Sermon for Lord's Day November 13, 2022 Luke 19:27-43

Here I Stand Theology

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Luke 19, we're going to pick up in verse, we're going to read verse 27 through verse 40.

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That originally intended to go through 48, but there's just, there's so much in this that we need, we need to just focus on what we have here rather than trying to get it all in one sitting.

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Luke chapter 19, verse 27 through 40, these are the words of the living

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God. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.

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And when he had said these things, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany at the mount that is called

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Olivet, he sent two of the disciples saying, go into the village in front of you and where on entering you will find a coat tied on which no one has ever yet sat, untie it and bring it here.

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If anyone asks you why you are untying it, you shall say this, the

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Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.

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And as they were untying the coat, its owner said to them, why are you untying the coat?

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And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the coat, they set

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Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road as he was drawing near already on the way down the

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Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and to praise

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God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the

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Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the

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Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered,

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I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy word this morning, let's pray together.

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Our Father, as we come unto you once again this morning, is with highest praise and admiration of your great mercy, kindness, love, goodness that you have shown unto us as your people, that you have shown to this world, dear

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God, that men and women, boys and girls to this day still get to breathe the breath of life.

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That in itself is a gift of grace. And Lord, we pray as we take our time in the word this morning, that you would be exalted, that you would be glorified,

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Lord, that the saints of God would be edified and encouraged by the truth of your word, that the sinner, the lost man, the lost woman, the lost boy, the lost girl might come to that place where you regenerate their heart and their mind and you make them a new creature in Christ, that they can truly, truly hunger and thirst after righteousness, which is yours and yours alone.

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Only you can cause this to happen today, Lord. We trust you with the results.

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Be glorified in the church, for it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So in Luke chapter 19, thus far, we see that Jesus entered

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Jericho, as we looked at week before last. He calls Zacchaeus down out of the sycamore tree, calls him, says,

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I must go to your house today. Today, Jesus says, salvation has come to this house.

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Jesus states, the reason that he came, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

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And then Jesus communicates the parable of the ten mena, how that there was a nobleman who went into a far country.

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He gave to his servants a mena to do with, to make use of in the time that he was gone.

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He returned the servants that did wisely, acted wisely with what the

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Lord had given, their Lord had given them. He rewarded them with more to the one who did nothing.

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He took from him what he had and he gave it to those who had the ten mena.

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And in the closing statement of that parable, Jesus clearly makes a strong statement.

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He said, but as for these enemies of mine, verse 27, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them here before me.

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So this is where we are. This is where we pick up on the text in verse 28.

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And as we look at this text today concerning the triumphal entry of Christ, and although, keep in mind this, a great many people gathered together to welcome

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Jesus to Jerusalem, it is important for us to keep in mind the statement that we have been using over the past several months, that the kingdom that these people were expecting was not the kingdom that Jesus was bringing.

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The kingdom the people were expecting was not the kingdom that Jesus was bringing.

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So, as we mentioned previously in this same chapter, we read the parable of the nobleman who went into a far country.

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John Gill, in his commentary on that parable itself, says this, he went into a far country to receive himself a kingdom by which is intended, not the kingdom of nature and providence, for that he already had.

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And he did not receive anything from any other. It was his of right.

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It is Jesus of right. And by nature, nor did he come for the kingdom of grace to set, nor did he come, nor the kingdom of grace set up in the hearts of his people, and which was already, already set up in the midst of them, some of them, nor the kingdom of glory, for that was prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

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Though, Gill states, into this he entered, into this glory he entered at his ascension, and it became more manifest by the dispossessing of Satan and casting him out of the

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Gentile world. How? By converting large numbers of his people, both among Jews and Gentiles, and by ruling in their hearts, by subduing their enemies, and by protecting and defending them.

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And by thus reigning till he has gathered them all in, whether in Judea or in the whole world, and he then will come again and return.

