Psalm 40 I know is very familiar
to us, but what a blessing it is to read God's word, and especially
scripture that touches your heart, that speaks to you. Psalm 40, this is a psalm that's about
our Messiah, about the Lord Jesus Christ, but also a psalm that
we can enter into. And it's about us as well. As
David says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined
unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock and established my goings. He had put a new song in my mouth,
even praise unto our God. Many shall see and fear and shall
trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than could be numbered. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is written within
my heart. I have preached righteousness
to the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not thou
thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded
together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven
backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate
for a reward of their shame that say unto me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. But I am poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and
my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God. Let's pray together. Oh, our father. Great, wonderful,
powerful. God. Who covenanted with your son
and the spirit in eternity past. to choose a people, our Lord Jesus Christ being surety
for those people, and the Spirit of God to effectually bring those
people to you. Thank you, Lord, that you died
on the cross, shed your blood for our sins, and was raised
the third day satisfied our God, so thou that the just God can save unjust sinners, can save your people, for you
came for your people. Lord, we're thankful to be able
to gather together here this morning to worship and magnify
the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, oh, may we honor
and praise and bless and glorify that name, which is above every
name. Because we know what that name,
every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall confess that
you are Lord to the glory of God, the father. May we bow our
hearts before you today. We pray that your sheep would
hear your voice today. Those, Lord, that we've heard
the gospel so many times and we're eager and hungry to hear
it again. Those that may have heard the
gospel but have never really heard yet. Give them the hearing
ear, the seeing eye that only comes from you. We pray that
you will bless our pastor down in Louisiana, Brother Milton
Howard's church. We pray that you bless the ministry
of your word there and the preaching of the gospel. We pray that it
would run well. We pray that you'd give liberty
to the speakers, give power through your word. And we pray, Father,
for here today that you'd Bless our brother Bruce Crabtree as
he speaks to us this morning your word. I pray again Lord
that you would give him liberty and power unction from on high. Lord that you would use your
servant in the preaching of the word that we may hear more about
our Lord. We pray that you would bless
those who are having physical problems in these days. We pray,
Father, that you would be their strength, their comfort, their
joy. May, Lord, as we close this service,
we can say to one another, and especially to you, we are glad
that we've been in the house of our Lord. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing the hymn. It's good to see everybody. It's
been a while, hasn't it? Been a while since I've seen
you. I tell you folks are looking so good, nobody's looking any
older. Houston's looking a little bit
older. Everybody's looking good. It's so good to be here. I really,
really look forward to being here with you folks and worshiping
with you. And I pray the Lord will be pleased
today to meet with us and let us know him and know him better
and make yourself known to someone here this morning that has never
known him, that he'll make yourself known unto you. I often think
sometimes, you know, we hear some people's testimony and it
seems so dramatic. And some people get to thinking,
well, I don't know if I'm even saved if that's the way the Lord
saves people. But you know, it's not always
that way. Dear John Mitchell, an old friend
of mine that's dead now, he said sometimes coming to know the
Lord, he says, it's like going in a dark room. and you flip
the light switch on and boy there he is. There he is suddenly and
gloriously right before the eyes of your understanding. And he
said sometimes it's like the slow rising of the sun. The sun
rises slow and it burns away the mist and it slowly depletes
the darkness. That's the way it is sometimes
too, isn't it? But here's the thing, it's knowing him. It's knowing Him. You remember,
I think it's in John chapter 9, where that man was blind from
his mother's birth. And the Lord gave him sight,
put clay on his eyes and sent him down to wash in the pool
of Siloam. And they put him out of the temple
and the Lord Jesus later found him and said, He said to him,
Does thou believe on the Son of God? And he said, Lord, who
is he? I don't even know who he is.
Who is he if I knew who he was? I could believe on him. And then
something happened, something amazing, a miracle happened.
But it came so easy. He said, I that speak unto you
am he. and he worshipped him there.
