Well, from the songs that we've
sung, you may have gathered, we're going to talk about the
King. Behold, thy King cometh. Now, this is one of the few events
that is recorded in all four Gospels. That tells me there's
a very important lesson for us to learn here. Scripture takes
the time to repeat an event, and this is the lesson that we're
to learn. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He's King. And here's the first thing, I
have several points I want us to see about Christ the King,
and the first thing I want us to learn from God's Word, that
Christ the King is victorious. In verse 12 of John chapter 12,
on the next day much people that were come to the feast, when
they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of
palm trees and went forth to meet and cried, Hosanna, blessed
is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." Now,
the people of that day would use palm branches when it was
time for them to show great joy or a great victory, celebrate
a great victory. And they took these palm branches
and used them to celebrate the coming of our Lord into Jerusalem. And when they used those palm
branches, what they were saying is this, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the great victor. Here is the mighty conqueror. He comes into town victorious. Now, whatever it is that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to do, He did it. Whatever it is that
He purposed to do, He did it. He's the mighty conqueror. He
accomplished all of His will. Christ did not die to make salvation
possible. He died to accomplish something.
and he accomplished it. He accomplished the salvation
of his elect. He didn't die to give sinners
the choice to decide whether to accept him or reject him.
He died to accomplish, to purchase the salvation of his people.
He died to eternally secure that salvation by paying their sin
debt for them with his precious blood. He worked out a perfect
righteousness. And he imputes that freely to
his people. He doesn't make an attempt to
make them righteous. He makes his people righteous in him. He took their sin away. He blotted
that sin out with his precious blood, the blood of his sacrifice.
So they don't have any sin or guilt left. It's gone under the
blood. He accomplished exactly what
he came to do in his life and in his death. He saved his people
from their sins. And the victory of Christ the
King is going to be won by what he accomplishes on this visit
to Jerusalem. This is the visit. The hours
come. What he's going to accomplish
by his death is the victory that he came to win. In a few days,
he's going to crush Satan's head and all the sin of his people
is going to be put away. What God promised to Adam way
back there in the garden, The hour's here. Now he's come to
accomplish that purpose. He's going to win the great victory
by his death. Opposite of the way that men
would conquer, Christ is going to win the victory by his death. And he's going to win the victory
over sin, death, and hell. Christ the King is victorious.
Second, I want us to see this. Christ the King is in control
of Every event of human history, every event, there's not an ant
that crawls through the ground that his path is not determined
by the will of the king. Here are these people, our Lord's
coming, they hear he's coming, they take branches of the palm
trees, they go get ready. And as he comes, they cry, Hosanna! Who put it in their hearts to
go do all that? To go to all the trouble, get in the palm
trees and go out there and wait on Him and to cry, Hosanna! Blessed
is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Who
put it in their heart to do that? Christ did. Christ the King put
that in their heart so that His eternal will would be accomplished. Christ is going to be announced
as King. He was announced as King at His
birth. And now, right before his death,
he's announced and celebrated as king. And he will be crucified
as king. The king of kings and the Lord
of lords is going to be crucified for his people. And all that
was done to show us that the death of Christ is voluntary. He's the king. They didn't take
him against his will. He went willingly, the king went
willingly to suffer and die for his people, to be sacrificed
for the sin of his people. Christ was always, always in
control. Because he's king. Even when
he came and was taken, they took him because he allowed himself
to be taken. He was in control. When they were beating him and
mocking him, he was in control. They had his hands tied, but
he's in control. They had that mock trial. He
was in control. He set Pilate straight on that
issue. Who's in control here? The king. And when he was crucified, he
was in control. He's king. They didn't take his
life from him. He gave up the ghost because
he's king. In a few days, the same crowd
that's shouting, Hosanna. Blessed. Blessed is the king
of Israel. In just a few days, the same
crowd is going to be yelling, crucify him. We have no king
but Caesar. Well, who put it in their heart
to do that? I guess, you know, God put it in their heart to
cry Hosea and the devil put it in their heart to cry crucify
him. No, sir. Christ the King put that in their
heart to say crucify him. We have no king but Caesar. And he did that so that his purpose
of redemption would be accomplished in his death. Pilate told our
Lord, don't you know I've got the power to condemn you or let
you go? Our Lord said, no, you don't.
