All right, brethren, let's be turning to Luke chapter 19. Luke 19. I'm gonna be preaching two messages from this passage this morning. Just worked out that way that the second message was laid on my heart first, burning, and then, but I had an idea for the first message and was blessed to, to see another sweet picture here of Christ and the work of his salvation for his people. So our first message is going to be in verse 28, from 28 through 38. And we're focusing on the loosing of the colt and the foal of an ass and being brought to the Lord Jesus Christ for him to ride upon into Jerusalem. And when we read the passage, what you'll notice as we go through the verses, what stands out is that a lot of these words, these terms are very allegorical in the sense of what they mean, how they picture the salvation of a believer, of what the Lord Jesus Christ does for his people when he saves a sinner. from their sins.

Now, I want to be clear, this is not spiritualizing the text. When you spiritualize a text, what you're saying is, this didn't happen, this is just talking about a spiritual truth. I'm not saying that at all about this passage. This truly, really did happen, just as it's recorded here for us in Scripture. However, what we see is it holds spiritual meaning. There are spiritual truths in here also being recorded and written here by the Spirit of God. This is not uncommon to Scripture.

In fact, if you look over at Galatians 4, where Paul is speaking of from verse 22 through 31, Paul is speaking of Sarah and Hagar. And he tells us in verse 24, he says, which things are an allegory. All right, what's written of Sarah and Hagar, they really happened. But there's also an allegorical spiritual truth being taught to us here in these scriptures.

They're an allegory for these are the two covenants. Sarah and Hagar are the two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai, that's Hagar, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. She was the servant. She was the slave. She's in bondage. And those that are yet in bondage continue in their bondage, continue under the law, trying to work a righteousness for themselves, not seeing or knowing or understanding the true and living God, not hearing Christ, not believing on him, whereas Sarah is free.

And you that believe Jesus Christ are free born. You are born of the free woman, like Isaac was, and it says it there, like Isaac what yet now verse 28 now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise you that believe Christ are born again freeborn of the Lord Jesus Christ and so there's allegories in scriptures and This isn't out. This also has Allegorical meaning for us here in this passage.

So let's begin in verse 28 and read that and When he had thus spoken he went before ascending up to Jerusalem. And so the allegorical picture here is that to make everything ready, to prepare a place for his people, a place of our inheritance in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, he went before us. He went through the veil. He was crucified for the sins of his people to make satisfaction unto God for our forgiveness and for our deliverance and for our inheritance of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he went before as our surety, everything, all our hope. Everything we trust in and desire is all resting on the shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ. The government shall be upon his shoulders, the scriptures say. In Isaiah 9, it's on him. And so all our hope is fixed in him. We're looking to him and he did it.

He did exactly what we needed to reconcile us, to deliver us from our enmity, to believe and to love and to receive all that the father has given to us who loved us and gave his son for us. He reconciles us unto the Father. And so having conquered all our enemies, having secured our inheritance and our deliverance, he then, after he rose from the dead, ascended up to our heavenly Jerusalem. To Jerusalem, which is above, which is picturing our Lord, our head, our husband, and his body, his bride. the heavenly Jerusalem, which then comes down from heaven, right?

It's all this beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us. And so the first thing is, he went before to save us by his redemption on the cross, and then he ascended to the Father, where he now sits at the right hand of the throne of God, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

All things are just being worked out. Nothing can stop it. Nothing can stop it. Everything our Lord did, just as when he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, was set in motion, and nothing can stop it. No enemy can oppose. And so everything that the Lord purposes and wills to do, he does. He does, he does it wondrously.

Second, verse 29, and it came to pass when he was come nigh to Bethphage, and Bethphage means house of unripe figs, We are unfruitful. We're bitter. You don't want to eat us. We're not tasty at all. There's nothing good in us. We're not ready yet. We haven't been delivered yet. There's a purpose for us, but we're not ready yet.

And when he drew nigh to Bethany, which is the house of misery, when our Lord draws near, having accomplished our redemption, now he draws near to us, At the Mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples. And so it's speaking of our Lord's purpose in coming.

And now these things are being worked out, right? He draws near to us. He gathers his people and he brings his word to bear to reveal to Christ to us in our hearts. and in our understanding to know him. And so he draws near so that his redeemed would be loosed from our infirmity. To be loosed from our infirmity of sin and death. He draws near to us first. He went forth, he does everything first. He's the first cause of all things. And so he draws near to us and therefore we draw near to him. we're brought near to the Lord.

And so in our text here, in Luke 19, verse 29, it says that he sent two of his disciples, two of his disciples. Why did Christ send two of his disciples? What does that have to do with the Lord bringing his word near to us and preaching the gospel to us? Why? What does this have to do with the Lord sending a preacher to preach this gospel to us? Well, in Scripture, Every witness was to be established with two or three witnesses. And so when it speaks of the Lord sending two by two, sending two people, it was a witness.

