to continue it this afternoon. Let's read the first few verses
in Mark's Gospel. Chapter 11. Let's begin reading
in verse 1. And maybe read down through verse
10. And when they came nigh to Jerusalem
unto Bethphagia and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent
forth two of His disciples. And said unto them, Go your way
unto the village over against you, and as soon as you shall
enter unto it, you shall find a coat tied whereon never man
set loose him and bring him. And if any man say unto you,
Why do you this? Say ye that 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 meet. And they loosed him. And a certain
of them which stood there said unto them, What do ye? Loosen
the colt. And they said unto them, Even
as Jesus has commanded. And they let them go. And they
brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him, And
he sat upon him, and many spread their garments in the way, and
others cut down branches off the trees, and strode them in
the way. And they that went before, and
they that followed, cried, saying, 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! Yeah, we'll pick up probably
in verse 7 this afternoon, but let's look at some lessons that
Matthew teaches us here. I love to study the life of Christ.
That's why I'm glad that Brother Baker is going through the life
of our Lord, who He was, what He was, what He did, what He
said, what He taught, His death, His resurrection, where He is
now, what He's doing, just the life of Christ. I love, and I
trust you do too, learn about Him. And Mark here in the tenth
chapter had just healed blind Barnabas. I don't know how long
this man had been blind, but he lived next to Jericho. The
Lord healed him. And blind Barnabas that now could
see followed the Lord Jesus and they came here to Jerusalem.
to this place that the Scripture refers to here, Bethphage and
Bethany, probably about a mile or so from Jerusalem. And it
may have been the first time blind Bartimaeus ever saw this
wonderful, beautiful city. And he was up on this hill, Mount
Olives, looking out over the city, and for the first time
he may have really saw this city. But here in verse 1, We're told
here that the Lord Jesus came to this Mount Olives. Now this
in itself is an interesting study. If you want to get your concordance
some time and study on this mountain, it's a good study in itself. Mount Olives. Luke tells us this
was the favorite place for the Lord to go when He was at Jerusalem. He often came here with His disciples. Luke said He came out of Jerusalem,
and as His custom was, He went unto the Mount of Olives with
His disciples. That's His custom. When He was
here, He always went to this Mount of Olives. These two cities
here were at the mount of this Mount of Olives. Bethany was
the place where Lazarus lived. Remember that? and Martha and
Mary. It was also the place of Gethsemane. This is where the Lord Jesus
came out the night that He was betrayed and went over a little
brook there called Kidron and went into this mountain and in
this mountain was the garden that we know as Gethsemane. That's
where he prayed that night and wept drops of blood. And John
says this, Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place. And the way he knew the place,
John said, the Lord often resorted here with his disciples. And
so many times he resorted there to pray. And you remember the
last time in the book of Acts chapter 1 we read about the man
of Olives? The Lord Jesus led His disciples
out to this mountain, the Mount of Olives. And here's where He
lifted up His hands and blessed them and ascended up to heaven. And they left Mount Olive and
came back in to the city of Jerusalem. So this mountain played a very
interesting part in the life of our Lord Jesus. Some even
suggest that when the Lord comes again, He's coming to this Mount
Olive. I don't know about that, but
I know He's coming. I know He is coming again. And another
man made this observation, and I never thought of this before,
but he said the Lord never spent a single night in the city of
Jerusalem. We have no record that He ever
slept here. He always went out to Bethany
or He always went out to the Mount of Olives. And I thought
that was very interesting. Here in this chapter, it was
five or six days before the Passover. That is, before the Lord was
to die. And the Lord was going back up
to Jerusalem. And here's the important thing
about Him going back to Jerusalem. His disciples were very, very
afraid. Because they had tried different
times to stone or kill the Lord Jesus. Let me give you some examples
of that. And then we'll realize how important
it is that He's going back up to Jerusalem at this time. In
John 5, remember when He healed that crippled man on the Sabbath
day? Thirty-eight years that man lay crippled at this pool
and no man would help him and no man could help him. The Lord
Jesus healed him and the Pharisees and scribes sought to stone him
because they said you've done this on the Sabbath day. But
he went out of their midst and hid from them. And then John
chapter 8, the Lord Jesus was preaching to the Pharisees, and
he said, ìAbraham saw me.î Now thatís an astounding statement.
ìAbraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw me.î They said, ìYouíre
not even fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?î And he
said before Abraham was, ìI am.î And they picked up stones to
stone Him again. And then chapter 10, when He
was preaching about His sheep following Him and He gives to
them eternal life, He made this statement, My sheep hear My voice,
I know them and they follow Me, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My hands. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hands. I and My Father are one. And
then they picked up stones again to stone Him. Then He goes back up where He
was raised up at in Capernaum. Now He is coming back into this
city and the disciples are saying, Lord, are You going back up there? They just sought to kill You
and You are going back to Jerusalem? The Lord is going to send His
disciples over to one of these small villages They're going
to get a little donkey. He's going to ride into this
city into a group and multitudes of people that hate Him and are
trying to kill Him. Now what does that tell us? Brothers
and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ is not afraid of anybody. He is not afraid of anybody. He did not arm Himself with a
spear and sword and shield. He did not find a stud horse
with all of its trimming to ride in as though He was somebody.
He rode a little donkey. And He faced His enemies. He
is not afraid of anybody. The only time you ever read that
Jesus trembled was in the Garden of Gethsemane. That's the only
time that he cried and feared when he was contemplating taking
that cup of his people, that cup of wrath and sin and being
forsaken of God. But he's not afraid of any man.
He's not afraid of nature. He's not afraid of storms. He's
not afraid of hell or the devils or demons. He's not afraid of
anybody. He's not afraid. His disciples were so timid,
they were so apprehensive, they armed themselves as best they
could, and finally they said, let us go and die with Him. But at last all of them fled,
but He never flinched because He was afraid of man. You know,
this ungodly world makes me afraid sometimes, don't it you? It does. And probably you get intimidated.
at the ungodly, especially in our day. But you know something,
brothers and sisters, they don't intimidate our Lord. He is not
afraid of this ungodly world and the laws that they pass,
the thoughts of their hearts, and what they say and what they
practice. He's not afraid. The mighty in
this city were crying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast His cords from us. We won't have this man to reign
over us. That's what they were saying in this city. But He that
saideth in the heavens laughed. And He sends out instructions
to His enemies, Be wise, O you kings! Be instructed, you judges
of the earth! Kiss the sun! He sends this message
to His enemies. Kiss the sun! lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little."
They were concerned about how they felt about Jesus of Nazareth. We hate Him. We despise Him. We will not have Him to reign
over us. But you know something? They
should have been concerned how He felt about this. We tell men today, you should
be concerned about your thoughts towards the Lord, and that's
so. But men should be concerned about his thoughts towards them.
We tell men today, they need to receive Christ with all their
heart, but He's going to have to receive them too, is He not?
Kiss the Son. To kiss somebody, you've got
to get in their face, don't you? And He said, get in My face.
Come near to me, not to fuss with me, not to rebel against
me, but to kiss me. Bow to me. Kiss my mouth. Kiss my words. Kiss my rule over
you. Submit to my reign. Hear my word. Believe me. Kiss the Son, lest
ye be angry." We know how the world feels about Him, but how
does He feel about this world? Everyone is going to be confronted
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming to us and we are
coming to Him. We are coming to Him as those
who believe Him and love Him and have given up our rights
to Him to be saved by Him or we are coming as His enemy. And He is coming to us as our
enemy to crush us. Is He not? But He's not afraid,
is He? He is not afraid. All things are naked and open
in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He knows where
we're at. He knows if our hearts love Him.
