that were come to the feast.
Remember, there were only three days, three times in the year
that all of Jerusalem, all the males of Jerusalem were to come
up. And this was Passover. It was a time where multitudes
traveled. And here it is. The multitudes
stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. And here He comes. And they take
branches, palm tree branches, signs of peace. prosperity. And they went forth to meet him
and cried, Hosanna! Hosanna, praise be to God. Blessed is the king of Israel
that cometh in the name of the Lord. And when Jesus had found
a young ass, he sat thereon as it is written, Fear not, daughter
of Zion, behold, thy king cometh. sitting on an ass's colt. Now this prophecy that is declared
here in John chapter 12 and verse 15 is from Zechariah chapter
9. If you'll turn back over there,
it reads somewhat a little different, but it is the same in its meaning. Holy Spirit intending both of
these to be Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9, listen. It says,
Greatly rejoice, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee. He is just and having, what? Salvation. Salvation. And how will He come? Lowly and
riding upon an ass. Upon a colt, the foal of an ass. Behold, thy King cometh. Now notice what the King brings
with Him. He brings salvation. How does
He bring it? In humiliation. When that, you all know that
Christmas hymn, How Shall a King Come? How shall a king come? Every child knows the answer,
of course. In a coach of gold with a pure white horse. That's
how man should think that the king would come. That he should
come riding on a pure white horse. In the prime of day, the trumpets
cry and the crowds make way. But that's not how Christ came,
is it? He came riding not a pure white horse, but an ass. A mule, a humiliation. This king came not with pomp
and ceremony, but on a beast, the lowest of beasts, an ass. And for whom did the king come?
He came to bring salvation. He came in humiliation. But for
whom did the king come? He came for the daughters of
Zion. He came for Israel. He came for His elect people. That's who He came for. The Son
of God came to bring salvation to His people. And who else is
this King but Jesus Christ, who hath both recently in our text
declared His deity? He said, I and the Father are
one. He meant that He is one in power,
one in purpose, one in will with the Father. This is the will
of the Father, that He should save all that the Father gave
Him. This is the will of the Son,
that all that the Father had given me should what? Come to
me. This is the will of the Father
and the Son. And the power of the Father and
the Son are one. The power is that the Son should
keep them. He says, My sheep know My voice,
and I know them, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man do what? Pluck them out of My hand. That's
talking about His own power. He said, My power is, no one
will pluck them out of My hand. And He said, My Father which
gave them Me is greater than all, and no man will pluck them
out of His hand. Do you not see that He's talking
about they both have equal power? He's displaying His deity, His
kingship. He is God, manifest in the flesh. And he manifest this, he not
only spoke it, he manifested it. By raising that man Lazarus
from the dead, so that all would see. Came to save his people from
their sins. Isn't that his name? Jesus. Isn't
that why that's his name? The angel came to Mary and said,
you should call His name Jesus. Why? He shall save His people
from their sin. This is not a matter of chance.
It's not left to anything. It is a matter of decree and
sovereignty. Majesty. Jesus is the King. And He says, as the King, listen
to the words of your King. Fear not. Rejoice so you can't do both
at the same time and you can't you can't rejoice and then be
afraid at the same time you rejoice and Don't be afraid don't be
afraid and rejoice Believer in Christ I Know this because I
myself am a believer in Christ and know by my own experience.
You're always in trouble If you don't have any trouble
you invent it and Invented I wasn't having any
problem this morning. I was then I've got worried because
it didn't have any problem. I Had to invent a problem I'm
always feeling in trouble. I'm always in distress. We're
always persecuted We're always impressed in by something either
by the affliction of the flesh or the affliction of sin by the
world or Satan It's always coming and it never stopped it rolls
over us daily We're very much, the Holy Spirit
made us see this, Satan made me see this, but we are very
much like the dove that was sent forth out of the ark. The scripture
says he found no rest for the sole of his foot. Found no rest. Found no resting place. I'm going to give you such great
wisdom. I want you to listen, because
this is the most practical wisdom
that you can ever hope to achieve. This world has no resting place
for you. Stop looking for it. Wouldn't you serve your soul
well to stop looking to the next big thing? Because that's what
you think's gonna find rest. Oh, look at this, look at this
coming. When I get blank, then I will be happy. Lies, lies, lies. For the believer, that is a lie. This world, as our brother sang
Wednesday, this world is not our home. It's not our home. The raven, on the other hand,
was very content with this world. He found a lot of rotten corpses
to eat. And that's what you are if you're lost and you love this
world. You'll find a lot of rotted corpses to eat. You know what?
