Back to Matthew 21. Now, we won't
have service this Thursday, midweek service, you know that. Because
Friday, we'll start our Bible conference. And Joe Terrell will
be the first speaker. We're only gonna have one speaker
on Friday, two on Saturday morning, starting at 10. Friday's at 7.30,
and then Saturday, No, Saturday, we'll start at
10. Then Sunday, 11. No Bible class Sunday morning. We'll start at 11. And then Saturday,
after the service on Saturday, we'll go over to the Johnny and
Rhonda's and have a cookout. All right. Matthew 21. The title
of the message Who is this person, Jesus Christ? There's been so much made about
Him over the last 2,000 years. The Bible makes everything about
Him, from Genesis to Revelation. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. If someone said, this is a hymn
book, it's all about Him. that we might know Him. The Lord is now coming into Jerusalem. As He said to His disciples three
different times, we must go to Jerusalem. I must suffer, die,
and rise again. So they go to Jerusalem. The
hour of all hours has come. Remember that in John
17? Father, the hour has come. The
hour for which all other hours exist. It's here. He says, It's come. It's upon
Him. This is His last week before
He dies. Our Lord never lost sight of
why He came into this world. He never lost sight of His mission
to redeem sinners. He said, I came to save that
which was lost. and he never lost sight of it. He came to
do his father's will and he never lost sight of his father's will. He kept it in front of him. Now
he came riding into the city as it was foretold in Zechariah
9. Came riding into the city on
a donkey. How humble and meek and lowly
was and is the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't come into town with
a lot of pomp and display. He came into town riding on a
donkey. Very humble way. This shows his humility. If we want an example of humility,
we look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am meek and lowly
of heart. Now, the verses 1 through 3,
we see the Lord's knowledge of all things. You notice that? When they drew
nigh to Jerusalem and they would come to Bethphagia and to the
Mount of Olives, He sent two disciples saying to them, go
to the village that's against you, that's nearest you, and
here's what's going to happen. You're going to find a donkey
tied up with this coat, and you're going to get them.
The first ones you come to, you're going to get them. They're going
to be there waiting on you. And if anyone says anything to you,
you tell them the Lord has need of them. I'm gonna borrow them.
I'm gonna borrow them. And when they went, when they
did what they were told, they found that donkey in his coat,
tied just as he said. What are we seeing here? We're
not only seeing a man, we're seeing God. God. He tells them where to go, what's
going to happen. And He says, if anyone says anything
to you... Now if you go over Mark and Luke and read that,
some people say anything. They say something. The owners
say, what are you doing? They say, what are you doing? And
they say, the Lord hath need of him. And you know what they
did? They sent him. They sent him. This knowledge, this what we
call foreknowledge, someone says, should have a sanctifying effect
on our walk. Thou God seest me at all times. Never out of His presence. We're
never out of His sight at any given time. Never. He knows all things. He sees
all things. He's ordained all things. He's
purposed all things. That donkey was purposed to be
there for that situation to fulfill that scripture. We see our Lord's
power over all things. When the owner said, What are
you doing? They said, The Lord has needed
it. And they said, Okay, take it. This is His power over all. The power over their hearts to
do the will of God. And the will of God was for Him
to come into town riding on that donkey We see in verses 4 and 5 the
purpose in this. He says that, "...so the Scripture,"
in verse 4, "...and this was done, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, saying, Tell you the daughter
of Zion, behold, thy king cometh unto thee." Let me read that
to you. I marked it here out of Zechariah because this is
where he's quoting from. He's fulfilling the Scriptures,
and this is important. I thought about this statement
I'm going to make when I was going back over this. Everything
our Lord did was in fulfilling the will of God, the word of
God. I mean, he fulfilled it to the jot and tittle. If he
had not come into town, if he had said, well, let's just walk
on into town, If he had not came into town according to this Scripture,
we wouldn't be saved. Now you say, that doesn't make
sense. That just seems so trivial. No,
because I'll tell you why. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
fulfill the Word of God. He kept every commandment. His keeping, the Word of God,
His keeping every commandment is our righteousness. It's our
righteousness. He gave attention to every detail
right down to the jot and tittle. He did what you and I cannot
do. He kept God's commandments. He
obeyed God perfectly. We can't do that. There's too
much sin in us to do that. I wish we could. I wish we could. But He did. There is one that
did. And His obedience is our righteousness. It's the righteousness of His
people. It's our righteousness. So He came to fulfill the Scriptures. Let me read that to you. I didn't
read it, did I? Over here in Zechariah 9 verse 9, Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He's a just King. And when it says He's just, it
means He is just. He's a righteous King. He's an
honest King. He's a just King. And having
salvation or saving, it says over my margins, saving Himself
by Himself. He's the Savior. He's the Redeemer.
He tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. Alone. He's the Savior. It's not me
and Him saving. It's Him. Salvation is not me
cooperating with Him. It's Him saving me from my sins. That's salvation. He is my salvation. David said, God has become my
salvation. God in human flesh, God incarnate
has become my salvation. Thy king cometh unto thee having
salvation. He's lowly, he's meek, easy to
be entreated. You know any kings that you could
just walk up to and talk to? Do you know any king that you
can lay your burden down in front of at any given time? No. But this one we can. And riding upon an ass upon a
colt of foal of an ass. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And this one was given about
550 years prior to this. And there was no scripture given
left unfulfilled. None. The Jews had so many proofs given
to them that they are left without an excuse. They read that all
the time. They read that scripture in Zechariah
all the time. How he would come into town and
what happened. That's how he came into town.
And they turned thumbs down on him. They rejected him for the
most part. But you know, we have a greater
proof than they had. We have a greater
proof. We have the whole Word of God.
We have God's Word. We have the complete Word of
God in our hands, that Jesus Christ, the King of glory, has
come into this world He's the Savior. He's the Messiah. Jesus
Christ is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He's the one
God appointed and anointed to save. We have God's Word on it. You know, God has honored His
Word, it says in Scripture, above His name. We have God's Word on it. He's
the Messiah. Now, He tells the disciples there
in 6 and 7 to go, and they go. They go. You know why they go? Because
true faith is obedient to the Lord. When the Lord commands,
true faith obeys. It obeys. Now notice his reception. It's a lot different in a few
days than what this reception was
when he came into town. For the most part, the crowd's
going to turn on him. In a little while, that crowd is going to
say, crucify him, crucify him. That's how fickle we are. That's
how fickle. You know, one minute they're
saying, Hosanna! In five more days, they're going
to say, crucify him, crucify him. But here we have his reception. Always before, he would quietly
come into town. There'd be no announcement. come
into town, go to the temple, go to a synagogue, heal sinners,
save sinners, and leave. Preach and then leave. But not this time. See, this
time, it's his time. How many times did he say, my
hour has not yet come? Well, now it has. And he's coming
into town. And it's going to be announced
that Hosanna, the Lord is here. The Lord is here. The Messiah
has come. That's what they mean when they
call Him Son of David. The Messiah has come. And it's only fitting
for the King of glory to receive His due honor and be recognized
as the King before He dies on the cross. Because a little bit later, Pilate
writes on there, this is Jesus, King of the Jews. And they said,
don't put that on there. You put on there, He said that.
Who's saying that right now? The people are saying that. No,
no, he said, no, what I've written, I've written. I mean, the man
for about 10 seconds grew a backbone. He said, what I've written, I've
written. I'm not changing it. This is the King of the Jews. This
is our King. This is our King. You know who
a true Israelite is? Everyone who believes God. Everyone
that believes God. Paul said, we are the circumcision
which have no confidence in the flesh. We rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. Everyone that believes God. This
is our king. We have a king. Now listen, I know we live in a democracy.
But I'm telling you, first and foremost, We have a King, and
we are ruled and reigned over by King Jesus. He is the one
who rules and reigns over every nation on this earth right now,
and nothing is out of His control. To us, it may look like it is.
To us, it may look like chaos. It's orchestrated chaos. He ruling
and reigning over everything, everyone. The heart of the King
is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns
it, whithersoever He will. He's the King. This is Jesus,
the King of the Jews. For a few brief moments, Our
Lord was hailed as King of the Jews. He received the honor that
was due unto His name for a few brief moments. He's receiving
the honor that He so justly deserves and shall receive someday when
this is all over and we give unto Him the honor and glory
that's due unto His name without sin. We will praise Him, worship
Him without sin. Our minds won't be wondering. We won't be thinking about what
we're going to eat lunch. We won't be thinking about those
things. We will actually be focused on Him. And for the first time,
we'll worship God in spirit and in truth without sin. I wish
I could do it now, but I know what's in us. And now this crowd cries, Hosanna,
save Lord, bless Lord. Salvation is yours, it's in your
hands. It's in your hands. Salvation has never been in my
hands. It's in His hands. I'm in His
hands. I'm in His hands. This is the One who saves by
His blood and His righteousness, by His person, by His power.
This is the Savior. He is the One to whom all honor
and blessings belong. They don't belong to me. They
belong to Him. I just need to get over myself
and give unto Him all the glory and honor due unto His name. All honor and blessings belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our King. Our King. I
love my King. I thank God I have such a King
to rule over me. I am. I'm glad. I thank God I
have one who can break the power of sin. One who can break the
power of Satan. No King has ever lived on this
earth that could break those powers. No king has ever been
able to break the power of sin of his subjects. This one can. This one does. He said, Sin will not reign over
you. You're not under the law, you're under the grace of God. And that grace will teach you
to deny ungodliness. This morning we cry once again,
Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord. We love and worship our King and recognize His Lordship." It's not what I will, it's what
He will. That's what He said to His Father,
not my will, but Thy will be done. And that's what we say.
