Abominable Nothing is more wretched. Nothing is more destructive to
the souls of men than empty meaningless religious ritualism We've come
here today. I trust to worship our God Not
just to go through the motions here this afternoon, I hope to
remember our Lord as we come to the Lord's table, not just
to eat bread and drink wine and observe a religious ceremony.
The time came when our Lord Jesus was about to suffer and die as
our substitute, that he came to Jerusalem. They kept three
annual feasts week long. They'd come together, every man
in Israel, and they'd have what we would call these days a Bible
conference. They'd come together and they'd just have a feast
unto the Lord to commemorate God's goodness and his mercy.
But their feast days and their holy days, their Sabbath days,
their tabernacle and temple services, had become nothing but mere empty,
empty, empty, lifeless forms of religion. And it was their
religion which should have led them to know God, which kept
them from knowing God. Did you hear that? It was their
religion which should have led them to know God, which kept
them from knowing God. They were blinded by empty religion. They had come to Jerusalem on
this occasion to observe the Paschal sacrifice to keep the
Lord's Passover. Oh, what that service meant when
first it was established. The people of God took a lamb
and sacrificed it, and they took the blood and put it on the doorpost
of the lentil, and they ate the lamb with a staff in their hand,
and the Lord passed through Israel and delivered them. I can imagine
that the first time they observed that Passover afterwards, Oh,
how their hearts moved with it. Remember the Lord's Passover.
Remember what he did? Maybe the second, maybe the third.
But as the years went by, it was just going through a surface. Just, oh yes, the Lord passed
through Egypt. Oh, by the way, by the way, we
were once bondmen down in Egypt and God passed through. And this
is why we observed this ceremony. But it became empty and meaningless.
For the Lord Jesus, who is the true Passover, has now come to
Jerusalem to fulfill that which the Paschal Lamb was only typical
of. He has come now to sacrifice
himself for us and thus to enter into his kingdom as the Messiah
promised in the Old Testament. And as he did, our Lord did something
he had never done before. Always in the past, our Lord
Jesus constantly kept himself in seclusion. He never put himself
in the public eye. He never called attention to
himself He never he never sought to get men to gather around him
But just the opposite you'd find him most often in the wilderness
or in a desert place or hidden away in a home somewhere Seeking
the Lord worshiping and calling upon the Lord our God and his
God our father and his father but now for the first time in
his life a The Lord Jesus publicly, deliberately gathers a crowd
around him and great throngs now are pressing, going before
him and going behind him and he comes riding into Jerusalem
upon an ass's coat as people cried, Hosanna, blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord. That's my subject this
afternoon turn with me to mark chapter 11 and I want you to
follow me through these 11 verses as I show you How that the Lord
Jesus our great King is here described now in this passage
Our Lord is presented as the King of glory He is indeed King
over all as God our Savior and King over all as the God man
our mediator. I He was king is king and shall
forever be king because he's God that goes without saying
he who is God is king He he who is God rules everything owns
everything disposes of everything Absolutely as he will he's an
absolute sovereign, but now our Lord Jesus Christ in human flesh
is given a kingdom and he is made a king by God his father
as the reward of his obedience as the reward of his sacrifice
and his establishing righteousness for us as our substitute and
Savior having been given now as a man this dominion and power
in anticipation of the time when he should ascend up into heaven
and sit down on the right hand of the majesty on high the Lord
Jesus now comes as the king of glory riding into Jerusalem Now
notice first the king's power as it's set forth in this passage. This great king displays the
universality of his power and dominion, his absolute control
of everything in a most remarkable way. Read with me verses one
through six. When they came near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphagia, and to Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sendeth
forth two of his disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way
into the village over against you, and as soon as you be entered
into it, you shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat. Loose him, and bring him." That's
kind of a strange command. You try it. Go down to Harrodsburg
down here and And you're going to find a new Lexus sitting down
there. It'll be right there in front
of the pizza hut. You pick that up and bring it
over here to me. Give it a shot. That's a strange command. The
Lord said, you go find this coat on which never a man sat, untie
him and bring him to me. And if anyone says, why do you
do this? Say ye the Lord hath need of
him. and straightway he will send
him hither. And 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 you, loosing
the colt? And they said unto them, even as Jesus had commanded,
and they let them go. Now, there are many things here
that perhaps would be worthy of our attention and taking time
to talk about a good bit, but I want you to notice just two
or three things here. Here are three remarkable displays