He was bearing witness to the truth. Paul said it, this comes from the Old Testament, but Paul wrote it in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 13, 1, in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Our Lord said it himself too. Every word shall be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

And so a preacher is bearing witness with the witness of God, with the witness of this word here. We're bearing witness to what our Lord testifies in his word. And the spirit, when the Lord is pleased, draws near to us and the spirit bears witness with our spirit. That's what Paul says. He says, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And so that's what's pictured here in the Lord sending two disciples to fetch this foal of an ass here. And the two witnesses, right? And we have that. We have the Word as a witness, the Spirit as a witness, and the preacher, if you will, as a third witness. We're just brought along to say these things, to speak these things, but it's the Lord who witnesses in your heart whether these things be so or not. They are so, but whether you believe them, he bears witness, whether you're his or not, in giving you faith in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the second allegorical thing that we see here in Luke 19.

So third, in Luke 19, 30, verse 30, saying, he says to his two disciples that he's sending there, go ye into the village over against you, in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat. loose him and bring him hither.

And so in this passage, we have a colt, a baby donkey, right? A young donkey, a colt that is tied, it's tied up. And he says, no man ever sat on this donkey. No one ever sat on this donkey yet. And this colt, it must be loosed. You must loose it. When you go there, you're going to untie this donkey. You're going to loose this donkey in order that it may be brought to Christ. You're going to bring this cult to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the man of God, who has the authority and the power to break this cult, to make this cult his, to make this cult obedient to him.

And so these details, that are here spoken of this cult, that's a description of me by nature. That's a description of me, a wild ass, right? One who speaks wrong and ill and doesn't have understanding or light of the truth of God, one who is tied and bound. That describes the nature, the carnal nature of man. What we are by nature in Adam.

Paul tells us over in Romans 8, 7 and 8, that the carnal mind, the way I think naturally, as a natural man, just out in this world, born of this world, born of Adam, that the carnal mind is enmity against God. That doesn't mean that I don't believe in a God. That doesn't mean that I'm not religious or that I don't have an idol God. Many people have a false idol god that's a lie and they can be very religious and yet be haters, enemies of the true and living God.

That's us all by nature until the Lord delivers us from that enmity. That's why when I said earlier, we are reconciled to God. God hasn't reconciled to us. He already loves his people. He chose us in Christ. He determined to save his people. He's reconciling us unto him, who, like Adam, became enemies, or God became an enemy to Adam, and he ran from God. when he heard them.

And so the natural man is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then the scriptures say, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. In other words, we need the spirit of God. We need a new birth. We need to be made new creatures. Because what we are by nature is not going to do it. We're not going to believe God. We're not going to worship God. We're not going to serve God in spirit and truth until and unless we are born again by the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the grace of God in Christ.

At this time, when we're still in nature, the Lord, if you're His, He's drawing near to you. He's sending that word. He's working all things to bring you to that day of grace in which He shall draw near to you and do for you what you never could imagine, you never thought of. You didn't understand. You might have even thought, I'm saved already. I believed, I did this, I got baptized, I do religious things, and still not know the truth until the Lord comes with power and delivers you from death, gives you life in him.

And so he does this sovereignly. Turn over to Romans 10, because I want to show you this is how the Lord makes it known to us. This is how the Lord reveals himself to us. This is how the Lord draws near and delivers us from being tied up and bound to sin and death by nature.

I was saying that he sent two disciples, right? Sends the witness. He sends a preacher. He sends a preacher to you to tell you of these things. He doesn't need a preacher, but he says in his word that he delights to do that. He wants to do that, so he does it. He sends a preacher to preach the gospel to you, and it says in Romans 10, verse 13 through 17, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Well, something has to happen first, because by nature we don't call on the Lord in spirit and in truth. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? So we got to believe them. If you believe, you're going to call on the Lord. Well, how are you going to believe? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?

And so we see it all begins with God. who then says, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And when you look at that passage over in Isaiah, you see that the one that's speaking there, the voice, the spirit that's in the preacher is the spirit of God. who's really come to you, who's the beautiful one, who is precious and made precious to you that hear him and believe on him.

As Paul said, what was it, to the Thessalonians, you heard us not as the words of men, but as the words of God, you received our word. Because we're not speaking of our own, we're speaking of God who testified, who did all these things in Christ and has sent us to preach this word to you, right? And you that believe support this work and to send it out because that's how the Lord saves his people. We're doing all things for the sake of the elect, ourselves included, because we're blessed with one another and rejoice and happy to see one another. And so These are good things.