And that's the way it is sometimes. We're just sitting in a worship
service like this. I've heard of people driving
down the road or laying on their beds and then there just so gently
and yet so savingly the Lord Jesus makes himself known. So
I hope we gather here this morning and we who know him will know
him better and if you who don't know him he'll make himself known
to you. And I want to read a portion
of scripture and I'm going to stand this morning service and
tonight's service over in Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11. I love to go to the Gospels,
the four Gospels, sometimes and just follow our master as he
goes about healing and raising the dead. and suffering, confronting
his enemies. I love to just follow him. You
see what kind of man he was. See what kind of Lord he was,
his disposition. He's amazing just to follow him
in the scripture. We read the Old Testament and
he's there, all the epistles he's there. But here you see
him in person as he just goes about doing good and making himself
known in different ways. So I want to just stay in Mark
chapter 11. this morning, this afternoon,
and let's begin reading in verse 1 and cover a few verses here
in chapter 11. And when they came nigh to Jerusalem
unto Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent
forth two of his disciples. And he said unto them, Go your
way unto the village over against you, and as soon as you enter
into it, You shall find a colt tied whereon never man set. Loose him and bring him. And
if any man say unto you, why do you this? Say ye that the
Lord hath need of him, and straightway he will send him hither. And
they went the way and found the colt tied by the door without
in a place where two ways meet, and they loosed him. And certain
of them which stood there said unto them, What do you? Loosen
the coat. And they said unto them, Even
as Jesus had commanded, and they let them go. And they brought
the coat to Jesus, and cast their garments on him, and he sat upon
him. And many spread their garments
in the way, and others cut down branches off the trees, and strode
them in the way. And they that went before and
they that followed cried saying, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our
father David that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in
the highest. And Jesus entered into Jerusalem
and into the temple. And when he had looked round
about upon all things, and now the evening was come, he went
out into Bethany with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they
were come from Bethany, he was hunger, and seeing a fig tree
aforeoff having leaves, he came, if happily, perhaps he might
find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found
nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus
answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter
forever, and his disciples Now I don't know how far we may get
on this, but I want to begin here in verse 1. And the context
of this is somewhat interesting. The Lord Jesus had just left
Jericho probably a few hours before this. It was 14 miles
or so. But you remember there are contexts
in the 10th chapter where He just healed blind Barnabas. And
when he gave him his sight, he said, follow me. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. And now the
verse one tells us that they came here to Bethany. So this place is called, that's
called the Mount of Olives. And here's the most wonderful
thing about this. if you've ever, if you've ever
saw any photographs or watched any documentaries on the scene
around Jerusalem, if you, if you're at in Bethany and you
leave Bethany and you go up on the Mount of Olives and there's
a road up there that you go around on the east side and just as
you come around one of the points which was here in this day, I'm
not for sure it's even still there now, but suddenly The whole
city of Jerusalem was in sight. The whole beautiful city was
in sight. And here's my point. Blind Bartimaeus
was following the Lord Jesus. And can you imagine when he ran
that sight and for the first time in his life he saw the holy
city and that beautiful temple there just before him? And oh,
I can imagine how his heart jumped and how he praised the Lord for
letting me see this city, this city of David, the city of the
King. And he had the Lord Jesus to
thank for it all. He'd have never saw that if the
Lord hadn't have gave him sight. How many beautiful things have
you seen since the Lord gave you sight? There was a time you
couldn't see either. But when he opened your sight,
hasn't he let you see some beautiful things? Seen some ugly things,
too. You see yourself, don't you?
But you see the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see his church,
his people. It's a wonderful thing to follow
the Lord Jesus when he gives you eyesight. But they were here
at this mount, he tells us, at the Mount of Olives. And this
was the place where the Lord Jesus loved to spend time. This
had to be his favorite place around Jerusalem. Some people
tell us that he never spent, we don't have any record, that
our master ever spent the first night in Jerusalem. He would
always leave in the evening. He would leave altogether or
he would go out to Bethany or he would go up on this Mount
of Olives. And there we read several times
that he spent the night. He rested here in this Mount
of Olives and sometimes he prayed there all night. And you remember
when he and his disciples left the upper room the very night
in which he was betrayed. He left the city on the east
side and went out to this Mount of Olives. That was the garden. Remember the Garden of Gethsemane?
