Let's turn to Psalm 2. Do you ever feel like with your
own families, in your own family, your children and things like
that, You just try as you may. Try to do what you know God's
given you to do. Try to do what God has clearly
revealed for you to do. And it's just, you can't bring
to pass what you would. You just, you just find yourself
absolutely helpless to do it. in your jobs and places where
you work or in the community or whatever. We find ourselves
just sometimes just at the end of ourselves. We cannot accomplish
what we would. I find that I see how helpless I am As a
pastor, I just can't bring to pass what you would. But this
is our joy. This is the great comfort we
have. Our God reigns. Our God does
exactly what he's purposed to do. And he brings it to pass
without any change in Him without any of
us frail creatures or any of the strongest of creatures turning
Him or changing His purpose or frustrating His grace whatsoever. That is such a comfort, isn't
it? Such a comfort. There was a host of wicked men
that opposed God in setting David, that man David, whom God anointed,
was a host that opposed God and opposed David. But yet God set David on that
political throne over the kingdom of Israel in spite of all the
opposition there was. He set him there. It didn't change
God's purpose at all. And that's a foreshadowing. That was a picture, that was
a foreshadowing of what God would do in setting Christ, His King,
on His throne. That's the message of this Psalm,
Psalm 2. It's useless to oppose God. It's absolutely useless to oppose
God. The Lord has sent forth His Son,
the Son of God, His Anointed Christ, the Mediator. He sent Him forth, and Christ
has accomplished the redemption. He's bought, He's purchased His
people, and He has accomplished the crown rights. There He is. They belong to Him, and He's
the King over His spiritual kingdom. And God's purpose is being fulfilled. We sing that song, O worship
the King. O worship the King, all glorious
above. Our God is our King. Our God
is our King. Let's read this together. We'll divide this into four parts. And I'll just show you the divisions
as we read it. The first part here tells us
that the nations Rage against God and against His Christ. Verse
1, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us
break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us."
See that word, Lord, against the Lord? It's against Jehovah,
against God. Our triune, we worship God in
three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. Set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. His anointed is Christ, the Son
of God who came forth, that one who is the God-man. Robert Hawker
calls him the glory man. That's who he is. That's our
first division. The nations raging against God
and His Christ. Here's the second division. The
purpose of God is not frustrated. Look at verse 4. He that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in
His sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my
holy hill of Zion. Now here's the third division.
The Son proclaims. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
the Mediator, the Christ, God's Anointed, He declares, He speaks. Verses 7 through 9. He says,
I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. That's the third division. Now
here's the fourth thing. Here's the counsel given to everybody
that hears. Verse 10, be wise now therefore. I like these three main words
in this psalm. First one, why? Why? The second one is yet. In spite
of everything that man opposes, yet. And here's the third word,
therefore. Be wise now therefore. O ye kings,
be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. The first
thing we see here in this first division is question why. We see the nations raging against
God, but why? Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? Who is the people spoken of here. Who is this that he's speaking
about? Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain
thing? It's talking about every man,
every woman, every child born of Adam who has of yet to be
born of the Spirit of God. That's who he's talking about.
People get all concerned about, look over at Acts 4. People get
all, every now and then you hear this, about who was it that crucified
Christ? Well, listen to this, Acts 4,
27. It was fallen humanity that did
it. If we could blame one particular
group, then we could clear ourselves. But we can't. It's just fallen
humanity we're talking about. Acts 4.27. Of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed. That's who we're
talking about. Against the Lord and against
His anointed. Thy holy child Jesus whom thou
hast anointed. Now look at this. Both Herod
and Pontius Pilate. Here you got rulers. You got
There was Roman rulers, there was Jewish rulers, there were
Roman kings, there was men, Jewish religious among the Jews, with
the Gentiles, all those outside of that camp of Israel, all of
those outside of that Jewish nation, that's me, I'm a Gentile. Gentiles and the people of Israel. This is including everybody.
They were gathered together, gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. This verse
here in our text back in verses 2 and 3, we have a description
here of what man does. This is a description of human
nature. This is a description of hatred, a description of hatred's
enmity. You hear me talk about the carnal
mind is enmity against God. This is the carnal mind. This
is the human nature. This is what Satan tried to do.
