As Brother Mazlin has mentioned to you, uh, Christendom calls today Palm Sunday, and it's in memory of the day and the event which you just read about in Matthew twenty one, when Jesus of Nazareth presented himself to Israel as the long promised and long awaited king. I thought perhaps we might look at some of the scriptures dealing with that event. It was an event that was foreseen by Jacob. In Genesis forty nine ten. there's a rather indistinct reference, but a, a reference nevertheless to the Palm Sunday event. It was described in pretty clear detail by the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah nine and nine. And then the prophet Daniel gave a prediction that specified the exact date on which the Lord Jesus would make this triumphal entry. You will remember in the ninth chapter of Daniel that the prophet tells that there will be a period of sixty nine weeks of seven years, or four hundred and eighty three years, between the time when there would be a degree, a decree to rebuild Jerusalem and when Messiah the Prince would come to Israel. Now, some of you probably know that Sir Robert Anderson, the Christian who was head of the English Scotland, uh, Scotland Yard, the Department of Criminal Investigation for thirteen years, with the help of a, an astronomer from the court of the King of England, computed that from the date when Artaxerxes, the monarch of Persia, issued the edict at the request of Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem, from that date until Palm Sunday, that first Palm Sunday that we were reading about in Matthew twenty one, was exactly one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days, which is, as Mr. Anderson computed, four hundred and eighty three prophetic years of three hundred and sixty days. So that on that day when the Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, it was exactly the day that the prophet Daniel has had specified. No one that, as far as I know, has refuted that computation of Sir Robert Anderson. And of course, it was a moment- a momentous day because that first Palm Sunday was the first of a series of seven days, at the close of which the Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified for our sins, his body had lain in the tomb for three days, and then he himself had been raised from the dead. And following those seven days, the Lord Jesus ministered to his disciples, showing himself by many infallible proofs that it was the same Jesus that they knew who now was raised from the dead. And at the end of forty days of ministry after his resurrection, scripture tells us he ascended to heaven, where he now is. So you can see that the day that started those seven days of profound events is an important occasion. No wonder Daniel was led to prophesy the very date on which it occurred. It made a profound difference in the way God dealt with the earth, with humanity. From that time on, after the expiration of those seven days, God could offer salvation freely upon whatever basis he chose to make it. And he proceeded and decided and determined that the basis on which he would offer salvation freely was faith in the one who rode that colt into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. Now, before we look at some of the scriptures, let me give you a little of the background so we can see just how it fits into the life of and death of the Lord Jesus. One of the key events in the ministry of the Lord Jesus was when he raised Lazarus from the grave. It was close to Jerusalem. It created a tremendous stir of interest among the people, and the chief priests and the Pharisees were very much concerned and immediately intensified their plans to put to death this man who was drawing away the hearts of the people. We're told in scripture that's because of those intensified plans against him, the Lord walked no more openly among the Jews, but he withdrew himself from the area of Jerusalem, and for four months ministered in the areas of, uh, in the north part of the map of Palestine that were known then as Ephraim and Galilee and Perea. But as his four months of ministry there came to a close, and there also approached the date for the annual Passover feast in Jerusalem. Scripture tells us that the Lord Jesus set his face as a flint to go to Jerusalem, for he said, it cannot be that a prophet will die outside of Jerusalem. And so, in that long march down from Perea, down along the mountains and the dusty roads, his disciples followed him, and as he came, he ministered unto them, and on more than one occasion said, the Son of Man, referring to himself, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem. There he will be abused and mocked and scourged and put to death, and will rise again on the third day. He passed on through Jericho, where Zacchaeus, the man up a tree, was saved by the man who five days later would be crucified on a tree himself. He came finally on a Friday evening to Bethany, which was just two miles to the east of Jerusalem, a little town where Lazarus and Martha and Mary lived. And this Friday was the one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and seventy eighth day since Artaxerxes had issued the decree that Jerusalem should be rebuilt. Apparently, he stayed that night with his friends there in Bethany, and then on the next day, which was the one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and seventy ninth day, at the close of the Sabbath in the evening, he went to the house of Simon the Leper there in Bethany. Simon the Leper was a man whom the Lord Jesus had healed of his leprosy, and there was a meal there, and after the meal, Mary, his friend, anointed him with costly spikenard. And when d- uh, Judas complained that this was a waste, the Lord Jesus said of Mary, she hath anointed my body for its burying. So you see that before him were thoughts of the cross and of the tomb, as well