When you're finished with one, you got to move on to another.
When that next big thing happens, then you got to move on. You
got to go on to the next rotten thing until it's destroyed, until
you've eaten it, and then you got to move on to the next rotten
thing. Not so for us who are in Christ. Not so. God's people only find rest for
our souls in the ark. That's where the dove found rest.
That's where we find rest, in Christ. That's it. That's our
only rest in this world. Not in the flesh, not in the
law, but in the hearing of the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace, by hearing the message of our King, by hearing the message
of our Christ, which is what? Fear not! That's the message.
There's the king's message. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. The message of the king, therefore,
is to be preached. That's why the king has sent
forth his ambassadors to preach to you the message of the king. Fear not, you daughters of Zion.
Thy king cometh. No, rather, thy king has come. Thy king has come. And what has
he brought? He's brought salvation. He brought
salvation. How did he bring it? Lowly. He became a man so that he might
live and die for you as a man. As a man. Now see this message,
which is the only message of the gospel. And that's what I
want to preach to you this morning. I want to declare to you the
message of the King, the message of the sovereign God, the message,
the only message that saves, that God uses to save sinners.
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a message of free, sovereign
mercy. This is the message of the King.
And all who love this message, All who love the message of the
gospel. Every time this message is cast
out by the Spirit of God, it's like gasoline on the flame of
love in your heart. It ignites your love for Christ
every time. But if you are lost, listen,
this message, it's like gas on the fire of your hatred, and
it just inflames you. You hate it. That's what happened
here, isn't it? He declared His deity, and you
know what? Some people loved him. And the same message incited
hatred of others. Same message. Same message. And the message is Jesus is God. That's the message. Christ is
God. This one who rides upon the lowly
ass in humility is God manifest in the flesh, the only mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now behold, in
this passage here, in verse 9 through, we just saw it, verse 9 through
16 here, we see Jesus riding and is what is called the triumphant
entry. In declaring this message of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must first of all declare this, that Jesus Christ, in His deity,
that He is one with the Father, one in power and will and purpose,
that He came to save all that the Father had given Him. And
Jesus comes into Jerusalem, having declared this deity, and some
adore Him and others despise Him. And Jesus, proving His deity
by the miracle, He shut men up to this. Jesus, by His declaration
and manifestation of His deity, He shut all of his accusers'
mouths. There was nothing else for them
to object. There's no way they could object to this. They couldn't object to his relationship
to the Father. They couldn't object to his work. So it is with all intellectual
faith. A man may be shown ever so plainly
the truth of the gospel so that he cannot deny it, and yet the
God's salvation by the free grace of God only will enrage his heart. It will only enrage it. Isn't
that what happened to these men? What did they desire to do after
He displayed it and manifested His deity? They wanted to kill
Him. They wanted to kill Him. And that's the day I declare
this gospel to you. Listen. I'm going to declare
it. Pray for me, because I want to
declare it in such a way that none of you can deny this. I want it to be so plain that
none of you can deny what I'm going to tell you. Because it's
God's Word. It's undeniable. But if God does not give you
such faith to believe it, you'll only grow in your hatred of it. You'll only grow in your hatred
of it. This is because of man's need of salvation. That's my
first point, man's need. Man's need of salvation. The
natural man hates the gospel of Jesus Christ and despises
His free grace because he is absolutely and utterly depraved
and dead in sins. This is why men deny the deity
and holiness and righteousness of the King, Jesus Christ, is
because man is absolutely depraved. In Genesis 6, in verse 5, God
says that the very thoughts of the imagination of the hearts
of man are evil. How often? Continually. Only
continually evil. The heart of man is dead to all
spiritual things. Okay? Again, I don't want you
to take my word. Never want you to take my word
just because you know me or anything else. Go to Romans 3. Romans
3. It is a very clear word of explanation
here concerning man's need, concerning man's depravity. The apostle having dealt with
both Jew and Gentile, and all men in the world are without
excuse, knowing there's a God, but they don't know who He is.
