Now you know I tell you often
that all scripture, not just some of it, not just the bits
that we want to read, you know, there are some bits that are
easy to read. I think we all admit this, don't we? When we
read the scriptures, there are bits that we find easy to read
and there are other bits that we find a great struggle to read,
if we're perfectly honest. But all of it is significant. All of it. Paul wrote to Timothy,
all scripture, all scripture is given of God, all scripture
is God breathed, all of it is profitable, all of it. I don't
understand all of it by a long way. I don't understand all of
it. No, not at all. No. Who can say
that they do understand all of it? There are depths and there
are mysteries there that we will need to be in glory before we
understand in full. I don't understand it all, but
I'm certain that all of it is significant. Because all of it,
you know what its purpose is. It's to testify of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said so himself. Who wrote
the scriptures? The old catechism says holy men.
Men set apart, taught by the Spirit of God. It was God-breathed. It was inspired. That word inspired
means God-breathed. And the same Holy Spirit inspired
different men to write the scriptures. And in writing the scriptures,
they recorded true history. which spoke of Christ coming
in history. They wrote true history. They
wrote allegories, stories, which pictured what Christ was coming
to do. They wrote about images and types,
etc, etc. All these different things. They
wrote about kings, they wrote about priests, they wrote about
prophets, they wrote about all sorts of things, but they all
testified this. And it's what it says in Luke
19 verse 10 that we were looking at last week. The Son of Man
God in human flesh is come, is become a man. God who made all
things, who upholds all things, is become a man for this purpose,
to seek and to save that which was lost. To find it, that which
was lost, his people, his church, which was lost in sin. in its
natural state, and to save it from the just judgment of God
for its sin, to save it from just condemnation, to make it
his bride, and to take his bride perfect and spotless with him
to glory. So all scripture is significant,
all of it. And it goes on from that verse,
they thought the kingdom of God was going to come straight away.
And what they thought, the disciples, they thought that Jesus was going
to ride into Jerusalem and be crowned as king and be recognized
and rule and the Romans were going to be got rid of and the
old state of Israel was going to be restored back to its former
glory. But no, it wasn't going to be like that. And so he gave
them this parable of the nobleman. And what does it teach? Well,
I'll just briefly say it teaches this. It teaches, if nothing
else, the importance of the stewardship, careful stewardship, of gospel
truth. the pounds that were committed
to the ten servants. If you've heard this gospel truth,
he's saying you're responsible to be a good steward of that
which you've heard. Because not many have heard it.
Not many have heard it. You look around the world, not
many have heard it. But God's been gracious in giving
that truth to certain people. We're responsible for it. Go
and use it. Go and live by it. Go and profit
by it. Like the one who got a pound
and made ten pounds when the nobleman came back. Don't be
like the one that hid that which he knew away. He wrapped it up
in a cloth and hid it. He didn't even go to the bank
and get some interest for it. Not at all. No. Anyway, I don't
want to look at that parable today. I want to consider verses
28 to 40. And the title of the message
is, A Wild Ass' Cult Loosed. A Wild Ass' Cult Loosed. This is the familiar Palm Sunday
account of Jesus riding into Jerusalem. And he rides on a
donkey, on an ass, on the colt of an ass, on an untamed colt
of an ass. Now, what is the significance
of this? This is what I want to look at
with you this morning. He's on a journey to Jerusalem. If you turn back to chapter 18
and verse 31, having told the disciples that they
were in having given up so much they had so much in this life
and in the life to come eternal life it had to be bought with
a price and in verse 31 he tells them We go up to Jerusalem, behold,
we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the
prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto
the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and
spitted upon, and they shall scourge him, and they shall put
him to death, and the third day he shall rise again. And none
of them understood it. But we, with gospel light and
gospel sight, understand these things. He was going to fulfill
the law in the place of his people. He was going to die for the sins
of his people. He was going to bear the sins
of his people. To be made sin, to bear the sins
of his people in his own body, on that wooden cross, on that
tree. on that wooden cross of His own creation, He was going
to bear the sins of His people, that the law of God might be
satisfied. He was going up to Jerusalem,
and the timing was just right. Do you know He was going for
the time of Passover? It was to be the Passover. And
you know at the Passover, there in picture, a picture lamb, was
slain for the symbolic people of God. That's where all gathered
there, the Jews gathered there to see a picture lamb, a real
little lamb, without blemish and without spots, slain and
its blood, its blood splashed around, sprinkled around in remembrance
of that Passover in Egypt when they came out. But he was going,
he was going as the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God was going on
this journey up to Jerusalem and He was going to redeem His
people. He was going to buy back His
people. He was going to pay the Lord's
price for the sins of His people. He was going to make satisfaction to the justice of God, for the
people, for his sin, for the sins of his people. He was going
to be stricken, as Isaiah 53 verse 8 says, he was going to
be stricken for the transgression of everyone that ever lived.