He said, I will be as the most high. And his promise in the
garden was he shall be as God's. And this is what Adam tried to
do, to be as God. This is what all the kings and the rulers
were looking at here when Christ came. This is what they were
trying to do. We won't have this man reign
over us. We won't have, where they said,
we have no king but Caesar. We won't have this one to be
king. And this is what all natural
born men do, whether it's men in political office, men under
political nations, the nations of the earth, whether it's organized
religion and folks in religion. This is what men do. When a man
puts his trust in his wisdom, thinks that his counsel ought
to be heeded rather than what God's Word says. When a man puts
his trust in his righteousness, the works of righteousness which
he's done, when a man trusts his holiness, when a man does
this and calls it liberty, He can only do it this way by saying,
let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from
us. Let's get out, no God. The fool says in his heart, no
God, no God. Break their cords from us, their
bands from us. Now look at this. This tells
us the vanity, the absolute vanity of such an imagination. Now look
at what it's showing us here. This is the strongest. It's showing
us here in these three verses. This is the strongest man has. This is the wisest man has right
here. The strongest, most influential,
most powerful men in the earth. Verse 2, the kings of the earth. is who we're talking about. The
rulers, we're talking about, the word rulers there is talking
about those who were the scribes and the Pharisees. We're talking
about the rulers in religion. So we got political kings and
we got religious rulers all together here. This is supposed to be
the very best, the very wisest. Then look here, you have the
strongest enthusiasm. It says, The heathen rage. They rage. They assemble with
riot. Have you been seeing on the news
these riots in London? That's what we're talking about.
Just rage. Raging. Intense. Intense. Then we see this strongest determination. It says here, the rulers and
the kings set themselves They set themselves. They're united
together in this. And then we see the strongest,
wisest, most well-laid plans of man. It says they took counsel
together. Took counsel together. Now this
is the wisest, the wisest This is slavery. You see what we're
seeing here? These men who are saying they're
going to cast off the bonds of God, cast off the cords of God,
cast off the cords and the bonds of salvation accomplished by
his anointed alone. It's slavery to be in that place,
to be in that state, in that mindset. And this is the mindset
of the heart of man. When they came, whenever Christ
came, if Christ would have come and said, I'm going to make a
kingdom on earth right now and I'm going to deliver the Jews
who were under the power of Rome. If He would have said, I'm coming
and I'm taking you out from under that and I'm just going to restore
to you a kingdom like you had back in the days of David. We wouldn't have read here that
it was Israel that set themselves against Him, because they would
have said, yes, we want that. Whenever there was some that
said, let us, they said, we'll take Him and make Him a king
and make Him Lord. And if Christ would have permitted
them to do that, if He would have allowed a man to make Him
king and make Him Lord, there wouldn't be any opposition there.
That's what men say. You make Him king. Make Him Lord of your life. There's
no opposition. That's not offensive. You're
going to make God king? You're going to make the Son
of God king? You're going to make the One
whom God anointed and made king? We're going to make Him king?
That's no offense in that to the natural heart. But this One
who comes and says, If we could say, if we could add to his rule
and add to his kingdom, add to his power and what he accomplished
and say we by ourselves, by our wisdom, helped him out somehow. Man doesn't get offended by that.
It's called craftiness. Craftiness. Craftiness Paul said
that Lord sent me. He said Christ sent me this anointed
when he sent me He sent me to do one thing to preach the cross
of Christ to preach what Christ has accomplished Not with wisdom
of words Not by my own craftiness. That's what the Greek wants the
Greek wants some intellectual. Give me some intellectualism
Give me something that's gonna tickle my my wisdom My understanding. Give me some of that. A man will
sit and listen for hours about history. A man will sit and listen
for hours about how this book was made, how it was printed,
and how it, things like that. But declare the one of the book. Declare the one the book speaks
of. not with wisdom, just set him forth and say, this is the
Christ. I want something that is intellectual. Sets me above others. And the Jew, he wants a sign. Show me something. Show me something
religious. Show me something I can do. Show
me something that can make me feel like I've accomplished something.