Those who have the law and those who have not the law, God says
this about them, about all of us. As it is written, there is
none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. This text clearly rules out then
all hopes of man by nature of knowing or seeking God. Did you
get that? Did you hear what God said? There's
nobody seeking God. No one by nature seeks God. And
I don't care how vehemently they hate to hear that. They can jump
up and down and say, yes, I am seeking God. How dare you? No,
you're not. God said you're not. That just
settles everything for me. God said you're not. The only way you'll ever seek
Him is if He finds you and gives you life. You're dead. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. No man is seeking God. No man
is able to merit God's favor. No man is able to obtain God's
holy standard of righteousness or satisfy God's holy law. No
man, no man, no man. Ever. In the history of Adam's
race, not one man, not one man of Adam's sinful race, of his
seed, ever satisfied God's justice
or sought God. Paul said in Ephesians 2 and
verse 1, of us, who are believers, you were dead in trespasses and
sins. You know, the only people who
know that they were dead are those who were made alive. That's
the only people that know it. Everybody else thinks they're
alive. Everybody else thinks everything's okay. Except those
of us who know we were dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
By nature, haters of God. Listen to me, if you're not a
believer in Jesus Christ and you're not born again in the
Spirit, you are a hater of God. You can put on as many robes
as you want. You can put on as many crosses in your hand and
bow down as many times you want to to any altar you want to.
You hate God. You hate God. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity. It's hatred against God. And
the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. Listen, and
indeed cannot be subject. I'm gonna put on my teacher's
hat here. Teach you a little grammar. Can. No man can. That has to do with ability,
doesn't it? Ability. No man will and no man
can be subject to the law of God. The carnal mind, because it's
depraved, it's dead. God says in Isaiah 64 that we
are all as an unclean, leprous person, full of sin. And He says
this about our best deeds, our best righteousness. He said all
our righteousnesses are as menstrual clothes, bloody rags. Worthless and vile that's our
best deeds Jesus said in John 6 and verse 44 about a man's
ability He said no man can come unto me. I say come to Christ,
but I know this no man can No man can Why he's dead you
can't come because you're dead and You won't come because you
hate Him and you can't come because you're dead. No man can come to God. Why?
Because he's spiritually unable and spiritually unwilling to
believe on Christ alone. Do you not see then why the King
has come? The King has come because there's
a need. There's a need. Because man's need is great. Man's need of salvation. If Christ
had not come, listen, no man would have any hope at all. Now then, because the King has
come, I want to ask this question, for whom did He come? Our text,
He says this, Fear not, who? Daughter of Zion. Daughter of
Zion. We do declare and manifest plainly
that God has, before the world began, unconditionally, by His
own free will and sovereign grace, chosen a people here called the
Daughter of Zion. These are the children of the
King. These are the elect of God. Paul calls the gospel he preached
in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 7, the wisdom of God in a mystery,
in a mystery, which God ordained before the world began. And he
says, we've received this gospel, the mystery of the gospel, not
by the wisdom of the world, Not by the Spirit of the world. How
then do we know this mystery? How do we know what God did in
the annals of eternity? How do we know we weren't there?
How do we know? Because the Spirit of God who
was there revealed them to us, showed them to us. What Paul
says in that chapter in 1 Corinthians 2. He showed us the mystery of
His will. which surely in his free grace
he chose a people." Surely we didn't learn this mystery by
a freewill works religion. There's no mystery in that religion.
You know that? There's no mystery at all about
that. That's just carnal. It's just natural for a man to
believe such garbage. But we know the mystery of God's
sovereign election by the Spirit of God who has revealed this
to us, that we might know the things that are, listen, freely
given unto us. Freely. Freely given. without a cause or merit, without
actions of the flesh or decisions of the will, but those things
which God before the world began freely gave His own people in
Christ. These are the mysteries of God
that we know. We know these mysteries because
the Spirit has revealed them. When these things, such as salvation,
eternal life, justification, sanctification, wisdom, redemption,
when were these things given to us? When were they freely
given to us? They were freely given to us
from eternity. Blessed, Paul said, be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us, chosen us, chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy without blame before
Him In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by the King, Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ unto Himself. Why did He do such things? According
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Wherein He, God, hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. In Christ. In Christ. This is the message of the King.