It was in this mountain. Judas knew the place. That's
how he knew where to find it because the scripture says he
often resorted here. This was his custom. When he
was up north around Galilee, you'd often find him on the Sea
of Galilee. But when he was here, you often
found him at the Mount of olives. He spent his time there, often
resting and in prayer. And our context here that we're
going to look at is probably five or six days before the Lord's
death. This is what makes this so amazing.
He had spent about three and a half years now in his ministry.
And he's coming back here from Galilee into Jerusalem. He's
there at Bethany, just a mile or so from the city of Jerusalem.
And what makes this so interesting is, for three years or more,
his enemies in this city sought to kill him. From the very beginning,
when he began to preach in this city, they sought to kill him.
And they sought to kill him because of who he was and what he was
doing. He healed a man who was crippled
for 38 years laying at the pool of Bethesda. And when they began
to question him, how he did this, he said, my father works like
this and I work. And they got angry at him because
he called God his father and they sought to stone him. He
left them and went back up north and he comes back again and he
finds this man that's blind, born blind, and he heals him
on the Sabbath day. And they got mad at him again
and began to question him. And then he begins to talk to
them about his sheep. My father has given me some sheep,
and I know them, and they know me, and they hear my voice, and
they follow me. And nobody's going to pluck them out of my
hands, and nobody's going to pluck them out of my father's
hands. My father is greater than all. And they said, who is your
father? He said, God's my father. And
they took up stones to throw at him. Every time the Lord Jesus
came into this city, they sought to kill him. And here he's coming
back again about five or six days before he was to suffer
and die. And his disciples said, Lord,
Lord, are you going back into Jerusalem? They're seeking to
kill you. They're laying wait for you.
And they couldn't persuade him not to go back in, so they armed
themselves the best they could, got one or two swords, and they
said, let's go die with him. Ain't that what they said? Let's
go die with him. And our Lord has come here now
in verse 1 and he's ready to enter the city of Jerusalem. And it's amazing he enters on
this little donkey. He don't have a sword. He don't
have a shield. He don't have a spear. There
are men laying wait for him in this city. There's a wicked king
in this city by the name of Herod. There's a governor in this city
that can condemn him to death. There's some powerful religious
men in this city that can betray him to death. And here he comes
into this city without any fear in him whatsoever. Isn't our
Lord Jesus amazing? You know he's not afraid of anybody.
He's not afraid of anything. He's not afraid of nature. He's
not afraid of demons. He's not afraid of kings. He's
not afraid of governors. The only time you and I ever
see him fear is in the garden when he was anticipating that
cup. taking the cup of our sins and
the awful judgment of God upon him for those sins. That's the
only time you ever see him drawing back. That's the only time you
ever see him fearing and sobbing. But I'm telling you, there's
never been a man that he's afraid of. We hear some horrible things
in our day about what some men are doing to other men, don't
we? And boy, I tell you what, it would be intimidating. I've
often wondered what would I do if somebody stood behind me with
a knife with my hands tied and had a knife to my throat. I sometimes
wonder how I would feel. You ever wonder that? I tell
you, it's easy to get intimidated when you see what's going on
in our day, isn't it? Cutting people's heads off. Killing
your family, your children. I tell you, it is easy to get
afraid. And I don't know what you may
face and I may face, but I know this, our Lord's not afraid of
them. He's faced them all, hasn't he?
He's not afraid of them. And you don't have to be afraid
of them either. If he's not afraid of them, then you don't have
to be afraid of them. He's your protector. He's your
protector. They were saying in this city,
According to Psalms 2, they were saying in this city, let us cast
their cords from us. We'll not have this man to reign
over us. That's what they were saying.
But you know the scriptures gives us the attitude of the Lord Jesus
about these men. He that saideth in the heavens,
laugh. And he sends instructions to
his enemies before he ever gets to this city, and here's what
he says. Be wise, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling, lest the sun be angry with you, and
you perish from the way. They saw him in his humility,
and he looked just like any other man, and they thought, man, he's
nothing. He's nothing at all. We've got
the advantage of him. We'll do with him just what we
want to do with him. And they stirred their hatred
up. What do you want to do to this man? What do you want to
do to this man? Well, that's not really the question,
is it? They weren't willing to face this, but it wasn't how
they felt about him. It wasn't what they were going
to do to him and with him. It was what they, he was going
to do with them. Is that not so? Kiss the son. Bow down and kiss the son of
God. Lest he be angry with you. Oh, we're angry with him. That don't mean nothing. What's
his feelings towards you? You gonna stir up his wrath?