of our Lord's sovereignty. And these things display His
sovereignty in these slight areas. But that one who is absolutely
sovereign in these areas is absolutely sovereign and has power over
everything. First, there is a display of
His power over Providence. At the time when He wanted it
there, in the place where He wanted it, at the appointed time
when He would use it for His glory, the scripture tells us
that there was a coat right there for the Lord of Glory. It wasn't
any accident, He arranged it. Now, Mark simply refers to it
as a cult. Matthew tells us that this beast
was a cult, the foal of an ass. So that the one that is tied
there that the Lord Jesus is going to use, he put there specifically
a cult, the foal of an ass. And then secondly, he shows his
power, not only in providence and put in the cult there, but
his power over the wills of men, the nature of men and the thoughts
of men. There is absolutely no indication in any of the four
gospels where this is recorded that this man who owned the cult
knew the master Not a word to imply that not a suggestion at
all that he knew who Jesus of Nazareth was or claimed to be
and yet this man Who owns this cult? Willingly turns him over
to the Lord's disciples because the Lord Jesus made him with
him The Son of God is one who is in absolute control of the
will of man, the nature of man, and the thoughts of man. Listen
to this, the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. And
like rivers of water, he turneth it with us soever he will. Now
that seems like a strange translation to us, but it's like canals in
an irrigation field. The farmer puts the water right
where he wants it, at exactly the time he wants it. So the
Lord God Almighty rules the thoughts of men even kings and turns their
thoughts like rivers of water Exactly where he wants them when
he wants them He's an absolute sovereign and then he shows his
power over all the elements of nature over animals over the
even the wild beast whoever heard of a man riding an ass's colt
the first time it was attempted. He says specifically, you go find
this colt, the foal of an ass, on which never a man sat. I want to ride him into Jerusalem.
And the Lord Jesus rode that colt into Jerusalem as smoothly,
as comfortably, as easily as any man ever rode an old mare
who had long been ridden. She wrote in pieces because our
God our Savior has absolute dominion over all the elements of nature
even over the beast of the field Now why is this revealed? What
do we learn from these things? What's the purpose? number one
learn this our great God and King the Lord Jesus Christ is
absolute power to save whom he will to do what he will he is
God Almighty that means he is God mighty to say and he demonstrates
it over and over again he who is our God the God we worship
is so infinitely indescribably superior to all the notions that
men have about God, to all the ideas that men have about God,
our God is able to do exactly what He will and He always does. He's God mighty to save. Secondly,
learn this, if indeed He who is our God God omnipotent, if
our great Savior is indeed the absolute sovereign monarch of
all the universe ruling the hearts of men, the wills of men, the
thoughts of men, the actions and events of providence, and
even the nature of wild beasts in the field, then we can safely
trust Him forever. Oh, children of God, you can
trust Him with your lives. Now, Forever he has all power. He does that which is good for
us He's promised that he would and you can cast all your care
on him. He cares for you and Learn this
as well Everything that may be needed to carry this great King
where he wants to go Everything that may be needed For the preaching
of the gospel of His free grace, where He wants it preached, whenever
He wants it preached there, will be provided with the greatest
of ease by this King. Everything. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, never sends anybody to do anything without providing
for all their needs. You remember when the disciples
came and said we've we've left all and followed you the Lord
looked at him and said Like be anything That you left all the
father. What did you give up? What are
you lacking now? I ask you children of God What
what do you like? Where wherein has he let you
down wherein wherein have you looked to him for anything and
found him a failure? And the same is true with regard
to the ministry of His people, His church, and His congregation
in this world. That which God has purposed for us to do. Let's
bring it right here home. That which God has purposed for
this band of believers here in Banville, Kentucky to do for
the furtherance of the gospel, God can as easily provide for
as I can take my next breath more easily, more easily. He's
God Almighty. Now that being the case, God's
servants, God's servants never beg. Never. You hear these yahoos get on
TV, they claim God told them to do something and the Lord
told me that I was gonna, He wants me to do this, but now
I can't do it without your help. If God sent me to do it, I can
do it without your help. That's not being cocky, that's just
certain. If God called Bob Pontius to do something, you can do it
without asking me for any help. Well, but, but God's people have
to support the ministry. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. If they willingly
do so, God's servants aren't going to be begging for it. Anytime
a man calls you, writes you, sends you a letter, gets on radio
or television, says, says, now God told me to do this, but,
but I need you. God didn't tell him. God didn't
send him. He's a liar. He's a deceiver.
