Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter
21. I just titled this message Hosanna. Hosanna. One of the old meanings
of that word was Lord save, Lord bless. Hosanna. And Israel of old went out to
battle. when they would come back victorious
and the leader would be in front of the army coming in to Jerusalem. They would cry, Hosanna, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. They would ascribe
victory to the leader, but all the glory of the victory to God. to God. He is to have all honor. We give honor to whom honor is
due. Scripture teaches us that. But
now all honor belongs unto the Lord Jesus Christ. All honor belongs to Him. Now
in verses 1 through 3, we will see the Lord's knowledge of all
things. We will see We will get another
glimpse of His deity. He says here, after they had
gone to the Mount of Olives, they were come to Bethphage,
and to the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two of His disciples,
saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and
straightway, immediately you shall find an ass tied in a coat
with her. Loose them, and bring them to
me. And if any man say unto you, you shall say, the Lord hath
need of them, and straightway he will send them." Over in Mark,
this same is recorded, and they are told to go to that same place,
and they are told that there will be a colt on which never
a man sat, a wild colt. None have never sat on this colt.
And some men did say to the disciples, what are you doing? And they
said, the Lord hath need of him. And so they said, okay. And they
let them take the coat. But we see here, when I was looking
at this, the Lord's knowledge of all things. He knows. He knows
all things. He knew where that donkey was.
He knew exactly that where it would be, who owned it, that
it would be tied up at a certain place, and he knew the owners
of it, and that they would say, okay, go ahead and take it. And I thought this knowledge
should have a sanctifying work on our walk every day. This ought to have a sanctifying
work on our walk every day. Hagar said, thou God seest me. Thou, God, seest me. David said
this in Psalm 51, This evil have I done in thy sight, with you
looking right on. With God looking on. He sees
us at all times. There is never a time that we
are out of His sight. Never a time that we are out
of God's sight. This is another proof of his
deity. And another proof of his deity is his control over all
things. He said, if they ask you, why
are you taking my donkey? You say, the Lord hath need of
him, and he'll send me. It'll be all right. And that
happened over in Mark, I just told you. What if someone, think
about this, what if someone came in here, someone you did not
know, They said, I need to borrow your car. We don't even want
our kids to borrow our car. And here's a total stranger.
I mean, they don't know them. And they said, we need to borrow
your donkey. You know, it's like saying, we
need to borrow your car. And he said, they'll let you
have it. They'll just give it to you. And they did. This is his knowledge over all
things. And this is his control over
all things. This situation throughout this whole process was never,
ever out of his control. He controlled the whole thing,
the whole process. Pilate tried to let him go, didn't
he? Pilate tried his best to let
him go. He said, I find no fault in this
man. And Pilate was wringing his hands and just trying to
figure out, how am I going to let this man go? How am I going
to get out of this situation? You're not. You're going to do
just what God's purposed you to do. He controls all situations, all
of them. And then there's a purpose in
what He's doing here. Our Lord never took a step that
was not purposed. He never said a word that didn't
have a purpose in it. It says here in verses 4 through
5, in verse 4, all this was done that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion,
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meet, and sitting upon
an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." Over here, this is said,
over here, let me read it to you. Over here in Zechariah.
Over here in Zechariah, in verse 9, Rejoice greatly, in Zechariah
9, verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem. And they do this. They do this. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. They had the prophecy. God gave them a prophecy of how
the king would come. How the king of glory, David's
son, this is how he will appear. This is how he will come into
town. This was five hundred and some years before it happened.
So they can't plead ignorance here because it was written.
He said, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just. He's a
just king. He's holy. He's righteous. Having
salvation. Lowly. See, they were expecting
a king of gigantic proportion as far as character and personality
and just pomp. But here's a man coming in lowly.
Riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. That was
550 years approximately before this happened. God told them
of it. He told them. All Scripture is
given by inspiration of God. And this one was given that they
might know and recognize Him when He came. So they can't plead ignorance
because God told them of it. The Jews had so many proofs given
to them that God left them without excuse, didn't He? You just go
throughout the Old Testament, and then when you come over here
to the Gospels, my soul, He fulfilled all of them. He fulfilled every
picture, every type, every prophecy that was spoken of Him. He fulfilled
it. And then He told His disciples
to do this, and it says they went. And the disciples went. There in verse 6, they went and
did as Jesus commanded them. Where there is faith, you mark
this down, where there is faith, there will be obedience to His
commands. Where there is faith, where there
is God-given faith, that person will follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you follow His commands, love one another, you will. Be baptized,
you will. Think of the Lord's Supper, you
will. Where there is faith, there is obedience. But now he comes
into town here as the Scripture said that he would. Just exactly
as it said that he would. And it says here in verse 7,
And they brought the ass and the colt, and they put on them
their clothes. Because they didn't have a saddle
or anything. They just took their clothes. They put it on this
colt that had never been broken. There's you a good picture. There's
you a good picture. How Christ breaks sinners. Religion
can't do it. I mean, good training can't do
it, but the Lord can. The Lord can. He can break us
in. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the
way. You know, whenever he came into town up to this time, he
always came into town quietly. They did. He always came into
town quietly. He always came into town with
no announcement. He just walked in, did his business,
and usually had to slip out of town because of the Pharisees
and Sadducees who caused so much trouble. But it's only fitting
for the King of Glory, now, He's getting ready to go to the cross
in four days. In four days, He's going to go to the cross. Four
days from this time, He's going to go to the cross. And it's
only fitting for the King of Glory to receive His due honor
before going to that cross. To be recognized as Israel's
king. This is the crowd. This is the
crowd. This is this is. You showed you the power of God
and the wisdom of God. This is the king of glory. This
is the crowd that's going to reject him in four days. But
before they reject him, before they reject him, he's going to
they are going to acknowledge him as the king. God will make
them acknowledge that this is my king. This is the king. And
when they hang Him on a cross, they're going to recognize this
is the King of Glory. That's what they're going to
do. For a few brief moments, He's
held as King of the Jews, for just a few brief moments. He's
going to receive the honors that's due unto His name. They're going
to cry when He comes into town. Hosanna! Hosanna! Lord save! Lord bless, to him
be all the glory and all the honor. For a few brief moments,
this is going to happen. I thought this is, some of those
did it and didn't know why they were doing it. This is God's
power. This is God's control over all
things. He said, this is what's going to happen. He's going to
come in on a donkey, and Jerusalem's going to shout and praise Him
over there in Zechariah. And I have no doubt that some
of them, they're praising Him and lauding Him and putting those
clothes down there, and they're like... Because they say, they
say, you'll see this in a minute, who is this? Well, if you don't
know who it is, why are you doing it? I'll tell you why you're
doing it. Because God said you're going
to do it. God said you're going to do it. It's like, who is this? I don't
know. Here's another branch thrown down. Praising. That's God's power over all things.
It's His power. Hosanna. This is the one who
saves. Now, the whole city, it says,
is agitated. That's what it means. It's the
whole multitude. And then it turns into multitudes.
They are just, the whole place. Right now, he's just agitated
over this person, over this man. He caused such a stir. If somebody rode into Ashland
on a donkey, would it cause that much stir? He comes into town
on a donkey. So simple, so quiet, and yet
all this praise is raised up. And all this whole city is agitated
over this one man. That's amazing. That's amazing. But they're saying, this is the
one who saves. This is the one who's saved by
His blood and righteousness. This is the one who saves. He
is the one to whom all honor and blessing belongs. And God's
going to make Him give it to Him before He goes to the cross.
They're going to acknowledge it before He goes to the cross.
This is our King. This is the King. This morning, we cry, Hosanna. I thought this was our cry this
morning. Lord save, Lord bless, Lord have mercy. All honor, all
blessings belong to You. We love, we worship our King
this morning. We recognize that He is the Lord. He's the Lord. And they cry,
who is this? Who is this? I thought when I was making these
notes, we ought to preach and praise Him in such a way that
it would make sinners cry out, who is this? Who is this? His presence moved that whole
town. Just a simple entrance on that
donkey moved that whole town. He came into town the simplest
way. Could you come into town any more simple than that? My
first thought when I read that, if we have His presence, if we
have His presence, the simplest preaching, the simplest preaching
will move the heart of His people to praise Him. We don't have
to have a show. We don't have to have bands and
all this stuff going on. Just the simplest of preaching.
