Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 62 from the Big Hardback Temple. Number 62,
Crown Him With Many Crowns. And let's all stand together. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich blooms yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries
so bright ? Crown Him the Lord of life ? ? Who triumphed o'er
the grave ? ? Who rose victorious to the strife ? ? For those He
came to save ? ? His glories now we sing ? ? Who died and
rose on high ? ? Who died eternal life to bring ? And lives that
death may tie ? Crown Him the Lord of heaven ? One with the
Father known ? One with the Spirit through Him given ? From yonder
glorious throne Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. The message tonight will be from
Psalm 2 and the title of it is When God Speaks. And here in Hebrews chapter 1, it begins by telling us about
how it is that God speaks. where he says at the beginning,
God, who at sundry times, different times and in different ways,
different types, pictures, ceremonies, has spoken to our fathers by
the prophets. And we still, he still speaks
by the prophets, doesn't he? Hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. who is called the word of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself came and all he had to do was
think it or speak it and it was the word of God. Verse two, hath in these last
days spoken thus by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things by whom also he made the worlds. All that is was made by Him,
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of
His person and upholdeth all things by the word of His power. Everything is held together,
physically, spiritually, eternally, everything is held together by
the power of his word when he had by himself all by himself
without any without any help purged our sins he sat down at
the right hand of the majesty on high having finished his work
he's now seated at the right hand of God waiting till his
enemies be made his footstools And being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. For unto which of the angels
said he at any time, thou art my son, this day I begotten thee.
God didn't talk that way to the angels. That's Psalm 2. Thou
art my son, this day I begotten thee. And again, I will be to
him a father, and he shall be to me a son, and again, When
he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and
let all the angels of God worship him. Multitude of angels declared
his birth. And of the angels he saith, who
maketh his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,
but unto the son he saith. This is God speaking to the son.
O God, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of
righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
He came with a full anointing of the Spirit of God as the Christ,
the Messiah, the Anointed One, above anything we know anything
about. We have the Spirit of God in measure. He had the Spirit
of God in the fullness of His power, accomplished the purpose
for which God sent Him, the salvation of His people. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we've come here tonight in hopes that You would be pleased to
speak. We thank You for Your Word, for the written Word that
we hold here in our hands the way, Lord, in which you send
your spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, oh,
how we pray that you would open your word, that the bread of
life would be broken and that Christ would be exalted in our
hearts, Lord, that we'd be brought by the power of the spirit into
worship. We thank you for the living word,
thy dear son, who by himself purged our sins. and is sat down
now at thy right hand, ever living to make intercession for us.
What great hope we have in knowing that we have an intercessor,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, one who pleads our case, presents
our cause, one with whom you are well pleased. Lord, we pray
that you would put into our hearts a desire for Him and a contentment
with Him. For we ask it in His name. Amen. ? How vast, how full, how free
? The mercy of our God ? Proclaim the blessed news around ? And
spread it all abroad How full it does remove the stain of every
sin, and makes our souls as white and pure as though no sin had
been. ? O guilty sinner, come ? Christ
stands to comfort thee ? Come cast thyself upon his love ?
So vast, so full, so free ? I'm glad salvation's free I'm glad
salvation's free. Salvation's free for you and
me. I'm glad salvation's free. Please be seated. The simplicity of the gospel.
I'm glad salvation's free. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 2. Psalm 2. I've titled this message
when God speaks. I want to know that I've heard
from God. And. And I think in this song. We can. We can each know whether
or not the Lord has spoken to us. And. And that's our hope,
isn't it? That's our hope. There's three
sections in Psalm 2, verses 1 through 6, where God the Father is speaking,
and He is speaking about His Son. Verses 7, 8, and 9, God
the Son is speaking, and God the Son is speaking about
himself. Verses 10, 11, and 12, God the
Holy Spirit is speaking, and God the Holy Spirit is speaking
about Christ. Now here's the point. When God
speaks, whether it be the Father, whether it be the Son, or whether
it be the Holy Spirit, God speaks about and through the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. John chapter 14. Turn with me
there. John chapter 14. God's going to speak. He's going
to speak about His Son. This is the passage that starts
out in verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God? Believe also in Me. My Father's
house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not
so, I would have told you. I'd go and prepare a place for
you. I know he's spoken when I hear
him say that. I'd go to prepare a place for
you. Is that place prepared already? Did he accomplish what he said
he was going to do? Prepare a place. Is it all finished? Everything necessary for my eternal
rest accomplished when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended back into
glory and took with him the names of those for whom he lived and
died. And as we just read, he's seated at the right hand of the
majesty on high as our high priest interceding for us. He is all
the preparation we need. Now he's talking to the disciples
and the disciples didn't quite understand. And so in, In verse 5, Thomas said unto
him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. How can we know the
way? Well, we don't know where you're going. How can we know
how to get there? And Jesus saith unto him, in
no uncertain terms, as clearly as it can be stated, Thomas,
I am the way. I'm the way. God's gonna speak
to you, He's gonna speak to you by me. I'm the truth. All truth is bound up in me.