I'm telling you, God's servants, do not bow and scrape and beg
before men. We're not the servants of a pygmy
God. We're not the servants of a pygmy
king. We're the servants of King Jesus, the Most High God, his
ambassadors. If I'm his ambassador, I'll act
like I'm his ambassador. What's that mean? My king take
care of me. Abraham Worship God and he went
down and delivered the kings of the plane and they said we'll
give you this good Abraham said I won't even take a shoelace
from you. I Don't I don't need anything from you. I serve God
Almighty God's servants Worship this one who is the great king
of all power? Now secondly, I want you to notice
this King's poverty in verse 7 we read and they brought the
coat to Jesus and and cast their garments on the coat. And he
sat there all. Our Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem
exactly the way he lived in this world. He did not come into Jerusalem
riding on a white stallion with diamond studs in the saddle.
He sure didn't come in riding on a pulp mobile with some kind
of a silly skirt and a funny looking hat on and a bunch of
effeminate men with red capes on their backs following him
and going before him. No, sir. This one came into Jerusalem,
the king of glory, riding into the kingdom on his inauguration
day, sitting on a coat, the foal of an ass that was borrowed from
another man. And he didn't even have a saddle
to sit on. He sat on somebody else's clothes. Not because he's
poor. He owns the cattle of a thousand
hills. Not because he could not do better. He owns and possesses
everything. He stood in need of nothing.
And yet our Lord Jesus Christ lived in this world in absolute
determined poverty because of his purpose toward you and I,
his people. Listen to the scriptures. No
turning there for a minute. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Mark this and we'll
come back to it in a minute. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Verse nine, you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ that though he was rich, you ever thought about how rich
he was? He sat in the midst of the heavenly
angels, rich in the praise of heaven, possessing everything,
God Almighty. Though he was rich yet for your
sakes for yours mine and yours He became poor And here's the
reason that you through his poverty might be made rich He willingly
condescended to the lowest state of humanity, and was made to
live in this world as the poorest of men, and died being poorer
than all, having an overwhelming debt to God, for He was made
to be sin for us. Why? That we might be made rich
before God in Him. When our Lord Jesus was born,
He was laid in a borrowed manger. When He crossed the Sea of Galilee
doing wonders, He walked across the sea in a borrowed boat. When
he rode into Jerusalem, he rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed
ashes coat. When he looked for a saddle,
he was given borrowed clothes to put on the coat. And when
he died, he was buried in a borrowed tomb. And the person of our Savior,
while he lived on this earth, There was indeed a marvelous,
mysterious, blessed union of humanity and deity, of weakness
and power, of poverty and riches. He who fed thousands, thousands,
with a few loaves and two sardines was often hungry. He who by his word cast out devils
was tempted of the devil. This one who who had a word with
which he could raise the dead Was himself put to death for
us What divine godlike power our lord displayed? In bending
the wheels of the multitude These who who obviously did not know
him these who who obviously had no idea of the message He preached
thousands thousands going before him and coming behind him. His
disciples must have been bewildered They all come before him crying,
Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed
is the king, the son of David. Blessed is he. He bends their
wills to sing his praise. And yet, what human, man-like
weakness he showed, riding into town on an ass's coat. He rides into
town. Not like any king on this earth. Not like any man seeking adulation
and praise. This man is himself God, the
rightful possessor of all adulation and praise and shall have it.
