Okay, Psalm chapter 2. This Psalm,
chapter 2, is divided into four three-verse sections. In verses
1 through 3, we have the voice of the heathen speaking. In verses
4, 5, and 6, we have the voice of the Father speaking. Verses
7, 8, and 9, we have the voice of the Son speaking. And then
verses 10 and 11 and 12, we have the voice of the Holy Spirit. So in these first three verses,
as we looked at briefly last time, we have the voice of the
heathen and it's the voice of defiance. Psalm two, verse one,
why do the heathen rage and the people imagine, people, why do
they meditate and think about their rage and rebellion, what
God calls a vain thing? Well, it's nothing short of vain
to rage and meditate ways to get rid of God. How vain to think
that we can be rid of God or get rid of God. And that's what
we see in verse two, the kings of the earth set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed. In Acts chapter four, verse 26,
we're told that the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
And for a truth against that holy child whom God has anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together to do what? Now listen to this. For to do whatsoever thy hand,
God's hand, and thy counsel, God's counsel, determined before
to be done. The heathen rage against the
Lord and His anointed. Sinners rage against God, the
Father and His anointed Son. People imagine vain, empty, worthless
thoughts. They imagine God to be altogether
such a one as they are. And why is anyone surprised by
that? As early as chapter six in the
book of Genesis, God tells us that. Genesis 6, 5, and God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You know, I've thought about
that verse so many times. I know that you've heard it quoted
by me and others so many times. What a picture of our depravity
and our sin. And this is what God saw. God
saw our wickedness. And he saw that it was great
in the earth. Now, men by nature don't see
it. They don't see it in others, and they certainly don't see
it in themselves. Why don't they see their wickedness? Why don't they see that their
wickedness is great? Why don't they see that they
imagine vain things? You know, all of the imaginations
and the thoughts of our hearts are only evil. And that's not all. Our imaginations
and thoughts are only evil continually. Every thought we have, only evil.
All day, every day. Continually, all the time. Never
anything but evil thoughts. And I know some folks are gonna
say, well now I have some good thoughts from time to time. But
even our soul imagined good thoughts are evil before a thrice holy
and righteous God. The Hebrew word for continually
here means For the process of time it's a it's pronounced yom
and that's what it means the process of time From the moment
that we're born to the time that we die We are yom in the process
of time constantly and continually thinking evil against our Lord
This is the condemnation that light has come into the world,
and men love darkness rather than light. And why is that?
He tells us, because their deeds were evil. And condemnation still
comes the same way. Men's thoughts are evil, men's
deeds are evil. The heart of man, Jeremiah 17,
nine said, is deceitful. It's deceitful above all things. Any deceitful thing you could
think of, the heart of man is deceitful above. The heart of
man is desperately wicked. Not just wicked, but desperately
wicked. And it repents the Lord that
he made man. It grieved the Lord at his heart
that he made man. Now that is an alarming thought,
isn't it? That man is so evil that God
regretted Is that a good word? I don't
know maybe not but God He Saw that man's heart was desperately
wicked deceitful above all things and he grieved him in his heart.
I know that He grieved him in his heart that he made man What
about the world leaders? What about worldly innovators?
What about the movers and the shakers of this world? What about
the wise and the prudent? What about those who think themselves
to be somebody? Do they rage and imagine vain
things of the Lord? Yes, they do. All unbelieving
men and women by nature rage and fury and set themselves against
God. They imagine vain and ridiculous
things while they set themselves in alliance with evil. They together
take counsel against God. How ridiculous of the Herod's
and the palace of this world to take counsel against one that
cannot. that they cannot take counsel
effectively against. It's so futile, such a waste
of time. They join together, though they
hate one another, they love hating the same God. And they set themselves
against him to take counsel together against God. Pilate and Herod
had opposite views and they hated one another. And they hated one
another because of what the other one stood for. And yet they still
joined themselves together in a common bond against God Almighty
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Herod hated Pallad, and Pallad
hated Herod. They were in competition for
the same office, and they sought recognition from the same king.
And they agreed only on one thing, and that was their hatred for
the Lord Jesus Christ. All the wicked take counsel.