If you do, what's he gonna do with you? We hear that question
asked so many times in our day. What will you do with Jesus?
Okay, that's a good question. But here's a better one. What's
he gonna do with you? What's he gonna do with you?
Lest you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but
a little. The way to face the Lord of Glory
is to get up in His face, not to fuss with Him, not to complain
about Him or debate or argue with Him, but to get in His face
to kiss Him. to get close enough to kiss him,
kiss his word, kiss the words of his mouth, agree with him
on his rule over you, and then bow to him. That's the only way
to get along with the Son of God, is it not? The Lord Jesus came to this city,
a meek and lowly king, to who? to all of those who needed a
Savior. He came riding in on a little
donkey, meek and lowly. And the simple, the lowly, the
humble in this city, they came and gathered themselves round
about Him and began to cry out, Save us, Lord. Save us, oh, Hosanna. In the name of the Lord, save
us, our King. But the proud, the Pharisees,
the scribes, they stood afar off. And you know something? He dealt with them accordingly.
The proud he knoweth afar off. He resisteth the proud and giveth
grace to the humble. Every one of us is going to face
Christ, aren't we? Every one of us here this morning
is going to face the Lord of Glory. One day we're coming to
Him and He will deal with us in that day just like He deals
with us here. If we come to Him in humiliation,
We come to Him and bow before Him who rode into this town on
this little donkey. We own Him as the Lord that He
is, the Savior. We believe in Him. We love Him.
We follow Him. You know what? He'll deal with
us that day in mercy. But if we don't come to Him now
and humbly own Him as who He is, He'll deal with us that day
harshly. so harshly. And these Pharisees could not
understand when the Lord Jesus came in riding on this little
donkey. Why are these people worshiping
him? He's the Lord. He's the King of glory. He knows
all things, don't he? All things are naked and open
in the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Here through verses
2 through verse 7, What a telling incident this
is. The Lord Jesus sends these fellas
into this next community over to get this little donkey, and
he's tied there in the way, a little donkey tied in the way, and he
says, go over there, and this is where you'll find him, and
this is what they're gonna say, and this is what you do. And
you bring the little donkey back to me. Now this is amazing, if
you'll think about it. You have a man here who is either
secretly plotting this, and he's putting a lot of time and effort
to set everything up, every minute detail, and he's did this to
deceive them and to deceive us, or he's a man who knows every
detail about everything. He knows where little donkeys
are tied in the town. Ain't that amazing? He knows
if they're tame or if they're wild. He knows if anybody's ever
rode on them or not. He knows what people are thinking
about. He knows what people will say and what people will do.
He knows the answer people will give before the question's ever
asked. And he has dominion over everything,
even little donkeys that have never been tamed. And he has
power over the sinful wills of men to bow them to his commands. Jesus just gave this command
to his disciples, go bring the donkey. And everything just falls into
place. Go bring the donkey, that's all he has to say. Go get the
donkey. And what happens? They go get
the donkey and they bring the donkey. Now that's amazing to
me. If you see the Lord Jesus rule
in these little details like this, these little minute details,
then you graduate to the big things. If he takes time to rule
the little details, he sent his disciples one day into Jerusalem
and said, you'll find a man in there. as you're walking through
the streets of the city and he'll have a pitcher of water, you
follow him and he'll take you and show you where we're going
to celebrate the Passover. But here's the problem, brothers
and sisters. They tell us at that time there
was probably from one half to three quarters of a million people
in this little town. It's a little bit more complicated,
isn't it? Go in there and you'll see a man out of 750,000, Lord, He's interested in the little
details, is he not? He rules over the little details
of life. Three things about these men
getting this donkey. Three little things about it
that I love just think about these things. I said that's what
we're going to do. We're just going to see what the Lord did
in these situations and his character and how he did things. The first
thing that I thought about as I was reading this, the Lord
borrowed so many things when he was in this world. He was
always borrowing things. He borrowed this donkey. The
Bible says the owners confronted these disciples and said, what
are you doing with our coat? They were called the owners.