That God has from eternity chosen a people, unconditionally chose
them, gave them all spiritual blessings in Christ, purpose
that Christ should come and be their King. and that He purposed
Christ should come and bring them, what? Salvation. That's
what He purposed. This is the unconditional election
of God the Father. Listen, how dishonest is Arminian
theology? How dishonest is it? Listen,
consider how dishonest this is. When they say election, they
think, well, God looked down the portals of time, saw what
you would do, then chose you based on what you would do, and
then God demands the glory for it. How dishonest is that? How
dishonest would that be, that God would demand the glory of
something that you did? That's dishonest. The whole system
of theology is dishonest. It's a lie. No, that's not how it happened. That's not true, it's a lie,
and it robs God of His glory. Therefore, all who are saved
by God are saved and called to life and faith according to the
purpose and will of God, which He says in 2 Timothy 1, verse
9, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This grace was given us not,
as he says in Titus, not according to our works, not according to
our works, but according to his own, what? Purpose and grace. Grace. That's why he does it.
According to his grace. We are bound to give thanks to
God for you always, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath been chosen you before the foundation of the world.
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Our God chose us. So this is
the message of the King, that all men have a great need, they're
depraved, and here's the solution. God has from the beginning chosen
people to save. Unconditionally. Without merit. And thirdly, we declare the message
of the King is this, that Christ Atonement or salvation for though
was only for those people you hear this Christ came to save
only the elect No one else It's what we call limited atonement
Limited atonement Now this by no means is saying that Christ's
atonement is limited in power. No means do I mean Christ's atonement
is limited in power. Armenians believe Christ's blood
and atonement is limited in power. That's why they say, well, you've
got to add to it. You've got to add your will and decision
to His atonement in order to make it work. That's saying Christ's
atonement is limited in power. That's not what we're saying.
No. Christ's atonement was limited in its scope, in its design.
God purposed to save a people by Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ
came into the world to save those people. See, it's only limited
by His determination. His will, you not see that? His will determines the scope. It's by design. One man told, said this, if Christ's
purpose to save 10 billion worlds, His blood would have more than
enough power to save them. But we know this, that Christ
did not determine to save all men without exception, because
there is a hell. Let's see this in Isaiah chapter
53. Just gonna show you a couple
things out of this. Show you his limited atonement. What is meant by limited atonement
is not limited in power, but rather in design and scope. And
even before Christ came, the Father showed us this. In Isaiah
53, it says, Who hath believed our report, to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed? I don't know. Who is it revealed
to? For the Lord shall grow up before him as a tender plant,
as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form or comeliness,
that when we shall see him, there shall be no beauty in him, we
should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Can you
suppose anybody would deny that was not purposed of God that
Christ should come in and be under humiliation? Nobody denies
that. That was a purpose of God. But
why did He come this way? Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded." For who?
Our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes
we are healed. Who is this our and we? Well, it's all who believe his
report. But who are they? Look over in verse... 10. I'm sorry, verse 8. And he was
taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off. He was killed. He was cut off
out of the land of the living for the transgression of who? My people was He stricken. You not see the limitation of
the scope there? Who is it for He was stricken for? My people.
My people. It says, He shall see who? His
seed. His children. That's who He died
for. He shall see of the trail of
his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify who? Many. Many. Do you not see the scope here,
how it's limited? It's limited by God's people.