The scripture doesn't say that. For the transgressions of my
people. Was he stricken for the transgressions
of my people was he stricken? It's very specific for his not
for himself Daniel tells us that Daniel 926 he was going to be
cut off not for himself, but for his people as a substitute. He was to be the substitute for
his people. This is where he's going. And
on the way there, we've already seen, he's shown particular sovereign
grace to two people. To Bartimaeus, the blind man.
Blind Bartimaeus. And to Zacchaeus, the little
man hiding up the tree. And they experienced salvation
individually. Throughout the Gospels we see
examples of individuals Individuals in their own natural state, in
their state of sin, with no thought for God, with no thought for
anything of eternity, being arrested by the grace of God, and shown
the grace of God, and shown the salvation of God, and coming
to a knowledge of the truth, so that Christ says of Zacchaeus,
this day is salvation, come to this house, in that he is also
a son of Abraham. He's one of those people whom
God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. Salvation
of individuals experience, but then here in 28 to 40 he illustrates
the salvation of his sinful people in a picture, in an allegory,
in a picture. It fulfills prophecy. First of
all, it fulfills prophecy. This account of Jesus riding
into Jerusalem on a donkey, on an ass, on the colt of an ass,
it fulfills prophecy. Which prophecy? Well, he says
in Luke, as we've already seen, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,
and all things that are written in the prophets concerning the
Son of Man shall be accomplished. But which prophecy? Zechariah
9 and verse 9 the next to the last book of the Old Testament
Zechariah chapter 9 says this rejoice And if you know the music
of Handel's Messiah, it's difficult to read this without the music
ringing in your ears rejoice greatly Oh daughter of Zion Oh
daughter of Jerusalem Behold thy king cometh unto thee. He is just he has salvation He
is lowly and riding upon an ass, upon the colt, the foal of an
ass. That was written, now I'm not
sure about my timing exactly, but I would say about 450 to
500 years. Scholars might tell me I'm not
quite right there, but it's there or thereabouts. 450 to 500 years
before Christ came. That's like somebody in the days
of Henry VIII writing about something that happened today. Don't think
it's insignificant. It's a long time, isn't it? It's
a long time. That prophecy was written. Behold
thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of
an ass. And as with all prophecy, you
know, he says we go up to Jerusalem so that all things that were
written by the prophets concerning the son of man shall be accomplished
and then we read in verse 29 of chapter 19 we read and it
came to pass and it came to pass. Why did it come to pass? Why
did it happen? Why did it happen? Did it just
by, you know, we think things happen just by chance, don't
we? We think, oh, it just happened. No, it happened because God had
decreed it. God, the prophets foretell, not
by looking into a crystal ball, but by God telling them what
he has decreed. He knows the end from the beginning. All things are ordained by him.
All things, we read, work together for good to those that love God,
to those who are the called according to his purpose. For if God has
a purpose, and if God is God, and if God is the sovereign of
the universe, What can he say that then does not happen? He's
God. All things, it came to pass exactly
as he had said. He was saying to Jerusalem and
to the Pharisees when Jesus rode on that donkey into Jerusalem,
We call it, the traditional religion calls it the Palm Sunday thing,
the week before the crucifixion, the week before what they now
call Easter. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey,
on this colt of an ass. And he is saying to Jerusalem,
he is saying to the Pharisees, here is the one who claims to
be the prophesied Messiah King. You know your scriptures? You
know what you read in Zechariah? Behold your King, here he is!