You say, well, the Lord Jesus was really the owner, but you
know, he gave all of that up. He was rich, and for your sakes,
he became poor. He borrowed this donkey. When
he went fishing, he had to borrow a boat. When he wanted to move
out in the boat to preach, he moved out in a borrowed boat.
When they buried him, they buried him in a borrowed sepulcher.
He had nothing, did he? He had nothing. He was always
borrowing things. I bet he returned everything.
I bet you he made sure this little donkey was returned. I tell you
and I are utterly dependent upon each other. We may not think
we are. We may think we don't want to be dependent on anybody.
And in a sense, that's good. But brothers and sisters, listen,
our Lord did not care to borrow. He borrowed. We're dependent on one another.
We loan to one another, don't we? A fella called me one day
and he said, you preached a message and I want to borrow it. And
I said, you can borrow it if you'll loan it to somebody else.
Because I borrowed it from somebody myself. We're always borrowing,
aren't we? We're always borrowing. We're
just like the master. The Lord did it. He did it. Nothing
wrong with being beholden one to another. Brothers and sisters,
nothing wrong with that. The second thing we see in this
little story here is this. Our Lord uses the lowest means
to bring the greatest glory to himself. What could be more simple and
more ugly, more common than a little old long-faced, long-eared donkey? Why didn't he ride in here on
a big stud horse? Why didn't he find him a big
black stud horse and put a big saddle with trimmed out and silver
and a beautiful martingale and go prancing into the city? Well, you know why he didn't
do that. People would have been saying, man, look at that saddle.
Have you ever seen such a prancing stud horse in all your life?
Look at those muscles in that fella. Man, what a horse! He
don't want them looking at the horse. He wants them to look
at Him. He wants them to see Him. The
Lord Jesus is going to use people and use things that He can get
the greatest glory out of. I want you to turn to two or
three passages of scripture with me. Hold Mark chapter 11 and
look in 1 Corinthians, a very familiar passage of scripture.
Over in 1 Corinthians. Look in chapter three. 1 Corinthians chapter three. You remember when the Lord was
going to use Gideon to overthrow the enemies of Israel. And he
had several thousand soldiers. And remember what the Lord told
him. He said, you've got too many soldiers. Well, you want
plenty of soldiers when you're going to battle, wouldn't you?
He said, you got too many. You need to send a bunch of them
home. And finally, he got down to 300 men. But you know why the Lord didn't
use that big group? He said, I won't get the glory
for it. They'll give you the glory for it. If I whip that
great army with 300 men, they'll say, my, what has God wrought?
And that's who the Lord's going to use, those that he can get
the greatest glory from. Look what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
3. Look in verse 3. People were glorying in Paul
and Apollos and Cephas. And he said in verse 18, let
no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may
be wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh
the wise in their own craftiness. Look what he said over in chapter
one. In verse 26, this is a very familiar passage and it tells
us really why you just don't want to be too wise. Fools are
much better than wise men. Look what he said in verse 26.
You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh are called. I doth be a fool. I'd rather
know nothing and obtain mercy is to profess to be wise and
be passed by, wouldn't you? You're smart. You're really smart. Okay, figure it out yourself.