He didn't have to seek it from anybody. He rides into town in
humility as a lowly man. Now, there's several things to
be learned here. But let me call your attention to these three.
Understand this first. The Lord Jesus Christ, our God
and Savior, is a sympathizing high priest, one who is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, as well as God mighty to save. I don't know how to explain this.
I don't guess it needs any explanation. But Merle Hart, there's absolutely
no way no way under the shining sun. I can really, really sympathize
with what you experience unless I've experienced it. I can feel
for you, I can hurt for you, but I can't know what you're
going through unless I've been there. I can't do it. I've often
said And I understand something that somebody goes through with
cancer, with taking chemotherapy, with cobalt treatments, radiation.
I understand that. I can feel for that person and
know what he's going through. I've been there. I've been there.
I have some friends who have terrible problems with anxiety,
depression, mental difficulties. And I'd love to be able to help
them. I say many times, I wish I wish
I could understand. But, Lindsay, the only way I
can understand is to get there, and I'm not willing to do that.
I don't want to go through that. Listen to me, children of God.
There is no painful, hurtful, bitter human experience the Son
of God did not willingly endure for His people. And right now,
to this day, Though he's beyond the reach of pain and beyond
the reach of sorrow, he's not beyond the reach of you who are
in pain and sorrow. He's touched, touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. What does that mean? That means, it means this. My
little girl sitting back there and man alive, something comes
along and I'm made aware that she has a need. She's hurting.
She's hurting. And it touches me. And if I have
the means and ability, I'm going to take care of that need. I'm
going to see to it. Somehow, somehow that's taken
care of. Will you listen to me? James,
he who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities has the ability
to take care of it. And he will. because he's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. Learn this as well. Oh, would
to God in this age, materialism and world worship,
we'd learn this. There is absolutely no shame
in poverty. No shame. That family was poor, always
been poor, no shame in that, no. Now there is great shame
in things that tend to poverty. Drunkenness, lasciviousness,
laziness, extravagance, those things are shameful. They're
abhorrent, they ought not be named among us. But that man,
that woman, who is honest and hardworking and lives in poverty
is just as respected in the eyes of God Almighty as that man or
woman who is honest and works hard and lives in great wealth.
That man, that woman who is honest and works hard and yet lives
in poverty is to have the same respect and esteem from you and
me as that man or woman who's honest and works hard and lives
in wealth. Lazarus sitting at the rich man's
door is honored of God in his poverty and the rich man went
to hell Abraham who was a wealthy man was honored of God and both
Lazarus and Abraham had their portions according to God's purpose
according to God's glory I learned this as well If we've experienced
anything of God's saving grace in Christ If we profess that we love the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not looking for words, I'm
just waiting for you to listen. If we profess that we love Him,
this book tells us one way, one way to prove that we love Him.
Just one. Just one. Oh, how I love Jesus,
let's say. Turn back to 2 Corinthians 8
again. Paul is talking about giving,
taking care of the needs of God's kingdom and church. He says in
verse 7, Therefore as you abound in everything, these Corinthians,
boy they spoke in tongues and they prophesied and they were
wealthy and big church. Everybody, everybody said, look
how they're blessed. Paul said, All right, you abound
in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, in all diligence,
and in your love to us. See that you abound in this grace
also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the frowardness
of others, to prove the sincerity of your love. Now, same way the
Master did. Same way the Master did. He was
rich. For your sakes he became poor
that you through his poverty might be made rich. How do you
prove the sincerity of your love? Give yourself and what you have
to him. Devote yourself to him by giving
of your means in the interest of his kingdom. That's exactly
what it's talking about. We don't preach tithing. Not
about to start. God's people are not under the
law. But I tell you what, it is more than repugnant. It is
utterly inconceivable, utterly inconceivable that a man or a
woman should claim to have experienced God's grace, to believe the Son
of God, to love Christ, and not give of their means in the cause
of Christ. That's unbelievable, that's unbelievable. And yet I know of cases literally
around the world where men sit and accumulate and amass wealth
for themselves and wonder why. Why don't so-and-so do that?
