I want to express my indebtedness to the choir. This year I've been so dedicated, and if you really knew how little time they spent on that part of the cantata, and they tackled it, and I think they did a beautiful job. I didn't even give them the signal tonight, but they certainly deserved it. They did a beautiful job. I appreciate that, and the contribution of Mrs. Swabby, too. Now, today, we abbreviated the preaching time because you've had so much preaching. I always feel if I can't say what I've got to say in twenty minutes, I might as well stay in my seat. And if I've got thirty minutes, well, that's a bonus. We're going to go back again to the story of Palm Sunday, and we're going to read yet another account, this time in John. It's John chapter twelve. You know, when you build a house, you don't look at the four walls and say, now into which of these are we going to put a window? Because you know you've got a view on every side, you say, we've got to be able to see outside no matter which direction we look. Now the Word of God gives to us events, like the Palm Sunday events, in several places so that we might get a view from one window and then a view from another window and a view from a third window and each like the views in your home is a little different from the rest but each has its contribution to make to the whole story we'll begin our reading in chapter eleven tonight and we'll make the first verse verse fifty-five John chapter eleven and verse fifty-five and the Jews Passover was nigh at hand and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves now look at chapter twelve and verse twelve on the next day Much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches upon trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna, Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon, as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, Behold thy king cometh, sitting on an ashes colt. These things understood not his disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. The people therefore that was with him, when he called Lazarus out of the grave, and raised him from the dead bare records. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after him. Shall we pray together? Our Heavenly Father. Once again, we ask thee to illumine the pages of this very familiar story to us, that we might take something away that is fresh and that is precious to us. We ask that as our hearts are spoken to by thy Holy Spirit, through this familiar story, our lives can be affected and that permanently. We pray that it might be so. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now I suggested this morning that there were three things from which I drew lessons in this story for myself. One was the coat, and one was the crowd, and one was the Christ. In talking about the cult this morning, we noticed that he was tied. And we observed that he was tied by the door. But he was tied by the door outside. And he was tied in a place where two ways met. Now as you read that part of the story, you'll find that in accord with the command of the Lord Jesus, the disciples loose. the cult. I think he must have been a happy time for him. He'd been tethered so long and yet was so sprightly and undoubtedly wanted his freedom. They loosed him. And then it says they brought him to Jesus. If you really want to lose a man, you've got to bring him to Jesus. If you really want to see a woman set free, you've got to bring her to Christ. And then it says Jesus sat on him. Now this cult was described by the Lord Jesus as an animal on which never man sat. He was untamed, he was unbroken. But when he was loosed and brought to Jesus, Jesus sat on him. The cult was disciplined. The cult was quiet. The cult was completely changed. Because the Lord Jesus was in control. Lives that are untamed. Lives that are wild. Lives that are battered and broken. Are lives that become utterly changed. When those who possess them are loose. And brought to Jesus. And Jesus takes over control. You know, some of us are afraid to let the Lord Jesus have his way. Some of us have heard the gospel in the past, and we have been striven with on the inside. And we've said to ourselves, you know, I try not to see it. I try not to believe it. But I look at these Christians, and although I find problems in their lives, and although I sometimes feel some of them are a little bit hypocritical, I have to see that Christians are happy. They've got something that I haven't got. That's not really true, you know. It isn't something that we have. It is someone. For we have received the Lord Jesus. We have surrendered our lives to him. We want him to control us. And that's why our lives are changed. You've heard this perhaps, but you're still not surrendered to the Christ because you say, I like to do this, and I like to do that, and I like to go here, and I like to go there, and I have friends that I'm afraid if I submit to Christ, we'll be friends of the past, and I don't want to let them go. Do you realize that if you let anything or anybody interfere with your coming to the Lord Jesus, and under his control you'll allow them to rob you of heaven and eventually you'll find yourself eternally separated from God. Can you dare to face that prospect and go away in that perilous condition? Jesus sat on him. But I want tonight to talk about the crowd. And it was quite a crowd. In fact, in Mark, in Matthew we are told that this was a multitude. And as though that were not sufficient, we're told it was a great multitude. And because that didn't seem to fill the bill, we read it was a very great multitude. Of course, it was feast time in Jerusalem and the great feast of the Passover. And this very great crowd is affected by what takes place. If you read on past our verse in chapter eleven, you will find that the people were asking, Will Jesus come to the city? They knew his life was in danger. And they knew that he knew his life was in danger. And they said, Do you think he'll come? In chapter twelve we are told, when they heard that he was coming to Jerusalem, then that crowd got stirred up. He wasn't a coward. He wasn't afraid. He was going to face the crowd and face the authorities. He was coming to Jerusalem. But they didn't know how. The crowd. There are five things that occur to me about the crowd. And the first is this. This