If we have His presence, we'll move His people's hearts to praise
Him. That's what we need. We don't
need great oratory. We just need His presence and
simple preaching. That's what we need. But they
cried out, Who is this? Who is this? This is not the
first time this has ever been asked. I preached just a couple
of weeks ago over here in Psalm 24. Over here in Psalm 24. Look at this. In Psalm 24 it said, who is,
in verse 8, who is this King of glory? Who is this? Who is
this one coming into town? Who is this one who has the town
all stirred up and agitated? Who is this? In verse 10, who
is this king of glory again? Who is this? Over in Isaiah,
let's see, Isaiah 63. Look at Isaiah 63. It's not the
first time this question has ever been asked. It's Isaiah
63, verse 1. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Basra, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Who is this
that comes from Basra? Who is this whose garments are
dyed in red? Who is this? It's not the first
time that question was asked. I can go on and on. There are
several scriptures I have written down here over in Isaiah and
over in Luke and, well, go over to Isaiah 53. Who is this tender plant? Who
is this root out of dry ground? Who is this one despised and
rejected of men over in Isaiah 53? Who is this man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief? Who is this? I'll tell you who
He is. He's the God of our salvation.
He's God's salvation of His people. Look over in Luke chapter 2. Here is who this one is. In verse 25, Luke chapter 2,
this is Simeon. And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost
was upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that
he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
That's who he is. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents brought in the child, Jesus,
to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him
up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. He didn't just see the Savior,
although he did. He said, I have seen thy salvation.
This is salvation. Who is this? God's salvation
of His people. That's who He is. Who is this? He's the Son of David. That's
what they called Him over here in verse 9. Hosanna to the Son
of David. He's royalty. He's of the seed
of David. He's that promised seed that
God said would come. Who is this? He's thy King. We
have a King. We have a King. We are under a theocracy. Christ is the King. We obey Him. We love Him. We serve Him. He's the King. He's our monarch. Our King. All nations had their King, but
He's our King. And He is King of kings and Lord
of lords. That's who He is. Who is this?
He's that prophet. They said there in verse 11,
And the multitude said, This is Jesus. You know, part of the
multitude is saying, who is this? Why is all this commotion going
on? And the other part is answering, this is the son of David. This
is the prophet. This is Jesus, the prophet of
Nazareth, of Galilee. Well, he's a little more than
that. He's that prophet that Moses said should come. That's
who this is. Who is this? God incarnate. My friend, this is God in the
flesh. That's who this is. Now notice
when he came into town. If this is the son of David,
is he going to go up to David's tower and take over and run the
Romans out? Is he going to do that? Is that
what he's going to do? You know what he does? He goes
to the temple. He goes to the temple because
his kingdom is spiritual. It's a spiritual kingdom. He's
not going to go and run the Romans out and try to do all that. No, his kingdom is spiritual.
It says in verse 12, he went into the temple of God and cast
out the money changers. That's what he did. This is what
their religion had degenerated into, business. Business, that's
what it degenerated into. Money, transaction, and business. Those money changers were there
because, you know, this is the Passover going on, and there's
people from all different quarters who would come into town. They
would have different types of money and they would exchange
the money, you know, give you their type of money, take their
type of money, take interest off of it, of course. And then
they'd sell does and stuff like that. You know, the poor were
to offer up does. And if they didn't have one,
well, they can buy one at the temple. You don't have to bring
one. Forget that. Just we got one here. We'll sell
you. Trap them, you know, and bring them in and sell them for
a huge profit. That's what was going on in the
temple. That's what this is. I'm telling you what, when you
watch TV, when you watch these televangelists, it's nothing
but a begging fest. I mean, I've never, I've not
watched a program that they do not beg for money, beg and beg
and beg money, money, money. It's a business. There's probably
no bigger business in this country than religion. I doubt, I doubt
that there's any bigger, bigger, companies and businesses and
religion. So our Lord, when he comes in, the first thing he
does is go to the temple. He goes to the temple and he
cleans house. He cleans house. False religion established on
works and not grace. A religion that's established
on works and not grace always ends up being nothing but business.