And so the Lord says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report. And he goes on to say, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And what he means by quoting Isaiah there is to say, but it's got to be made effectual. Not everyone who hears the preaching believes. Not everyone who hears the word preached is profited. Not everyone who hears hears what you that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ hear. And not everyone hears it.

It's got to be made effectual to you by the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, hear the word. Yes, come and get yourself under the word and hear the word. and beg God to make it profitable to you, because he's the only one that can. And if you're begging him to make it profitable, it's because he gave you that prayer. He gave you that spirit and that desire to know I'm nothing, Lord, except you bless me. He does all that work. And so we preach it to all because this is where God meets his people and makes it known to us that we are his. How does he make it known?

You believe. He gives you faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you maybe look at yourself and be worried and terrified by what you see. And you see your sin and how black and dark this heart is and how foolish you can be and are, but you keep on believing. And that's a testimony of his spirit and grace in you. Because otherwise you'll just eventually spin out and go off and believe dead worthless things.

But the fact that you, Persevere is because you're being preserved by his grace and power. He's doing it in you. And so he sends preachers out to bear witness of Christ because as we see with this cult, by nature, we are tied up. We don't go to him. We're not seeking him. We're just tied up. We're bound to sin and the dominion of sin and death. We're bound. But he sends that word out.

He searches out his people and he finds them And so he delivers us. In Ephesians 2, if you flip over there, in Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 1, it summarizes what believers are delivered from. Paul tells us what believers are delivered from in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, and you hath he quickened.

In other words, you hath he made spiritually alive, giving you spiritual ears to hear these spiritual words, the spiritual truth, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein, right? So there's one thing, we're dead, spiritually dead to God. and trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." You just did what everybody else did, and thought what everybody else thought, and didn't think anything of God, and didn't worry about yourself. You might have worshiped a god, a false god, but weren't worried and just believed him and did what you thought you were supposed to do, all the while walking the course of this world, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." And so this is what the cult in the text here, the young baby donkey, this is what it is picturing in our text. And so this cult, additionally, this cult's not broken.

No man ever sat on this cult. And for the first time, when someone gets on a cult, you don't know what's gonna happen. Whether it's a horse or a donkey or a mule, you don't know what is going to happen when you sit on that thing. And so it is with man. When you come and preach the gospel to them, you have no idea. You don't know how they're going to hear it or receive it.

And what you find is no man can just be reasoned with. and agree with these things. No man is just gonna believe, savingly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ except the Father give it to him. Except he be given the spirit and given life and a new birth. Then he'll be turned, otherwise he won't be turned. Even when Christ preached, men left to themselves did not believe on him.

He said to the Jews, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. But these things are testifying of me, and you don't see me. He said, you will not come unto me that you might have life. And who's greater and more able to preach than the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet, if Christ didn't make it effectual to the heart, they didn't believe. They didn't believe.

And after all his time, what was it, 120 disciples that could be named that were gathered together after our Lord was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven? And only 120 after three, three and a half years of ministering the gospel publicly to them. And so this is a picture of man left to himself. Even in the book of Job, it speaks of vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt." In other words, we're not broken. We don't hear. We cannot be tamed. No man can ride us.

It's not going to happen. We're not going to hear the Lord or believe the Lord, except the Lord come with power unto us. And so if the Lord left it up to our decision, And our choices to be good, whether we're going to believe or not, whether we're going to be good or not, we'd all die and go to hell. And we'd be hypocrites, good-looking hypocrites doing it, but we'd all go to hell. Because it's not our decision that saves us. We need the grace and power of God to save us. And he's the one that pricks the heart and makes us to cry out, Lord, save me. I'm the sinner.

He's gonna make you to know that you're the sinner and that you need his grace and mercy. He does that. He's sovereign and able to do it. He sovereignly, effectually delivers the stubborn mules, the stubborn asses, the stubborn donkeys, the stubborn, whatever you think you are. You might think you're a stallion. He's the one that's gotta deliver you. He's the one that's got to humble you and bring you low because we're tied to this world, we're tied to sin, we're tied to Satan, we're tied to folly and foolishness until the Lord unties us, loosens us, and brings us to himself. And then we confess, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, verse 4 and 5, but God But God, who is rich in mercy, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.

By grace, by grace I'm saved." And that's when the boast of what we've done for the Lord stops. That's when we stop talking about what we are, what we've done, and how I had to believe you didn't do nothing. None of us did anything. It's all the grace of God that saves His people from beginning to end and everything in between. And so our Lord is not going to be defeated by a stubborn mule. He's not going to be overcome.

In fact, He's going to overcome us. He's going to overcome our bondage. He's going to be the one on tight. He's going to be the one, the scriptures say, Isaiah 49, that He's going to come and He's going to open the prison door. He's going to shine the light forth. He's going to say, sinner, show yourselves. You come out, come out, and you stand before me. He does that in sovereign, free grace power to save to the uttermost.

