Would you turn to Matthew chapter
21? I'm just delighted to be with
you. Couldn't be happier. Love this church. Love your pastor. I think that song served as an
introduction to what I'd like to attempt to preach on. I'd
like to Begin reading in verse one of Matthew chapter 21. And when they drew nigh unto
Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives, then
sent Jesus to disciples saying unto them, go ye into the village
over against you and straightway you shall find an ass tied and
a colt with her. loose them, and bring them unto
me. And if any man say aught unto
you, you shall say, the Lord hath need of them, and straightway
he will send them. 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. meek and sitting upon an ass
and a colt, the foal of an ass. And the disciples went and did
as Jesus commanded them and brought the ass and the colt and put
on them their clothes. And they set him there on and
a very great multitude spread their garments in the way and
others cut down branches from the trees and straw them in the
way. And the multitudes that went
before him that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of
David. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he was coming to Jerusalem,
all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? I've entitled this message, The
Most Important Question. Who is this? Everything hinges on the answer
to this question. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? What we believe is determined
by who we believe. If that's settled, everything
else will be settled. Who is this? The city was moved to concern,
to fear, to trembling. Who is this of whom such great
things are said? Who is this? Now, I want to go
to John 19. We're going to stay in one passage
of scripture. to answer that question. Would
you turn with me to the 19th chapter of John? Who is this? Verse 1. Then Pilate therefore
took Jesus and scourged him, and the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple
robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him
with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again
and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that
you may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith
unto them, Behold the man. Who is this? The man. The man, Christ Jesus. In answer to the ancient prophecy,
unto us a child is born. Here he is. unto us a son is
given. Behold the man, bone of our bones
and flesh of our flesh, a human being. Behold the man, behold
the man born of a virgin, not born with Adam's evil nature,
but a real man nonetheless, wrapped in swaddling clothes. With no
room for him in the inn, born in a stable, a barn with the
smell of manure in the air, the ancient of days becomes the infant
of days, with all of the weakness and the vulnerability of a newborn
baby. the man, the word was made flesh. Behold the man saying to his
parents, how is it that you sought me? Wist ye not that I must be
about my father's business? And then behold him as he goes
and the scripture says he became subject to them. Behold the man working in the
obscurity of a carpenter shop. Nobody understood who he was,
but his father did. Is not this the carpenter's son?
Behold him as he keeps God's holy law perfectly. He loved God, his father, with
all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his
And he loved his neighbor as himself. The only man to ever
do that. Behold the man, before entering
his public ministry, he comes to John the Baptist. And John
the Baptist says, I have need to be baptized of thee. Comest
thou to me? He said, Suffer it to be so,
for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. and he went
down into the water. And as he came back out, the
heavens opened, and a voice came from heaven saying, this is my
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Behold the man as he's led into
the wilderness, and he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, having
neither anything to eat or drink, And then the tempter comes and
tempts him. He meets the devil head on. How many times have you defeated
temptation? You want an honest answer? Not
once. Not once. But he defeated the devil. He said, he's found nothing in
me, nothing he could get hold of, nothing he could use. Oh, he could find so much in
me and you, but he's found nothing in me. He never sinned. Behold, the man who sat on the
well, being wearied with his journey and said to the woman,
give me to drink. Behold the man who went about
doing good. He healed the sick. He gave sight
to the blind. He raised the dead. He fed the
hungry. He was called, this man was called
the friend, the friend of publicans and sinners. Behold the man in
his harsh denunciation of the Pharisees. and the Sadducees. Behold him as he gets a whip
and he drives them out of the temple and he overchanges the
tables or he overturns the tables of the money changers and says,
take these things from hence. Don't make my father's house
a house of merchandise. You've made it a den of thieves. Behold the man in Gethsemane's
garden. as he sweats great drops of blood,
all that's associated with sin, he was made to experience at
that time. Behold the man, when Judas comes
to get him, Hunziki, Jesus of Nazareth, I am, and
they fell backwards. He was letting them know at this
time he was no victim. This man, Christ Jesus, was in
complete control. Behold the man nailed to a tree
in untold pain and agony. Who is this? The man. Jesus There is one God and one
mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus He is a
real man Just like me and you sin Accepted with all the limitations
of the flesh behold the man and let's go on reading John chapter
19 verse 6 and When the chief priests, therefore, and officers
saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Take
ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews
answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God. Who is this? The uncreated, eternal, Son of
God. The Word was made flesh. Who was the Word? In the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning. with God. All things were made
by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Who is this? The Eternal Son
of God. Would you turn to John chapter
5? Let's see what all this means. John chapter 5, verse 17. But Jesus answered them, My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work." You see, when he works, I work. When I work, he works. Therefore, the Jews sought the
more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his father, making himself equal
with God. That's who this is. He who is
equal with God. He thought it not robbery. He
thought it not a thing to be grasped for. To be equal with
God. One day, the disciples were in
the boat and he was asleep. And a great storm comes upon. Wake him up, and they say, Master,
carest thou not that we perish? And the Scripture says, He rose
up and rebuked the wind, and said to the storm, Peace, be
still. And there was a great calm. And
the disciples were scared to death. They said, What manner
of man is this, who even the winds and the seas obey him? I tell you what manner of man
this is. This is the God-man, the uncreated,
eternal, Son of God. God said, I will declare the
decree. The Lord has said unto me, thou
art my Son. This day have I begotten thee. This is the only begotten Son
of God. And this begetting doesn't have
anything to do with the begetting of time, but a fact irrespective
of time. This is the eternal only begotten
Son of God, the only being, the only declaration of the person
of God. Do you remember when the Lord,
turn to Luke 8, please. Do you remember when the Lord
met that man who was possessed with demons? He was possessed
with 2,000 demons and our Lord comes up and you remember what
the Scripture says about this man. It says, he had his dwelling
in the tombs. He lived among the dead and He
would try and cut Himself with stones. And they'd try to chain
Him down. But their chains never would
work. He would break the chains. And that's what religion does.