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Christ is now ruling and reigning. He reigns from the throne on high, seated at the right hand of the

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Father, which is in heaven. Let's again, as we go through this text, let's remember yet another distinction here.

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Let's make a clarification. It's probably in your previous notes, but I encourage you to write this down.

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The scripture only teaches of two physical comings of Christ into this world.

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Two physical comings of Christ into this world. The first coming was at his incarnation, and the second will be his literal bodily return as spoken of throughout the epistles, which also teaches us to live holy lives in expectation of his coming.

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There is not going to be a intermediate coming of Christ. Christ came at the incarnation, he ascended to the

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Father, and one day you can be sure of this, whether you like it or not, he is coming again.

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And so in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes this. He says, finally then, 1

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Thessalonians 4, beginning in verse 1, Paul states, Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the

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Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us, how you ought to walk and to please

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God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

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For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God.

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This is the will of God. It is your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and in honor.

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Do not live in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgresses and wrongs his brother in this matter, because the

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Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

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Verse 7, For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

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Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God.

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And not only disregards God, but him who gives, God is him who gives his

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Holy Spirit to you. And so concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God, what?

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To love one another. For indeed, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout

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Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more. Have you caught that?

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Since verse 1 through verse 10, he's already encouraged them twice, continue what you're doing.

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Keep on keeping on, as it were. And then he said this, verse 11, to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

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But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers. We do not want you to be ignorant about those who are asleep, meaning those who have already died in the faith, that you may not grieve as others who do not have hope.

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For since we believe that Jesus died and Jesus rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

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For this, Paul states, for this we declare to you by the word of the

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Lord, that we who are alive and remain, we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the

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Lord, will not proceed or precede those who have fallen asleep.

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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

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Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

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Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. And Paul closes this statement by saying this, therefore, in light of what you have just heard, in light of the words that have just been read to you, encourage one another with these words.

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As the people of God, as the saints of God, my friends, when we look at one another, when we come together to worship one another on the

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Lord's day, as we are doing here now, let us encourage one another.

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Let us remind one another that the Lord will one day come back.

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And we are to be expectantly, hopefully looking for that day. That great day of the return of our

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Lord Jesus Christ will be a day of joy for the saints of God. And it will be a great day of dread for those who hate

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God. So John Gill went on to state, it's either to destroy the

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Jews, this statement of destroying there in verse 27, the doing of which fully proved that he had received his kingdom.

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Again, remember two comings spoken of, the incarnation and the second coming.

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Now we speak and have been speaking about the destruction that was to come on Jerusalem. This was not a coming of Christ.

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Christ did not physically return at the destruction of Jerusalem, but this judgment was certainly sent by him.

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This was a promise destruction upon that generation. So to go on just a little bit, to show that his personal glorious kingdom on earth,

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God's personal glorious kingdom on earth, or his kingdom in its greatest glory will not be till he comes a second time.

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We do not have a promise. We were talking about this on Thursday night. Greg eloquently spoke this to us

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Thursday night in Bible study. We do not have promise of a utopia while we live here on the earth.

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The world is never going to be perfect until Christ comes back and makes all things new at his consummation.

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We have this truth to lean upon. That is why when we cling so much to the things of this world, we cling so much to the progress of the political system, to the progress of the educational system, we cling so much to the progress of our financial institutions.

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My friends, those things are fading away, but the word of God endures forever.

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That's why A .W. Tozer said, the weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in this world.

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Why are we wrecked? And me, myself, I'm not excluding myself.

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Why so many times do I get wrecked by depression? Why do I get so far down that it seems

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I can hardly lift my head up? And I know each of you are there from time to time. It is because we cling to the things of this world.

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Let go of the things of the world. If you want to hold fast, hold fast to Jesus Christ.

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So, Jesus made it clear at this point, by this point where we're at, that he was going to Jerusalem and he was going for one reason, to suffer, to die, and to rise again on the third day.

