the
text, one of the texts that this verse fulfills. If you go to
Zechariah chapter nine, Zechariah chapter nine, and look at verse
nine. The scripture says, 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 can see by this scripture
that this proves, this is one of the proofs that Jesus is the
Christ. And when I say he's the Christ,
you understand this, that to be the Christ, You must fulfill
all prophecies of scripture. All the prophecies of the Christ
must be fulfilled. Think about this. He must be
born of a virgin. Was Jesus born of a virgin? Yes. It's a historical proof that
he is the Christ. He must be of the seed of David.
Is he the seed of David? He must be born in Bethlehem. He must obey the law of God without
sin. Isaiah said he shall magnify
the law and make it honorable. He must declare the word of God. Remember, he is to be that prophet. Moses said there, Lord shall
raise up a prophet like unto me, hear him. And listen, He must save His
people from their sins. If Jesus is the Christ and He
failed to do that, He's not the Christ. If He fails to save His
people, He's not the Christ. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And here we
read this, He must ascend into Jerusalem riding upon an ass. That's simple, isn't it? And
so then here we see the fulfillment of that. And as he rides, listen,
not only this, the people must sing. He said, Rejoice, O daughter
of Jerusalem. In that text, he says, Rejoice,
O daughter of Jerusalem. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. And what happens in this triumphant
entry? They all shout. And when the
Pharisees tell him, hey, you need to tell him to stop saying
that, he said, look, if these people are quiet, the stones
themselves would shout. So our Lord rides, and as they
must ride, so must the people sing. And truly, this was fulfilled,
wasn't it? This was fulfilled, this scripture
that day. But why should we stop there? Now, it's true that we
should not always super-spiritualize the scripture. Some people do
this, they have opinions and thoughts, and then they just
super-spiritualize it. But as we see, Jesus did miracles. Why did he do miracles? Now,
again, his miracles are a fulfillment of scripture, aren't they? The
blind received their sight. That's what he told John when
John sent his disciples over. Remember he said the blind received
their sight. The prisoners are set free. This
was all prophesied that he would heal. And so that is proof of
his being Christ. But it also by these things he
did what? He preached the gospel to us.
When he healed a blind man, what was he doing? He was preaching
the gospel. We were blind. And he gave us
sight. When he raised Lazarus from the
dead, it's this gospel message. We were dead in sins and Jesus
Christ raised us from the dead. It's a gospel message. And even so here we may see the
meaning of this fulfillment of scripture is just another gospel
message. It's another gospel message. Look back again at that prophecy.
Look back at Zechariah chapter nine with me. Let's look at this
for a minute. He says the daughter of Zion
rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, thy king cometh unto me. The daughter of Zion is who? It is the church, isn't it? It
is the elect. And we are rejoicing because
our king has come. Our king cometh. Our king, our
savior, who has come to do what? He said, behold, our king cometh. He is just and having salvation. We rejoice because our king has
come to save us. He has come to save us. How has
he come to save us? Lowly. and riding upon an ass,
upon a colt, the foal of an ass. You remember that song, How Should
a King Come? How should a king come? Even
a child knows, of course, in a coach of gold on a pure white
horse. That's how a king should come.
That's how we, that's how the, that's how the Jews thought Christ
would come. They thought he would come with pomp and circumstance
that he would come in royalty and regal. But that's not what
the text says is that's not what prophecy testifies. He's going
to come not high, but lowly, not riding on a pure white horse,
but on an ass. An ass. Our king. He came in meekness
and lowliness of heart to do the will of God, which was to
accomplish our righteousness and by His death redeem us. That's
what He came to do. And by His lowly coming, He should
destroy sin, death, and hell by the blood of His covenant.
Look at this. He will cut off the chariot of
Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut
off. And he shall speak peace to the
heathen and his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from river
even to the end of the earth. What is he coming to do? He's
coming to do away with war. He's coming to put the bow down.
He's coming to make peace. With who? God. You and I were
at war with God. We were at enmity with God. And
he made peace by the blood of his cross. As for thee, by the
blood of thy covenant, I have set forth thy prisoners out of
the pit wherein there is no water." See, he came to destroy death
and hell. How? By meek and lowly riding
upon this ass. to save his people. And so we
have this picture before us. Now go back to your text again.
Look at this picture. I want you to see four things
about this picture. Look, I want you to see the ass.