Here, say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. Look, here he
is. Here's the prophesied Messiah
King. They knew that prophecy. And
it was strictly fulfilled. the prophet said he'll ride on
a donkey and you know you say well that's not too difficult
to contrive. Would you like to wander up,
I mean there must be somebody not far from here that owns a
donkey in a field, would you just like to wander up to that
field and untie the donkey and take it with you down the road
and have it as your pet? I mean, there'd be an outcry,
wouldn't there? It wouldn't happen. You'd be
stopped before you got halfway through what you were planning
to do. And even if you did manage to get it halfway down the road,
the police would be after you. It wouldn't happen. But it happened. It happened. Exactly as it was
said. It happened. He fulfilled it. It was strictly fulfilled. But
what's the significance of the picture? that he rode on an ass,
on the colt of an ass. What's the significance of it?
Would any picture have done? Let's say that Zechariah had
said, the Messiah, your king, is going to walk into Jerusalem
in a multicolored coat, like Joseph's multicolored coat. What
if he had said that? And on the day, this day, instead
of riding on a donkey, he'd walked into Jerusalem in a multicolored
coat. Wouldn't that have served the
purpose just as well? No, it wouldn't. Why did it have
to be on an untamed ass? It was, we're told in the gospel
accounts, all the gospels give an account of this. This was
a young ass. It was the foal of an ass, and
it was untamed. It was a wild animal. They're
not domesticated until they're broken. They're very stubborn. They're very mean-tempered. They're
very uncooperative. And he rode it. He rode it, the
first one that ever rode it, that day. What was the significance
of that, an ass? Why didn't he ride on a white
stallion. He's a king, isn't he? What do
kings ride on? You know, going into battle,
you see the pictures from history. Going into battle, what did the
king ride on, if possible? A white stallion, showing the
prowess and the power of the role. In Revelation 19 and verse
11, John, in his vision, sees this. He says, and I saw heaven
opened And behold, a white horse. He's talking of a magnificent
beast. He's talking of a proud, strong
stallion, a white horse, not a lowly donkey. And he that sat
upon him was called faithful. Here, in John's vision, faithful
and true, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his glory, is sitting as king
of the universe on a white horse, on the symbol of kingship. But
here, He's on an untamed ass, the colt, the foal of an ass.
He's illustrating this. He's illustrating and underlining.
Look, look. Let's be detectives for a moment,
right? What's this about? What's this
about? We're looking for clues. Imagine a detective situation.
Why was it the cult of an ass? Why was he on a foal, the cult
of an ass, and not on a stallion? What could it be? Think about
it. What do we know? All scripture.
All scripture is for what? To illustrate this, that the
son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
How does his riding on an ass, the colt of an ass, how does
that illustrate that the Son of Man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost? because in that ass is a picture
of the ones he has come to save. He's seeking and saving his lost
people. He's making his lost people into
his precious jewels as we saw last week in Malachi. It's salvation
in a New Testament picture. You know we see salvation in
Old Testament pictures again and again, but here is salvation
in a New Testament picture. And it's not always explicit. Here is a New Testament picture.
Here is a gracious king displaying humility and grace. Here is a
gracious king, as we read in Philippians chapter 2, he who
is our Lord Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. But he made himself of no
reputation, humble, and took upon him the form of a servant.
A servant, if he was doing well, might ride on a donkey. He rode
upon a donkey, the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. He who is God was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, for
that's why he came, to die the death of the cross. And the reason? Because again, if you go on in
that prophecy in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 10, He shall speak
peace unto the heathen. He shall speak peace, the peace
of God, to those that don't know it. He shall have universal dominion,
is what it says in verse 10, the verse after the one in Zechariah
9 verse 9. And in Zechariah verse 9, let
me remind you, Behold thy king cometh unto thee, he is just,
and having salvation. He is just? If he's just, surely
he must condemn all sin, but no, he has salvation. What verse
does that remind you of? A just God and a Savior. He is just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's quoting
Isaiah 45 and it's quoting Romans chapter 4. Just and justifier. a just God, and a savior, just
and having salvation. But why the ass? Is it just to
picture his humility? No. No. It's all given by inspiration,
all of it, all a scripture, all written by one Holy Spirit, using
different men, and all profitable. But why the wild ass' cult? Because
it's you and me, in our natural state. You and me in our natural
state. You know, When you see something
in the scripture, this is why it's good to read the scriptures.