Show me... Paul said tongues were given
as a sign for unbelievers. But prophecy, preaching was given
for believers. That's what Paul said. But this one who is God, Man
don't have a problem with Him, not so much with Him, if He rules
creation. Not so much with Him if He rules
in providence, but if He declares He rules in salvation. He's sovereign
over creation, over providence and salvation. Then a man starts
to see who's God and who the king is, and he starts to see
he ain't. And then he starts getting offended.
He starts getting offended. the man of this dust, who considers
himself a king, who considers his counsel wise, who considers
him worthy to have some glory in this thing, he'll say, I won't
have this man to reign over me. That's what, we don't have any
other king but Caesar, they said. And this is what makes all this
so vain. Look at verse 2. It's against
the Lord and against His anointing. That's what makes it vain. It's
against God. It's against God and it's against
Christ. But that's the case. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. It can't be. It can't be. We see that in what happened
on the cross. But here's the second thing.
This is the second division. God's purpose is never altered
by man. Shall a man who is just a worm
of the dust, is he going to set himself against omnipotence? Is he going to set himself against
omnipower, all power? Is he going to set himself in
his so-called wisdom against omniscience, against the all-wise God and prosper? Are we? Are we? Verse 4, we see the men, dust of the earth,
plotting and scheming. God sits in the heavens. He sitteth
in the heavens. He's not riled. He's not torn
up. He's not frustrated. He's sitting
in the heavens. Here you see men, they're setting
themselves and all their wise counsel, what they're going to
do. Verse 4 says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. He
laughs. Look at, it says they took counsel
together, come up with all this wisdom that man could come up
with, and it said, and the Lord shall have them in derision.
Completely confused, completely accomplishing his will and his
work. That's what happened. Confusion. Absolute confusion. You think
about, I was thinking about in all that's going on right now
in Washington. You know, you got men that went to Washington,
D.C. who had it all figured out in their minds how they could
fix things. And they come together. And right
now, they're perplexed. They have no idea. And you know,
when it is, everything is good and everything is prospering,
you know it's not man that brings that about. It's God that does
it. You know why men are so perplexed
right now and can't bring to pass their agenda? There's not
a soul in Washington, D.C. that's happy right now. Because
nobody's getting their way. You know who makes it that way?
God does. God does. You think about, you
take a hurricane, You take some acts of terrorism, you take some
tsunamis, you take God unleashing His hand and causing men to riot,
and you realize when you look over the course of this earth,
you realize all God has to do is take His restraining hand
off of us in this world. And we're in derision. We're
just in complete and total chaos. We can't make anything happen. It just falls into, and this
world right now, you look at this world, it's this world over. It's just falling into, countries that were on top are
on bottom, and countries that were on bottom are on top. And
the rulers of those countries that are on top are bragging
about what they did to get on top. And the ones that are on
bottom are saying, we don't know what we can do to get back on
top. God just takes His hand off and touches. Man, this world is in confusion. Let me show you this. Look at
the next verse. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath
and vex them in His sore displeasure. God took His hands off of the
men. All those folks we read about
in Acts 4, He took His hand off of them. His restraining hand. And the wrath that men exhibited
toward Christ was the wrath that was there all the time. It was
there. God just took His hand off and
allowed man to vent the wrath that was already in our heart. And God And then men went back
to doing what they were doing. The political kings thought they
had accomplished something. The religious rulers thought
they had accomplished something. And everybody went back to their
little game, everybody thinking they're God. And you know what
God did in 70 A.D.? He took His hand, same way, just
took His hand off of the enemies of Jerusalem. And they came into
Jerusalem and just leveled her flat. Leveled her flat. Read verse 5. He speaks unto
them in his wrath, and he vexes them in his sordid pleasure.
He says he takes the wise in their own craftiness, and the
counsel of the forward is carried headlong. But did it alter God's
purpose at all? Did any of this alter God's purpose?