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We see this throughout the Gospels in Matthew 16 and 21. We see it in that passage.

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From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, that he must suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests, from the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

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Again, in Luke 17, just two chapters before we're at here, being asked by the

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Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. Remember how Jesus answered them. The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.

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And then in chapter 19, this same chapter, verse 11, we read what

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Luke has pinned down for us under inspiration of the

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Holy Scripture. We have the words that the people expected the kingdom to arrive or to appear immediately.

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The kingdom that these people were looking for was not the kingdom that Jesus was bringing.

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And so, in verse 14, Jesus, in that parable, again, I know that a lot of this is recap, but it's so very important, church.

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It's so very important. In verse 14 of this 19th chapter, Jesus communicated about how the citizens of that country hated him.

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Who were the citizens? Immediate, direct context that Jesus was speaking about. Jesus was speaking about the

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Jewish nation at that time. They wanted the king that they wanted. Jesus was not the king that they wanted.

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They did not recognize this until things did not go their way. And it is no different.

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Here's a point of application for us. It is no different for us today.

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We want what we want. Why? Because we are sinful. Because we are wretched before God.

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We are selfish. We are self -conceited. We want only what we want. But thanks be unto

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God. When God makes you a new creature, he sets his Holy Spirit on you, sanctifies you, causes you to desire the things of God, and there is a great battle.

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We say, oh, I wish I didn't have to fight. The only time that we're not going to be fighting the flesh and the spirit is when we go home to be with the

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Lord, and you won't even think about it. Then you've got to focus on what you can focus on now.

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The fight is real, but we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, brothers and sisters. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

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But my friend, we are called simply to stand. The Apostle Paul communicated that to the

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Ephesian church. Next, again concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, not being a physical coming of Christ, but a literal coming of judgment on them,

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Matthew Henry states this. When his faithful subjects are preferred and rewarded, then he will take vengeance on his enemies, and particularly we have this from Matthew Henry on the

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Jewish nation, the doom of which is here read. When Christ had set up his gospel kingdom and thereby put reputation upon the gospel ministry, then he comes to reckon with the

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Jews. Then it is remembered against them that they had particularly disclaimed and protested against his kingly office when they said these words, we have no king but Caesar.

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And Caesar would be their ruin. The kingdom of God appeared when vengeance was taken on those, on those irreconcilable enemies to Christ and to his government.

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They were brought forth and they were slain before him and never, Matthew Henry states this, never was so much slaughter made in any war as in the wars of the

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Jews. That nation lived to see Christianity victorious in the

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Gentile world in spite of their enmity in opposition to it, and then it was taken away from them as dross.

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The wrath of Christ came upon them to the uttermost, and their destruction redounded very much to the honor of Christ and to the peace of his church.

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The Lord will get glory and honor from peace as much as he will get from the destruction that he brings, for they come from the hand of the

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Lord. George Whitefield put it this way. He said, the time will come, and that too perhaps much sooner than such persons may expect when

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God will vindicate his injured honor, when he will lay bare his almighty arm, and he will make those wretches feel the eternal smart of his justice, whose power and whose name they have so often vilified and blasphemed.

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So there we have context. There we have the reality of the destruction. Here we have the understanding going into this that Christ is making his journey into Jerusalem, and in verse 28 the scripture says, and when he had said these things, he went on ahead.

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Before, he's traveling with crowds before and crowds behind. Here, he goes on before.

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Why? Because his eye is fixed. His face is set like a flint to Jerusalem, because it is in Jerusalem which he will suffer, bleed, die, and be raised again on the third day.

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So Jesus ascends up the hill from Jericho to Jerusalem. It is here that I'm reminded of what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 24, 3 and 4.

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The psalmist writes, who will ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?