Pilate could not let the Lord Jesus go. Couldn't do it because
if Christ is not crucified, there's no salvation. Pilate wasn't in
control. Christ the King was in control
so that he would go and be crucified for the sin of his people and
accomplish their salvation. And Pilate This crowd, both the
crowd that's crying Hosanna and the crowd that cries crucifying,
and you and me, we're all under his control. We're pawns that
God moves across the board of time to accomplish his eternal
will and purpose. The king's in control. Everything
that happens, everything, happens at the express will of the Almighty. Now, I know the devil may have
done it. The devil did all these things, you know, to Job. But
he could only do what God, the king, allowed him to do. God and Satan are not rivals.
You know, it's not, well, God's over here doing this and Satan's
over here doing this, each doing their own thing. Let's see who
can accomplish their will. No, no, no, no, no, no. God's king. The Lord Jesus Christ
is king. He's in control. And every event
of human history is the result of God's will. Whether it's sunshine
or whether it's a gentle rain, God did that. Or if it's a hurricane
or tornado or a drought that devastates entire regions, God
did that. He's king. I was watching a special
last night on World War II and this nurse, she'd gone in and
treated many, many Holocaust victims. And she said she'd look
at them and wonder, God, where are you? Let me tell you. I don't know what his purpose
was in that, but I can tell you where he was, where he is right
now. On his throne. He's king. Every event of human history
is directed by his control. Look at verse 14. And Jesus,
when he had found a young ass, sat there on. Now, where'd our
Lord find this young ass? That donkey was exactly where
Christ put him. That's why I found him, because
he's exactly where Christ put him. Look back at Mark chapter
11. All this is happening at the direction of the King. Christ
the King. In Mark chapter 11. And when they came to Idah Jerusalem
unto Bethpage and Bethany, the Mount of Olives, he sendeth forth
two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go your way to the
village over against you, and as soon as you be entered into
it, you'll find a colt tied." That's exactly where he put it.
They're going to find that colt exactly where he put it. Whereon
never man sat, loosing and bringing. And if any man say unto you,
why do ye this? Say ye that the Lord hath need
of him, and straightway he'll send him hither. And when they
went their way and found the colt tied by the door without,
in a place where two ways met, and they loosed him. And certain
of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye loosing
the colt? And they said unto them, even
as Jesus had commanded, and they let them go." Now, if somebody
came into my driveway and started taking my car, and I asked them,
what are you fellows doing? And they said, well, some man
that you've never heard of has need of him. I wouldn't be letting
them take it. The owners of this donkey did
because their heart is in the hand of the king. This is under
the control of the Lord. He's king. And he just moved
them to give him that colt. It's his to begin with. They're
just borrowing it. It's his. And he used it for
his purpose. The Lord is in control of the
heart of every man, whether it's this crowd shouting, whether
it's the owners of the colt. or whether it's the king's heart
that he turns with or soever he will, every man's heart is
in the hand of the king. And thankfully, that includes
the heart of his people, where he causes his people to bow to
him, to love him and to believe him. And here's a picture of
that, this cult. Nobody had ever ridden it. So
that cult can't be ridden. until somebody breaks him and
gets him used to the weight of a person on his back. He can't
be ridden. Our Savior just sat on him and
began to ride. He was already broken to the will of the king.
Our Savior is king. He made a donkey speak once.
Don't you reckon he can make that donkey take his weight without
bucking and braying and going crazy? He can. Because he's king. And our Savior did all that,
not just as a party trick to display his power. He did all
that so that scripture would be fulfilled. These prophecies
that were written of him hundreds and hundreds of years ago, he
made everything work out exactly so that he accomplished all those
prophecies. This prophecy that we're reading
in verse 15 is a prophecy from Zechariah 9.9. And our Lord had
the power to fulfill it exactly. The Passover Thousands of years
ago, God gave Moses the commandment for the Passover lamb. The Passover
lamb was to be observed for four days and then slain. It had to
be observed for four days to make sure it was perfect. Our
Lord came into Jerusalem four days before the Passover so that
he would be observed for four days and then the Passover would
be sacrificed for us. He did that because he's king. He controlled all those events.
to accomplish his eternal purpose, to accomplish the prophecies
of the scriptures written hundreds and thousands of years earlier.