You know often you say, well I read that, I'm reading through
the scriptures and you know I didn't get much from that. It doesn't
matter. It's going away there. It's laying down, layer upon
layer. And one day you'll see something
and you'll go, hey, that reminds me. That reminds me. And if you
were to read Job 11 and verse 12, you read this. Though man
be born like, now, what does he liken? Man in his natural
state too. A wild asses cult. Though man be born like a wild
ass's colt. That's what we're like in our
natural state. This is why it was a wild ass's
colt, because it pictures the ones he came to save. Man, born
like a wild ass's colt. What's that like? Stubborn. You know what's that expression?
As stubborn as a mule. They say somebody's as stubborn
as a... This is the same idea. As stubborn as a wild ass's colt.
You want it to do something? And they're heavy. And they're
mean. And they're stubborn. And they won't go. And they're
rebellious. They're mean-spirited. Until that spirit has been broken
and made submissive to the master who wants to use them in his
service. It has to be tame. It has to
be broken. This is completely the opposite
of what all false religion, all false Christianity so-called,
says about us as we are. I once heard somebody say and
mean it, you can't love others until you learn to love yourself.
What a lot of rot. What nonsense. That's not what
the scriptures say. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there is no light
in them. That is not what the word of God says. The word of
God says that you're not a lovable thing. It says not to love yourself. The love of self, self-righteousness,
the love of self is not good. We need to know our natural state,
what we're really like. We're like this wild ass's cult.
We're stubborn, rebellious, and mean-spirited compared with the
holiness and justice of God. God says you're not lovable. God says you're sinful. God says
these things. Look at Psalm 14. You don't need
to turn to it. I'll turn to it and read it to
you. Psalm 14. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God, no God for me. They are corrupt and have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. And what was his
verdict? They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. What, not even that kind lady
down the road who's always giving things to people? No, no, not
one. In the eyes of God and the justice
of God, no, not one. There is none righteous, no,
not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who
eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the
Lord? There they were in great fear, for God is in the generation
of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of
the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation
of Israel would come out of Zion. What is he saying? There's only
one hope, and that's the salvation of God. The salvation of God. The salvation of His people.
That's the only hope. Because in themselves there is
none righteous. No, not one. Isaiah chapter 1. When we get to Isaiah, there
God says, let's reason together. Let me talk to you, let's reason
together. Chapter 1 and verse 4, what does he call his people?
A sinful nation. A people laden with iniquity. A seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. They have
gone away backward. Verse 6, from the sole of the
foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it. It's rotten
right the way through. rotten from the sole of the foot,
however good we think we look, the verdict of God is this, rotten
from the sole of the foot unto the head, no sandals, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Verse 18 of the same
chapter. Verse 18, come now, and let us
reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet,
they're glaring out, they shall be as white as snow, though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, you need salvation,
there is only salvation that can cleanse. Verse 21, how is
the faithful city, talking about Jerusalem, the people, Zion,
how is it become unharlot, an unfaithful, an unfaithful servant. It was full of judgment, righteousness
lodged in it, but now murderers. That's the judgment of God. That's
the judgment that God has on his people. Job 39 verse 5, Who
hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Again, he's talking
of the sinfulness of man and comparing it to the nature of
a wild ass. This thing that Jesus chose to
ride into Jerusalem upon. In Jeremiah 2, 24, God calls
his people a rebellious people, and he calls them it in this
way. He says, they're a wild ass used to the wilderness that
snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. Does what she wants to do. In
her occasion, who can turn her away? Willful, unrepentant. This is what Joseph Hart says
in the hymn that we're going to sing later on. This grand
distinction should be known. Though all, all men without exception,
are sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. There are few who are sinners
in their own sight. There are few who recognize what
they really are before the holiness of God. To such as these who
recognize their sinfulness before a holy God, the Lord was sent.