You can mark it down. It ends up being nothing but
a business. But where Christ is enthroned, where Christ is enthroned in
the heart, where He is enthroned in the
heart, He said it's a house of prayer. It's a house of worship.
It's a place where God is worshipped. We have come together this morning
not for business. We've not come together this
morning to make money. We have gathered together this morning
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. To give unto Him all the glory,
all the honor due unto His name. To praise our Savior. That's
why we've gathered this morning. To worship Him. Now if you'll notice, here in
verse 14, after He goes in and He cleans the house, And he runs
these money changers out of the house, makes them get out of
there. You notice what happens after
that? Verse 14, And the blind and the lame came to him in the
temple. After he got rid of all the rubbish and all the trash
and all the commercialism, after he walked in and got rid of all
that, then he saved sinners. He got back to business. You
might say, his business of saving sinners. The blind and the lame
came to him in the temple and he healed them. And he healed
them. And when those chief priests
and scribes saw the... Now listen, when they saw the
wonderful, not bad things, they didn't see anything bad. When
they saw the wonderful things that he did, saving sinners,
Saving the blind and the lame and the deaf when they saw him
doing this. The wonderful things that he
did. And the children crying out, Hosanna! Giving him all
the praise and all the glory when they saw this. They were sore displeased, envious,
jealous that he was getting such attention. And he messed up their
program. He just messed up their program.
Their money making adventure. He messed it up. He ran them
out of the temple. They weren't pleased at all that
a lame man was able to stand up and walk. Or that a blind
man was able to see for the first time. Someone who had a disease
was able to actually Be healed. Religion is not happy that God
truly saves a sinner. Not really. I had a man say this
to me. I've said this to you before.
I had a man say this to me years ago. Someone was a friend of
mine I knew years ago. We ran around together when we
were in school. He went his way and I heard the
gospel went my way. He told me one day, he said,
I wish the Lord hadn't saved you. He told me that. We couldn't be friends no more.
We couldn't run to the same excess of riot. That's what the Scripture
says. They wonder why you don't run
to the same excess of riot. They wonder what's We just can't, we just can't
be, we cannot be, we can be mutual friends, I'm not saying we become,
we can be mutual friends. Hello, how you doing? Great weather
today, isn't it? You know, that kind of stuff.
But we couldn't run together anymore. Couldn't do it. Couldn't
do it. Religion is not happy when God
truly, truly saves a sinner. Now they're happy if they can
get you religious and get you giving that kind of stuff, participate
in their programs. But boy, to truly be saved of
God, they were sore displeased. They were sore displeased. And
He said unto him, Hearest thou not? Don't you hear what they
are saying? Don't you hear the praise and the glory and the
accolades that they are giving to you, which really only belongs
to God? Yes, I hear that. Oh, don't you
know, he hears it. He hears what? He hears our praise.
He hears the prayers we've prayed this morning, the songs we've
sung this morning. He's heard, he has heard from
every heart that it was truly sung from, truly prayed. He's heard it. Oh, I hear him
all right. He hears our praise. He hears
our prayers. Don't you hear it? He said, Yes,
I hear it. Yes, I hear it. And have you
not read ye scribes? You're reading the word every
day. Have you read this? Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. And
you can interpret it like this. Thou hast perfect praise. Out of these nobodies. That's the way they looked at
Him. They made merchandise of their souls, but when He came
in and He healed them and He did His work of grace upon them,
it messed up their program. It just messed it up. It destroyed
their business. It destroyed their business.
They said, don't you hear their praise? Yes. Yes. I hear their praise. He
hears the heart of everyone that praises Him. He hears the heart
of everyone that prays to Him. I hear Him. Aren't you glad He
does? I'm so glad He does. Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is He that cometh
in the name of the Lord. And He did.