And Christ the King uses that same sovereign power to guarantee
the salvation and the perseverance of his people. He's king in control
of every situation. Third, Christ is the sovereign
king and his sovereign dominion includes salvation. Now I point
that out because a lot of people in our day would have Christ
be sovereign over everything except salvation. No, he's sovereign
over all things, including salvation. Our Lord is the one who made
this crowd shout and acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Messiah. Matthew says they shouted Hosanna
to the Son of David. Now who's the Son of David? Not
Solomon. The Son of David is the Messiah.
They are claiming, they are giving credit to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is none other than the Messiah, the Son of David, the long-awaited
Savior. They acknowledge here, and John
says, they say that the Lord Jesus came in the name of the
Lord. He's God. That's His name. He came in the name of the Lord
to accomplish the purpose of the Lord. And they're crying
to Him. The cry to the king is Hosanna. Now Hosanna means save I beseech,
save I beg. They're crying to the king of
Israel and begging him to save them when they cry Hosanna. Christ
the king is sovereign in salvation and if he's going to grant it
we're going to beg for it because he's king. Now most people in
this crowd would say that this crowd is the rabble of society. This crowd is mostly made up
of country folk. You know, they've come into Jerusalem
from all out in the country, you know, to observe the feast.
And they don't know about everything that's going on in Jerusalem.
They don't know about the Pharisees' commandment, if you know where
the Lord is, tell us so we can take him and kill him. They don't
know about any of that. They're the uneducated outsiders. And that's the folks who are
crying hosanna. Lord, save I beg. Save I beg. But you know what? That's not
surprising. That's who God always calls. The nobodies, the nothings. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. This is who God always calls. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. If ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in
his presence." Now, is that you? A nothing? Somebody that's worth
less than nothing, just base and worthless? I hope so. Because that's exactly who Christ
the King came to save. He's sovereign in salvation.
And before he saves us, he's going to show us that's what
we are. Nothing. Worth less than nothing in vanity. And we're going to cry Hosanna. But you know, that's the cry
of all creation. All of creation cries, Christ
is king, he's the sovereign savior, Hosanna. Even the creation groans
for that and waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. Look in Luke
chapter 19. Here's Luke's account of this
event where our Lord riding into Jerusalem and he shows us this
cry that Christ is king, Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel.
That cry cannot be silenced. In Luke 19, verse 38, this crowd
is saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the
Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the
Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke
thy disciples. Tell them to be quiet. Don't
say that. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that
if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately
cry out. This is the cry of all creation. Christ is the sovereign king,
sovereign over salvation. And if we're going to have it,
we're going to cry and beg for it from him. Fourth, Christ is
the gracious king. Look in verse 15 of our text,
John chapter 12. He sat on a young ass, as it
is written, fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, thy king cometh,
sitting on an ass's colt. And our Lord comes to town, and
he makes it obvious he's king. He put in the hearts of the people
to use these palm branches and to shout Hosanna, blessed is
the king of Israel. He's king, but his kingdom's
not of this world. He is not acting like any other
human king. An earthly king would have come
to town with a big white stallion. He'd have had an advanced team,
you know, coming. An earthly king would have had to come tell
everybody he's coming. The Lord just put it in their
hearts to know he's coming. And he'd come in with a big white
stallion or maybe he had a real fine gold horse-drawn carriage
or something, you know. And he had a huge entourage.
He had a big band, you know, playing Hail to the Chief or
Long Live the King or something, you know. Christ, the King of
Kings, came into town riding on a small ass. His entourage
was a bunch of uneducated, not a bunch, a few, uneducated men
being hailed by the rabble of the day. There's the King of
Kings. His kingdom's not of this world.
The king of kings is meek. He's approachable. The Savior
must be approachable by sinners. Sinners were always comfortable
in the presence of our Lord. Our Lord made it plain. Sinners
can be comfortable coming to Him. He said, come. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest.
Come. He didn't come up to me, I don't
know why he's cast out. Suffer even the little children
to come to me. Not the big important people,
just the little children. Suffer them to come. They can
be comfortable coming to Him. And in Christ, sinners can go
before the very throne of God at all times, boldly, confidently,
knowing they'll be heard for Christ's sake. The King of kings
is approachable. You try doing that with the President
of the United States. You just try to get an appointment
with him. Try to get an appointment with the Queen of England. You can't do it. You can with
the King. The King of Kings. You can come
to him any time. He's approachable by sinners.
