And what we have here in these
verses is what is known as the Lord's triumphant entry into
Jerusalem. The Lord's triumphant entry into
Jerusalem. And the Scripture says, And when
He had thus spoken, He went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he
was come nigh unto Bethphiah and Bethany, at the mount that
is called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
saying, Go into the village over against you, in the which, at
your entering, you shall find a colt tied, whereon never a
man sat. Loose him, and bring him thither. And if any man ask you, Why do
you loose him? Thus shall you 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 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,
and they 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. 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. Now, I've entitled this
message, A Wild Ass Broken. A Wild Ass Broken. This cult
that we are going to read of here is the same that was mentioned
in the Old Testament prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus that
He should come riding a colt, the foal, of an ass. Now, after our Lord had put down
the notion that the kingdom of God would immediately come by
the parable that he had spoken before of the nobleman and his
servants, which was to reveal the true and faithful believers
in Jesus Christ. The true and faithful servants
of Jesus Christ are all given this command, Occupy till I come. Jesus has for us accomplished
all our righteousness. all our atonement for sins, and
now He has given to each one of His servants the pound. Like
He says in the previous parable, He said He gave to His servants
the pound. What was that? I preached that
this last Sunday. The pound is the gospel. The
gospel of Jesus Christ is the pound. And every faithful servant
that receives the gospel of Christ That gospel is made effectual
to the heart of everyone who hears and believes. That gospel
is made effectual to the heart. And Jesus finishes His parable
by saying this, that unto everyone that hath shall be given. You who believe on Christ, this
is a promise to you. Listen. This is a promise to
you. You that hath. You that have
that seed of the gospel planted in your heart. He that hath shall
be given. shall be given." Given what?
Increase. Increase. This is a promise to
us that we who are believers in Christ will grow in the grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as that seed, do
you remember the parable of the seed? When it was cast and it
landed on good ground, Jesus said some produced a hundred,
some sixty, and some thirty. But I tell you, all who receive
the gospel produce. Produce what? The graces of the
Spirit. Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance. Aren't these the things we want
to grow in? Well, we have a promise that if we have these things,
He'll give these things more to us. And now then that he's finished
that parable, he comes and he says, after he had spoken, look
at your text in verse 20, after he had spoken this, notice this,
he went before ascending up into Jerusalem. He went before ascending
up to Jerusalem. Jesus had told His disciples
this is where they were going. He was going to Jerusalem to
suffer. And He went before them. Believer
in Christ, how is it that you are a faithful servant? How is
it that you are made to differ from the unfaithful? How is it that you are made to
differ, seeing we are both given the same gospel? Message, the
same sound goes out of my mouth to your ears as it does to the
lost. And how is it that you shall
increase? How is it that you shall hear?
By the effectual grace of God. That's how. How is it that you've been given
to the same gospel and you hear? This message is effectual to
you and not to another. How is it that you desire to
grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and other men have
no interest in the things of God? How is it that we believe on
Christ as all our righteousness and see none in ourselves? Do
you suppose that was by chance or because you're so educated?
No. No. This is why Jesus went before. Jesus went before us. This is the reason for our salvation. All our faith and practice is
that Jesus went before ascending into Jerusalem. Consider this
in your heart for a minute. Consider that before the world
began, Christ was before all of this, your surety. Christ
was before all of creation, your surety, your guarantee of salvation. In Proverbs, in Proverbs chapter
8 and verse 22, Proverbs 8, 22, Jesus speaking by the voice of
wisdom says, The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever, the world was. Set up to do what? What was Christ
set up to be? He was set up before to be our
Savior. Our Savior. All of His elect were in union
with Him who covenanted to be our Redeemer, our King. He was
as a lamb slain when? Before the foundation of the
world. He was purposed to be our Savior,
our King. For it is written, Unto the Son
thy throne, O God, is forever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Christ went before us. He went
before all things from eternity to be our representative, our
surety, and our King. Our King. He was purposed to be our King
from eternity. And even as it was ordained and
written by the prophets in the Word of God, even so now in this
time in the Lord Jesus' life, even so now does He set His face
towards Jerusalem. He sets His face towards Jerusalem
knowing that He is to go and accomplish our redemption by
His suffering. When you and I suffer, we don't like to. We don't like
to suffer. And I'll tell you, we go out
of our way to avoid suffering, don't we? We go out of our way. I tell you, we go... I know this
to be true, it's a fact. I'm sure we suffer more by trying
to avoid suffering than if we would just endure whatever the
suffering is. We prolong it, usually. We just try to avoid
it for a little while, and then we just suffer more in the end.