Verse 6 says, Yet. Yet, after Satan's schemes and
man's enmity against God and against his Christ, yet have
I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. It didn't alter his
purpose. What does it declare to us? That
he set his King on his holy hill of Zion. What does that declare
to us? That Christ is risen and that he is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God in the heavens. What does that declare
to us? It declares to us that Christ
accomplished everything God sent Him to accomplish. God's satisfied
with Him. God the Father's satisfied with
His King. He's satisfied with His anointing
or He wouldn't be risen to where He is now. He fulfilled everything
that was written of Him in the Law and the Prophets. This very
Word God is speaking right here through the psalmist All these
many years before Christ ever came, Christ came and fulfilled
everything fully. He came and He fulfilled all
righteousness as a representative of His people. He fulfilled the law in justifying
His people from their sins. And He is risen. God's satisfied
with Him. He's redeemed His people. And
He's satisfied. He's sovereign over creation.
He raised Him from the dead. He's sovereign over providence. All of this, the Scripture says,
was doing that which He had determined before the world was made to
be done. and He's sovereign in salvation.
His name is Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
He came forth and accomplished the redemption, purged the sins,
accomplish the redemption of His people. And God has set Him
in His throne, in His holy hill of Zion. That's peace to my heart. That's rejoicing to my heart. When I look at this world, and
I look at this church right here, and I look at my own self, my
own family, my own house, This is what is the peace of my heart.
God's purpose has come into pass. He's never frustrated. He's fulfilling
everything that He's bringing to pass exactly on schedule,
right on track, and the host of hell can't prevail against
Him. You know what I pray? I pray He comes and sets Christ
upon the throne of our hearts in this temple, this church that
is His body. I pray you come and set Him in
the hearts of each one so we can rest and know. The problem's not that men can't
hear the gospel. The problem is they do. But this is the consolation.
Thy God reigneth. Christ is the King. We've seen
Him. We've seen the vanity of the
wicked heart. We've seen that God reigns. He's seated in the
heaven. He does as He will among the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Nobody
can stop Him. Nobody can question Him. Now
let's see. Let's hear the Son of God. Let's
hear Christ speak. Let's hear what He says about
all this. The King. Verse 7. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son this day, have I begotten thee? What's that decree? What is it? It's like no sooner has we read
here that God has set Christ in His holy hill of Zion. No
sooner is He seated there than He starts to speak. And He says,
I will declare the decree. I will declare it. What is this
decree? Look over to Zechariah in chapter
6. Zechariah chapter 6. This is the decree. It's what
God promised him before the world began. Now look, we're talking
about here, as the Son of God, He's God. He's God. Let me, while you're turning
there, let me turn over and read something to you out of Isaiah.
Listen to this. I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King. You understand that? He's the
Lord. He's the Holy One. He's the Creator of Israel. He's
the King. This is the Lord. This is God. And He's God, but as the Mediator,
having accomplished everything that God gave Him to do, this
man Christ Jesus, this One who is the Son of God, God-man, man-God,
this One who is all God and all man, perfect, who's risen to
the right hand of the Father. This was what was promised to
him, and this is what he's declaring he's doing. Verse 12, Zechariah
6, verse 12. Speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the branch, Netzer, Nazareth, the Nazarene, the Nazarene. Jesus of Nazareth. He shall grow
up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord. Even He shall build the temple
of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon His throne, and He shall be a priest upon His throne,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." This is
that counsel that God made with Christ Jesus His Son before the
world began. This is that counsel that He
would get all the glory and all the praise and all the honor,
that all power is His in heaven and earth to sit upon the throne
and to build the house of the Lord, to build the church of
God, to establish the kingdom of God. It was given to Him to
do this. And He's saying here, I'll declare
the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou
art my son. This day have I begotten thee.
What did he say to his disciples when he came back to them? He
said, All power in heaven and in earth is given to me. And
he told them this, You go forth and you preach the kingdom of
God. You go forth and you preach.