And I am the life. Apart from me, there is no life.
No man can come to the Father, but by me. No other means, there's
no other way. If you had known me, verse 7,
you should have known my father also, and from henceforth you
know him and have seen him. You've seen God the Father. You
know who God the Father is. Well, Philip, Lord, show us the
father. What do you mean we've seen the
father? We haven't seen the father, show us the father and it suffices
us. And what the Lord say, Philip, how long Jesus said unto him,
verse nine, have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou
not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. How sayest thou then, show us
the Father? Believest thou that I am in the
Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you
I speak not of myself, but the Father dwelleth in me. He doeth
the works." The words that I speak are works. They're works of grace. They're works of life. Lord,
speak your work to me, reveal to me the glory of God, and if
he does, he's going to reveal himself. All that we're ever
gonna know about God is going to be through the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the Lord Jesus Christ. So in Psalm 2, God's
speaking now. And God the Father speaks, God
the Son speaks, and God the Holy Spirit speaks, and all three
persons of the triune Godhead speak about Christ. They speak
about him. He's the one we must know. How do I know if God's spoken
to me? Well, turn to me to 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 14. Now, Paul says, now, thanks be
unto God. All thanks and all praise go
to him, for he always causes us to triumph in Christ and makes
manifest, makes known the savor of his knowledge by us in every
place. So Paul is saying we come preaching
the gospel and God makes known, He manifests His glory by us
through the preaching of the gospel. For to the one we are
a saver of death, I'm sorry, verse 15, for we are unto God
a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved. And in them that
perish, to the one we are the saver of death unto death. and
to the other, the saver of life unto life. Who is sufficient
for these things? Paul said, I know that when we
preach the gospel, we preach the very living word of God,
the Lord Jesus himself, who is the logos. He's the word of God.
In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the
word was God. And the word became flesh. and
the Word dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the glory
of the Only Begotten of the Father, the One who is full of grace
and full of truth." Paul said, we preach Christ and Him crucified
and profess to know nothing among you save Him. So we've come preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is, and what He's done. And to
some, that message is a savor of death. To others, it is a
savor of life. How do I know if I've heard from
God? How do I know if I've heard from God? Has the message of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ given me life? Look what he says, verse 17. For we are not as many which
corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity, but as of God in
the sight of God, speak we. Now you see that next little
word in, perhaps you have it in the margin of your Bible.
I have it in margin of my Bible. Sometimes it's hard on these
little prepositions in the original language to know how to translate
them. But most often this word is translated
of, and that's a better translation here. So he says, we speak, we
don't pervert the word of God, we speak of Christ. We speak of Christ. Now in Psalm
2, God is speaking of Christ. Christ is speaking of himself
and the Holy Spirit is speaking of Christ. And the psalm begins
with this statement, why do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? Now that's when the gospel, when
the word of God is a savor of death, it's because men don't
believe it. They rage against it. They'll
say things like, well, yeah, I know that's what it says, but,
and they'll deny the very essence of what God is saying. They twist
the scriptures. They're raging against God. Now look how the Psalm ends.