He knows if our hearts are trusting Him. And He knows if our hearts
are against Him. He knows these things. He came
here to Jerusalem riding on this little donkey to face his enemies. If he had any fear at all, he'd
have been better prepared than that, wouldn't he? He'd have
been better prepared than that. He's not afraid. He's not afraid. Don't that help you when you're
so timid? When you're so afraid of this
world and what you see in it? The world is always trying to
make God's little children afraid. They're always doing that. You
believe this, and we're going to confront you about it. You
do this, and we're going to put you in jail. We're going to do
this, and you're going to do that. They should say, if the
Lord will. And you may make me afraid. I
may be scared to death of the world, but my Lord's not afraid. He'll face you on a little donkey. He'll face you on a little donkey,
because He's not afraid of you. Here in chapter 11 and verse
2 through verse 7, these have so many practical lessons for
us. He told His disciples here in
verse 2, two of them, to go your way into this village, and when
you enter this town, you're going to find a little colt tied, and
no man ever set on him. I want you to loose him and bring
him to me. And if anybody says anything to you, say, the Lord
hath need of him, and straightway they'll send him. And that's
what they did. Straightway they went their way
and they found the coat tied. And those fellows said, what
are you doing with that coat? And they said, the Lord hath
made of him. And they let him go. Now, here's some practical
lessons you and I can learn from this. Here you have a man. He either secretly plotted to
have this little donkey tied at a certain place. He had made
up with these men that owned this little donkey what to say
when He sent His disciples over there. He told them what to do. He had all of this figured out
and planned and connived. Or there's another alternative. He knows everything. He knows
where a little donkey is tied in another town. He knows what
the owner is going to say when they start untying that donkey.
He knows whether the donkey has ever been set on or not. He knows
everything. And not only does he know everything,
he rules over everything. I broke all kinds of horses. I broke horses, I broke mules,
I broke donkeys. When I was growing up through
my teenage years, I used to train horses. You don't get on any
kind of a horse or a donkey and ride him through a crowd of shouting
people. It just doesn't happen. But when
Jesus Christ sets on this little donkey, He submits. Now there's a lesson in that,
isn't there? Everything is under His control
and He knows everything. There was another time the Lord
Jesus sent two of His disciples to prepare for the Passover.
And here's how He told them to do it. He said, Go your way into
the city, and you'll meet a man carrying a bucket of water on
his shoulders. Now wait just a minute. I don't know if they
asked Him then. But if I'd have been there, I'd
have said, Lord, can I ask You a question? This is the Passover. There's probably a half a million
people in that city and around the city. And you're telling
me I'll see a man carrying a bucket of water on his shoulders and
just to follow him and he'll show me where the place is already
prepared? He knows everything, doesn't
he? He knows everything. There's nothing that's hid from
his eyes. Here in verse 7, there are some
practical lessons to learn here if you've never thought of this
before. They brought the coat to Jesus and cast their garments
on Him and He set their own. The first thing you see here,
this coat was borrowed. It was a borrowed coat. It wasn't
His. Really, it wasn't His. He said
if the owner says anything, He borrowed so much in His life,
didn't He not? When he was fishing, he had to
borrow a boat. When he went out into the ocean
to preach to those on the seashore, he borrowed a boat. When he ate
the Passover, he had to borrow the room to celebrate the Passover. When he was buried, he had to
borrow a tomb. Why does the Scripture make mention
of this? Because the Word of God tells
us that he was poor. He that was rich for your sakes
became poor. He was so poor that He could
not buy food. The women ministered unto Him
of their substance. He didn't have the money to buy
this donkey. He borrowed it. He borrowed a
boat. He borrowed a grave to be buried
in. That teaches us a lesson, does it not? The Lord Jesus Himself
did not mind borrowing from other people. You and I help one another all
the time, don't we? We're always doing stuff for
one another. We're always loaning one another things. I'm always
borrowing things from other people. We're always helping one another.
And if nothing else, this is why the Lord Jesus did this. We're dependent on one another,
aren't we not? We're utterly dependent on one
another. He didn't have to borrow anything.