Why don't they do that? Why don't you do something? Why
don't I do something? We profess to love Him. Give
ourselves to Him. Now thirdly, look here at the
King's parade. Our Lord Jesus comes riding into
Jerusalem. And we read in verse eight that
they spread their garments in the way and others cut off branches
from the trees and strode them in the way. Verse nine, they
that went before and they that followed cried, Hosanna, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom
of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna
in the highest. And Jesus entered into Jerusalem
into the temple. When he had looked round about
all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out to Bethany.
with the 12. Our Lord here fixed so that every
eye was on Him. Every eye. He publicly presented
Himself as the Christ, the Messiah. The Psalm that's quoted here,
Psalm 118, it's almost a direct quote. They cried, Hosanna, Hosanna,
blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Because
our Lord Jesus was about to enter as the King of glory into His
glory. And His kingdom is like no other. It's a spiritual kingdom,
not material. It's a kingdom of grace, not
a kingdom in which men's works and men's esteem and men's position
amount to anything. When our Lord Jesus came into
the temple of God, He presented Himself as God. And we'll look
at this again, the Lord willing, next Sunday evening. But when
our Lord came into the temple, down in verses 15, 16, and 17,
and He drove out the thieves, the money changers. The religious
hucksters, he drove them out of the temple. He said, my house
shall be called a house of prayer. And what he did was he said,
I'm God Almighty and this is my house. This is my church. This is my kingdom. This is my
altar. This is my priesthood. And it'll
be called a house of prayer. And you do things here the way
I say do them. He demonstrates himself then
to be God Almighty. And then we'll notice here the
King's praise. They cried, Hosanna. This is
an expression of great faith. Hosanna means save now, I beseech
thee. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. They come before him and they
cry, save now, O Lord. They they express this praise
to him blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord And then
they give this benediction Blessed be the kingdom of our father
David that cometh in the name of the Lord Told you these folks
spoke by God's decree and by God's command not out of the
abundance of their heart They didn't know what they were saying
They said blessed is he is the kingdom or be the kingdom of
our father David that now comes in the name of the Lord We have
blessed you out of the house of the Lord What a benediction
Why did our Lord here call attention to this? Why? Why did he why did he get everybody's
attention focused on? on him as he came into Jerusalem
where he would suffer and die and thus enter into his kingdom
and into his glory. He never called attention to
his birth. Never. That was in isolation. Churches
everywhere adored his birth. Biggest event in the years when
they have some kind of a blasphemously idolatrous living nativity. And idiots advertise it. We got
a living nativity out front. You come worship these folks.
These are gods. Have silly symbols. He never
gave any, he didn't even suggest you remember his birth. This
time of the year, everybody remembers his passion. Folks, one of these
idolatrous temples downtown have pictures putting ashes on their
heads. Boy, that makes good sense. We're
gonna worship God now. Come put some ashes on my head. Only religious
idiots behave such a way. Our Lord called attention to
one thing about him. His death. His death. Do you understand this? Our life
didn't come by His birth, it came by His death. Our inspiration
doesn't come by His example, it comes by His death. Our rule
doesn't come by what He said in His various instructions about
living in this world. Our rule of life is by His sacrifice
for us and His word enforces that. All things in this book
are designed to point us to His death. And our Savior says, this
is the most important of all events in the world. Let the
world pay attention to this. This, this is the purpose for
which the world was made. This is the place where all our
hopes are found. Our hope is not in his second
coming, but in his sacrifice at Calvary. His second coming
means something only because of what he did at Calvary. Otherwise
it would be meaningless. In fact, from His sacrifice at
Calvary, everything else is meaningless. It only makes sense in the light
of His sacrifice. His birth, His words, His incarnation,
His life, His glorious second coming, it only makes sense when
you understand that He who is God came down here as a man in
utter poverty and to be made sin for us, satisfied the justice
of God, and ascended up into heaven, where the Lord God said,
set at my right hand, until I make my foes thy footstool. This is
the King of glory. Amen.