In the last verse, verse 12, kiss the son, kiss the son, lest
he be angry when his wrath is kindled but a little. It doesn't
take a... The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, can wipe out all of humanity with just a word. Just a word. He doesn't have
to garner up power or strength to do... No, He just speaks a
word and it's done. So, when God speaks, do I find
myself bowing and kissing the Son? Or do I find myself resisting
the Word of God? Is it a savor of death to me
or is it a savor of life? What think ye of Christ? That's the bottom line. If God
has revealed the Lord Jesus Christ by His Word, and in revealing
Christ to me, He has brought me to the place of wanting to
kiss the Son, Now how do I know if I'm, in the Song of Solomon
chapter 1 verse 2, turn with me there, turn with
me there, just over a few pages from where you are, Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth for thy love is better than wine. Now, how does the Lord kiss his
bride with the kisses of his mouth? He speaks his word to
them. He causes them to hear his voice. They follow after him. They look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They rejoice in hearing things
like, I've loved you with an everlasting love. I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. They rejoice in hearing him say,
it is finished. It's finished. And in response,
they kiss the son because he's kissed them. Kissing the son
is loving the son. John put it like this, he said,
we do love Him because He first loved us. We kiss Him because
He kissed us. He kissed us with the kisses
of His lips, with the words of His mouth, and revealed to us
His glory. How do I know I've heard from
God? Because when God speaks, He speaks of Christ. He speaks
of Christ. And He causes me to want to hear
more about Him. I just want to hear more about
Christ. Tell me more about Him. Reveal more of His glory to me.
He's my life. He's my way. He's my hope. There's no fellowship with God
outside of Christ. And if I've seen Him, I've seen
everything of God I need to know. Everything of God I need to know.
Now when God asks a question in Psalm chapter 2, The Lord's
not ever lacking information. He's omniscient. So when he asks
a question, he's not searching for an answer. He's using the
most effective means of teaching in order to get us to ask that
question. To discern for ourselves, what
is the answer to this question? Why do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? Well, the short answer is because
they hate Christ. They hate Christ. They do. You have people you work with.
I have people I love, people, neighbors, family members, they
hate the Lord Jesus Christ. They rage against the gospel.
They do the same thing. You see, the world hasn't changed
its opinion about the Lord Jesus Christ. The kings of the earth
gather together. You know, all the divisions that
we see among men in terms of politics and race and religion
All the things that cause so many divisions among men, I know
how to get men to agree. I know how to get them to agree.
I don't care what their backgrounds are. I don't care what their
differences are. You put them in the same room and you preach
Christ to them and they will all be in agreement against the
Lord Jesus Christ. They hate Christ. Now, In Acts
chapter 4, the apostles had just been threatened with their lives
not to preach the gospel by the very men that offered up the
Lord Jesus Christ to Pilate to have him crucified. The Sadducees
and the Pharisees hated one another. They were on opposite ends of
the spectrum. They both thought themselves to be better than
the other group and they didn't have anything in common. And
when the Lord Jesus Christ declared Himself to be the Christ, they
joined forces against Him, didn't they? And not only did the Sadducees
and the Pharisees join forces against them, but they brought
in the Romans and the Gentiles and the whole world turned against
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when Peter now and John
are having their lives threatened by these Pharisees not to preach
the gospel. They let him go and they went
back and they met with the believers. Turn with me to Acts chapter
4 verse 23, Acts chapter 4 verse 23, and
being let go, They went to their own company
and reported all that the chief priest and the elders had said
unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice
to God with one accord. How do I know if I've heard from
God? My voice is in one accord with
everyone else that has kissed the sun. Everyone else that has
been kissed by the sun, everyone else that wants to hear about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Our voices are in one accord.
Christ is not divided. His people see eye to eye. His
preachers preach the same gospel. There's no division among God's
people. Now, when it comes to the gospel,
look what he says. And being let go, they went to
their own company and reported all the chief priests and elders
And when they had heard that, they lifted up their voice to
God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which hath
made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in
them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David. So now in
this prayer, they're agreeing in one accord. that the psalm
that David wrote a thousand years earlier had been fulfilled in
the enmity that the world had against the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look what he says. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine
vain things? The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. So here's the kings of the earth,
the rulers of the world. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were all gathered together. They were all in agreement. They
all had enmity. Hatred for thy dear son. You see, the truth is that you're
either gonna hate Christ or you're gonna love him. There's no middle ground. There
really isn't. The Lord said, if you're... He
said, well, I'm just indifferent about it. No, you're not. No,
you're not. You can't be indifferent about
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord himself said, if you're
not for me, you are against me. You are against me. Why do the
heathen rage? Why do they imagine a vain thing? What did these rulers imagine? They imagined that they could
stand in the way of God Almighty. They imagined that they could
put to death the Son of God and be rid of Him. That's what they
imagined. After the resuscitation of Lazarus,
you remember, they got together and they said, they said, we've
got to do something. If we let him continue, he will
take away both our nation and our place. We're going to lose
our power. We're going to lose our position.