But notice this, that Jesus, when He was setting His mind
here in this passage, when He was ascending before to Jerusalem,
they knew where He was going, and He was not going to be deterred
from His course. He did not flinch at His suffering. So faithful was the Lord Jesus
Christ that Isaiah prophesied this 700 years before. Look in Isaiah. Look at this
prophecy concerning this time that the Lord Jesus was ascending
to Jerusalem. Isaiah chapter 50. And look at verse 5. The prophet speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he said, hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back." What is he saying? Jesus is here confessing
through by the prophet that he is God's servant, God's bondservant. You remember the bondservant
when he was to be set free. If he loved his master, loved
his wife and his children, He would have His ear bore through
with an awl, a spike. He would put His ear to the post,
and His Master would bore a hole with a spike in His ear. That's what He says here. When
He opened mine ear, I was not rebellious. In other words, He
was God's servant on purpose. He was God's servant on purpose.
He loved His Master. He loved His Father. He loved
His wife, which was His church. He loved His children, which
were His sheep. And He said, I became a servant
on purpose. Christ came into the world on
purpose to be the servant of God. He continues, "...I gave
my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off
the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting." Behold, what the Lord Jesus came to do was to
bear our sins and guilt, to bear our shame on the cross and to
suffer the just. for the unjust. You see that? He gave His back to the smiters. It's not that the smiters took
Him. It's not that they took Him unwillingly. He willingly gave His back to
the smiters because He would come and save us from our sins. And yet before this took place,
notice his faith and zeal. In verse 7 he says, "...for the
Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded."
Confounded. This word confounded means shameful. When Christ set His face to go
to Jerusalem, when Christ ascended before to Jerusalem to suffer
and to die, He said, I will not fail. That's what He was saying. I will not fail in my mission. I will not fail in my work. So
this word means to be shamed or confounded or confused. See,
Christ was not confused as to what He was doing. Christ knew
what He was doing. He was ascending before us to
suffer in our stead. He knew what He was doing. I
tell you, the God of free will works religion. Isn't He confused? The God of this world is awfully
confused. He just doesn't know why men
don't choose Him. The God of this religious world
He is confused as to why men will not allow Him to save them.
The false antichrist who died for all men but saved no one
particularly is confused because he is an absolute failure. Listen to what one of the false
freewill works professors, this is one of the professors at their
seminary said, He said hell is the result of the failure of
the triune God to save the multitudes that are there. Sinners go to hell because God
Almighty Himself could not save them. He did all He could. He failed. Friends, this is the God of this
modern age. This is the God, the blasphemous
God of universal atonement. Jesus went before to Jerusalem
not to fail, not to be confounded, but He went in confidence of
His complete and absolute success to save all those that the Father
gave Him. Therefore, behold, Jesus ascends
to Jerusalem. And in Isaiah 50, He says, I
have set my face like a flint. And I know I know that I shall not be ashamed. This is what Christ did when
He went before them to Jerusalem. He did it. He would not be ashamed. Christ said, I will not fail
nor be discouraged. And so to reveal this to us.
