Good evening. We're going to be in Psalm 2.
Psalm 2 this evening. While you're turning there, let
me just say that here in this Psalm, we have on display the
wonderful decree of our God of what He has determined to be
done. That He is setting forth His Son. He has set forth His
Son to be the King over all people. And he does this on display that
we all might know the truth, for nothing is secret that shall
not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be
known and come abroad. So that in spite of wicked man
and rebellious sinful man, God is sovereign and he's determined
that Christ is the King Messiah that he has appointed, that he
has reigning over all peoples even now. and He is making for
Himself a people that love Him, that worship Him and serve Him
as it pleases Him. And thankfully, this salvation
extends to the ends of the earth, because that's where we are,
brethren. All the ends of the earth have
seen the salvation of our God. Psalm 98, verse 3. And this salvation comes by the
Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ is the King appointed
by the Father, And all men shall see it and know it, whether they
believe it or not. For every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
praise and glory of God the Father. And we have tonight, we'll have
roughly four divisions. We'll be looking at about three
verses in each section as we go along. So let's begin in the
first three verses of Psalm 2, Psalm 2. Why did 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. Now we know, according to the
Scripture, that glorious title that is given to our Savior,
the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, so that
by that title we understand that this thing of fallen, sinful
man did not take our sovereign God by surprise. He's not thrown
off or thinking, oh my, what has happened to this creation
that I've created? Why are they doing this? Why
are they so wicked or so evil? God knows exactly what's in the
heart of man. And he determined, rather than
to destroy all men for the sin that we commit against him, he
determined to save a people for himself by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why he has that title,
the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. So our God is in power and in
full control. He's ordaining and ruling over
all things that are around us and going on about us. And he
determined the way his people would be saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He made that known some 4,000
years ago when he spoke to Satan, that old serpent, when he had
come and deceived Eve and Lord Adam into sin against his God. And our Lord said, in Genesis
3.15, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. between thy
seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." And Paul would declare the victory
of our Savior Jesus Christ over Satan and over all earthly powers. As our brother just read in Colossians
2.15, that Christ, having spoiled principalities and powers, He
made a show of them openly, a public show. He put them publicly on
display where he conquered and triumphed over all his enemies
and over all our enemies. That Christ, there he is, having
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily there in Christ, witnessed
before our eyes when he looked at his most weakest, God triumphed
over man and over Satan and over death and over all our enemies. So Christ, he's the triumphant
king and he has rightfully inherited his inheritance, his kingdom,
and he inherits it as the King Messiah. He inherits it as the
one who was, he suffered for his sufferings, he inherits it
for his obedience and for his substitutionary death for his
people. Christ didn't have to come here to prove anything.
Christ wasn't sinful. Christ didn't have to make himself
righteous. Christ is the Son of God. He is righteous. He already had fellowship with
the Father, and yet He willingly left glory and became poor that
he might bear, that he might fulfill all righteousness for
his people and bear their iniquities and put it away before God forever. And now our Savior says that
all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth because he
fulfilled that covenant word between the Father and the Son. And so our psalmist here, he
opens his second psalm And he shows the hatred and the contempt
that is in the heart of man. Because man is enmity against
God. Not just at enmity, he is enmity
against the sovereign God who created us. Man is not at peace
with God. Man doesn't seek to know God.
Man doesn't want to please God. Man is interested in pleasing
himself and doing that which pleases his own flesh. And Fall
of Man imagines that somehow he's going to escape the judgment
of God. As the psalmist asks there, why
do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? For example, man, in his vanity
and in his own mind, he thinks that by his choice, he determines
whether God will save him or not. He thinks that by his choice,
he can make Jesus Christ be Lord over his life or not, and whether
Christ has the sovereign rule over his life. But the reality
is, it's not by our choice. Christ Jesus is the Lord, whether
you believe it or not. Christ Jesus is the Lord, whether
you want to believe it or not, whether you think it's so or
not. He is Lord, and He's the Savior of His people. And He
determines those whom He loves and whom He will save and pour
out his grace upon them, calling them out, so that by his sovereign
choice he chose a people for himself, and he will make certain
that his gospel shall reach their ears. And he will turn their
dark heart to light, that they might hear and know the truth
of God. For they themselves are enmity
against God, and hate the true and living God with all their
heart." They love a God of their imagination, right? They do love
the God of their imagination, that God that can fit in their
pocket, that they control by their choice and their decision
and their determination, they think, that's God, but that's
not God. And so when they hear the true
living God, the flesh stiffens up and it says, that's not God,
that's not the truth of God. And they don't want to hear that
because they love the darkness. So man has many vain and foolish
thoughts about God and how he controls and determines whether
God will have mercy or grace upon him. But brethren, we pray
that the Lord's Spirit will establish this body here, that his truth,
his gospel will go forth where we declare that salvation is
of the Lord. It's not by man's will, it's
not by man's works, it's not by man's choice, it's by God's
will and God's works and his choice. He's made his choice
known in establishing and sending forth his son, Jesus Christ,
to accomplish the salvation for his people. Our Lord said to
Moses in Exodus 33, 19, I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. So it's not of man that wills
nor man that runs, but it's of God that showeth mercy. So God is wonderful and he's
much larger than the puny imagination of man that man has of God. God
is much larger than that. And I wonder, are any of you
here still thinking that? Do you think that by your choice
and your decision and your works that you can effect whether or
not God loves you and whether God has mercy upon you and will
save you? I thought that for many years.