He takes the wise in their own craftiness. He reveals himself
to babes, to babes. I spent the last 43 years of
my life studying the word of God. And I'll be honest with
you, the older I get, the more stupid I am. The more ignorant I have become
in my own eyes. And I have come to rejoice in
glory in this one thing. I know Him. I know Him. I was sitting at Brother Henry
Mahan's table not long ago, bless his heart, and I asked him a
question, and he said, I forgot. And Brother Todd and I were sitting
there, Todd asked him a question, he said, I forgot. But you know
one thing he hasn't forgot? He's forgotten more than I'll
ever know. But I tell you one thing he hasn't forgot, the Lord
of glory. The Lord of glory. And look here
what else old Paul says to us. You see, you're calling not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are
called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And he has chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things that's mighty and
base things. That word means insignificant
things. And things which are despised
hath God chosen. Things which are not to bring
to naught, to nothing, the things that are, look at this, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom, Righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. That's everything we need is
in Christ. And I tell you, if you know him
and you see everything you need in him, that's true wisdom, isn't
it? That according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. We just sang a song
by Fannie Crosby. Has anybody in here ever seen
a photograph of Fannie Crosby? Bless her heart, that was the
most homely looking woman that I've ever seen in my life. Homely looking woman. And she obtained grace in his
eyes. There's a preacher, I asked her
one time, I said, Mrs. Crosby, isn't it a pity that
you've never been able to see anybody. And she said, oh, dear
sir, dear sir, if I had it to do all over and I had anything
to do with it, I'd be born blind. The first face I will see is
the face of my savior. I don't care to be homely, look
homely and be ignorant. if the Lord Jesus Christ will
let me find mercy in his sight. That's it, isn't it? He uses
the lowest, the basest of means to bring glory to his name. And if he has humbled you and
taught you that you're nothing and he's everything, then he's
getting glory out of you. You may not see it, but the angels
see it. Everybody else sees it. And if
you're sort of cocky, You know it all, and God's called
you to straighten everybody else out. He ain't getting no glory out
of you, and he won't until he humbles you, brings you low,
makes an old jackass out of you, a little donkey that he can ride
around. He uses the basest of means,
doesn't he? Man, he could have rode in here
on a stud horse. That's not the way the Lord of
glory does it. Thirdly, we see something else
out of here that was very interesting. It's this. It shows the dominion
the Lord has over these creatures, all of his creatures. He's riding
on an unbroke donkey. Now, I used to break horses when
I lived in Tennessee. That's what I did. I broke horses
all through high school for people. I broke horses. And you may not
think a donkey can't hurt you. But I tell you, a donkey can
hurt you, buddy. I just wouldn't break them. I
just wouldn't train them. They could hurt you. They could
bite you. They could kick you. They were fast. They'd get out and
under you and leave you sitting before you knew what was going
on. They could hurt you. No man ever sat on this donkey. They were going to bring him
through a crowd of cheering people in an untamed, untrained donkey
with the Lord sitting upon him. And he wrote him. He tamed him. When he sat on
him, he was tamed. You remember when the Lord made
Adam and he said, let him have dominion over all the creatures
of the earth. Let him have dominion over the
fish and over the fowls and over all the beasts of the field.
Adam lost that dominion for the most part, didn't he? It takes
him a while to tame these animals. Now he has to work at it. He
has to force them sometimes. But in the book of Psalms, chapter
8, that's a very interesting book. And here's what it said,
what is man that you're mindful of him or the son of man that
you visit him? You've made him a little lower
than the angels. You've crowned him with glory
and honor. You've given him dominion over
all the works of your hand. You've put all things under his
feet, all the sheep and oxen and beasts of the fields and
fowls and fishes and whatever passes through the sea. And you
turn over to Hebrews chapter 2 and that same passage is speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says this, but now we
see not yet all things but under man, but we see Jesus who was
made a little more than the angels and crowned with glory and honor. We've lost the dominion for the
most part. But Jesus Christ, the second
Adam, had dominion over everything. While he was here, he had dominion
over everything. Was there anything that he didn't
have dominion over? Nothing. In his humanity, he
could speak to the waves. And they laid down so still.
He spoke to the wind and said, be still. And it was still. Nothing was outside the dominion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, not even this little donkey.
But I think there's a spiritual lesson here, and I think the
Lord shows us here, gives us a little demonstration to it
in part. Job chapter 11 and verse 12 hints
at this. He said this, vain man would
be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt. Man is born
like a wild ass is cold. As you read the Old Testament,
one of the things you realize that they couldn't catch these
wild asses. That's too fast. They couldn't
catch them. And they said that's the way man is. He's born like
a wild ass is cold. You know there's but one that
can tame us. And that's Jesus Christ the Son of God. He can
tame us. He can subdue our violent, lustful
natures. You're struggling with your nature.