We've got to put this man to death. And they thought that
they could preserve their position in the world by putting to death
the Son of God. Imagine a vain thing. Look what
else he says in Acts chapter 4, the disciples when they're
praying. Verse 28, for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord,
behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants with
all boldness that they might speak thy word. Now, previous
in this chapter, look at verse 13. And when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they took notice. These Pharisees that hated Christ,
they took notice that Peter and John had been with Jesus. They
had been with the Lord Jesus Christ. All their authority came
from him. And that's what the Lord said
in Matthew chapter 28, all authority has been given unto me in heaven
and in earth. Therefore you go, make disciples
of all nations, preach the gospel, preach the word of God. I've
got people out there that are going to hear it. They're going
to believe it. They're going to kiss the sun
and the heathens still going to rage. Nothing's changed. The enemies of Christ are just
as, just as hatred, have just as much hatred towards the Lord
now as they ever had. They ever had. They hate the
Lord. They just do. They imagine vain things. Imagine
we, when a man believes that his free will is the determining factor in
his salvation. He is raging against God and
imagining a vain thing. He believes himself to be more
powerful than God. The whole religious world believes
that, well, probably most of the irreligious world believes
that God loves everybody. They believe that. They imagine a vain thing. They imagine that Christ died
for everybody and God wants to save everybody and man's got
a free will and your faith is the instrumental cause of your
salvation. You do your part and God's done
what he can do. You see, the world is still imagining
a vain thing. They rage against a God who is
sovereign. They won't bow to Him. They won't
kiss the sun. They don't believe it. They believe
that they put themselves on the throne of God, haven't they?
They believe themselves to be God. It goes all the way back
to the garden, doesn't it? What did Satan say? God knows
in the day in which you eat of that tree, your eyes are going
to be open and you're going to know the difference between good
and evil. You're going to be like God. You're going to be like God. And that's what man wants. He
rages against the God who is, insisting on having his own rights
and his own authority as God. Nothing's changed. You know that. You've tried to
share the gospel with friends and family members and they say
things like, well, my God's not like that. They rage against the God who
is. And they imagine a vain thing. And they, you know, they, they,
they, kind of got michael jackson's philosophy of life you know i
believe i can fly you know if i just believe it it can happen
you know man thinks that men believe that they think because
they believe something to be true that makes it true they've
imagined a vain thing i've never met anybody that can
fly But people love thinking, well,
if I just believe it, that makes it true. There's only one person that
that statement can be true of and that's God. See, God doesn't
have to, he doesn't have to weigh right and wrong. He doesn't have
to weigh truth and a lie. The fact that he thinks it, the
fact that he believes it makes it true. The fact that he said
it makes it true. He's the only one that's that
way. But man in his vain imagination
of his own God complex thinks that, well, that's true of me.
If I think it, if I believe it, if I speak it, that makes it
true. You see it in religion, don't you? Religious groups get
together and a preacher gets up and gets the whole congregation
to chant certain things. You just say it enough and believe
it hard enough and it'll happen. Why? Because you're God. Why do they heathen rage? Who
do they rage in against? They're raging against the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why do they imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed. Men are still mocking the gospel.
Men still believe they can stand in God's way and determine the
outcome of their own soul apart from the sovereign will of God. They gather themselves together.
You put a religious leader from every known religion
in the world in this room and preach the gospel to them and
they will all gather themselves together against the gospel.
The gospel of God's free grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is the
only message in the world that's different. It's different. Every other imagination. Every other opinion of man needs
you to do something. And the only difference between
one religious opinion over another is what are the list of do's
and don'ts that that particular religion subscribes to. The gospel
of God's free grace is in the finished work and the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Strips men naked, gives them
nothing to boast in. And those who hear the voice
of God, they fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
remember the woman who kissed His feet? She wept and dried
her tears with her hair and kissed the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's what kissing the Son is all about. sitting at his
feet as a sinner, kissing his feet and giving to him all the
glory. And the kiss of Judas is exactly
what the religious world is doing. Kissing him on the cheek, acting
like they love him when really they hate him. Verse three, let us break their
bands asunder. I'm not going to have a God who
has sovereignly chosen according to His own will and purpose to
elect a particular people. I'll not have that. I'll break
that band. A God who actually accomplish
the salvation of only a particular people? I'll not have that. I'll
not have that God reign over me. Let's break his bands asunder. Let's do away. The covenant of
grace? No. I'll not have that. I'll
have my salvation based on a covenant that I make. I'm going to bring
something into the equation. No, you're not. I'm going to
break those bands asunder. I'll not have that God. And what does the Lord say? What's
he say to all that foolishness? He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. He shall hold them in derision.