as the resurrection. On the next morning, he began this journey that we were reading about in Matthew twenty one. It began in Bethany, of course, because that's where he was. But also we're told that because of the news that Jesus of Nazareth was in Bethany, many people had come out from Jerusalem to see him. Not only because of the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, but because, and scripture tells us this, many believed that the kingdom of God would soon appear. So you can see that the tension was building there among the multitudes, and at the same time among the chief priests and Pharisees, his enemies. The route of the march to Jerusalem led from Bethany, a short distance to where the little village of Bethphage was just a hundred yards or so off the road, and then from that point on down the Mount of Olives. At one point on the route down to the ba- foot of the Mount of Olives, he paused where he could see the city of Jerusalem and wept over it. He came to the foot of the Mount of Olives and then began the ascent, because Jerusalem was a city set on a hill. Mount Moriah was where the temple was located, and he proceeded up the hill, Mount Moriah, to the north gate of Jerusalem, and there went into the gate and into the temple. Perhaps we might look at Luke's account of that thing, but, uh, turn first to John chapter twelve. John chapter twelve. and I do this because in the account that you read in Matthew, and in the account that I'm going to read in Luke, there is no mention of palm branches. But in John twelve we have it, and just so you'll be sure that this is Palm Sunday and why it was so called, look in John twelve at verse twelve. This is on the next day. This is the day that Daniel had prophesied. Sir Robert Anderson said it was April seventh, thirty AD. On the next day, much people that were come to the feast, that is the Passover feast, and the historian, uh, Josephus said that while Jerusalem only had about two hundred and fifty thousand people, there were two and one half million people that had come to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. And verse twelve says this, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches, branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet him and cried, Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now turn to Luke nineteen, if you will, where I would like to spend our time along the same line as we have been looking at. We'll begin at verse twenty eight. And when he had thus spoken, he went before ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples saying, go ye into the village over against you, in the which at your entering in you shall find a colt tied wherein, whereon yet never man sat. Loose him and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, why do you loose him, thus shall you say unto him, because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went their way and found even as he had said unto them. As they were loosing the coat, the owners thereof said unto them, why loose ye the coat? And they said, the Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon, and as they went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole mult- multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when it was come over near, he beheld a city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, September, April seventh, AD thirty two, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall c- cast a stra- trench about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee on every side, and shall lay even with the ground, thy children with thee, and so on. Now hold your finger in that place because I want you to come back to it, but turn to Mark chapter eleven. Mark chapter eleven and verse eleven. This is the end of the journey. We're told, and Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple, and when he looked round about on all things, and now the even tide was come, he went out onto Bethany with the twelve. Now you may turn back to Luke nineteen. I thought as we consider this journey, and it was not a long journey, perhaps only two miles from Bethany to the temple. That would be about as far as from the chapel here to the, uh, Fayetteville post office where Mike works. Just two miles. It's not a long distance. It's longer than the distance he went on the following Friday. It was not as difficult as that journey, certainly not as meaningful as his journey to Calvary, and yet let us consider just what happened and find five practical lessons for us. Five practical lessons for us. And the first lesson comes from a question, why did Jesus do this? He knew what the end would be. He was presenting himself to Israel as their promised king, but he knew, for I told you all the way down from Berea, he'd been telling his disciples, they'll put me to death. I must go there to be scourged and crucified. He knew the end, that there would be no success to it from the human standpoint. Why do you think he did it? Well, one word, faithfulness. It was because it was predicted in scripture, and the Lord Jesus was faithful in fulfilling scripture. Do you remember on one occasion he said, I am not come to destroy the word, but to fulfill the word. And I often think how on the cross, after those hours of darkness, we're told that he, and the scripture in John says, and knowing, this is speaking of the mind of the Lord Jesus, and knowing that all things were fulfilled, he said, in order that it might be as it was written, I thirst. And I gather that there in those closing moments on the cross, Jesus, through his mind, thought there's one verse, one prophecy not yet fulfilled. For in Psalm sixty nine and twenty one, there's a prediction that the Messiah, when he was slain, would be given vinegar to drink, gold. And so on the cross at the end, in order that that last scripture might be fulfilled, we're told the