It's limited by the seed. It's limited by many, not everyone. Christ did not come to die for
everyone. He came to die for His people. This is the will of the Father
which hath sent me. No one denies Jesus came to do
the will of the Father, did he? Came to do the will of God. Did
he do the will of God? Oh yes, of course he did the
will of God. What is the will of God? John 6. This is the will
of him that sent me, that of all he hath given me. I should lose how many? Nothing! But raise them up again at the
last day. And this is the will of him that sent me. If all he
hath given me, all he hath given me shall what? Come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ came
for a specific people, a peculiar people. He came for the elect,
and He came to accomplish their redemption. He came to die for
their sins. And behold, on the cross Jesus
did not make sin pardonable, but He actually accomplished
redemption. Do you not see this is the message
of a king? Not an effeminate man, but a
victorious king. One who has come to do the will
of God. One who has done the will of
God. One who has ascended into heaven, having accomplished redemption
for His people. Victorious! Victorious! He's victorious in His work. He's glorious in His majesty. majestic sweetness sits enthroned
upon the Savior's brow. Why? Because He's finished the
work! He's done the work! He's accomplished
salvation! And now he sits upon the throne
of God doing his own will. And what is his will? It is the
same as it always has been. To save his people from their
sins. That's what he's doing. It's
what he's moving all things for. Don't be discouraged by anything
you see. It is moving toward God's people being saved. That's what he's doing. I don't
care who gets in the White House. Don't really matter or amount
to a hill of beans. What matters is that my king
sits upon the throne of God and has accomplished all my salvation. Accomplished it. Jesus did not
pray for the whole world. He said, I pray not for the world. I pray not for the world. but
for those you have given me out of the world. Thine they were,
and thou gavest them me. In other words, you gave me the
full responsibility of saving them and I have fully accomplished
that responsibility. I've done it. I've done it. This
is why they're laying palm trees in this. They had no idea really
what they were doing. They were laying palm trees,
shouting, Hosanna! Hosanna, the king has come! The
king has come! They didn't know what they were
singing. Jesus said, you know what? If I made them be quiet,
the rocks would cry out. He can even make dumb rocks cry
out, Hosanna. The King has come because he
accomplished redemption. That's what limited atonement
is. It's that Jesus Christ actually accomplished this. And the fourth
thing is that we declare and manifest this, the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit to call every elect sinner. Every elect
person was born depraved and dead. They had no idea of the
covenant of God's mercy and grace for them. They had no interest
in it. They never would have come. You could beg. You could
plead. You could kick and spit at them.
They still wouldn't come. They would not come until God
came to them. And when God comes to them, it
is an irresistible call from death to life. It is not a question. It's not an offer. It's a command. And that command
comes so sweetly to the ears of the dead, and they, when they
come to life, they are drawn by the irresistible power of
God the Holy Spirit. Now, I know this. Listen, I know some men are under
conviction for a long time. I've seen it. I've seen men dwell
on sin for long periods. They mourn over their sin. They're
confused. They don't understand. For years
and years, the Spirit of God is moving over them, convicting
of them of their sin. Conviction of sin is not salvation.
I want you to understand that. You may feel as guilty as hell,
but I'll tell you that that's not salvation. Salvation is when the Spirit
of God comes and opens your eyes to see Christ is all. You know, this comes so quickly, in an
instant. Conviction may be a long time,
but I tell you this, salvation is instant. The moment the Spirit
of God gives you faith and you believe, it's been done before
you even knew what happened. That's it. You're under conviction,
under conviction, all of a sudden you look up to leave. What just
happened? God saves you. That's how it
works. That's how he does it. He does
it without you. He doesn't need you to help. He does it. Who has he done it? Who does he do it for? Whoever
he wills. You see who has all the power? The king. And he gives it to whomsoever
he wills. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
You can hear it. Listen, every one of you hear
what I'm talking. You hear me speaking. It blows where it lists,
but you can hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where
it's coming and where it's going. You don't even know if it'll ever
come to you. It may not. That shuts people's mouths to
think, well, one day I'll, if he don't come to you, you never
will. I suggest you beg him to come
to you. And lastly, we believe this,
the message of the king, that everyone the king calls most
surely will be glorified. The Apostle Peter writes in his
word to the elect, according to the foreknowledge of God,
those of us who were sanctified by the Spirit to obedience, which
is faith in Christ and sprinkling of the blood of Christ, he says
this, you are kept. By the power of God. How did
you come to faith in Christ? By the power of God. How shall
you continue in faith in Christ? By the power of God. How shall
you be kept to the end? By the power of God. Do you not
see who has all the power? You see who has no power? You
have none. He has every bit of it. You have
none. Glory be to God. All praise and glory and honor
be to the King forever and ever. For Thou art worthy to receive
praise and honor and glory and majesty and dominion and power
forever and ever is the praise of His people. That's a message of a King. Our King. victorious, my king, triumphant over all
my sins. And now he garrisons me in his
arms, and nothing will take me away from him. Not even my stupidity and ignorance
and sin. Why? My salvation has come by
way of my king. It's a decree. It's a work he accomplished. And he gives it. I don't know if He'll give it
to you. All I know is this, you should
come. You should believe on the Son
of God and be saved. And if you are, you'll know what
I'm talking about. You'll understand these things. and you'll worship with me." And looking to him, you will not be afraid of anything. What do you got to fear? If thy
king reigneth. If your king reigns, what have
you to fear? My hope is that every one of
you are His elect. But it's not mine to give. It's
His. I pray He give it to you so that you can rejoice in this
message of the King. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.