It's not my will, it's Lord Thy will. and I will be done on earth,
in my house, as it is in heaven." In my house, as it is in heaven. And then they say in verse 10,
they say, And when he was coming to Jerusalem, all the city was
moved, saying, Who is this? Who is this man? I wish I could preach. in such
a way that people would say, who is this? Who is this? You remember in
the song of Solomon, they said, what is your beloved more than
the other beloved? She goes, have you seen my beloved?
And they said, what's so special about him? And boy, you know
what she does? She describes him. From head
to toe, she describes her beloved. And I mean, she describes him
perfectly. And she says, He's altogether
loving. There's not a blemish in Him. There's not a blemish
in Him. There's not a blemish in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not a blemish. He's our perfection. Jesus Christ is my perfection
before God. And His presence moved that whole
town. He came into town in such a simple
way, on a donkey, on a coat that had never been ridden before.
This coat had never been ridden before. When they throw their
clothes upon him, what does he do? They put him up on it and
he rides it. Now my experience, I've never
ridden a donkey, but my experience is you get on a horse, a young
horse, it's gonna throw you. It's gonna throw you. He gets
on this one, and it's as obedient as those disciples were that
went to get it. Here's the thought that hit me when I read that. The first Adam was given dominion
over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and the beasts
of the field. And when Adam fell, the beasts became wild. They
weren't tame no more. But the real power and dominion
fell to that second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he got
on that donkey, that coat that had never been ridden before,
it just walked right into town with him on its back. And I tell
you this, our Lord, if He has purposed to conquer you, and
me, he's not gonna have a problem. I'm not a problem for him. I
am not, listen, I am not a challenge to the power of God Almighty.
Now I might have an ego problem and think that I am, but you know, when I was a teenager,
I remember my oldest brother, James, just before he heard the
gospel. They was trying to talk me into making a decision. Well,
I thought I was tough. I was the only one in the family
hanging out. I think everybody else in the family had made one.
I thought I was tough. I thought I was tough. And one
day I heard the gospel, and I realized I'm in his hands to do with as
he wills. And for the first time in my
life, I feared God. It wasn't, he's trying to get
me to accept him and I'm hanging out there, you know, he wants
me. You know how it is, somebody wants you. Somebody really wants
you and you just kind of, well, you like that attention. Then
I found out, no, God is sovereign. He can save me or damn me. And
for the first time, I feared God. Who is this? Who is this? That's what it says over in Psalm
24. Who is this King of glory? Who is this? Well, it's the son
of David. God told David, your son is going
to sit up on the throne. This is royalty. This is true
royalty. This is the Son of God. This
is true royalty. This is the King. This is our
King. Who is this? Our King. Who is
this? This is God. This is the One
who said, Let there be light, and there was light. This is
the One who created all things, for it says in the Scriptures,
all things were created by Him and for Him. This is the owner
of all things. I don't own anything. I pay taxes
on a lot of things, but I don't really own it. God owns it. The
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein,
it's all His. When they put me in the grave,
I guarantee you, a U-Haul won't be following me. It's not going
to follow me. Because it's not mine. It's not
mine, it's His. Who is this? This is that prophet
that Moses said should come. This is the Messiah, the Savior
of sinners. Now, when He came into town,
I want you to notice where He went. In verse 12, He went into
the temple of God and He cleaned house. He cleaned house. Meek and lowly? Let me tell you
something, meekness is not weakness. Now, if you think meekness is
weakness, first of all, Jesus Christ would be the weakest person
ever led, or ever was, or ever is, because he said, I am meek. He is the perfection of meek.
But meekness is not weakness. It's just real humility. But he comes into town and he
goes into the temple and he drives out those money changers. Here's
what was going on, like a flea market almost. In the outer court,
people would come into town and they would sell, they would sell
animals for sacrifices. And they inflated the prices.
I mean, they would just jack the prices, you know, like if
we have a hurricane, they just throw the prices up on wood and
stuff, and gas. You know, here's a chance to
make some money. And that was them, that was religion.