They're only sinners who repent. And it says in another verse,
a sinner is a holy thing. Let me get the words of that
hymn. Though all are sinners in God's
sight, there are so few in their own. Then the next verse, a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. And as the note by William Gadsby
at the bottom, that is the Holy Ghost teaches and convinces him
what a sinner he is because people by nature don't know what sinners
they really are. They don't know that they're
sinners by nature. So, Jesus in this picture sends
out two disciples. Verse 30, look at verse 30 of
chapter 19. He said to them, 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." Our Lord Jesus Christ knew all about this,
or he ordained all of this beforehand. He said go, he sent them on a
mission, and what was their mission? To loose the wild asses cult. To set it loose, to untie it
from where it was. It's picturing preachers. That's
what he's picturing. The servants being sent to get
the wild asses cult is picturing preachers who are sent to proclaim
liberty in Christ. Liberty from what? Freedom from
what? Unloosing from what? From the
bondage of sin and from certain condemnation. John 8, 36, Jesus
said to those listening to him, if the son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. free from that bondage, the bondage
of sin and certain condemnation, free from the bondage of law,
from sin, from death, from justice, from condemnation, and preaching
is God's way. He sends his servant to the wild
asses cult, to his people, in their natural state, to call
them by the preaching of the gospel of grace, for that seems
like a foolish way, doesn't it? Doesn't that seem like a foolish
way? Well, so it is, according to the natural reasoning of man,
but it's by the foolishness of preaching that it pleased God,
1 Corinthians 1.21. By the foolishness of preaching,
it pleased God to save those that believe. Look at Romans
chapter 10. You know these verses, they're
very familiar to you. From verse 13, this is God's way. This is
God's way. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's without distinction. Without distinction of race or
age or color or background. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But, how then, shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? You can only call,
trustingly, on somebody in whom you've believed, in someone whom
you've put your trust. And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Oh, they'll be wise enough to
work it out for themselves if you give them enough time and
enough brain cells. That's not what God's Word says.
God's Word says it's by the foolishness of preaching. He says we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. Ordinary sinful men, like everybody
else, preachers of the gospel. Ordinary sinful men, earthen
vessels, but containing a treasure which is the pearl of greatest
price. which is the gospel of God's grace. And he sends a preacher
to declare that gospel. How shall they preach except
they be sent? The two servants were sent. He
sent his servants. He sends his servants. He equips
his servants. He gives them their script. He
gives them what they need. He sends them. How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings. So faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. He sent his servants, and that's
a picture of him sending preachers, to preach the gospel of God's
grace, to declare the gospel, to proclaim salvation from sin
accomplished. This is what true preaching is.
It's not moral stories or moral exhortation, it's proclamation
of salvation accomplished. And Christ promises this to those
he sends, in verse 30, he says, at your entering ye shall find,
you shall find, go and do it, you shall find, all his lost
sheep shall come to him. All that the Father gives me,
he says in John 6, 37, shall come to me. And he that comes
I will no wise cast out. Isaiah 55, when his word is preached,
it accomplishes what he sends it for. So shall my word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void,
but shall accomplish that which I please and shall prosper in
that thing whereunto I send it. It's an unlikely, the situation
you think is very unlikely to succeed. Go and stand and declare
this message to wild asses cults. stubborn, obstinate, refusing,
willful, mean-spirited people. Go and declare this message and
you think you're not going to have success. I mean, they're
owned by somebody else. There are people that own them
and he's tied up. How are you going to proclaim
liberty to somebody in that situation? He says, you shall have success. So shall my word be that goes
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void.
It shall accomplish that which I please. Go and fetch an untamed,
a willfully stubborn, ass's colt. Go and bring it. And even those
that own it will not object when you say the master has need of
him. Because Psalm 110 verse 3, he
makes his people willing in the day of his power. His grace is
irresistible. God's grace is irresistible.
And this is a sovereign leucine. Sovereign. He controls all things. Proverbs 21 verse 1, let me remind
you. The king's heart the king's heart. Where is it? It's in the hand
of the Lord. It's in God's hands. The king's,
even Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest earthly potentate. Even his heart
was in the hands of God, and so it is today. Rulers, and kingdoms,
and governments, and ISIS, and all these other things of which
people are afraid, the heart of the king is in the hands of
God. Fear not, little flock, don't
be afraid. If you trust Christ, you're in
the everlasting arms. He will not cause you to be,
anything to happen to you that will affect your eternal security,
nothing whatsoever. However stubborn, however in
the ownership of others, just like the world in general is
in the ownership and the thrall of Satan, his stubborn, wild,
asses cult will be brought to him willingly in the day of his
power. It's irresistible grace. In fact,
it wasn't the disciples that found the cult, Jesus found. Go to this place, he said. He'd
already found the cult. He knew where that cult was,
just like he knows where every one of his own is now. He knew
where it was. Go there, and you will find.