Many years. And when I first heard that God
has an elect people, I rebelled against that. I didn't believe
that. But in the day of God's power, when he purposed and determined
it should be done, with my wife, we heard it together, that God
has a people for himself, that he chose out a people, that all
men are wicked and no man chooses the true and living God. But
when God comes in power, he saves them. And in that day, that's
when God became the size of God, and He outgrew the puny little
God that I once called God and tried to worship in confusion
and in the midst of darkness. But I didn't know the true and
living God until He, in mercy, revealed Himself to me. And that's
how He does it for all His people. He must reveal Himself to His
people, and He'll cause them to hear that gospel. So I pray
that we have his vessels of mercy here tonight and listening in
tonight, that they might hear the gospel of how God saves sinners
by his Son, Jesus Christ, that he saves his people. But those
who hear it, and there's many that hear, and many that reject
it, and many that don't understand what's being said, but Jonah
also said, they that observe lying vanities forsake their
own mercy. So I ask you here, sit and listen
and hear what God says concerning his word and the salvation that
he's provided in his son Jesus Christ. So we have these characters
here. In Psalm 2, verses 2 and 3, these
are the ones that rebel against God. These are the ones who don't
want to hear what God has said concerning His salvation. They're
rebelling and rejecting it. Psalm 2, 2. 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.
So there's many a ruler and many a king in his own mind that sits,
as he thinks, ruling and reigning over his own choices and decisions,
that he's the god of his own life and that he chooses and
determines what he's going to do, but he doesn't realize, or
maybe he does, but he's in league with Satan and Satan has an end.
His day is coming and what he does will no longer be able to
be done in this earth. And the same is true of wicked
man. Their day is coming when all their wicked works will be
brought to nothing, and their day shall end and be no more. So this world celebrates its
hatred of God. They love the darkness and the
evil that they find themselves in, even going so far as to call
that which is light evil, and that which is evil, they call
it good. Or that which is darkness, they call light, and that which
is light, they call darkness. Isaiah 520 says it this way,
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter
for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in
their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them
that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle
strong drink." So these are the words that the psalmist writes,
these are the words that the prophets write, they're all bringing
to light that we might understand and know this is the way the
world is. This is the way the world speaks
and the way the world thinks. Because when you're in it and
you're surrounded by it, you really begin to think that, hey,
this is pretty normal, what we see all around us. That this
must be how it is and the right way to think and the right things
to do. Because it's just all around you. all the time. It's
coming in through the TV, it's coming in through the radio,
it's coming in through the people that you meet and talk to on
the street that you work with, or you go to the supermarket,
or you run into at the gas station. This is how all men are, and
we begin to think, this darkness that's all around us, this must
be light. What they're saying is light. It must be true and
right. But then you hear the word of
God, and God says, that's not truth. That's not how things
are. It's not going to be this way
always and forever. Their day is coming to an end. So, Peter said it this way, the
Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4 verses 3-5, and it sounds very much
like Isaiah, he says, For the time past of our life may suffice
us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked
in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings,
and abominable idolatries, wherein they, they think it strange that
ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil
of you, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge
the quick, the living, and the dead." So men love darkness,
and we know this to be true because it's true of our own hearts.
We're not holy in and of ourselves. God didn't choose us because
we're holy or because there's something good in us. When we're
being honest, we know that we're just as vile and just as wicked
and sinful as other people, if not more sinful than other people.