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Who? He who has clean hands, the question is answered, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

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No one could have effectively and efficiently have climbed Jerusalem or made his way to Jerusalem as Jesus did, because only

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Jesus was capable of dying for our sins and of bearing the wrath of almighty

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God. It is here that our Lord, the sinless, spotless

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Lamb of God makes his way into Jerusalem. And as we see in this text, his entry into the city is filled with pomp and it's filled with splendor.

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It's filled with shouts of glory. It's filled with shouts of praise. And this is what

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Jesus hears as he enters Jerusalem. The people of this city at this point, at this point, remember, because we only do a little bit every week in the text, but I encourage you to read ahead, then to reread ahead again, and then to go back to the beginning and reread from the beginning, that the gospel is always fresh in your hearts and in your minds.

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The people at this point are gladly welcoming Jesus as their newfound king with hopes of what?

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That he will restore again the kingdom to Israel. What they were looking for was not what

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Jesus was bringing. And so again, in verse 28, we see Jesus goes ahead of them.

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His heart and his mind are fixed. Matthew Henry said, was Jesus so forward to suffer and to die for us?

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And shall we draw back from any service that we are capable of doing for him?

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Oh, consider what Christ has done. We have it in the writer of Hebrews puts it this way in the 12th chapter.

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I believe it is chapter 12, verse 1 through 4, maybe 1 through 5. Seeing we are compassionate with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every way and the sin that does so easily beset us and let us run with patience this race that is set before us.

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Looking unto Jesus, who, by the way, is the author and the finisher of our faith.

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Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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And the writer goes on to say this, consider him, consider Jesus, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be weary and you faint in your minds.

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Should we as God's people back away from the proclamation of the gospel?

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Never let it be said of us that we back away from the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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In verse 29 through 34, as we move along, we read Luke's report of the accounting of the disciples being sent to get the coat that Jesus would ride on into his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

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There's one point, singular point, worthy of mention here in these verses for our time today.

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And that one point is this, all things belong to the Lord. All things belong to the

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Lord. All authority belongs to the

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Lord. All authority belongs to the Lord. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 15 through 19, we read the words, he is the image of the invisible

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God, speaking of Jesus. He's the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created, whether in heaven or on earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.

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And there's more. He is before all things and by him, all things hold together.

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He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything, he might be preeminent.

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For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, how by making peace by the blood of his cross.

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All authority belongs to the Lord. Next, all creatures belong to the

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Lord. Wise or dumb, stubborn or submissive, all creatures belong to the

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Lord. Psalm 50, verse 10 and 11, the psalmist states, every beast of the forest is mine.

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The cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine.

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The old song says, let all things their creator bless and worship God in humbleness.

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Hallelujah, hallelujah to God. All thanks and praise belong, join in the everlasting song and the church says, hallelujah, hallelujah.

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And so it is here that our Lord commands his disciples and to go and to do as he has commanded them so that the scriptures as we'll see will be fulfilled.

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For there's not one jot or one tittle of the law that would pass that Christ himself would not fulfill.

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Amen. Alexander McLaren, around the mid 1800s, wrote these words, note the remarkable blending of dignity and poverty in the statement the

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Lord has need of him. It asserts sovereign authority and absolute rights and it confesses need and penury.

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He is a king but he has to borrow even a coat to make his triumphal entry on though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor.

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McLaren goes on with a very poignant observation and he says this, as to the particulars, we need only know that the most obvious explanation of Christ's knowledge of the circumstances that the messengers would encounter is that it was supernatural because he not only has authority over all things but he knows all things.

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There would be a natural explanation as well and that might be this, namely, this is speculation, namely that the owners of this coat upon which never a man had written may likely have been a believer in Jesus Christ and may have previously even been communicated to, there's gonna come a time, there's gonna come a day when

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I'm gonna send two of my disciples to your house to ask for the coat that ain't never been written on and you will know it's them because you need to ask them this question.

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Why do you need this? Why are you untying my coat? If somebody walks up in your driveway and starts getting in your car, you're gonna ask, hey bub, what do you think you're doing?