You're struggling with your own nature of sin. Does sin just
rise up in you and seem to reign and you can't subdue it? Aren't
you always facing one temptation after another? You know there's somebody that
can tame you. He can tame you. I don't think I could ever sit
under Charles or John Wesley's preaching, but I love their songs.
Spurgeon used to say about them that when they wrote songs, they
wrote out of their hearts, and when they preached, they preached
out of their heads. That's why their preaching was so bad and
their songs were so good. But listen to this song Wesley
wrote. He said, Jesus, mighty to renew, work in me to will
and to do. Turn my nature's rapid tide. Stem the torrent of my pride. Stop the whirlwind of my will. Speak and bid the sun stand still. Arm of God, thy strength put
on. Bow the heavens and come down.
All my unbelief o'erthrow. Lay the Asparian mountain low. Conquer thy worst foe in me. Get thyself the victory. Save
the vilest of thy race. Force me. Force me. Boy, that's strong, ain't it?
Force me to be saved by grace. I don't know if I'd use any language
that strong, but I feel it, don't you? Don't you feel sometimes
if he's not the king, if he's not reigning, if he's not sovereign,
if he cannot tame me, there's no hope for me? My old nature's
raging like the sea. Oh, I see more foals in me than
in hell itself, don't you? But listen, you don't have to
despair. There's somebody who can tame
us. He can subdue our iniquities and reign over us and make you
love it, make you pray to that eagle. Lord, if you can tame
this little donkey, that nobody ever wrote on, oh tame me, subdue
me to yourself. Don't you feel that way? Let's see this right quickly
and I'll just keep you for a few more minutes. We see here in
verses 2 and verse 4 the importance of a childlike faith, just a
childlike obedience. The Lord Jesus said in verse
2, go your way into the village. In verse 4, and they went their
way and found the colt. In verse 7, and they brought
the colt to Jesus. I love that, don't you? They
just simply obeyed what He told them. Isn't that simple? They
just simply heard His word and as a little child, hearing the
words of His Father, they just simply did what He told them
to do. They went and got the colt and
brought it. You know, it wasn't all that
easy. It really wasn't. And the only way they could get
this colt is to do just exactly what he said. I can just see
those 10 spies that Moses sent out, the 10 out of the 12, can
you just see them if they were sent here to get this little
colt? I'm afraid of myself that I may have pulled a trick like
this too. Lord, I went over there to get the colt, but there was
a forks in the road and I didn't know which one to take and I
got confused. So I've come back. Would you
have did that? Lord, I got over there and I
found the coat, but that thing was wild. Man, he was wild, I
couldn't handle him. So I'd come back. Lord, I untied
the coat, about time I started to get away, lead him away. The
owner said, what are you doing? And Lord, he looked awful rough,
so I tied the coat back up and come back. Would we have did
something like that? Would we? You know, brothers
and sisters, the only way to be happy in Jesus is just to
trust and obey. Isn't that it? And one of the
things I've noticed in myself, and I bet you have too, is just
when you take him at his word with a childlike faith and just
do it because he said to do it, it's always gone right. It always
comes out good. But when I start trying to figure
it out, it always goes bad. when the Lord told Abraham to
get out of Ur of the Chaldees, and he said, go into a land that
I will show you of. And the Bible says by faith,
Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. That's the way to serve the Lord,
is it not? With a little childlike faith
and obedience. I love the passage in Isaiah
42, 16. I will bring the blind by way that they know not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them, saith the Lord. I was going to preach the other
morning and didn't know if I was going to preach or not. I really
didn't know. I was going to church but I didn't
know if I was going to preach. And this verse of scripture came
to me. Now if you're not a pastor and you're not a preacher, you
don't appreciate this. But when you get ready to go to church
and you've got nothing to say, you get concerned about it. And
I was getting ready to go to church, and the verse of scripture
came to me. And I thought, man, I can't get up. And just almost
like a voice fell out of heaven into my conscience. It said,
try it. Just try it. And to me, it was saying, just
try the Lord. Just do it. Lean up on Him and
go and do it without questioning it. And you know, that's what
I did, and it came out great. I was amazed. Just follow the
Lord. If somebody says, why are you
doing this? You said, because his word told
me to. Why do you believe like you do? Because his word told
me to believe this. I'm just doing what he tells
me to do. That's it. That's what we need, isn't it?