Is that not a comfort to you? You who are in Christ, you who
are His faithful servants who have the Word of God given to
you, He's promised you will grow in the grace and knowledge of
Christ. And how do I know that? Because He ascended before unto
Jerusalem. He ascended in that He was before
all things, chose us in Christ, God chose us in Christ before
all things, and now Christ has come. He's come and He set His
face to Jerusalem and nothing would deter Him, nothing would
cause Him to fail in His mission to save you. He would not be
discouraged. And now to show us, go back to
your text. Now then, the Lord is going to
show us something in a type, in a picture here. He reveals
this to us, His great confidence and assurance of His success Behold how God before purpose,
that He should ride into Jerusalem, reveals this. In verses 29 down
through verse 40, we have what is known as the triumphant entry
of Christ into Jerusalem. The triumphant entry. The account
of His entry should be considered and highly esteemed by the saints
of God, because the Holy Spirit has for us recorded in all four
Gospels this account. Now, God the Holy Spirit is not
trying to fill space in His book. When I was in college, I remember
trying to fill space. I remember trying to fluff. You
ever had a paper that you fluffed up? You know, you had to write
so many pages and you fluffed. The Spirit of God is not fluffing
His book. He mentions this entry into Jerusalem
in all four Gospels. And He does this for a particular
reason. I think we should pay close attention
to it. I think we should learn something. The Holy Spirit has
it mentioned four different times for our learning. And what are
we to learn from this? This triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Well, first of all, we can learn
the facts. This is a fact. That Jesus Christ,
it was prophesied before how He should come into Jerusalem. Now I confess, now I've got to
confess this, that every time I've looked at this entry, I've
only looked at it as a factual event. I've only looked at it
as a factual event. A fulfillment of prophecy concerning
Christ. And that's true. It is a fulfillment. Go over to Zechariah chapter
9. You can see the fulfillment here of this prophecy. It's Zechariah
chapter 9. Chapter 9 and verse 9. The Scripture
says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Now who is that talking to? When
you read that Old Testament prophecy, we automatically see when it's
talking about Jerusalem, is that not talking about spiritual Israel?
That's talking about us. You and me. This is talking about
God's people. Rejoice! Why should we rejoice? Behold, thy King cometh. Thy King cometh. He is just and
having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, upon the colt, the
foal of an ass. So I'm sure that most believers
see these fulfillments of Scripture, see this as a fact. And we see
this as when Jesus rides in on the colt, the fall of an ass.
It's a fulfillment of Scripture. It's a proof. How do you know
that Jesus is the Christ? How can you tell? Jesus of Nazareth,
we confess to be God manifest in the flesh. We confess Him
to be the Christ. What does that mean? That means
that Christ must fulfill all Scripture. If Jesus is the Christ,
He must fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies. Consider this, He
must be born of a virgin. If He is Christ, He must be of
the seed of David. He must be born in Bethlehem.
He must obey the law of God to perfection. He must declare the
Word of God. He must save His people from
their sins. And He must ride into Jerusalem
on the colt, the fold of an ass. He must! Because the Scripture
must be fulfilled. It must be. And as He rides,
the people must sing praises. They must sing praises because
it is a fulfillment of Scripture. And what happened in our text?
Isn't that exactly what happened? It's exactly what happened. But
let me ask you this. Why should we stop there as seeing
this only as a fact, as a proof of His being the Christ? Now, it's true that we must not
spiritualize every Scripture to fulfill our own motives, our
own thoughts. We must not spiritualize Scripture.
In other words, don't have a thought and then try to make the Scripture
fit your thought. The Scripture must be interpreted
by Scripture. Spiritual things must be interpreted
by spiritual. But as we see Jesus, when He
did miracles, let me ask you why He did miracles. Did He do
it just to prove His power? No. He did it to give us a picture
of how it is that God saves sinners. God saves sinners. He didn't
do it just for the purpose of carnal healing. but to show how
God saves sinners. And even so, in our text, this
triumphant entry is a picture of how God has saved His people. How God saves His people. Now, as I see in this Old Testament
Scripture, we can see the spiritual meaning of this passage. O daughter
of Jerusalem, who is that? That's us. Behold, thy King cometh. We know that this is to be Christ.
Thy King cometh, as He was promised to come. And what was He come to do? He
was come to bring salvation. He was to be lowly. Meek and
lowly was to be a man. This is the Scripture, riding
on an ass. Isn't this, you know that song,
How Should a King Come? How should a king come, even
a child understands, of course, in a coach of gold on a pure
white horse? Is that how our Savior came?
That's not how our king was to come. Our king was to come lowly,
riding on the colt, the foal of an ass. Why? To accomplish
our righteousness and obedience by His, righteousness by His
obedience and death on the cross. And by His coming, lowly coming,
He should destroy death and hell. Look at that, at what it says
in the prophecy. He said, I will cut off the chariot
from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow
shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen,
and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from river to
the ends of the earth. As for thee also, by the blood
of the covenant I have set forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein is no water. This is a picture of what God
is going to do in salvation. It's not only a picture of what
Christ was going to do physically, but it's also a picture of what
Christ would do spiritually. Now, if the Old Testament prophecy
we see is a picture of salvation, how much more is the New Testament
realization a picture of how God saves sinners? First of all,
notice this. I want you to notice first the
ass. The ass. Jesus tells His disciples, go
into a village over against you, and when you're entering in,
you'll find a colt tied. colt tied, wherein never a man
sat, loose him, and bring him thither. The Lord told two of
his disciples to go to a certain place at a certain time, and
they would find a certain colt tied, a wild ass's colt, that
never a man had sat on. This was not a thoroughbred,
This was not a Kentucky Derby favorite. No, this was just a
plain, ordinary ass. And he was wild. He was unbroken. He was unbroken. This wild ass is a picture of
you and me by nature. I'll show you this in scripture
just so that I know that I didn't spiritualize this all by myself.