The ass in the picture, who's that? Who do you suppose that
is? That's me. I'm the ass. I want you to see
the ass is cold. Look at verse 30. He said, go
in the village over against you in which you're entering, you
shall find a colt tie, whereon yet never a man sat loose him
and bring him hither. And if any man ask you why you
loose him, thus you shall say to him, because the Lord hath
need of him. The Lord told his two disciples,
go over there to this certain place at a certain time, they're
going to find this ass tied up. This wild ass is a picture of
man by nature. It's a picture of us by nature.
The scripture testifies to this. Matter of fact, it's in Job 11,
verse 12. It says this, for vain man would
be wise, though man be born like a wild
ass is coked. A man by nature desires to be
wise in his own eyes. He desires earthly wisdom and
vain philosophy, religious superstition. But how does he act when the
plain and simple gospel is preached to him? He acts like a jackass. Man will be civil and decent
and respectable and tolerant. I hear that word a lot, tolerance.
Man is so tolerant. Except what? When the gospel
is preached. When the gospel is preached, his true nature
comes out and he kicks and bites and spits Just like an ass. When the gospel of man's depravity
is preached, how do men act? How do men act? When God says
this, that man is spiritually dead, dumb, blind, and lame,
and by no means can save himself, what does men do? Listen to this,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are altogether become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. What is the nature of man say
to that? Well, that's not true. They begin to kick at that. Well,
surely there's somebody that understands. Surely there's somebody
that that seeks God. No, not one. Not one. You preach of God's unconditional
election, that God, before the world began, chose a people,
loved some, that He put some men in Christ,
that He should save only those that the Father gave Him. And
what do men do with this? I don't like that. Why? Because
you're an ass. Because we're that way by nature.
We kick at the very simple things of the gospel. The apostle tells
us that according as he had chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy without blame before
him in love, having predestined us on the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. Now, what do they do with that?
Well, that's not what it means. Ass. You're just doing what's by nature. You're kick at it. We preach
the doctrine of limited atonement. That Christ shed his blood and
obtained righteousness only for those the Father gave him. Isn't
this exactly what he said in John chapter 17? He said as thou
has given him power of all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as thou has given him. As the high priest, he said,
I pray not for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. And yet when men hear that, what
do they do? I don't like that. Why? Because you're an ass. Because
that's your nature. We preach the doctrine of irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit's going to come
of everyone that Father chose and everyone Christ redeemed.
The Spirit of God will come to them through the means of preaching
the gospel, and they're going to hear it, and they're going
to believe it, and none of them's going to be lost. John chapter 6, you know this
well. He said, I came down from heaven. Verse. Verse 38, he said,
I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. No, I'm sorry. Verse verse. Oh. Verse 37, the one above it, he
said, all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Why? For I came down
from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. And this is the father's will, which has sent me. that
of all he had given me, I should lose nothing but raise it up
again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the sun and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. This is the effectual work of
the spirit that everyone given to Christ are going to come to
him, and he said, I'm not going to lose one of them. And what
does man say? That's not what that means. Why? Because you're an ass. You
just kick at it. We preach the gospel of the perseverance
and preservation of the saints that everyone Christ died for
will never perish. They will all come to repentance,
and they will continue in faith until the end. Jesus tells us
plainly, they should, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and
they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. So we preach to this lost religious world
and see how they kick. And if any man hate the sovereign
God as he describes himself, he does what we all did by nature. Now when I'm talking about these
asses, you know exactly who I'm talking about. I'm talking about
you. Because we kicked. We despised the things of God.
There was no difference between us and them. You see where there's
no pride here for us. There's no pride available. Why? Because we were all by nature
the same. All by nature the same. You know
what, every believer, when I say this, that this ass represents you,
I know this, you say amen. That's right. That's my nature. I, by nature, am a wild ass that's
cold. We, by nature, would not bear
the yoke of God to rule over us. We snuffed our nose at God
and said in our heart, I will not, I will not have this man
to rule over me. I will do all my pleasure. I'll
worship my own God. I'll have my own way. And I'll
enjoy my sin. Why? Because that's who we are
by nature. The second thing is this. Only wild asses are redeemed. You get this? Only wild ass cults
are redeemed. This ass our Lord fetches in
order to fulfill scripture. This wild ass upon which no man
had ever ridden was one that had already been redeemed. How do I know he was redeemed?