They deliberate together. They subtly come. in their sheep's
clothing. They subtly talk about God's
love for everyone. They talk about how God is not
willing that any should perish and that the whole world should
come to repentance. They talk about letting go and
letting God have his way in their life. And they talk about making
Jesus their Lord, but they're too late. God has already made
him Lord, and this is no new battle. It's been this way since
the fall of man. Men and women love darkness rather
than light. Light has come into the world
and men and women loved darkness rather than that light. Christ
is the light of the world. Because their deeds are evil,
their hearts are rebellious, their will is in bondage to their
sin. And they would and they will
not have Christ to rule over them. And when it comes to the
object of man's real hatred, men have Christ to hate as their
common bond and goal. And if this doesn't prove to
you that men and women in their fallen state of sin are dead
and trespasses and sin, I'm convinced nothing. We only God can. Who
but one spiritually dead would join in such nonsense? Who else
would take this council together? Who else would come against the
Lord? Just the thought of it is terrifying. To set myself against the Lord. Who are these people and their
rulers raging against? They're raging against the Lord
and His anointed. They're raging against God. They're
raging against God the Father. They're hostile against God the
Son. They're out to kill the Spirit
of God. They're determined to get rid
of God. Goodbye, God. Let's get rid of
him. Let's get him out of our homes.
Let's get him out of our schools. Let's get him out of our marriages. Let's get him out of our government. Raging against God. Why do the heathen and rulers,
and what do they say? Verse three, let us break their
bands asunder. Let us cast their cords from
us. Let us break their bands. Let
us rage in defiance against them. Who's he talking about? Let us
throw off and do away with. Let us destroy and break these
bands, these laws, these restraints, these guidelines. I was thinking
today. That would be guidelines, would
be well said to be guidelines. That's what God's law was. It
was given to show us our inability to keep it. It was given to bring
us to Christ. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. That's what the law does. It
shows us that we're not capable of being saved any other way
than in the finished, in, by, and through the finished work
of Christ. And only by God's grace and effectual call are
we drawn with the cords of love that we endeavor to sever. Isn't
that most beautiful? God saves us in spite of us. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. And as we discussed last time,
what does all this raging and this foolish imagining, how does
this affect God? Well, that brings me to the second
section of the Psalm. And this is the Father speaking.
And in verse four, it says, he that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh. and the Lord shall have them
in derision." Now, mankind is raging, God is sitting. People
are imagining vain things. They think themselves to be like
God, and God is laughing. But God's not only laughing,
He's not only mocking, but He is laughing with derision. He has contempt, that's what
the word means. He has contempt for them in His
heart. You've ever heard on a movie or a TV program where the judge
says, I'm gonna charge you with contempt. God is laughing at
these folks. God is mocking them. There's
derision in God's heart, disrespect and disregard, ridicule and disgust,
hatred and abhorrence. Verse five, then shall he speak
unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Now that word wrath in verse
five, it actually means nostrils flared. Have you ever seen someone
so mad that their nostrils flared? I have. Wrath means angered. It means infuriated. And it says
that God will vex them in his sore displeasure. That word vex
means to tremble inwardly. so mad and so irritated and agitated
that you shake, being deeply troubled in anger. And this sore
displeasure is the sore displeasure of God. It means burning anger. It speaks of God's fierceness.
It's the execution of his swift justice. It means to be greatly
displeased, yet men don't tell you that side of God. Oh, God
is love. He has a wonderful plan for your
life. The sore displeasure this is talking about. That's talking
about the God of the Bible. And then that brings us to our
text for tonight, verse six. Here God the Father says his
word. Oh, he says yet. Yet, regardless
of all these things, yet, in consideration of all these things,
yet, in spite of all these things, God says, I have set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. God the Father is speaking and
he says, I have, past tense, already done. I have set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. What an amazing thought. Christ
is God, the Father's King. God the Father appointed Him.
God the Father anointed Him. God set Him up to be King from
everlasting to everlasting. Christ is the King of His enemies.
Christ is the King of His saints. And God here says, I have set
my King on my holy hill. He is the Father's King. He well
qualifies to be our king. If he is the king of those who
hate him, then he must like to be the king of those who love
him. And he rules in the hearts of his people. All the heathen
have raged and they still do. You tell a man that his works
and his will has nothing to do with salvation and you watch
him rage. People imagine a vain thing and
they still do. The kings of the earth set themselves
up in opposition to he with whom there can be no lasting opposition. And now in this Psalm, chapter
two, verse seven, Christ begins to speak and he says, I will
declare the decree. Now a decree is something a king
does. And what's the decree of God
the Son? It's his will and his purpose.
What is his will and his purpose? Let me ask it that way. To save
his people from their sin. That's why Christ came. To seek
and to save that which was lost. Now, are you lost? You know,
that's why a sinner is a precious thing. They're hard to find.
He came to seek and to save them which are lost. Our Lord said
those that have no need of a physician won't seek one. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief.
Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
be honor and glory forever and ever. Because he came to save
sinners. And in this Psalm, the Lord Jesus
says, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, thou
art my son. This day have I begotten thee. And beloved, that is the will
and purpose of God. The Lord said in John chapter
six, verse 39, you know this well. And this is the Father's
will, which has sent me. Now listen, that of all, all,
which he has given me, I should lose nothing. Now I'm not a smart
man, but I know what all means, and I know what nothing means.
He said that all which he had given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. Verse 40, John
6 39. And this is the will of him that
sent me that every one, every single one of them, which seeth
the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And
I'll raise him up at the last day. God gave people to Christ and
God gave Christ to a people. And they are those which see
the sun. God has to give you eyes to see.
I'm more convinced of that than ever before. These are those
who believe on Christ. God has to give you a heart to
believe on him. They are those who have everlasting
life. They are those that Christ will
raise up at the last day. And the child of God can have
complete confidence and assurance that Christ being the son of
God is able to accomplish that which we as sinners commit unto
him. And God says, thou art my son,
not by creation, not by adoption, nor on the account of his incarnation. Christ is God's true, proper,
natural, and eternal son, which is declared and owned and acknowledged
by Jehovah, the Father of heaven, when he says, this day have I
begotten thee. Christ is to the child of God,
prophet, priest, and king. But his office is not the foundation
of his sonship. His sonship is the foundation
of his office. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. Christ was God's son previous
to being prophet, priest, and king. Christ was God the son
before he was ever our one mediator between us and God. Christ has
always been God the son. In verse eight, Christ tells
us that his father tells him, now look at this, he says, ask
of me. God says to Christ, ask of me. You know, it was a custom among
great kings to give favored subjects whatever they asked. You think
about the story of Esther. You remember King Herod on his
birthday, the daughter of Herodias, Herod's concubine, her daughter,
his brother's wife, Her daughter danced for Herod, and it pleased
him so that he offered her whatever she desired, up to half of his
kingdom. And she requested the head of
John the Baptist, and Herod granted it to her. Now, God here says
to the Lord Jesus, ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession. Now, I want you to notice something
here. Did you notice that the word thee is italicized, and
also the word for is italicized, which means they were added.
Whenever we see italicized words in the scriptures, we know that
the translators add them, added them, so that it made it easier
to read. But this phrase, actually, with
those omitted words, reads this way. Look at it. I shall give the heathen thine
inheritance. That changes the way it reads
altogether. I will give the heathen thine
inheritance. According to that, God gives
the inheritance of Christ to those who were once children
of wrath, even as others. He makes us, those who were ungodly
and have now been made perfect in Christ, conformed to His perfect
image, He makes us godly, godly in our substitute. We were ungodly,
He made us godly. We were children of wrath, even
as others. We were the ungodly, but Christ,
by way of substitution and sacrifice, he died for the ungodly in order
to make us holy and without blame before him in love. The just
died for the unjust to bring us to God. We got to be perfect
to be accepted. We were heathen before we were
made new creatures in Christ, but now old things are passed
away and behold, all things have become new. And because Christ
is God's son, and because Christ is the God-man, and because Christ
is our mediator and our substitute, and because Christ is our great
high priest, we've been perfectly conformed to his image, and we're
joint heirs with Christ. And the possession of the earth
is ours in Christ. God's elect were broken with
the rod, but it was the rod of chastening. But there are others,
verse nine, that thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Some God will
break with the shepherd's staff and full of mercy and grace. And there are others that will
be broken with rods of irons. He shall break rebellious nations
in pieces. That's no big task for God. Those
who will not submit and kiss his gold scepter will be destroyed
as a potter's vessel, easily dashed to pieces and destroyed. And it'll be too late for reconciliation. God gave them what they wanted. God often does that. But the
child of God prays, Lord, don't give me what I want. Don't give
me what I will. Thy will be done, not mine. I
don't know what's best for me, you do. I want your will to be
done in my life. And then now we see the Holy
Spirit of God speaks. And he gives these words of warning
and instruction, beginning in verse 10. The Holy Spirit speaks,
and he says, be wise. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings,
be instructed, be teachable. You judges of the earth, listen
and learn. Be wise, be instructed. You know,
men and women need to be teachable. The Lord didn't say you need
to be wise. He said, be wise. And the only
way you can be wise is if you are wise. And the only way you
can be wise is in Christ. You know, God says, be ye holy
for I am holy. We're unholy, nothing holy about
us. The only way that we can be holy
is in Christ. That's what he's saying here.