You think God's threatened by your unbelief? You think he's
threatened by your unwillingness to bow to him? By your raging? No, no he's not. He's not, is he? Not in the least. Luke chapter 4, our Lord begins
his public ministry in his own hometown of Nazareth. Small town,
they all knew him. Probably been in most of their
homes, they've been in his. Can't imagine how they didn't
notice that there was something, something particularly different
about him, but they didn't. Until that day, when he opened
the scroll of Isaiah to Isaiah chapter 61 and he read that passage
of prophecy that Isaiah gave about the anointed one, the Messiah. And they all looked on him, and
they were amazed at his words of grace. And then he rolled
up the scroll, and he said to them, this day, this prophecy
has been fulfilled in your sight. Could it be? Could this be the
Messiah? Could the anointed one have been
right here among us all these years? And then he gave interpretation,
didn't he? In the days of the prophet Elijah, there were many
widows in Israel. In Israel, Jewish widows. And God showed no mercy upon
any of them except for that Gentile widow of Sareptal that the prophet
gave grace to. And in the days of the prophet
Elijah, there were many lepers in Israel. Israelites. And God
showed no mercy upon any of them except for that Syrian by the
name of Naaman. God saved him. And their wonderment
was turned to rage and they took him and tried to kill him. Why
do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a Bane
thing? Why do they do it? because they
hate the God who is sovereign. They will not bow to Him. And
what did the Lord do when they tried to take Him and put Him
to death? What did He do? He walked right
through the crowd and they never saw Him. They never saw Him. He blinded their eyes and walked
right away from them. It wasn't His time to die, was
it? There's gonna come a day in a
few years where he's going to remove the restraints of man
and he's gonna let man do what he wants to do. And what does
man do when God removes all the restraints? He rages against
the anointed one. He rages against the Lord Jesus
Christ. He puts him to death. He crucified
the Lord Jesus Christ. But God sits in the heavens and
laughs, the Lord shall have them in derision. He's not threatened
by man's unbelief. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. When the Lord Jesus Christ has
spoken of and coming in the day of judgment, riding upon a horse
and his tongue is like flaming sword, and all he has to do is
speak. Speak. And all of his enemies are vexed by his sore displeasure. And God says, I have set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. And let me give you a better
interpretation of that verse, a better rendering of that verse.
I have set my King upon Zion, the holiness. I have set my King
upon Zion, the hill of my holiness, the hill of my holiness. Now,
what is Zion? You're sitting in Zion right
now. This is the church. This is where the Lord Jesus
Christ is lifted up. This is where his people kiss
him. This is where they just rejoice in hearing more about
him. And the Lord says, that Zion, it's the hill of my holiness. I've put my holiness there. I've
caused my son to be loved there. I've caused him to be lifted
up there. I've enabled him to be preached there, and I've given
my people faith to believe on him there. My king sits upon
his throne." A man wants to sit on his own
throne, doesn't he? How do I know if I've heard from
God? I don't know if I've kissed the sun. I don't know if I'm
not raging against him. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated
upon the throne. He's the throne of my salvation,
the throne of my affections, the throne of my values, my judgments,
everything I know to be true, I know to be true in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now the Lord's going to speak. You see, God's people delight
in getting in the yoke with the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't buck against him.
My yoke is easy. My burden is light. My law is
not burdensome to them. They gladly follow after Christ.
They delight in hearing him. They delight in knowing him. They're glad to be in yoke with
him. Verse six, I will declare, now
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is speaking in verses seven,
eight and nine. In verse seven, I will declare
the decree the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son, This
day I have begotten thee. Now turn to me to Acts chapter
13. Acts chapter 13. Paul is preaching. And he quotes
from Psalm 2 also in his message. And in verse 33, God hath fulfilled
the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus
again, as it is also written in the second Psalm, thou art
my son, this day I have begotten thee. So, when the scriptures
speak of the Lord Jesus Christ being begotten of the father,
it's not speaking of his incarnation, it's speaking of his resurrection.