Because he was alive. Go to Exodus. Go to Exodus chapter
34. Look at this. Amazing what God's Word, how
it connects. Exodus chapter 34 and verse 20.
Hope I got that text right. Look at this. But the first sling
of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb. And if thou redeem him not, thou
shalt break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons
thou shalt redeem, and none shall appear before me empty. This ask our Lord will call and
use for his service was before redeemed by the offering of a
lamb. Behold the certainty of this
picture. Thousands of years before the
birth of this earth, God purposed and chose it that Christ had
sat on it. He even made that law so that
an ass is an unclean animal. You realize that, right? It was
an unclean animal to the to the Jews. And the only reason that
the asses were allowed in Jerusalem was because God permitted it
in his law, a way that the ass could stay. Consider all his ancestors were
being kept. So that this one ass right here,
that's the one that God chose that Christ should ride on. And that ass was redeemed. Redeemed by land. He purposed
it. Before the birth of the ass,
God purposed and chose it that Christ is sat upon it. And in
the law, he made provisions for it to save his life. and seeing
it was an unclean animal. And in time, the owner of this
ass offered a lamb to redeem it. Even so it is with all the
elect asses of God. Behold, before the world began,
God in love purposed to save you, an ass. who by nature were sinners, who
by nature were unclean and unrighteous, as this wild ass is called. And
before we were called of Christ, before we were broken by the
Holy Spirit, we were redeemed by what? A lamb. A lamb. Behold the love and grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself to God and bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. Therefore, when he had made his
soul an offering for sin. The justice of God for us was
forever satisfied. That's why he said in that in
that text in in. In Exodus, he noticed that you're
still there. I was not moving my scripture.
Notice this, he says, all the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt
redeem and none shall appear before me empty. He made his soul an offering
for sin to redeem his sons. You look at that text and you
wonder why is the ass and the sons mentioned in the same text? Why? Because they're both the
same. We were by nature asses. But by the election of grace,
we were sons. He redeemed his sons so that
we should not appear before God empty. You know, when we go to
God, we are not empty. Christ has fulfilled all the
righteousness that we need in order to be accepted. His offering. We go to God empty of our own
righteousness, but full of his. We go to God empty of an offering
of ourselves, but we bring his offering. I know this. Every ass that is
not redeemed. Will be killed. That's just so. Is there any
difference between you and the ass out there? What made the
difference? You were redeemed. You were redeemed. The third thing is the wild ass
fetched. Behold the mercy of Christ then
to fetch the wild ass. Jesus sends two of his disciples
to fetch this colt, this unbroken stubborn mule, which is his people. And see now how God saves his
people as he sends forth his preachers of the gospel. That's
what these two disciples picture in this text. They're preachers
of the gospel. Paul said, I am not sent to baptize
but to preach the gospel. Why? Because this is how God
saves sinners. He saves sinners by what men
call foolish, preaching. And so we see then the necessity
of preaching the gospel. Not because of men, but because
God ordained it. This is why we do it. I preach
to you by the authority of Christ that he has come to set asses
free. To loosen, to loosen. Man by nature being a wild ass.
But notice this, this ass, when they get to him, what do they
find? Look at this. He said, look in verse The first 30 go you to the village
over against you in which you are entering. You shall find
a colt tied when they get to the cold. What do they find?
They find this, that he is tied. He is tied down so that he cannot
get free. I like this over in Mark's gospel,
it says this is that the cold that the ass was tied where two
ways meet. Two ways meet. You got two ways. Two ways set before the ash.
Life and death. You know what? He has no power
to save himself from either one of them. He can't go to any one
of them. Why? He's tied. He's tied. By nature, wild asses, we've
run wild. God would never catch us if it
were up to us. But consider that God tied all
providence together to make sure that you were going to be in
the right place at the right time. Isn't that how you heard the
gospel? All providence moved against your will and the will
of everybody else. God moved all providence, tied
you up so that you should be found of Him. God says, Behold, I set before
you life and death, heaven and hell. Believe on Christ and live. Believe not and you shall be
damned. And yet you can't go either way unless what? Somebody
loose you. Like, I think of Lazarus. I mean,
I can't help but think of that. Remember what he did? And he
said, Lazarus, come forth. And remember, he's all bound
up like a mummy. They wrapped him up. I don't even know how
he got out. His feet were tied. He couldn't
walk. I think he floated out myself.