In verse 11, the Spirit declares, serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Now listen to me, joy without
fear is arrogant presumption. Now let me repeat that. Joy without
fear is arrogant presumption. We have men and women today that
are full of joy. They're raising their hands,
clapping their hands, they're jumping up and down, but it's
arrogant presumption because they don't have any fear, any
reverential respect for God. Joy without fear is arrogant
presumption, and fear without joy is torment. A child of God
serves Christ with fear and trembling. You see, to be ignorant and arrogant
is to declare to have joy apart from the reverence of who
God is and what Christ has done. That's to be ignorant. God being
holy can by no means clear the guilty. Sin has to be dealt with. God's justice demands it. That
same holy God made a way of escape. That same just and righteous
God became that way. Christ is that way, that truth
and that life. And He became the sacrifice for
sin and the only way for us to get to the Father. No sinner
gets to the Father but by Him. And this is the only way that
you can appease the Father. This is the only way that you
can be reconciled to Him. Verse 12, here it is. Kiss the
Son. Kiss the Son. You've got to kiss
the Son. Kiss the Son, lest He, God, be
angry. If you don't kiss the Son, the
anger and the wrath of God abides on you. And you'll perish from
the way. Christ is the way. If you don't kiss the Son, you'll
be lost and without Christ. To be without Christ is to be
without God. To be without Christ and without
God is to be without hope in this world. If you don't kiss
Christ, there's no hope for you. If you don't bow to the Lord
Jesus, there's no hope. That means you have to have Christ.
Kiss the Son. You have to kiss the Son. Judas
kissed his cheek. that that woman who was called
a sinner, she kissed his feet. Judas kissed his cheek, she kissed
his feet. You know, there's no higher position
than that of being at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a picture that is of true worship. You know, the word worship, I
had forgotten this until I looked at it again today, but the word
worship means to kiss like a dog licks his master's hand. That's
what worship is. We're to worship Him at His feet.
We're to kiss Him, embrace Him, like that woman who washed His
feet with her tears and dried them with her hair and she kissed
His feet. That's where we worship Him,
at His feet. That's where we kiss Him. That's where we embrace
Him. That's where we depend on Him as our kinsman redeemer,
as our sovereign substitute. kiss the sun, lest he be angry. You know, the original reads
more correctly, kiss the sun, lest his nostrils flare. And
you perish from the way. I don't want to perish from the
way. I am grateful for the privilege of kissing the sun. But you can't
exalt yourself above him and still kiss him. You can't trust
in a work of righteousness of your own and still kiss the Son
for His accomplished, finished work. You can't do it. I'm grateful for the privilege
of kissing the Son. Why? Because blessed, and how,
how blessed are they that put their trust in Him. You see that?
Last verse. Blessed, blessed are they that
put their trust in Him. Christ is the believer's protection. He's their refuge, the ark of
safety. He's their rock of ages. He's
their Passover lamp. He's their cleft in the rock. He's that rock that brings forth
living water. He's that bread from heaven,
that manna that God sends to sustain His people. He's, as
I said, clipped in the rock, that place beside God. There's
a place by me, God said, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Kiss
Him, kiss the Son, kiss the Son. To make peace with the Father,
you've got to kiss the Son. A kiss was the means of paying
homage and allegiance to a king. Prince Christ is the king of
kings. He's the king of every king.
Now, will you rage against him or will you kiss him? If one
does not kiss the son, he will not have Christ to reign over
him. But bow to the son or worship the king lest he be angry. As
king, he demands this respect. If you don't bow to him, he'll
be angry and you'll perish from the way. When his wrath is kindled,
ignited just a little, when sudden wrath brings forth sudden destruction,
blessed are they that put their trust in him. Now that pretty
much says it all. Those that trust Christ, put
their trust in Him, are blessed. Well, what do they trust Him
with? They trust Him with the giving
of life to those that are dead, the putting away of sin, the
making of a sinner, a new creation. Why do they trust Him? Their
acceptance is in Christ, the beloved. They've been made unblameable
and unreprovable in God's sight. That's what it is to put your
trust in Christ. Trust Him to do for you that
which you cannot do for yourself. Are you putting your trust in
the Father's King? Blessed are you if you do. Blessed
are you if you do. He set His King upon His holy
mountain. He's at the right hand of God
forever making intercession for us. Put your trust in him and
blessed are you if you do. Father, thank you again for the
privilege of opening your word and seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, that we're given
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our substitute, our mediator, our one thing needful. Lord,
make Christ our everything. Do so for God's glory, for our
good, and for Christ's sake.