Our Lord Jesus Christ does it all. Then he says to the preachers, to the disciples, ye shall find a colt tied, loose him, and bring him hither. And he sends out men who preach the gospel. What is the gospel? Who Christ is, why he came, what he accomplished. He is the Son of God. The eternal Son of God come in the flesh. Well, why did the Son of God come in the flesh? Because you and I cannot save ourselves. We are fallen in sin, ruined in sin, corrupt, vile, wretched creatures, unable to turn ourselves around and to work a righteousness that's pleasing and acceptable to the true and living God.

Well, what did he do? How did he accomplish this? How were we saved then? By his death. by His burial and resurrection. He fulfilled all the righteousness of God perfectly. and fulfill the will of his father and go into the cross for his people to bear their sins, to bear their punishment, to be their surety and to deliver them, to satisfy the just wrath of God for them that we might know God and have life in him, be born again and set free from this death that we're in. John tells us the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. He did it in his death, his burial, and his resurrection. He justifies us, all that believe on him. So that's what he's accomplished. And the scriptures tell us he's done it for his people, those whom the Father chose in Christ before the foundation of the world.

They're going to hear this word. They're going to be untied. They're going to come to Christ. because sovereign God is doing it. He's doing the whole thing. And every generation, he sends out his preachers to broadcast this gospel, to make it known. to his people born in that generation, to hear of the Savior, to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, and he draws all men unto himself. He does it wondrously, Lord. He does it wondrously.

And so let me read a passage with just a few scriptures from 1 Corinthians 1, 18 first, where Paul tells us that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. That's why he sent these two disciples out, these two witnesses, to untie the cult that was bound, to loose him and to bring him to Christ. In verse 23 of that same chapter, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. That's why we need his effectual grace to make it effectual in our hearts. but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And so, that's what is, our God makes Christ all to us, everything to us.

Christ is all and in all, Colossians 3.11.

In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2.9. And then in the next verse, and we are complete in him.

And then in Colossians 1.27, this is our hope, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he takes up residence, we're brought to him, we're loosed from this world and the dead things of this world and made alive unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 31, back in Luke 19.31, if any man ask you, he says, why do you loose him?

Thus shall you say unto him, because the Lord hath need of him. All right, the simple reason why this is done, the Lord hath need of him. When a sinner is saved, it's because the Lord has desired to have him and to reveal his grace and mercy and power in that sinner and to cause them to rejoice, to know that God so loved me, wherever I was in the world, that he sent his only begotten son for me and for all my brethren, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And he's done that for his brethren, and it's a rejoicing to us. Then fifth, drop down to verse 32, Luke 19, 32 through 36. 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. In other words, whatever the Lord tells us is gonna be, that's exactly how it's gonna be. It's gonna be just like that. Our Lord said, if they heard my word, they'll hear your word also.

If they love my father who sent me, they're gonna love you also. They're going to believe on me, whom the Father hath sent. You're going to know who are mine. They're going to be new creatures. They're going to be loosed by your preaching, and they're going to come, and they're going to follow Christ. They're going to follow me. And they brought him to Jesus. That's where we bring.

That's my endeavor, is to bring you to Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is salvation. I'm nothing, we're nothing, but Christ is all, and we glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 this, I see that this is what the church glories in. We're just heaping Christ on you.

All right, all our righteousness, all our hope, that's what we're telling you of, that's what we're boasting of. He's everything. And all the brethren are sharing in that same thing. When the Lord brings a sinner in, we're just all saying the same thing. Look to Christ, believe on him. We're setting him on every one of us. We're preaching him because he is salvation. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. You go with him. And so Christ is raised upon them in glory. He's gracious and mighty to save.

And then Peter adds this. He says, we do this because God is long-suffering to us. This world continues because God is long-suffering to us-ward, to all he chose in Christ, till everyone is born, brought into this world, and to that day and that point when they hear and believe, and when the last one believes, Christ returns. There's no more need for this world to go on. Not for us. He'll come and receive us. And it goes on, though, because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So that we are bound, Paul says, to give thanks always to God for you. We're not thanking you for believing. We're thanking God for your belief, for your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

Were unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is the Father's will, that of all which he hath given to Christ, they will hear, they will be loosed, they will be brought to Christ, and he shall sit upon them.

He shall be their King, their Lord, their Savior, their all. And then in closing, it says, verse 37 and 38, 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. So that this pictures, right, when his sheep are brought to him, right, in the end, it's the descent of our king who shall return unto the earth again and to be glorified in all his saints.

It's a beautiful picture. So in that sense, these things literally happen. They all happen, just like it says there. But we see in this an allegorical picture as well of the spiritual truths that our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us in salvation. I pray he bless that.