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Right, so why are you untying this coat to which they would respond with a simple phrase, the

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Lord has need of him. Zechariah 9 -9, in the

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Old Testament, Zechariah 9 -9, the prophet writes these words,

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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

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For behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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Now, Luke and Mark, I think it's Luke and Mark, they only tell us of the colt.

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Matthew's account gives us the account of both, basically the mother and the baby, right?

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So they are together. They're not contradictory, they are still together because he said the colt, the foal of an ass.

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And so we have this. So J .C. Ryle, J .C. Ryle favors, of course, the supernatural explanation of this encounter.

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And he said this, let us mark for one thing in these verses, the perfect knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, mark that, the perfect knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see him sending two of his disciples to a village and telling them that they would find at the entrance of it a colt whereon never had a man sat.

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So this was a wild beast. It was a young wild beast who never a man had sit on.

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We see him describing what they would see and what they would hear, Ryle says, with as much confidence as if the whole transaction had been previously arranged.

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In short, he speaks like one to whom all things were naked and open, which by the way they were, like one whose eyes were in every place, like one who knew things unseen as well as things seen.

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An attentive reader will observe the same thing in other parts of the gospel. We are told in one place that he knew the thoughts of his enemies.

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We are told in another place that he knew what was in man. We are told in another that he knew from the beginning who they were that believed and who would not believe, who would betray him.

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Knowledge like this is the peculiar attribute of God alone.

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Passages like these are meant to remind us that the man Christ Jesus is not only man, he is also

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God blessed forever. And the thought of Christ's perfect knowledge should alarm sinners and awaken them to repentance.

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Today, know this, God knows your heart. The preacher does not know your heart.

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Your elders do not know your heart. The deacons do not know your heart. Your neighbor does not know your heart.

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Heck, there are times when husbands and wives, we cannot know each other's hearts, but God knows the heart of man.

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Are you right in the sight of God? Ryle goes on in closing to make this statement.

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He says the thought of Christ's perfect knowledge should alarm sinners and awaken them to repentance.

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The great head of the church knows them and all their doings. The judge of all sees them continually and he marks down all their ways.

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There is no darkness where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves as is spoken in the book of Job.

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If they go into the secret chamber, the eyes of Christ are there. If they privately scheme villainy and plot wickedness,

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Christ knows it and Christ observes it. If they speak secretly against the righteous,

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Christ hears. They may deceive men all their life long, but they cannot deceive

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Christ. A day comes when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the gospel.

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And the thought of Christ's perfect knowledge should comfort all true hearted Christians.

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It should encourage us as God's people and it should excite us to increase diligence in good works.

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The master's eye is always upon us. He knows where we dwell and he knows what are our daily trials and who are our companions.

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There is not a word in our mouth or a thought in our hearts, but Jesus knows it all together.

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So church, let us take courage. Let us take courage when we are slandered.

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Let us take courage when we are misrepresented by the world for it matters nothing so long as we can say, you, oh

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Lord, know all things and know this, that I love you, oh

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Lord. So let them walk on steadily in the narrow way and not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

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For when sinners entice them and the weaker brethren say, spare thyself, just let it go.

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Let us reply, my master is looking at me and my master is one day coming for me.

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And whether I live now or whether I die now, I can say with Job, my eyes will behold him.

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For I know that my redeemer lives. So concerning these garments that were spread in the way, we notice here in Luke, it's in Luke's gospel, we see the garments spread in the way.

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Again, over in Matthew, I believe is the mention, it's either Matthew or Mark, is the mention of them laying palm branches in the way.

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This was very important here. So, I'm sorry, it's John's gospel. Being laid in the path before Jesus is where the palm branches are mentioned in John's gospel.

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Now, this, what this was, again, context means everything, helps us to gather information, helps us to understand the scriptures.

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This was a reference to the Jewish nationalism of the day. David Youssef, commentator, wrote these words.