It tries to tame men. It tries to chain them up. But
when sin would call, He couldn't say no. He would break the chains
and cast them asunder. And the Lord comes to Him. And
He knows who He is. He says, What has thou to do
with me, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? Are you come to
torment me before the time? What connection is there between
us? You're good. I'm bad. You're light. I'm darkness. You're holy. I'm evil. There's
no connection between us. What has thou to do with me?
He didn't even suspect mercy and the Lord cast out. those
2,000 demons. And they went into a bunch of
pigs. You're familiar with the story, but I wanted to pick up
reading in verse 37. Let's start in verse 35. Then
they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found
the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the
feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were
afraid. This man who they tried to chain down, now all of a sudden
he's sitting at the feet of Christ, clothed in his right mind. There's
a glorious gospel message, isn't there? And they were afraid. They didn't
like this. They also, it saw, told them by what means he that
was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude
of the country of the gatherings round about besought him to part
from them. For they were taken with great fear, and he went
again into the ship and returned back again. Now the man out of
whom the devils was departed besought him that he may be with
him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house
and show how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went
his way and published throughout the whole city how great things
Jesus had done. Did he make a mistake? You know
better than that. It's who he is that causes the
saving efficacy of his work. You determine who he is and you
won't even entertain the thought that he could die for somebody
and they wind up in hell. You wouldn't even entertain the
thought. Not if you believe who he is. You see, who he is determines
what we believe. It's the who that determines
the what. He can't be unsuccessful. He's
the God-man. If He died for you, you must
be saved. You can't be anything but saved
if He died for you. All that the Son of God died
for must be saved. Who is this? The man, the Son
of God. Why, even in His death. We read
where the Roman centurion and they that were with him watching
Jesus, they saw the earthquake, and those things that were done,
they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God. Who is this? This is the man
Christ Jesus. This is God the Son. Back to our text in Luke, John
19. Verse 7, who is this? The Jews answered him, we have
a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself
the son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he was the more afraid. You know, Pilate was scared to
death. You remember how his wife had a dream and said, don't have
anything to do with that just man. I've suffered many things
because of a dream about him this day. Pilate knew something. I don't know what he knew. He
was a weak man. He didn't do anything about it. But he knew
something and he was scared. Verse 8, When Pilate heard that
saying, he was the more afraid. And he went again into the judgment
hall and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him
no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest
thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? Jesus
answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin. Who is this? This is the one
over whom you and I have absolutely no power and no control. Not a bit. Now, the Jesus that
cannot save unless we let him, the Jesus that we make Lord of
our lives and of our own free will, we decide to accept him
or reject him, that Jesus is an idol. non-existent, made up
by men's perverted imagination. The Bible knows nothing of a
Jesus like this. He said, you have no power at
all over me. You see, he's the one over whom
we have no control. And he is the one, listen, he's
the one who has complete control over you and me. complete control. He reigns. He reigns in the physical
world. He reigns in the weather and
all the stuff that happens, all the stuff that happens in Providence,
He's in control of. He's the first cause behind every
bit of it. He reigns over angels, those mighty beings, they simply
do His will. He reigns over demons, why they
couldn't move from one place to another without asking His
permission, suffer us to enter into the swine. And Jesus gave
them leave. He suffered them. He allowed
them. They couldn't make a move without Him. He reigns over the
devil. The devil is His devil on His
chain doing His will. He reigns over wicked men. They're
pawns in His hand fulfilling His purposes. He reigns over
His people. Thou has given Him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him." Now listen to me real carefully. You'll only
worship, you'll only worship a sovereign. One whom you have
absolutely no control over. One in whom you're in his hands
and he can do with you Whatever he's pleased to do. Now, who
is this? He's a real man, the man. He's the son of God, the eternal
creator, God the son. And he's the one over whom you
and I have no control. We're in his hands. Do you find that a good place
to be? Do you like it there? I like it there. Somebody says,
I don't see any safety there. That's the only place I see any
safety. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Verse 12, John 19, who is this? And from thenceforth, Pilate
sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying,
If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever
maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate therefore
heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the
judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in
the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover. Now, the Jews at this time were
celebrating the Passover. Look in chapter 18, verse 28.
Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the hall of judgment, and
it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall,
lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.