The President, he don't have time for the likes of us. But
the Savior does. The King does. The character
of Christ the King. draws even the chief of sinners
to come to Him. And Christ is King. I can't go
to Him. I don't have, by nature, the
ability to go to Him. By nature, I don't have the desire
to go to Him. But He'd come to me. And He does. He comes to His people. Behold,
thy King cometh. He comes to His people. And he
came to dispel all fear. Sinners don't need to fear coming
to the Savior. The prophecy says, fear not. Why would you? There's nothing
to be afraid of. What's the thing that causes
fear? Sin. The king came to take it away.
Fear not. All the reason for fear has been
taken away, and he ever lives to ensure the success of the
sacrifice of his people. That salvation in Christ can
never be lost. Fear not. Christ the King lives
to ensure it. Fifth, Christ the King is the
only object of faith. Verse 16, these things understood
not as disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified
Then remembered they that these things were written of him, and
that they had done these things unto him." Here all this is going
on, this big crowd, the palm leaves, the Hosannas, and blessed
is the King of Israel, and they don't know what's going on. They
don't know why all this is happening. They didn't understand any of
the spiritual significance of anything that was going on until
they remembered the scriptures. After they saw our Lord crucified,
buried, and raised from the dead and ascended back on high, then
they understood the Scriptures. Then the Spirit brought those
Scriptures to their mind and they understood all those Scriptures
because they'd seen the fulfillment of all the Scriptures. They'd
seen Him who is the fulfillment of every Scripture. They saw
Christ who's the fulfillment of the Word of God. They saw
Christ who's the incarnate Word of God. The subject of the whole
Bible, every page, every word, is Christ. It's all written of
Him. He's the object of our faith.
And many of you have seen Him. You've seen Him a long time.
You've seen Christ the King. You love Him. You worship at
His throne. Many of you do not. Most of the
world doesn't see Christ the King. Well, haven't they heard
the name of Jesus? Absolutely, they have. But they
don't see him as he is. They don't see him as king. They
see him as a prophet. They see him as a reformer. They
see him as a helper. They see him as a beggar. But,
you know, even a physical view of the Lord Jesus won't correct
that wrong understanding of who Christ is. He must be seen with
the eye of faith. The disciples didn't even understand. Until they remembered the word,
the word, the word, the word. And the only way you and I will
ever see the Savior is through eyes of faith. Look at verse
17. The people, therefore, that was
with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him
from the dead, they bear record. They tell people, this man raised
a man from the dead, a man who had been stinking and decaying.
He raised him from the dead. We watched him feast at the supper.
And for this cause, the people also met him, for they heard
that he had done this miracle. See, all they saw was a miracle
worker. They figure, well, if he got
the power to raise somebody from the dead, he could set up an
earthly kingdom. We'll be free from all this Roman
rule and oppression. You know, he's going to set up
an earthly kingdom. They saw a miracle worker. But they would
not have him be their king. My king slaughtered? My king
tortured and humiliated and made to be sin and slaughtered? No. That's too humiliating. I won't
bow to that. They're looking for a political
king, not a spiritual sovereign who's the sacrifice for sin.
I want every person in this room
to answer this question in your heart. Which are you looking
for? Are you looking for a helper?
Somebody to help you do what you can't do? Are you looking
for a reformer, an example? Or are you looking for a sacrifice? The king sacrificed for the sin
of his people. You know, many people, they have
some understanding of who the Scriptures declare Christ to
be. Many people don't. But some people
have some understanding, if you're honest. And you just can read
the English language. You've got a pretty good idea
from reading Scripture. Christ is king. He's sovereign. He says whom he will, when he
will. He didn't die for the sins of
every son of Adam. He died for the sins of his people.
Anybody, if they're honest, can read the Bible and understand
that. But they're hating for it. What they have an understanding
of, they're hating for it. And you know what? Getting a
physical view of the Lord Jesus won't correct that error either.