I think it was a miracle. He came out at all. What a picture
of me. It was a miracle. I came out
at all. And he said, what? Lucid and let him go. Lucid and
let him go. unless someone loses. Praise
God, He tied us so that we could not go our own way, which was
to hell. But for all He saves, He binds
us so that we cannot be lost. Sinner, I say this, come to Christ
now. By what authority do I say this
to sinners? Our Lord hath needed them. See then the desires of such,
the Lord desires such to serve him. The Lord hath need of his
people because he promised to save them for his own namesake. And notice the disciples do not
ask the ass for anything. They didn't go to the ass and
say, will you come with me? Pretty please? If you will, Christ
wants to sit on you. He said they have to talk to
the owner. Who owned you? God did. The law. You were tied to the
law, weren't you? By what means should I let this
sinner go? The Lord Jesus hath need of you. And immediately that man let
him go. What happens about the law when Christ says come? You
say, oh, but I'm a sinner. I cannot come. When Christ commands you to come,
the law will release you. Why? He's paid the debt. He's
paid the debt. And take comfort that our Lord
knows exactly where his coats are to be found and where they
are tied. And at the appropriate time he
will lose them. And bring them what? To himself.
To himself. And so the fourth thing is Christ's
triumphant ride. His triumphant ride. Now the
Aston is brought to him, verse 35. And they brought him to Jesus
and they cast their garments on the coat. And they sat Jesus
thereon. I want you to get the miracle of
this. This was a wild ass that no man had ever sat on. And when
our Lord Jesus sat on him, he did not look. I'm sure I've told you this story
before, but some people may not heard it when I was a young kid,
I was at my grandma's and she had a donkey. And I thought it
was a horse. I thought it was a horse. I said,
Grandma, can I ride it? And she said, well, sure. My
grandma wasn't a nice grandma. She was kind of mean. She liked to see people kind
of, she's going to get a chuckle out of this. So sure enough,
she gives my grandpa, throw me up on top of that donkey. And
as sure as I get on it, bam, that thing took off. And it did
everything in its power to get me off its back. Matter of fact,
it ran right along the barbed wire fence. I had to lift my
leg up. It was cutting itself to get
me off. Why, it's the nature of it. It's
the nature of a wild animal. But the moment Jesus sat on this
one, it was broken. You see the picture? I was a wild ass. Could not be tamed. Christ redeemed me before I knew
it. He tied me up until the day he
came for me. The moment his spirit sat upon
me, I was broken. broken. I was made to bow down
to the will of Jesus Christ. This is the story of every child
of God and the grace of God that we preach. And notice what every child of
God does when he's broken. Look back at your text. I'm sorry, they spread their
clothes on him. What is this? This is his righteousness, isn't
it? Isn't that what he clothed us with? His righteousness. He
redeemed us by his blood. He clothed us in his righteousness.
And when he was come nigh unto 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 which they had seen,
saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. What is one to do that has been
broken? He gives glory to Jesus Christ. Another text, it says, Hosanna,
Hosanna. You know what that means? Oh,
save. Isn't this what we ask Him? Oh,
save. Oh, save our people from their
sins. Why? Because He's the key. Is
He key? He is to you that are broken.
He's key. I'm so thankful for this picture.
I'm so thankful that the Lord had determined to ride in on
the colt, the fold of an ass. Why? That picture's us. That
picture's us. We're the ass. Praise God we
were a chosen ass. Praise God we were a redeemed
ass. I'm so thankful that he tied us up until the moment he
came and received us and brought us to Christ. And then he sat
on us and we were broken. And then those that are broken,
they sing praise to him. Isn't this a wonderful picture? Been there for centuries. I'm
so thankful for it. I hope God will bless you and
comfort you with it. Let's go to him in prayer and
be dismissed. Father, I pray you dismiss us with your blessing
and mercy. Thank you that you've called
us. Thank you for giving us the grace and knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Thank you for the faith that
you've given us. Oh, Father, be merciful to us. or father
that you would even now call wild assets to yourself. Oh, that you'd sit upon the heart
of the lost, that they should be broken. They should rejoice in Christ
alone. We ask you to do this for your
own glory. In Christ's name, amen.