He'd already found it. John 12, 14. Jesus, it says in
this account, when he had found a young ass. Oh, but he didn't.
The disciples, oh. Jesus told them where to go.
Jesus found the young ass. He sat there on. The disciples
were merely his instruments, his servants. They were just
the preachers, gone to declare that which he said. But this
cult was loosed for the master's service. That's what it was.
It wasn't set free to go and do exactly what it wanted. It
was loosed for service, for the master's service. It wasn't set
free and given license to be a free stubborn ass causing havoc
wherever it went. It was more like the bonded slave.
You know the slave of the Old Testament? Slavery is a heinous
thing. Scripture in no way excuses slavery,
but in those days they had slavery. And there was a situation where
slaves had to be set free by the law of God. But it was the
case where a slave loved his master that he would say, I don't
want to be set free. I want to be my master's slave
forever, willingly. And he had his ear pierced to
show, I'm a bonded slave of this master whom I love. And so this
ass is set free more like that bonded slave. with the ear pierced
for willing service like that man that was possessed of demons
that Jesus found at the tombs and no man could restrain him
and constrain him in Luke 8 35 and there we see him when Christ
has come to him he's clothed and in his right mind and not
running around causing havoc but sitting at the master's feet
learning from him oh Here we have a picture of God saving
his people. And what do they say when he
comes riding on the ass? Verse 38, Blessed be the king
that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory
in the highest. They brought the ass and they
put their garments upon the ass and Jesus sat there on and as
he went they spread their clothes in the way. A kingly entry into
Jerusalem. 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 they had seen they had seen great
things done They had seen the Messiah. They had seen their
God come as a man for the salvation of his people. And they began
to praise God for the great things they had seen. And in verse 38,
they say, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the
Lord. They echo the prophecy of Zechariah, for all things
that were written in the prophets had to be fulfilled. And what
did they say? Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest. Does that remind you of the night
that Jesus was born? In Luke's Gospel chapter 2, the
angels singing, glory to God in the highest and on earth,
peace, goodwill toward men. And here, at the end of his ministry,
as he's just coming to the Passover to be the Lamb of God, going
to the Passover, they cry out, blessed be the King that cometh
in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven, for by what
he was doing, he is creating peace. He is causing peace where
there was enmity, where there was wrath, where there was anguish.
Peace and glory in the highest. Goodwill toward men. It's accomplished
here in what he's to do at Jerusalem. Here we have the fullness of
the Godhead. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Him
dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The fullness of the Godhead,
riding on the symbol of what He came to save. Children of
flesh. Children of flesh. stubborn children
of flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh. He came in the likeness of, he
rode on an ass, he rode on the symbol of that which he came
to save. And he's nearing his journey's
end. He said again and again, for this cause I came into the
world. What cause? To die. Why to die? To satisfy the law of God. To
fulfill the law of God for his people. And there's rejoicing
and praise for the mighty works they'd seen. True disciples cannot
keep quiet. They cannot. The Pharisees said,
rebuke them, tell them to shut up. They mustn't be doing this.
These words are only for the one who is God. And he answered
and said, I tell you that if these should be quiet, even the
stones of the ground would cry out in praise to him for what
they're seeing. Religion just couldn't see it.
Religion's clueless. It is so today. The religion
of this world, the religion that calls itself Orthodox Christianity
is completely blind concerning these things. They cannot see
what the Scriptures plainly declare, that the Son of Man came into
the world to seek and to save that which was lost. Oh, the
blessing of having eyes to see the truth of salvation accomplished. Now let's just apply it. Do you
have any sense of what you are by nature? That sense of what
we're going to sing in Joseph Hart's hymn. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
There's not many people know that they're sinners. All are
sinners in God's sight, but only those whom he gives repentance.
are sinners in their own eyes, for they see what they are, and
only they are the ones who find salvation and peace in Christ. Would you be loosed and tamed
willingly by Christ and his saving grace, as pictured in that ass
that he rode into Jerusalem? Would you? Well, seek, and you
shall find. The scriptures say this, seek,
and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
to you. And you will know the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord will not impute his sin. That's salvation.