Everything was his to start with. But he teaches us a good lesson. You're dependent on one another. Don't worry about it. Shannon,
I owe you and you owe me. I owe Wayne and Wayne owes me. We borrow one from another. Our
time and our talents, things, we borrow. The Master did that. The Master did that. There's
nothing wrong with beholding one to another, and helping one
another, and giving one another, and borrowing one another. Our
Lord did that. The second thing we see here
is this. The Lord uses the lowest means
for His glory. He uses the lowest means for
His glory. And listen, that's the only means
He'll use for His glory. He could have borrowed a stud
horse, set a beautiful saddle on him with a shiny martingale. He could have armed himself with
a coat of mail. He could have went into that
city with that stud horse dancing and prancing. But who would people
have been looking at there? The horse! What a beautiful horse! What a beautiful saddle! What
a beautiful martingale! The Lord doesn't work that way.
When He's going to get glory to His name, He'll find a jackass
with long, dirty hair. And He rides that in. And when
He goes to town, here's what people will say. Look at him! Look at that rider! Why don't
you think about what he's riding on? That's the dumb donkey! Look
at him! That's the way He does, isn't
it, when He calls men? You see you're calling brethren.
Not many mighty. There's not many noble. You don't
have a lot of rich men and famous men that He calls. Why not? He's not going to let flesh glory
in this present. According as it is written, He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And it's the same
way when it comes to preaching His gospel. Paul said we have
this treasure. The gospel is a treasure, isn't
it? But we have it in earthen vessels. He don't call angels
to preach the gospel. If he did, you'd be attracted
to the angel. He calls a poor old sinner like
me and like you. And He saves us by His grace.
And then He sends us to tell others about His grace and His
mercy in saving sinners. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. Why? That the honor, that the
glory, that the praise may not be in us and out of us, but of
Him. He gets the glory from us. We sang quite a few songs of
Fanny Crosby. I love Fanny Crosby, but have
you ever seen any pictures of Fanny Crosby? Go look at Fanny
Crosby's pictures sometime if you want to see a lonely woman,
a blind woman, a poor woman. But I tell you when she went
down, felt her way to the local prison and sat down to teach
and saying to hardened criminals, the Lord blessed her exceedingly. Blessed assurance! Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine! Heir of salvation! Purchase of
God! Born of His Spirit! Washed in
His blood! This is my story! This is my
song! praising my Savior all the day
long. Out of this homely lips, from
a face that is stricken with blindness, out of my poverty,
singing my praises of my Savior. That's who the Lord calls. That's
who the Lord uses. That's what we learn from Him
riding this dumb, weak, little donkey into this city. They are not going to praise
the means, they are going to praise Him who rides upon this
donkey. Something else here, thirdly
He shows, and I mentioned it just a minute ago, but there
is a lesson here. By riding this donkey that no
man had ever sat on, He shows His dominion over creatures,
all creatures. This is just a slight way of
showing, a little way of showing that He rules all creatures.
He has dominion over them. In Genesis 128, listen to this,
you remember this, God blessed Adam and Eve and the scripture
says in 128, He gave Adam dominion over the fish of the sea, the
fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moves in the
earth. He had dominion over everything.
But you know, Adam sinned and to a great degree he lost that
dominion. The first Adam lost that dominion. You think you have dominion over
all the creatures now like he did? Well, go out there and confront
a big elephant sometime. Back him in the corner. Or a
lion. I didn't know how big a lion
was until I saw one in the zoo one time. And man, those things
are monstrous. No wonder they call them king
of the forest, king of beasts. You might tame them if you are
careful, but I tell you there is a limit to our dominion over
them, is there not? And David in Psalms chapter 8
and verse 4 said this, What is man that thou art mindful of
him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, crowned him with
glory and honor, Thou madest him to have dominion over the
work of your hands. You put all things under his
feet, all sheep, and oxen, and beasts of the field, and fowls,
and fishes, and whatsoever passeth through the sea." And then in
Hebrews chapter 2, the writer quotes Psalm's actor. And here's
what he says. But now we see not yet all things
put under man, but we see Jesus. who was made a little lower than
the angels. And what the writer there is
teaching us? That Adam had dominion. He lost it. In and of ourselves
as individuals, we've never gained that dominion again. But Jesus,
when He took our humanity to Himself, the Son of Man, He has
been given dominion over everything. There's nothing. that's not under
His dominion. Even when He was here in our
weak humanity, right in this little ass, He had dominion over
everything. There's no wonder that when those
disciples put their net on the other side and began to load
it with fish, there's no wonder they did that. Oh, the Lord did
say, You fish, get in there. Get in the net. He went down,
Peter did, the Lord sent him down to the sea, and He said,
you go down there and there's going to be a fish there with
a big piece of gold in his mouth, and He's going to let you have
it, and you go pay our taxes. And all the Lord did is told
that fish, you go, there's a big chunk of gold, you go eat it,
and you come here and you spit it out in Peter's hand, and it
did. You say, Bruce, that's silly. That's not silly at all. He has
dominion over all of these things. He is praying to his Father and
he said, Father, You have given me power over all flesh, animal
flesh, human flesh. He has got power over it all.