Lord Jesus said, I thirst, and they gave him vinegar to drink. And we're told there in John nineteen that it was in order that that scripture might be fulfilled. So, as we consider the question, why did Jesus do it? It's because scripture had said this should be done. And the practical lesson for that, from that is, that we should practice the same kind of faithfulness in obeying the word. And Christians need to be reminded of that. You know, there's such a thing as Christian ethics in business, how Christians should handle their business affairs. And oftentimes Christians say, well, this won't work. This is a dog-eat-dog affair out there in the business world, and I can't practice Christian ethics and survive. What they're saying is this won't work. Just as Jesus might have said, this won't succeed. But the Lord Jesus went on and made his triumphal entry, which ended, which ended exactly as we read in Mark eleven eleven. He was by himself and those twelve disciples. So we need to be concerned that when we know what scripture tells us to do, provide things honest in the sight of all men, we can't say this won't work. We have to say we'll do it. We'll be faithful to it. Sometime in our prayer life, we're not faithful towards some scripture. You know, the Bible tells us pray without ceasing. That doesn't mean that there'll never be a moment when you'll not be praying, but it means that you never stop praying for those things that you should pray for. Some years ago, when I was working over my files, I found a prayer list that I'd had five years ago, before that time, and I was humiliated to see names on the prayer list that five years before I had prayed for their salvation. And now, five years later, although I didn't know whether they were saved or not, I was not praying any longer. I suppose it was a case of saying, well, prayer's not working. And we need to be concerned about that attitude in our prayer life. Sometimes we have a loved one or a friend or just an acquaintance that we are praying for. Maybe it's one who's lost, or maybe it's a Christian who is backslidden, and we pray, Lord, uh, save them. Lord, restore them. And we do it today and tomorrow and through next month, and maybe to the end of the year. But then in our heart of hearts, we say, this is not working. And pretty soon we're not praying for that person anymore. This is not the example that the Lord Jesus followed, even though he looked down to the end of that triumphal entry and saw it really wasn't going to be a triumph. Nevertheless, he was faithful to the word. There's a letter in the last issue of the Letters of Interest, in which there's a plea made that we should retool the assemblies in the light of nineteen eighty. Now, Mr. Starr didn't say yes or no in his comment on it, he invited comments. But it's a position that's occurring more and more among the assemblers. They are saying, well, look at the Open Door Church. They got a full-time pastor, and look how well they are doing. Or they look at some other group, maybe even an assembly who has a man there all the time doing most of the preaching. They say, maybe that's what we ought to do. And this letter was suggest- suggesting that in some cases, maybe what was needed was to hire a pastor. Well, what's that? That's saying what we have from the scripture doesn't work. Let's do something else. And so the first practical lesson I think we can get from the triumphal entry on that first Palm Sunday is let us be faithful to the word as God has revealed it to us, whether it's in our prayer life, whether it's in our business life, whether it's in our personal life, or whether it's in our assembly life. What the word says, we should obey faithfully, regardless of whether we see the end or not. Now, the Lord Jesus could see the end, that it was not going to be a really a triumphal entry. He went ahead anyway. But we have less excuse than he would have had to have not made that journey, because we don't know the end. We say Christian ethics won't work in business. How do you know what God will accomplish if in your business dealings you obey the word and deal as a Christian should with your customers? How do you know that those prayers will not yet be answered that you've been sending up for the salvation of someone that you know? Keep on. The end may be better than you think. But at any rate, our position and our first practical lesson from the first Palm Sunday is faithfulness to the word. Now, think of that journey. He had only gone perhaps a quarter of a mile when he came, as we read in both accounts, Matthew and Luke, to a little town of Bethphage. And we're told he sent two men, and note that there were two men. I'll make a point on that in a minute, I hope. He sent two men over to the little s- village of Bethphage and said, uh, there'll be a colt there, loose him, and if the owners say, why are you doing this thing? You say, the Lord hath need of him. And it worked out just as the Lord Jesus said. Little bit more so, but we'll come back to that. And what's the practical lesson in this? I say that not only to the owners of that colt there in Bethphage, but to each one of us Christians. There's a claim coming that says the Lord has need of this, something in your life. And as I was thinking what would be a good illustration of it, now this covers many fields, but there is an illustration that I think is a tender spot with all of us, and that's our time. The Lord has need of time from us. Now, we're in a busy age, although maybe all the other ages were busy. You know, in other ages, people had to work harder, longer in order to make a living. We don't have to do that. Most of us get by with forty hours. If you're fortunate enough to be retired from the government, you don't work at all. But still, we say we don't have time. But the Lord says, um, I have need of it. Now let me test you out. I don't