You see, they didn't want to get defiled. They're going to
murder the Son of God, but they're not going to be defiled because
they want to eat the Passover. You see, to them, the Passover
was a religious ceremony that they needed to keep with absolutely
no understanding of. But it was the preparation of
the Passover. What is the Passover? God's going to pass through the
land of Egypt and destroy the firstborn in every home. And he told the children of Israel,
you take a land without spot, without blemish, representing
the sinlessness, the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you slay it. And there's
only one reason for death. What's that one reason? One reason. Sin. Sin. This represented how the
sins of God's people became His. You take that lamb, you slay
it. And you take the blood, and you
put it over the door of the house. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. And let me ask you, there are
four questions about that. Very important questions. First,
was the blood over everybody's door? No. No, it wasn't. Here's the second question. What
was God looking for? Did he say, when I see your faith, when I see your sincerity, when
I see your godly sorrow, when I see your intentions to do better,
what was he looking for? One thing. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Who had to see the blood? Did he say, when you see the
blood, I'll pass over you? No. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And let me ask you this question.
Was anybody, I don't care who they were, I don't care how bad
they were, I don't care how wicked they were, was anybody in that
house with the blood over the door, did anybody perish anyway? No. Everybody in that house with
the blood over the door was secure. And I love to think about that
night. I guarantee you there were some
people who were scared to death. And there were some people who
said, God said, we're safe. We're not worried. Was that person
who felt such confidence any more secure than that person
who was scared to death? No, the security was in the blood. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Who is this? This is the man, Christ Jesus. This is the eternal, uncreated
Son of God. This is the one over whom you
and I have no control and He has complete control over us. This is God's Passover. Verse 14, And it was the preparation
of the Passover, and about the sixth hour he saith unto the
Jews, Behold your king. Who is this? Pilate knew. Look in verse 19. And Pilate wrote a title, that
weak, simple, poor excuse of a man who wouldn't stand up for
what he believed. He said, I'll wash my hands of
this. And somebody once said, he's still trying to wash his
hands in hell. But look what he says. And Pilate wrote a title
and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read, many of
the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was night
of the city. And it was written in Hebrew, the language of the
religious. Greek, the language of the common
man. And Latin, the language of the
intellectual. And the same message for all
types of people. Then said the chief priests of
the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews, but that
he said, I'm the king of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've
written. I've written. Who is this? Behold your king. Now, what is a king? A king is
somebody who reigns. He doesn't simply have the right
to reign. He reigns. He reigns. And in my soul, I
need him to reign over me. A king that I can crown won't
do me any good. That means I put him in place.
A king that I control won't do me any good. I need a king who
reigns and rules over me, who subdues my iniquities for me. You know, David said, iniquities
prevail against me. As for our sins, thou shalt wash
them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thy throne. Now that's the
type of king I need. A king who actually reigns, who
rules and reigns in me. A king has a kingdom. Daniel
said of him, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his
kingdom from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. and none can stay his hand, or
say unto him, What doest thou? The jurisdiction of this kingdom
is in vanity. I don't know whatever other word
to use. He rules over all. A king has a throne. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, sitting upon a throne. And if I haven't seen him on
a throne, I haven't seen him, period. This is who He is. This
is an eternal throne. Thy throne, O God, is forever. This is a throne of absolute
justice. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of Thy throne. But thank God, this throne that's
eternal, that's a throne of absolute justice, is also a throne of
grace. Let us come boldly to the throne
of unmerited favor that we may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need. A king has a scepter and the
scripture says a scepter of righteousness. is the scepter of thy kingdom."
I love to think of his righteousness. David said, I've made mention
of thy righteousness, even thine only. Now there was a reason
why he only mentioned his righteousness. It's because it's the only righteousness
there is. His righteousness. Now listen,
I hope this makes sense. There's no such thing as imputed
righteousness. There's only righteousness imputed. There's no such thing as imparted
righteousness. There's His righteousness imparted. There's only one righteousness.
There's not imputed and imparted. There's His righteousness. That's
it. His righteousness. I love that scripture reading
out of Isaiah 54, 17. Brother Robbins read, Their righteousness,
their personal righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. A king has a crown. On his head
were many crowns, and because he wore that crown of thorns,
he now wears the crown as the king of glory, the savior, the
only mediator. A king has a robe. Remember his
robe, how they couldn't rend it? It didn't have a seam? There's no seam in his royal
robe. He's absolute Lord over creation. over providence, over salvation. He controls it all. And a king
has subjects. We read in Revelation 17, 14,
He's Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with
Him. And that's where I want to be. I want to be with Him,
don't you? I want to be one of these people. They that are with
Him are called, chosen, and faithful. That's the description of His
subjects, called by the invincible, irresistible grace of God, chosen
in distinguishing grace, faithful. They believe and they can be
believed, every single one of them. This is the description
of His subjects. Now, you will bow. Does someone say, We'll not have
this man to reign over us. You've got no choice. He does
reign. I don't believe that. He's in
control of that, too. He's in control of everything.
You will bow, either now or later. But you will bow. Who is this? He's man. He's the Son of God. He's the one over whom we have
no control and He has all control. He's God's Passover. He's my King. He's my King. Amen.