Go ahead and go to Job. Look over in Job chapter 11. Job chapter 11. In verse 12. Look at verse 11. We'll look
at verse 11 as well. For he knoweth vain man, He seeth wickedness
also, he will not then consider it. For vain man would be wise,
though man be born like a wild ass's colt." Man, by nature,
desires to be wise in his own eyes. He desires earthly wisdom,
vain philosophy, religious superstition. And I'll tell you what, he seems
civil when you bring these things to his mind, but you preach the
gospel to the natural man, and I tell you, his true colors will
come out, he will be as wild as an ass is cold. Man by nature, man by nature
is civil, man by nature is decent and respectable and tolerant,
except when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. When the gospel of Christ is
preached, man by nature begins to kick and bite and buck at
God's word like a dumb, stubborn ass. Preach the gospel of man's
depravity and see what happens. Tell men that God declares that
all men are spiritually dead, blind, dumb, lame, and by no
means or works or will of their own can save themselves. Tell
men that and see if they will not kick like an ass. All men
are born of Adam's race, are unable and unwilling to come
to God, and they will not come because they cannot come. And
they cannot come unless God draws them. Tell them that and see
what happens. Man by nature hates this. Tell man of unconditional
election. Tell man that God before the
world began chose some of Adam's race and not all. Tell them that
God declared that He has chosen some unto salvation. Loved some
men. And put some men in Christ to
save. And see what happens when the
natural man hears that. He begins to kick like a stubborn
mule. Tell men of God's limited atonement. Tell them of how Jesus Christ
came into the world to save His people from their sins, to save
all those that God gave Him, and not all men without exception,
and see if men don't kick like a wild ass is cold against it.
Tell men of irresistible grace how the Holy Spirit comes to
each chosen sinner, each redeemed son of God, and calls them with
an effectual call, and they that are called will come. The Scripture
says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Tell
them of irresistible grace and see if man won't kick. Tell of
the perseverance of the saints, the preservation of the saints,
that not one of God's people will be lost. Tell them. Preach
the gospel to them that all that Christ died for shall be called,
and everyone that is called shall believe, and everyone that believes
are kept by the Spirit of God until the end. Tell them and
see what happens to the natural man. See if he'll be decent to
you. See if he'll be kind to you when you tell him the gospel.
No! The natural man hates these things. And I'll tell you, if
you hate these things, it's because you're a dumbass. That's just
so. Preach this gospel to the lost
religious world and see them begin to kick and bite and devour. If any man hate the sovereign
God of the Scriptures, he does so because he does not know Him. And see now then this, every
one of you that are believers in Christ, what do we say to
this? We say Amen. We say of a truth, by nature,
I am nothing more than a stubborn ass. We say by nature, we say amen
to this. That this is a picture of us.
That we by nature would not bear the yoke of God. We by nature
snuffed our noses at God. We said in our hearts, I will
not have this man to rule over me. We said in our hearts, I
will do all my pleasure. I will worship my own God. I'll
have my own way. And I'll do my own sin. We were wild asses, Colt. But praise God for this. Jesus sent his disciples to fetch
the wild ass. He sent his disciples to fetch
the wild ass. He said, you two disciples go
over to this place and you'll find a wild ass and you loose
him. You loose him. Jesus sent his
two disciples to fetch this colt, this unbroken, stubborn, useless
mule. I don't know if you've ever,
maybe I'm just assuming here, because I don't want to assume
anything, maybe you don't know what an ass is, maybe you don't
know what a donkey is, but I tell you, I rode one for about ten
seconds They do not, if they've never
been broken, I tell you what, they're a useless animal. They're
a useless animal. They won't do anything you ask
them to do. They won't be led around. They
won't be ridden. They won't do anything. So Jesus,
when He sent His disciples out, He said, You go find this most
useless ass, and he's going to be tied up in this certain place,
and you loose him. See now how God saves His people. He sends
first His men to preach the gospel. He sends his men to preach the
gospel. Paul said, I came not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. Why? Because it's the means that
God has chosen. It is by the foolishness of preaching
God came to save his people. The necessity of preaching. This
is the means that God has chosen. And I preach to you by the authority
of Christ as Christ sent to loose that ass. Even so, He has sent
me to preach the gospel to wild asses, Colts, to loose you and
to bring you to Christ. To bring you to Him. Man by nature is the wild ass. But notice this, that everyone
Christ sends to fetch these wild asses, they're not running around.