know how many people are here tonight. How many of you are going to be here, I mean, this morning? How many of you will be here tonight? And I'm not looking at you, but I'm suggesting that the Lord may be saying to your heart, I have need of you tonight at seven o'clock. Or extend it further to your prayer meeting night next week. Will you be there? Or will the Lord's question, I have need of your hour, go unanswered? You know, when they got there, we're told in Matthew and Mark that they found the colt tied at the door of a house at a place where two roads met, and I take it it was a crossroad, so that it was a place where, when you came out of the house and crossed the threshold, you had to make a choice, to the right or to the left. And I think that was not just put in as a little bit of extra fluff in the story of Mark. I think it has a lesson for us in the matter of giving time. It isn't that I'm asking you, nor the Lord is asking you this morning, all right, make a commitment for the rest of your life to give me certain hours. What I think the Lord wants, and I think the story of this occasion, uh, leads us to believe, is that he is saying each day, as you open the door and cross the threshold into the activity of that day, you've got to make a choice. Today, what time will I give to the Lord Jesus? Because he's saying I have need of it. He has no hands but our hands, in one sense, no feet but our feet, no voice but our voice, in a sense, not altogether, but in a sense. And he's saying, I have need of you. And each day, as we emerge into a new day of activity, we need to make the choice to the right and say, I will, or to the left and say, I won't. How many of us, when we're faced with something that needs to be done for the Lord in the assembly or somewhere else, say to the left, I won't. But the Lord has says, I have need of thee. And the word for that second lesson is. We must be willing to do it. I had, uh, thought of an illustration, and I put it out of my notes, I put it back in, put it out of my mind, put it back in. I'm going to use it. It's not really quite, uh, totally fair, and yet it illustrates my point. Tonight we were supposed to have a group from our chapel here to sing a cantata for you, and we're proud of what those singers can do. Greg does an awfully good job with them. But do you know they practice every Wednesday night after prayer meeting, and there are twice as many people come for the practice of the cantata as are sitting in the seat at prayer meeting. Well, I really shouldn't single them out. That's the reason I kept putting it in and taking it out, because all of us are like that. We say we don't have time. Well, how much time this week watching TV? We say I don't have time. How much time in reading the newspaper? Say I don't have time. Well, the Lord is saying I have need of thee. This morning, I need you to look at the word, to meditate upon it, to commune with me. At noon, I need you to turn to me and have fellowship with me. Tonight, I need you to go to prayer meeting or to breaking the bread or whatever the occasion may be. And so we need to be willing. We must face each new day and each new appeal from the Lord and say, I will, not say I won't. There is a third lesson. You'll notice in the, um, verses here, verse thirty eight for instance, that these people, and I gather there were really three groups of them. Some had come out from Jerusalem the night before, and they were going with him. Others came out from Jerusalem on this day, and still others, you know, just grew up from the countryside. But this multitude were saying, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. But do you know, four days later, when the multitude, which included many of these people, I'm sure, stood before Pilate, and Pilate said, uh, whom shall I release to you, Barabbas or Jesus? You know what the multitude said? Barabbas. And then Pilate said to the same multitude, what then shall I do with Jesus? And those people prodded by the high priest said, crucify him. Now, many of the people who were in this multitude that said, blessed be the king, perhaps were not included in that number, but some of them undoubtedly were, because I think I know that much about human nature. Up and down, up and down. One of the saddest things for, for elders is to observe in the life of an assembly a person who once was aglow with salvation and now is constricted in the coldness of a daily walk. You see it over and over again. They're saved, they have a bright testimony, they come to all the meetings, but then like a yo-yo, down and down and down. I thought of an illustration in that fellow Demas that the Apostle Paul used. You know, he's mentioned three times in the New Testament. The first occasion, Paul says of him, uh, that he's one of four men who are my fellow laborers. What a compliment that was. Demas, my fellow laborer. The next occasion, there seems to be a little slippage because he says of Demas, first he says Luke the beloved, and then he says and Demas. But then the last mention of Demas, he says Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. And so, um, there's a word for this, steadiness, steadfastness. The Bible says, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. And that's the lesson we need to draw from this. Those people who on one day were saying, blessed be the king, and on another day, not long afterwards, said, crucify him. Don't be like that. Don't be like that. Be steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Now, as we run our eye over in our mind, that trip down, he came to that place where, somewhat like opposite Mr. Ed's place on the other side of the mountain, there's a good view, and we're told that he could see all of Jerusalem there. And what we have in our story beginning in verse forty one, as he looked at Jerusalem, he wept over it. You know, he was to be crucified