Old Barnard used to say the little worms wiggle out of the ground
and crawl along because he has dominion over them. The birds
fly through the air and they soar and land and eat because
he has dominion over them. He stills the raging of the sea
and says to the storm, Peace be still, because Jesus has dominion
over everything. He is not a little puppet, is
He? He is not a little weak Jesus. He is not. And He is seated in
heaven today and all principalities and all powers and all might
and angels have been put under His feet. And when we see that,
you know what we'll do? We'll come to Him and get down
at His feet and say, Lord, Lord, I trust You. You're a mighty
Savior. I read this song from Wesley.
Larry quoted Wesley this morning. I'll tell you, I don't know about
us quoting Wesley so much around here lately. I'm singing his
songs and quoting him, but boy, he wrote some good stuff. He
wrote some good stuff. And listen, let me quote just
a portion of the song that I quoted to some of you Wednesday night.
Here's what Wesley said, Jesus, mighty to renew, work in me to
will and do. Turn my nature's rapid tide,
stem the Torah of my pride. Stop the whirlwind of My will. Speak and bid the sun stand still. Arm of God, Thy strength put
on. Bow the heavens and come down.
All My unbelief o'erthrow. Lay the aspiring mountains low. Conquer Thy worst foe in Me. Get Thyself the victory. Save
the vilest of the race. Force Me to be saved by grace. And what Wesley is saying is,
He has dominion over me. He has dominion over my will.
He has dominion over all my sinful heart. Lord, subdue! Conquer me! That's my prayer
and it's you. And you know what he says in
Micah? He said, I'll turn again. I'll have mercy upon you. And
I will subdue your iniquities. He that subdued this little donkey
can subdue our hearts. You may be here this morning
and feel like the rest of us. You may feel sometime the raging
of this nature. And you know you can't control
yourself. You may have these habits that
you have to pray against and watch against. And sometime they
get you down. I know one that can subdue your
heart. He can conquer the whirlwind
of your will. That's Jesus of Nazareth, the
one that sat on this little donkey. You ever have any trouble with
yourself? You feel it? You feel the rage within, the
strength of sin? Don't despair when you feel that,
dear soul. Take it to the Lord Jesus and
say, Lord, You that subdued that little ass, subdue this one. Subdue this one. We see something else here, fourthly,
the importance of a childlike faith and obedience. Boy, how
important that is. Don't we see that here? He said
to them, go your way. And verse 4 said, they went their
way. Isn't that so important? A childlike faith in this sovereign,
compassionate Lord. Just do what He tells you to
do. And leave the end and results to Him. And He said unto them,
go your way, and they went their way. And look at the outcome. Look
at the glorious outcome of what they did. They went just as He
told them to do, got this little donkey set on Him, and boy, the
people began to rejoice and shout and sing the Lord's praises.
And I bet you those two disciples looked at each other and said,
Man, aren't you glad we did what He told us to do? What? What if? We're a people of what
if, aren't we? What if we rack our brains Well,
we beat ourselves up with this what-if, what-if. But what if
they had gone over there? And the first thing they did
when they come into town, they said, the road's forked. You
notice that? The road's forked. And what if
they had said, man, we don't know which way to go. We don't
know which way to go. Which way are we going to go?