This ass is tied. Tied. And isn't that so when
the gospel preacher came to you? Weren't you the wild ass tied?
Tied to your sin. Tied to your sins. Oh man, how
he tries to kick and yet he's tied to sins and lust and how
he tries to fulfill those pleasures and yet can't. Don't you imagine
that old wild ass as cold was kicking and bucking when they
found him wanting to be loosed. That's how we were. We were kicking
and bucking and trying to satisfy our lust and we couldn't. We
couldn't. In Mark's gospel, it says this,
that the wild ass would be tied near a path of two ways. Isn't that where the Lord found
us? Tied to a path of two ways. Now, if we had our way, it would
have been the way of hell. We would have took off running
madly like everyone else to hell. But praise God that He tied us. We were tied. Couldn't go the
way we wanted to. wouldn't go the other way. Behold, I set before you even
tonight life and death, heaven and hell. Believe on Christ and
live. He that believeth not shall be
damned. I set before you two ways, and
I tell you, you can't go either way. You can't go either way. Not until you hear the message
of God's grace and mercy in Christ. Not unless someone is sent to
loose you. And by what authority do I have
to give you freedom to loose you? The scripture says the Lord
hath need. He said if a man asks you why
you should loose him, you tell him the Lord hath need of him. Isn't that something? The Lord
hath need of the most useless animal in the world. Man. God has purpose to save the wild
ass's cult. Therefore, He sends His men to
preach freedom. Freedom from sin. Freedom from
hell. Freedom from death. And what
do we do? How is it that the wild ass is
brought to life? They bring him to Christ. I'm not going to tame a wild
ass. I'm not here to tame you. I'm
not here to whip you, and I'm not here to make you do right
and obey the law. I'm here to just bring you to
Christ. That's it. I'm here to bring
you to Christ. I point you to Christ every time. And I tell you, all that the
Lord has chosen will come. Now then, third, Christ's triumphant
ride. This wild ass is brought to Christ
And look at this in verse 35, And they brought him to Jesus.
They cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus
thereon. Behold what happens when Jesus
sits on the colt that no man could tame. No man sat on this
colt. No man broke this colt but one,
Jesus Christ. Friends, this is a miracle in
and of itself. That when Jesus Christ sat on
that unbroken ass, it did not buck, it did not kick, it did
exactly what the Lord commanded it to do. And is that not the
way Christ came to us? He conquered us. Behold, the King cometh lowly,
sitting on the fold of an ass, riding that untamed ass all the
way into Jerusalem. And believer, when Jesus Christ
came into our hearts, He conquered our souls immediately. He gave us a new heart, a new
life, and we believed on Him. This is the story of every child
of God. We were wild asses. We were tied
to our sins. God sent His men to preach the
gospel and they brought us to Christ and Christ conquered our
souls. And I tell you, He will ride
us all the way into Jerusalem, into glory. How? Triumphantly. triumphantly. And what then is the song of
every conquered soul? Verse 38, Blessed be the King
that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory
in the highest. This is our song, isn't it? This
is the song of every broken, wild ass. Jesus Christ is King. He is my Savior and my Lord. And what could stop us from praising
His name? Nothing. Nothing. Jesus said, if these were to
hold their peace, the stones would cry out. I tell you, that
not one of Christ's sheep shall ever stumble or fall on their
way to glory. God will hold them. God will hold you. God will steer
you. God will guide you in every way
you go unto glory. He's broken us. And I am so glad
to be broken. Aren't you glad to be broken?
I'm free from all my sins. I'm free from all my guilt. Because
Christ went before to Jerusalem. Christ conquered me. And He will save me. He will
save you. May God bless this to your hearts.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.