there. That was the city that did him to death, but he wept over it. And the word there for us is tender-heartedness. You know, we're told, be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. How many times have you had something to forgive, and, uh, under the compulsion of scripture, you forgave them, but you didn't really forget it. There was no tender-heartedness there. You may remember the story of Absalom, the son of David, the great king of Jerusalem. Early in David's reign, Absalom arranged for the murder of one of his half-brothers. It appeared to Absalom, apparently, that it was a justified thing, but it was not, and David did not think so, and Absalom had to flee from the wrath of David. And a period ensued in which there was no, um, fellowship between David and his son Absalom, whom he loved. But finally, through a little device of Joab, his general, David was persuaded to let Absalom come back home. But we're told that David said, he shall not see my face. And so Dav- uh, Absalom came back to Jerusalem forgiven. He was no longer fugitive from David's wrath. But it was not with tender-heartedness because Absalom sat outside on the doorstep, unable to look on his father's face. And it was there that began to hatch that rebellion that eventually led Absalom to rebel against his father. And sometimes, sometimes, maybe more often than you think, our failure to be be tender-hearted when we forgive brings that sort of fruit in our lives. When Absalom died, uh, David said, oh Absalom, my son Absalom, would that I died for thee. He could have done better than that. He could have been tender-hearted with Aaron, Absalom. So that word for us there is tender-heartedness. We have four words in. There's the first word that is faithfulness. It is required of a steward that he be faithful. There is the word willingness. There is the word steadfastness. And there is the word tender-heartedness. Let me give you one more truth from here, and it's not just in a word. Look at verse, uh, forty. When these people have been crying out, the Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus. They didn't say Lord, they said Master. They said, stop them. And the Lord Jesus said, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. What that meant was that God wanted that praise of his son, and he was going to get it. And if the people were quiet, it wasn't hard for God to call stones to cry out. And the lesson there for us is that we can lu- lose our reward, but not stop God's plan. One of the judges in the Old Testament was, was Barak, and uh, a prophetess, Deborah, came to him and said God wants you to go out and defeat the enemy. And Barak said to Der- Deborah, he says, I'll go, but only if you go with me. God had said, go out, I'll give you the victory. But Deborah, uh, Barak said, no, I won't go unless Deborah goes with me. Deborah says, all right, Barak, I'll go with you, but you'll get no honor out of the occasion, for a woman shall get the honor. So Barak went out, and Cicero was defeated, but it was a woman jail that got the honor, and Barak lost it. There was another occasion in the Old Testament when Esther was the bride, the queen of, of, of, of the great king, and, um, through manipulations, uh, there had been issued an edict that would s- cause all of the Jews to be killed on a certain date. And Esther's uncle came to him, to her, and said, Esther, go to the king and intercede for your people. And Esther said, I can't do it. Unless the king invites me in, I'll be put to death. And her uncle said to her, um, well, if you don't go, God will still save the people, but you'll be the loser. That's good to know, as you will remember, that Esther went in and obtained favor for the Jews, but there was the truth there. If we don't do what God calls us to do, he'll get it done, but we'll lose the honor. You know, in First Corinthians, where it speaks of the judgment seat of Christ, it said we must all, and this is speaking of Christians, must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give account of the deeds done in the flesh, and if the deeds are good, we'll receive a reward, but if they are evil, they'll be burned up. We ourselves shall be saved, says that passage, but only so is the fire. So that trophy that God has laid up in heaven for us may not be ours if we don't heed his command, so whatever it may be called. It may be a call to faithfulness. It is a call to faithfulness. It may be a call to willingness. It is a call to willingness. It may be a call to steadfastness or tender heart, it is that. And if we miss, we can still be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the stones will cry out as God works out his purposes, and we ourselves might lose the reward. Now, let me just give one more word here. I've been talking to the Christians. There's a word here for the unsaved. I'll go back to those, um, to those, uh, two men who went to Bethpage to loose the colt. And instantly, you know, the Lord sent two because the owner did more than the Lord asked for. The Lord only asked for the colt, but the owner said, I'll send the colt's mother along with him so he'll behave. And so they needed two men to bring it back. But let- picture again, as I described to you, a house and a place where two roads meet. And one we say, I will, when he calls us to give up something, another we say, I won't. Let me put you unsaved people there, if there's some of you here. You come out each day to a do- through a door on the threshold of a new day, and the Lord Jesus is saying to you, my son, my child, give me your heart. Give me your heart. Do you go to the right and say, I will? Or are you going to the left and say, I won't? Now, Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus, a risen Savior and a coming king. And we pray that each heart in this room may be in submission to him. We pray it in his name. Amen.