That's what we need, living our lives in a childlike faith. If you're here this morning and
you never come to the Lord Jesus and to God by Him to be saved
by Him, you know what my recommendation would be to do? Take Him at His
Word. Don't look for some feeling within
your own heart. Don't look for a deeper conviction
of sin. Don't look for some kind of feeling
or experience. Just take Him at His Word and
come to Him. And it'll turn out well. It'll
turn out well. You can't trust your feelings.
You sure can't trust your heart, but you can trust His Word. If
the Lord Jesus came down from heaven this morning, He wouldn't
tell you anything but what He's already told you. It's His Word.
It's Him speaking. Take Him at His Word. And it'll come out well. If you're
here this morning, dear child of God, and you've gotten yourself
in a dark place, then humble yourself before the Lord and
begin again, like a little child, to obey Him, obey His Word, and
I'm telling you, His light will shine again upon your way. When
the Lord says, go your way, and you go your way, just as He tells
you to go, you'll come again rejoicing. Said I not unto thee,
if thou wouldst believe, thou wouldst see the glory of God. Old John Jasper, bless his heart,
you've probably heard of him. He was an old black slave. He
was owned by another man. And they said he was so full
of assurance, always full of assurance. And somebody asked
him one day, he said, John, You're always talking about you wish
the Lord would take you on to glory. What if you get up there,
John, and you knock on the door and he won't let you in? And
John said, well, I'm in trouble. That's for sure. If you don't
let me in, I'm a loser. I'm going to lose my soul. But
he said, if after. I have trusted the Lord as He's
revealed Himself in His Word. If after I have took Him at His
Word and believed Him and He refuses me, I'll be a loser,
but He'll be a greater loser. I'll lose my soul. He'll lose
His character. He'll lose who He is. Now, brothers
and sisters, that's the stock God has put in His Word. You
obey His Word. You believe what he says and
you act upon that and he'll all be well in the end. He'll see
to it. Well, we'll begin right there
this afternoon if you care to come back and listen. All right?
Let us pray. Oh, our gracious Father in heaven, the Father of lights with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We bless you, our Father in Heaven,
that you are indeed the everlasting God, the creator and sustainer
of all things. There is no God else beside you.
And we address you as our Father. Without you, we have no Father.
We refuse, we utter and reject all others. You are our Father.
Thank you for your electing mercies, your electing grace, your electing
love. Thank you for your glorious and
eternal purpose of salvation. We're glad it's of the Lord.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, the Son of God, in truth and in sincerity,
who left heaven with all the glory and the rest and the worship
and came down to be born to the lowly woman, a virgin, to endear
what we've endeared. to be tried and tested, to become
poor, to have to borrow things, and others minister to you. Oh,
thank you, Lord Jesus, the son of the everlasting God, for humbling
yourself and becoming obedient to death. Thank you, blessed
Holy Spirit, the sacred trinity. Oh, the third and glorious person,
we bless your name. The revealer of the deep things
of God, the teacher, the comforter. Without you, we know nothing,
we can do nothing. We can't believe, we can't repent,
we can't follow. Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, hold
us up in the way. Work in us mightily to will and
to do. Our triune God, we bless you
this morning. We bless you for letting us come
here for a few minutes and worship with your people. Receive all
that's been said here this morning. Lord, worship in your precious
blood. Worship from the iniquity of
the holy things. Bless the dear pastor of this
congregation. Uphold him. Use him for your
glory. He's just a man, a mere man.
But you're able to take a mere man and work through him so mightily
to call in your people. and to hold up your name in this
world and in this community. Bless the dear people here this
morning. Bless and keep us this day. And if you'll allow us in
your kind providence to return this afternoon. Oh Lord, be with
us and let us worship your glorious name. We ask for your name, for
your glory and for your sake. Amen. Brother Gary.