Speaking of his resurrection, God and Paul goes on in this
message to say, God would not allow his holy one to see corruption,
quoting from another psalm, and saying that God the Father was
obligated by the covenant promise that He had made to His Son to
raise Him from the dead. Why? Because He successfully
accomplished everything that He agreed to do and the Father
raised Him from the dead. That's the hope of our salvation
is the resurrection, isn't it? And so, go back with me. The
Lord Jesus Christ now is speaking He says, I'm going to declare
the decree that the father has given me that he's going to raise
me from the dead. Verse 8, here's part of the decree. The father in the covenant of
grace had told the son You do the work of redemption. You satisfy
the demands of the law. You suffer the full wrath of
God for the sins of your people. And you can ask, number one,
I'm gonna raise you from the dead for doing that. Number two,
you ask of me whatever you want, I'm gonna give it to you. Look
what he says in verse eight. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession." I'm going to give you everyone that
you die. And did the Lord ask? Did He ask? Of course He did.
John chapter 17, Father, I pray not for the world. I pray for
them which Thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they
were, and Thou hast given them unto me. And they've heard my
voice. and they followed me. Father,
I pray that you would keep them. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for his bride and the father here had made a decree in the
covenant of grace with the son to say to the son, you do the
work of redemption. I'll raise you from the dead.
I'll listen to your prayers. I'll answer every one of them.
All of those for whom you died, will be saved. And verse nine,
and thou shalt break. This is part of the decree. The
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. He's just repeating the decree
that the father had made with him. Thou shalt break them with
a rod of iron and shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. And what is a potter's vessel?
It's a clay pot. Has God shattered your clay pot? Has He left you with no hope
in your flesh for your salvation? Has He stripped you of all of
your righteousness? What a picture here. This rod
of iron smashing a clay pot and leaving it in never to be... You can't put it back together.
It's been destroyed. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does when He speaks and reveals to his people that in
their flesh dwelleth no good thing. Lord, I don't have, I can't put
it together. If I'm going to receive anything
from the Lord, it's going to have to be by your grace. It's
going to have to be by the finished work of Christ. And this decree goes beyond the
smashing of the flesh of His people in this life. It's the eternal destruction
of those who rage against Him and those who imagine a vain
thing against Him. Now the Holy Spirit speaking,
be wise. Be wise. Don't be foolish. You're not going to resist God.
You're not going to change Him. You're going to bow to Him. Be wise now therefore, ye kings.
Be instructed, you judges of the earth. You know, in our pride,
we set ourselves upon our own throne, don't we? And the Lord's
got to take us down. And we think that we've got the
wisdom and discernment to make judgments by ourselves. Well,
this is what I believe. This is what I think. This is
what... So what? I don't care what you believe.
That's what God said. What does what you believe have
to do with it? Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. That's my experience. Rejoicing without trembling is
presumption. Trembling without rejoicing is
terror. And the truth is that faith has
both, doesn't it? We rejoice with trembling. Lord, my flesh is so weak. Lord, I do believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. Kiss the son lest he be angry. And ye perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled but a little, but a little. Doesn't take, don't
take God much. Blessed, happy are all they who
put their trust, their trust, their hope, all
of their salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know
if I've heard from God, if He's spoken to me? Because I've heard
the Father speak, I've heard the Son speak, and I've heard
the Holy Spirit speak, and they all point me to Christ. And I've
been brought by God Almighty to kiss the feet of the Son and
to trust Him, trust Him for all my salvation. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word and we pray now that your Holy
Spirit would enable us to meditate on the things we've heard and
give us faith, Lord, to believe you. Forgive us for our foolish rebellion. And cause
us, Lord, to kiss the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear
Son and our Savior. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. All right, let's stand together,
Brother Tom. Number 18, number 18. Now thank we all our God, with
hearts and hands and voices, who wondrous things hath done,
in whom his world rejoices. Who from our mother's arms hath
blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is ours
today. Oh may this bounteous God through
all our life be near us with ever joyful hearts and blessed
peace to cheer And keep us in his grace And
guide us when perplexed And free us from all ills In this world
and the next All praise and thanks to God,
the Father now be given, the Son and Him who reigns with them
in highest heaven. The one eternal God, whom earth
and heaven adore, for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. you