That's religion today. Religion is big business. If
you see somebody begging for money, turn the other way. Because
God will provide. God will put it into the heart
of his people to give and to promote the gospel and do what
needs to be done. We're not going to have this
sell, that sell. We're not going to do that. We're
not going to put this into money changers. It ain't going to happen. Not by the grace of God, it's
not going to happen. I know who we are. But this is what religion, the
Jewish religion at that time, had degenerated into. It became
just about money and business. It's like over in Exodus 12, the Passover is instituted. And
it's called the Lord's Passover. You get over into the Gospels
and it's called the Jewish Passover. It degenerated into the Jewish
Passover instead of the Lord's Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. I know what they meant by that,
but it's the Lord's Passover. But it had degenerated. And the
first order that our Lord took care of was a clean house. But this is also a good picture,
listen. This is a good picture of what happens when the Lord
comes in to save a soul. He's got the clean house. Covetousness
has to go. Our Lord, that's why the scripture
says you must be born again, because He's not going to dwell
in a dirty house. There's got to be a new creation. There should
be a new man created in Christ Jesus, it says under good works,
and it says that that new man is created in righteousness and
true holiness. He's got a clean house. You know, false religion, a religion
established on works and not grace ends up being nothing more
than a business. That's exactly what it turns
into. When it is of works, you got
to do this, you got to do that. If you got to do anything, you
leave grace and it just becomes a business. But where the Lord Jesus Christ
is truly enthroned in the heart, where He's truly enthroned, that
place is where He dwells. He dwells in you. If you believe
the gospel, Christ dwells in you. And that house, that place,
that heart, listen, becomes a place of prayer, communion, communion
with God. communion with God. That's what
salvation is all about, that you and I be made one with God,
that we could have fellowship with God, and that we could have
communion with God. That's what it's about. It's
not about missing one place and going to another. It's about
knowing a person, God. Eternal life, Christ said in
John 17, eternal life is this, to know God and Jesus Christ
whom He has sent. That's eternal life. That's what
that is. We do not gather here to play
games. We're not here to entertain sinners
on their way to hell. We're not here to make money.
We're not here to make money. I know that if you're going to
have things or have a ministry, there's got to be money. The
Lord supplies. He'll supply. If the Lord has a purpose in
doing something, He'll supply the need. I promise you, He'll
supply the need. We are here to worship. We're here to worship and be
taught of God. All thy children shall be taught
of God. We're here to be taught of God. I want to be taught this
morning, don't you? I didn't come over here because
it's Sunday and you pay me to come over here. I'm over here
to preach the gospel and to worship with you, our Father, our Lord,
our God, our Savior. We're here to worship. But notice here in verse 14,
that reminds me of that verse, in wrath, remember mercy. Here
he is angry, angry. This is the Lamb of God. He's
angry, he runs those money changers out of that place. But after
he cleans the house, after he cleans it up, he gets back to
business of saving sinners. Look at verse 14. After he does
this, he says, And the blind and the lame came to him in the
temple, and he healed them. You know, one place it says,
He healed as many as needed healing. All that needed healing, He healed. The Lord's gonna save every lost
sinner, you know that? He's gonna save every lost sinner. You say,
well, everybody's lost. You just find one. You just find
one that's lost. And I'll tell you this, you find
one that's really lost, and I'll show you a sinner that God has
done something for, that God has done a work in. Because not
one person believes they're all that bad unless God shows them
how bad they are in their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. After he cleansed that house,
he healed the lame and the blind.
These are just, He does this to them physically, but this
is just to show us what He does for us spiritually. He gives
us spiritual sight to see God. He gives us spiritual legs. He
gives us spiritual arms. He gives us a spiritual body,
a spiritual mind. He gives us life. That which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. He gives us life from the dead. And then they saw, and I'll close
here, they saw... You know, this is written by
inspiration. When the chief priest and scribes, these are the ones
everybody listened to. These are the ones who would
be standing in the pulpit. These are the ones who was reading
the Scriptures to them. These are the ones who were their
supposed spiritual leaders. I say this to everyone, be careful
who you follow. The blind lead the blind, what
happens? They both end up in the same ditch. Be careful who
you follow. When I stand here and preach,
take the Word of God and check what I'm saying, that it's so. And when the chief priests and
scribes heard the children crying and they saw the wonderful things, you'd think they'd be happy.
Envy will not let you be happy. Envy will not allow you to be
happy unless you're on top. You won't rejoice when your neighbor
is blessed. Envy won't let you do it. When they saw those children
crying in the temple saying, Hosanna to the Son of David,
they were sore displeased. They were just out of sorts.
They were just mad. mad. It's very upsetting to the
flesh to give God the glory that do His name, to give to the Lord
Jesus Christ the glory and honor to do His name. It just makes
flesh mad. And they said, don't you hear
what they're saying? Well, absolutely he hears what
they're saying. He hears what you're saying too. Here's what they're saying too. Haven't you ever read? Don't
you know? You read the scriptures and that's
why you're saying, haven't you read? You have read this, I know.
You've read this. You ought to know this. Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings, thou hast perfected praise. Out of the mouths of sinners
like me and you, God has perfected. He's getting the glory and honor
due unto His name. You know, he said one place,
he said, well, if I made them shut up, the rocks would cry
out. The rocks would cry out. Hosanna! Hosanna! to the Son of God, the Son of David, our King. All glory and honor belongs to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I wish at all at the same
time we could just bow down before him and say amen. All right.