crowd was religiously involved. We read much people that were come to the feast. They knew about the Passover. This great religious observance was something, the details of which they were well acquainted with. It was a religious observance. and they had come from all parts of the land to congregate in Jerusalem for this religious feast. But you know this crowd, in spite of all of their outward praising of the Lord Jesus, entirely missed the boat. I've got an idea that their religion... probably was one of the big things that stood in their way. And there's many a man, many a woman being prevented from coming to the Lord Jesus and surrendering to him by that which is religious about them. You see, people get an idea, if I go to church regularly, what can God hold against If I observe the things that my church teaches me, surely in that way I please God and God will not reject me. Surely if I give to the church of what I possess, God is not going to ignore that. And their religious observance, indeed their religiosity, becomes the thing that in many cases prevents them from really reaching God through the Lord Jesus. The Bible nowhere tells us that a man is saved through his religion. The Bible nowhere suggests to us that a man can do anything religiously to merit God's salvation. In fact, a man who has such hopes finds the death knell to them in this word about salvation. It is not of works lest any man should boast, not even religious works. So here was a crowd, a multitude, a great multitude, a very great multitude that was religiously involved and yet way off in left field, way out in what they thought, in their ideas of God's way. Read the story on and you don't go very far before you read. This crowd took branches of 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. This crowd was emotionally overwhelmed, was so stirred up They did what I'm sure they didn't intend to do when they surged toward the Palm Sunday Road to meet the Lord Jesus coming into the city on a colt, the foal of an ass. But they were so overwhelmed they began to tear down the trees, even strew their garments in the way, even as the disciples had placed their garments on the back of the colt that the Lord Jesus might sit upon them. emotionally overwhelmed. You know, the next man who puts his trust in feelings and so is prevented from coming to the Lord Jesus will not be the first by a long, long way. Somebody wrote a chorus many years ago that we used to sing in Britain. I don't even know if I can remember the words. In fact, I think it was a hymn. You may keep on working till your life's last hour, but you'll never get to heaven that way. You can keep on praying till you can't pray more, but you'll never get to heaven that way. You may keep on hoping, you may keep on weeping, while your soul lies dead in darkness sleeping, but you'll never, never, never, never get to heaven that way. Weeping will no more save you than religious observance. And yet there are some people, and the things of God stir them up so that the tears come to their eyes and flow down their cheeks. And away they go, where their emotions so deeply stirred. But all that they've got is an emotional upheaval. And you know that emotions are very changeable. Don't you base what you hope for eternity upon what you feel. That's an emotional experience. Mark you. I don't think a man ever gets saved. I don't think a woman ever comes to Christ without emotions being stirred. But it has to be something far deeper than that which is emotional. I remember the night I got saved, I was thirteen years of age, and I was sitting on a back row having made an arrangement with my friends to meet me a couple of blocks away after this service was over. I was not in the habit of going to Sunday evening services, but I sat in my seat there getting more and more emotional about this business, and when they stood up to sing or closing him, I broke down. For they sang, Finna how thy heart is troubled. God is coming very near. Do not hide thy deep emotion. Do not check the falling tear. All be saved. His grace is free. All be saved. He died for free. Those tears didn't save me. The preacher who was courting one of my sisters, though he never married her, saw me break down. left the platform, walked all the way down the aisle and put a hand on my shoulder and said, calling me by name, what's the problem? The rascal. He knew what the problem was. I believe he'd been down on his knees in our own kitchen, for he ate with us before the service that day, praying that God would break us down and save us. He did that for me that night, but it wasn't my tears. It was the fact that when I stumbled after him through my tears into a little back room, I dropped on my knees and said, Lord Jesus, I am so ashamed. I've gone thirteen long years and never said thank you to you for dying for me. Please come into my heart and be my Savior. That's what did it. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children. of God. I was a weeper that night. It didn't save me. By trusting the Lord Jesus, I became a child of God. This crowd that was religiously involved and emotionally overwhelmed were also vocally unified. They all began to cry out as one. Hosanna! That was a word of praise. Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Yes, they were vocally unified, and they cried with one voice, and they heaved words of praise upon the head of the Christ. But what happened a week afterwards proved that their words were empty words, and their expressions, hollow expressions. For with the same voices a week later they cried, Away with him, crucially by him, we will not have this man to reign over us. And you know there's many a man has been deceived because somewhere in his past he said something to God. His life proves it wasn't true, but still he holds on to it. You may have professed when you were five. You may have professed to receive the Lord Jesus when you were twelve. Maybe when you were fifteen you made a profession of faith. But there is no change and there has been no alteration in your life. If I am to believe the word of God, if I were in your shoes I'd very much doubt that profession. Because the Bible says by their fruits ye shall know them. Has there been a change in your life? I know you're not satisfied with it. I remember in one of our open air services one