that I have accomplished is by my life, by my death, by my resurrection,
I am the Christ who has accomplished the full and complete and total
salvation of everyone the Father has given unto me. Paul said,
that's what Christ sent me to do. He sent me to preach this
gospel. And he said, and I've come forth
and I'm preaching it. And he said, and let every man
be careful how he builds, because you can't build on this foundation
with anything but the foundation. You can't build on Christ with
anything but Christ. And he said, there's going to
be trials, and there's going to be persecutions, and there's
going to be, and he said, and that which is built that remains. He said that man will receive
a reward. He will receive Christ, His glory. But if anything is
burnt up, it's going to be burnt up by fire. And yet that man,
He says, will be saved by this trial. He'll be saved from looking
to the vanity of that which is not the pure foundation, the
pure gold of Christ, our righteousness. And Christ says, I'm the one
who's good, so we can go forth and declare the decree. Just
set forth the truth of what He's done and what He's doing. And
Christ says, and I'll declare this decree in the hearts. I'll
declare this decree in the earth. I'll declare this in my people. I'll do this. Don't turn from
what I've sent you for. Don't turn from this one thing
I've given unto you, which is to declare the truth." And he
said, I will declare the truth. The Lord will make it effectual
in the hearts of His people. Thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof. because you were slain and has
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, tongue
and people and nation and has made us under our God kings and
priests and we shall reign on the earth. He has the power to
open the book. It's not just this book, although
He has the power to open this book, the understanding of this
book, but He is the one who has the power to open the understanding,
to show to us the book of creation, and the book of providence, and
the book of salvation, and the book of redemption. All the power,
is what I'm saying, the power is given to Him to do so. And
this is the offense when little kings and little rulers and little
wise imps like like all the political rulers and kings did in Christ's
day when He walked this earth, who said, we're going to set
ourselves together and come up with, cast off God's cords and
His bands and do something different than the way God said He's going
to save His people. We're going to come to God some
other way than how God said He's going to save His people. God
said, I laugh. I laugh. I laugh. Let me see if I can find this,
Jeremiah 23. I tell you what, you be looking
back at our text and then we'll look over here at Jeremiah 23.
He says, Christ said, I'm going to declare the decree. He's going
to have the glory in making his name known in the hearts of his
own. And he says here, This is what the Father said unto him,
verse 8, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
You know what he prayed in John 17? Let's look at that, John
17. This is what he prayed. This
is what he asked the Father. This is what Christ Christ desired, and this is what
he will have. John 17, 21. That they all may be one. You there yet? John 17, 21. That
they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. In Christ, that the world may
know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as Thou hast
loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world." Now look at Jeremiah
23. Is Christ going to pray? He's
saying, I'm declaring the decree. Now we see here God brings to
pass just what He purposed. Even in the crucifixion of Christ,
it was exactly what God the Father purposed. Now, Christ the King
who has come forth and accomplished this, and He asked the Father
that His people, that they all be one, even as He and the Father
are one, that they be made perfect in one, in Him, that they be
with Him where He is. Is He going to be denied what
He's accomplished and what His one request is from the Father?
Is He going to be denied that? Having accomplished everything,
all the Father's will, is He going to be denied that? Well,
He said in John 17 that the world may know. And does that mean
then that He's not going to get what He asked for because not
everybody obviously is saved, not everybody obviously comes
to Him. What world was He talking about? What world is He asking?
Who's this heathen? The Lord said, ask Me and I'll
give them to thee for thy inheritance. Jeremiah 23. Verse 5, The days
come, saith the Lord, I will raise unto David a righteous
branch, and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name whereby
he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Sidkenu. Therefore, now watch this, behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say the
Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of
the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth which brought up and which
led the seed, the children of the house of Israel out of the
north country and from all the countries whether I had driven
them and they shall dwell in their own land. That means He's
not just saving one little group of folks that He brought out
of Egypt. It means His seed, His children, those that He prays
for, those that the Father gave Him, are out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue under heaven. They're the heathen.
They don't know God. They're separated from God by
Adam's one transgression, scattered throughout the four corners of
the earth. But this King has power. to send forth his ambassador. You know what an ambassador does?
He announces the arrival of the king. He goes forth and he says,
the king's coming. Here he comes. The gospel is
the proclamation of the king. And as we're proclaiming the
king, Christ the king, it's saying the king's coming forth. I don't
know if he's coming forth this hour. I don't know who he's coming
forth into whose heart He's coming but through this gospel He's
coming into somebody's heart and all I'm sent to do is tell
you here comes the king and when he comes he comes into the heart
and he breaks that stony heart and he he's able to send forth
those ambassadors wherever he has one that He desires to be
one with Him. Wherever He has one that the
Father gave to Him, wherever He has one that it's His sole
petition of the Father that they behold His glory, He's able to
send forth His ambassador in truth and to proclaim that He's
arriving. And then He comes in power and
He has them. He brings them to Himself. That's
what He does. And he says here, verse 9, Psalm
2, 9, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel. This is what he has power
to do. To his vessels of mercy, he comes
forth with this word that's just like a rod of iron. And he breaks
them in mercy. And to all the rebellious, he
dashes them in pieces like a potter's vessel. That's what he does. This same word. melts the hearts
of some, and it just, it turns the hard hearts of others from
Him. Alright, now here's the counsel.