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Palm branches were a symbol of Jewish nationalism since the time of the Maccabees.

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The crowd looked to Jesus as a political and as a national savior, but not so much as a spiritual savior.

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So do you see why we said what we said earlier? The kingdom they were looking for was not the kingdom that Jesus was bringing.

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They were looking. They were looking for deliverance from Rome. They were looking to have a kingdom of their own, a physical king that they could say, this is our king and we're gonna do things our way now.

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Friends, the kingdom of God is the king having his way.

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Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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As Christians, we are simply to be humble subjects of our king and our

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Lord Jesus Christ. John Gill said this, he answered them and said unto them,

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I tell you as a truth, which may be depended on and you may be assured of this, that he spake with great earnestness, fervor and courage, that if these should hold their peace, later on in the text here, let's move that to the full close here.

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So notice the words in verse 37, 38, 39 and 40. As he was drawing near, already on the way down the

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Mount of Olives, by the way, geographically, if you get a chance this week,

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I encourage you to look this up. Look up the layout of the land. For as he made, ascended the hill 700 feet below sea level out of Jericho, came through Bethany and Bethpage, worked his way down the

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Mount of Olives. It is there in that Mount of Olives, in the Mount of Olives in that valley, there is the

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Burkidron. And from his escalated position, he could see all the way across the city of Jerusalem.

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And so as he makes his way down the Mount of Olives, we hear the text proclaim, the disciples and all that were around them began to rejoice and to praise

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God with a loud voice for what? For the mighty works that they had seen.

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And what were their words? Blessed. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the

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Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

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These were the words that were coming out of their mouth because they thought the kingdom was gonna be their way and not

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God's way. Do those words sound familiar? If you turn back to Luke chapter two,

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Luke chapter two, verse eight through 14.

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Luke chapter two, verses eight through 14. Hear thou the word of the living God. In the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear.

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And the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

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For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is

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Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, saying glory to God in the highest.

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On earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

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We have this resounding coming from their mouths. And then the

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Pharisees will enter. And the Pharisees will say, quiet down your people.

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Tell them to stop making such a ruckus. And what are the words of Christ?

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He answered them in verse 40 and he said, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

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What does that mean? It means simply this. If these should hold their peace, if these should be silent, and they should not sing the praises of God and ascribe glory to him, and if these should not profess the

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Messiah and make this public acknowledgement of him, the stones would immediately cry out.

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And the stones would cry out either against them or in declaration of the

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Messiah. There would be a double declaration made basically that their own condemnation would be pronounced in the stones praising him.

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But he goes on by which expression, what our Lord means here, that it was impossible that it should be otherwise.

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It would be intolerable if it was not. And rather than it should not be, this same

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God who is able, who is able to raise from men stones, raise from stones children

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Abraham, that he would make these stones speak or that he would turn these stones into men.

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Oh church, what do we know that the scriptures teach about regeneration?

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What do we know we find in Ezekiel? The scripture says that God will take the heart of stone out of man.

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And he will put in man a heart of flesh so that man can respond to God.

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Oh my friend, God is able to take the heart, most hard hearted sinner, take that heart of stone out of them and put into them a heart of flesh.

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Children, do not give up on your lost people. As long as there is life and as long as there is breath in their bodies, keep praying.

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Keep laying them before the throne of God. Keep trusting to the word of the living

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God that God himself is able to raise up stones and cause them to praise the living

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God. And so, let's just close there. He answered,

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Jesus answered and he said, I tell you, if these were silent, then the very stones would cry out.

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I am so thankful that we are not simply left to our imagination to interpret that statement, but that we know from the text of scripture that it is

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God who takes the stony heart and it is God who regenerates that stony heart and it is

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God who revives that dead man. For we are born dead in our sins, but it is

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Christ who came to give life. It is Christ who came to give the forgiveness of sins.

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What must I do to be saved is the text that we read in scripture. Quite simply, it is this.

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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.