But there the colt stood, and what if they'd have got a hold
of him, and he's sort of wild and jerking around and kicking
around, and they said, we can't handle this fella. Let's just
tie him back up. Or the owner stood up, and he's
a big burly guy, and he said, hey, what are you doing with
that colt? And they started shaking and
trembling. And they went back and they said, Lord, it just
didn't work out. It was too hard. You know that
happened before. The reason I brought that up,
it happened before. There was another time when Moses sent
12 Jews over in the land of Canaan to spy it out. Remember that?
And here's why I say this is so important, that y'all lack
faith and obedience. They come back and say, well,
those fellows don't wear black giants. It's a good lamb, but
they'll whip us. We can't defeat those people.
And their cities are walled up to heaven. Walled up to heaven?
Now they may have been high, but listen. They let their imagination
run wild, didn't they? And what was their problem? Unbelief. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
a childlike faith. Disdoing what the Lord says to
do. Disobeying His Word. And if somebody
stops you and says, what in the world are you doing? You just
say, I'm doing just what the Lord told me to do in His Word.
That's it. We think sometimes because the
Lord tells us to do it that it's going to be so easy. Sometimes
you're going to face opposition. You're going to face opposition.
And the only answer you're going to be able to give is this, the
Lord told me in His Word to do it. And people are going to ask
you, why in the world do you believe what you believe? And
here's the only answer you're going to give. The Lord told
me what to believe in His Word. He told me what to say. He told
me what to think. He told me what motives I should
have. He told me where to go, where not to go. And just with
a childlike faith, submit to Him and say, Lord, that's what
You said. And then go and walk that way
and do that. And I've never known a time in
the Scriptures, brothers and sisters, where anybody just simply
obeyed the Lord, and it turned out bad in the end. Can you find
one place? You can go with the confidence
that this is what the Lord said, and if He said it, then it's
going to turn out well. You may be here this morning,
and you may never come to Christ. You still may be in your sins,
lost in your sins. And you may be wondering, I'm
so afraid to come to Him. I lived that way. I lived afraid
to approach Him to the Lord. I lived afraid to approach Him
to the Lord like I really was. I always come and put on a front
and say, Lord, if You'll let me live, I'll promise I'll do
better tomorrow. I did that. But to come to Him like you are,
Just a hell-deserving sinner that's been against Him all your
life? Well, you're just a little bit
afraid to come, aren't you not? But here's what He tells you
in His Word. All that comes to Me, I will
in no wise cast him out. And the best thing you could
do is just take Him at His Word and come to Him and see if He'll
cast you out. And that's the only way you can
come to Him, just obey Him, just believe in what He says. Ain't
no other way to come. He tells you to come, then come.
And bring this promise with you. Lord, You said that all that
comes to you, you let no one else cast them out. So Lord,
I'm coming. And listen, you come when He tells you to come, and
you see how it turns out. Maybe you're here this morning
and you're in darkness. You're a believer. You're a child
of God. And you've been walking in darkness. Maybe there's a
reason for that. It could be that you're not walking
by faith in Him. It could be that you're not trusting
Him. It could be that you've been
slothful in obeying Him in everything. Well, here's my advice to you.
Listen to Him. Begin again with this childlike
obedience to trust Him and do what He tells you to do and see
if your darkness doesn't turn to light. That's the only way
to get along with Him. That's the only way for things
to turn out good is to do just what these men here did. When
He says, go your way, go your way, go your way. He said to Martha, I said, I
nodded to thee. If thou wouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God. Believe Him. Believe Him. And obey Him. Trust and obey. And I'm telling you, it's there
that you'll see the glory of the Lord. I can assure you of
that because that's what He said. Go your way. Trust Me. Obey Me. Do what I tell you to
do. And don't He give us grace to
do that? He didn't send these fellows over here to get that
donkey when there was no donkey there. And He won't tell you to do anything.
But if you'll trust Him and obey Him, in the end you'll see His
glory. You'll see it. Well, let's stop
there, okay? Let's stop there and come back
this afternoon and pick up in verse 7 because there are so
many more things to see in that.