We'll end with this. Verse 10. Psalm 210. Be wise now therefore. Now here's
wisdom. Here's wisdom. Forget, forget
what Forget what this world is saying is wisdom. Forget what
the women's movement has said wisdom is. Forget what the universities
are saying wisdom is. Forget what man says wisdom is. Here's wisdom. Be wise now, therefore,
O ye kings. Be instructed, O ye judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. You remember what Paul said in
1 Corinthians 2? He said, when I was with you,
he said, I didn't come to you in wisdom of man and all that. He said, I was with you in much
fear and much trembling, preaching to you Christ and Him crucified. You know why Paul did that? He
was serving his king with fear and trembling. You know when
He said to the Philippians, He said, God works in the individual
hearts of each of His people. But if you read the whole context
of what Paul is saying there, he's saying to the church at
Philippi. Work out your own salve. Work out the things amongst yourselves
with fear and trembling, knowing you're standing right in the
King's presence. He's the one working all this in your midst,
in the midst of. You ever had your kids be in
the room playing together, and one's trying to tell the other
one what to do, and the other one's trying to tell the other
one what to do, and when the parent walks in the room, both
of them just go, and hush, because now the one
with the real authority, they're in the presence of the authority.
But this is what, He's the authority. Serve Him with fear and trepidation.
He's in the presence. Now here's the, look at this
next thing. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish
from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. This is
a kiss of reconciliation. There's no kiss when there's
enmity. There's no kiss when you're at
odds with somebody. The kiss comes when you've been
reconciled. This is the gospel. Christ has
reconciled us unto God. He's reconciled His people unto
God. Be ye therefore reconciled unto
God. Has He reconciled you? Then you'll
come to Him and kiss Him in reconciliation. There's no law for you to establish.
That's what He came for. There's no justice for you to
satisfy. That's what He came for. kiss the Son, when He brings
us home in the Spirit, when He brings us home and He breaks
that heart with the rod of love, then we come forth and we kiss
Him in reconciliation. When a husband and a wife are
at odds with each other, when there's finally reconciliation,
then they kiss. Then they kiss. This is a kiss
of allegiance and of homage. He's the king and that means
he deserves to be obeyed, he deserves to be served, he deserves
to be treated or to be obeyed. And what he said, allegiance,
we pledge allegiance to the king. That's what this kiss is. It's
a kiss of worship. There was a woman that came and
she bowed down and she broke that alabaster box. There was
wise, haughty, ignorant men sitting in his midst. They hadn't set
him at the head of the table. They gave him a lesser seat somewhere
in the house. They didn't wash his feet when
he came in. They set him somewhere else.
She comes in, this woman comes in, and she breaks open an alabaster
box of ointment. She breaks open everything she
had earned, a year's worth of wages. And she pours it on him. Remember how this woman washed
his feet with her tears and she dried his feet with the hairs
of her head? This is the kiss of worship. And it's the kiss
of love, affection and gratitude, thankfulness. Kiss the son. Now there's liberty. This is
liberty. When God has completely changed
our minds. so that we no more stand with
the kings of this earth, the rulers of this earth, in the
wisdom of this world and think that somehow we're going to be
able to pat ourselves on the back and somehow make Christ
to be more of a king and to reign more effectually and to have
His throne in the dominion of His hearts by something we do.
Repentance He's being taken out of that camp and being put at
the feet of Christ to serve Him with fear and trembling and know
He's going to have His way. And faith is trusting. He's not
only able to do what He's promised, not only that He's promised to
do it, but He's able to do what He promised. This is repentance
and faith. So that's what He says. And the people that do this,
verse 12, by His grace, Blessed. Happy. They rejoice. Happy are all they have put their
trust in Him. Oh, Lord, help us now. Thank
you.