It's the object of faith. We have to be, the King has to
be revealed to us with eyes of faith. Look at verse 19. The
Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye
prevail? Nothing. Behold, the world is
gone after him. Self-righteous man will always
hate salvation by grace alone, by the power of the King alone,
by his blood and righteousness of Christ alone. The self-righteous
man will always hate that because it's too humiliating. It's humiliating
to admit I'm a sinner. And the salvation of my wretched
soul took that. Took the crucifixion of Christ
the King. It's just too humiliating. It's
too humiliating to admit I'm undone. I'm dead in trespasses
and sins. I'm hopeless. My only hope of
salvation is this homeless man who's king, who was sacrificed
for the sin of his people. It's humiliating to admit I'm
in his hands. He's king, sovereign over all,
and I'm in his hands to decide what he will do with me. He's
not in my hands to decide. I'm in his hands. Now, that's
humbling. You're going to have to humble
yourself to admit that. And the pride of the flesh hates
it and hates Christ for it because he's sovereign. And I would hope
and pray that that wouldn't be the mind of anybody in this room,
but I suspect it is. I have a warning for you. No
matter how much you rebel against Christ the King, just like these
Pharisees, you will prevail nothing against Him. He's King. The only hope of salvation that
any son of Adam had, any of us, the only hope we had, is bowing
to King Christ and begging Him for mercy. So which are you? Which am I? Are we a loving subject
to the King who bows before Him, pleading for mercy and crying,
O Santa, God save me, God save me, or I'm damned. Are we somebody
looking for a miracle worker, you know, a healer, an example,
a helper? Are we the one that hates the
sovereign Christ who says whom He will? If so, if that's your thought,
and you know if it is or not, I can tell you why you think
that. It's because God's left you alone. That's the reaction
of all of Adam's nature, is to hate Christ the King. Why Adam
sin in the first place? He can exalt himself to the throne
of God. But if God ever moves in mercy,
And the King comes. All behold, thy King cometh.
If He comes to you, you'll see Him as King. And you'll cry,
Hosanna. Save us, we beg. And we'll lovingly
bow to Him as King. Well, I hope that'll be a blessing
to you. Now here, in a few moments, we're going to look in your Bibles
at Proverbs 13. We're going to celebrate Lindy
Simpson's high school graduation. It's something to think about
how our children are growing, how fast they grow. It just seems like just the other
day, Erin and Michelle brought that little baby to church for
the first time as she graduated high school. Wednesday night,
I was looking, you want to shock. Look up there on the bulletin
board, pictures of our kids about the time we moved in this building.
They've grown and matured. It's just something. And you
get to these big moments. High school graduation is a big
moment. It's exciting. And I love our children. I just,
all of you. Now, I love you. And when you
get to this time, you know, Lindy, I wish I could give you some
real words of wisdom, you know, just life-altering, you know,
but I don't. My words aren't too good. But
here's the Word of God. And this is our prayer for you,
for all of our children. Look in verse 13. Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise
of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof
than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies,
and all the things that I can't desire are not to be compared
unto her. Length of days is in her right
hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them
that lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her.
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, by understanding hath
he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are
broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, my daughter,
let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So shall they be life unto thy
soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way
safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down,
thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down, and
thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear,
neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh. For
the Lord shall be thy confidence. and shall keep thy foot from
being taken." That's a good prayer, isn't it? Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, King of
all, we give thanks that You are King, God ruling over all. And it is our prayer that You,
in Your mercy and Your grace, Send someone to tell us, behold,
thy King cometh, that we would see Christ the King, not just
as King over all, but my King, my Sovereign, my Savior, the
one who put away my sin, the one to whom I bow and I worship,
the one who is my all in all. Behold, thy King cometh. What
good news? We are overcome with your mercy
to us that you would send this glorious message to sinners such
as we are. Behold, thy King cometh. That he has come and accomplished
the eternal salvation of his people. And he's coming to take
up the throne in the hearts of all of his people. Father, we're
thankful. We're thankful for this. The
time of fellowship that we have, we're thankful for Lindy and
her high school graduation. Father, we pray your richest
blessing upon her. She continues to step out and
grow and mature. We pray that you'd go with her.
That you'd always lead and guide and direct her. Have her in your
mercy and your grace. Give thanks for this food that
we're about to partake of and ask your blessing upon it. All
these things we give thanks in that name which is above every
name. In the name of Christ our King,
Amen.