day we invited sentence testimonies. And I remember a teenager raised her hand and she said, I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what I'm going to be. But praise God I'm not what I was. If you're not what you were because God has changed you, then you have all the evidence that you need that the night you profess to accept the Lord Jesus, that profession was real. But do examine it, won't you? I remember leading a woman to Christ in Liverpool many years ago who had been breaking bread for twenty years. and wasn't saved. My, when God broke that woman down, everything broke loose. God was waiting for her conversion, and when it happened night after night, souls came to Christ. She had been the stumbling blocks. And all because of a false profession that she had known for years wasn't real. But she hid behind it. They were vocally unified, but their words were hollow and their expressions insincere. There's something else I see about this crowd. They were intelligently oriented. When the question was asked, who is this? They said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth. In Galilee, they had the Lord Jesus pegged. They were able to identify him. And did they not cry out, Hosanna, to the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord? So much they knew in their head. But you know what the problem was? They didn't let it drop a foot and a half into the heart. No man gets right with God. by knowing in the head. There's so much you can know about the Lord Jesus, and every one of us knows plenty about him. But there's all the difference between knowing about him and knowing him. To get to heaven, you've not only got to know about him, but you've got to have a personal saving knowledge of him. Now you say, how does that come about? It's very simple. We sang it in our closing hymn this morning. Jesus is standing at the door. He's too great a gentleman to force his way in. The handle's on the inside. He says as he knocks, let me come in. Let me come in. And then he waits. Somebody here hasn't given him an answer yet. Or said, not now, Lord Jesus. Not now, on a later occasion. Or else they've said, Lord Jesus, you would interfere too much with my way of living. I can't receive you. Do you know about the Lord Jesus, but you don't know him? Are you acquainted with him in your head, but you have no heart experience? You let him come into your heart, and oh, what a change. it'll mean. One last thing, and then I'm through. This crowd that was religiously involved, and it was emotionally overwhelmed, vocally unified, and intelligently oriented was very humanly fickle. And you know their cries didn't reach the ear of God. God looked into their hearts and their hearts were saying different things from their lips and the Lord turned away. It was so easy for them a week afterward when the scribes and Jewish leaders stirred them up. They got emotionally overwhelmed again. But instead of saying, Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. They said, we will not have this man to reign over us. What a contrast. The king of Israel. We will not have this man to reign over us. They even went further and said, his blood be on us and on our children. And what a price the Jew has paid. If there's somebody here who's not saved, and you can see that my burden today is for anyone who doesn't know the Lord Jesus, I want you to realize that when the word of God says, behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation. That's exactly what it means. I could tell you stories of people that I met I think of one, an old man, about whom some of my men at the mission, when I was superintendent of the old Jerry McCauley mission in New York City, came to me and said, Mr. Woodhouse, there's a very sick man sitting on the sidewalk outside. And I went out, and sure enough, I found this old man who'd been sleeping on the sidewalk for nights at... Many nights, I don't know how long, but he was truly sick. Just one glance at him, and I knew he had to have a bed for the night. I helped him up by sort of pushing him up the wall. Then I put my arm around him. He put his arm around my neck, and I let him in through the mission doors, and up four steps to the first flight of steps, and then we sat down. We talked as we sat on the steps. And then when he had gotten his breath, we went again a little further up the steps and we sat down again. I talked to him about the Lord Jesus. I reminded him that the heart of the Lord Jesus was going out to him in his sickness because he needed such help, but that the heart of the Lord Jesus was going out even more to him in his sin because he so needed salvation. He turned to me and said, Mr. Woodhouse, for I'd introduced myself. He held out his hands and he said, These hands have shed human blood. There can't be any forgiveness for me. I said, You're wrong. Oh, how wrong you are. Don't you realize the Lord Jesus died for those who murdered him? There's hope. He listened, as I told him, the gospel again. And then we got into the dormitory. I handed him over to the dormitory men, and they undressed him and put him to bed. They greeted me in the morning with the word that he was lying dead in his bed. His last words to me went something like this. I don't remember them in detail, but he said, you know, I'm going to think about this. But he didn't have time. He didn't have time. Shall we bow in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee once again for thy word. We thank thee for this lovely Palm Sunday story. We've been face to face with a coach today. We've been face to face with a crowd. Lord Jesus, Here and there we've reminded ourselves that the one who makes the difference is you. We thank thee that the story speaks of thee, that it tells us of the one who is so adequate, so capable, so loving, and so willing. Grant that we who are confronted by the same loving and willing Christ tonight shall not go away without him. We ask it, Lord Jesus, seeking thy glory and the eternal good of this congregation. Amen. Now as the service is closing, I'd like to remind you again that sometimes these things are puzzling. You need some answers. I want to put myself at your disposal to talk to you. If you're not sure whether you're saved or not, don't go away in that uncertain condition. Stay behind and let us help you. Good night and God.