So we see and understand that it's not because of our goodness
that God has mercy upon us or is blessing us to hear this gospel
now. Christ said to Nicodemus, this
is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the light and he's the
one that we're bearing witness to. Christ is the light and light
is coming to the world. And men love darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. And what do you do when you know
you're doing something that's evil or something that you don't
want people to scrutinize and see? You do it in darkness or
you do it in secret. You do it where people aren't
going to see it out in the open and examine it and call you to
task to explain why you're doing the things that you're doing.
Our deeds are evil and that's why we hide them and do those
things in secret or in darkness. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. And especially, that's especially
so with those sins that we love and protect and try to keep from
the Lord dealing with those things. We love to keep those things
in secret, right? So that testimony is true of
every king and every ruler so-called in this world. And they say,
let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords away from
us. They believe that God shall not
bring them into judgment. They think that somehow things
are going to work out, they're going to get out of the trouble
one day, that God's going to hear what they say, that they're
going to come up with some slick argument or that some goodness
in them will be found out and brought to light so that God
will say, you know what, maybe you're not so bad and I'll just
forgive you for this sin. But I would say to all of you
who hear my voice this night, don't be swept away by their
foolishness that they say so boldly and do before your eyes. Their day is coming. They may
seem to be allowed to do the things that they do without any
penalty or without any problem, but don't be tripped up by that
and don't think, well, I guess then God doesn't see and God
doesn't hear wickedness, so I might as well do it myself. The psalmist
said in Psalm 73 verse 19, How are they brought into desolation
as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with
terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, so, Lord, when thou
awakest, thou shalt despise their image. And there are many, many
people in this life where everything seems to just be going well,
everything seems to be going according to plan, or at least
stable and calm and at peace, and within an instant their entire
world is turned upside down. Because no man can control and
determine what's going to happen. We can't. We think we can. We
tell ourselves lies that we can, especially when we're out doing
the things that we want to do, until God brings it all right
into reality, and you're standing face-to-face with the one who
is our judge, with the one to whom is going to determine where
we shall be for all eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Right?
The way is narrow, brethren, and that way is getting narrower
and narrower and narrower until you're standing between... The
only one before you is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's as narrow
as it is. It's as narrow as Jesus Christ
himself. That's with whom we have to do.
Alright, verses 4 and 5. Psalm 2, 4 and 5. The Lord's
going to bring all to judgment. All to judgment, right? Whether
you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord or you don't, he's going
to bring everyone to judgment. Paul said it this way. for we shall all, we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So it doesn't matter
whether you think Jesus Christ is Lord or not, that has nothing
to do with it to determine whether or not you're going to stand
before him in the day of judgment. Paul said to the Athenians in
Acts 17 31, God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead." So therefore, it's not going to
go well for many, many people in that day. Many people who
are trusting in their own sins. Many people that aren't being
honest with the fact that they are sinners in need of a Savior. That they must be washed by the
blood of Jesus Christ. That He alone is the name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. When you stand before Christ
in that day of judgment covered in his blood, wearing his righteous
robe, he's going to find you righteous because you're not
coming in your own righteousness. You're coming in the righteousness
of Christ. So that's who we want to be standing before in that
day in his righteousness, not our own works of righteousness,
not saying, look, Lord, look what I did. Didn't I do this
for you? And didn't I do that for you? No, we're going to we're
all that the believer, the child of God is going to say is, Lord,
it's your blood. It's your righteousness that
I come before you. You're my hope. You're all my hope and
all my righteousness. Don't look at anything I've done,
Lord. Just look to what you've done, because I trust you. And
I know that you've done the work perfectly. And the sad thing
is that it's the builders of the church. Back in the day,
it was the chief priest, the scribes, the lawyers, the rulers,
they should have been teaching the people and preparing the
people to look to the Messiah, to look to Christ, to be prepared
for His coming, to not trust in their own works. They should
have seen that when they tried to keep the law, they failed,
that they found themselves just to be sinners, but instead they
weren't teaching the people that. And in our day, they should be
teaching the people, you know, they would be called pastors
and elders and deacons, And they should be preparing the people
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. They should be telling people,
look to Christ. But today they just sprinkle
in the name of Jesus a little bit and then they get to telling
people about what they need to be doing to please God. What
they need to be doing to clean up their life and to get themselves
right before God. And they never tell them that
you're never going to get yourself right before God. We're all sinners. We're all in need of His grace
and mercy. If you want grace and mercy, it's in the Lord Jesus
Christ and in him alone. He's the salvation that God has
provided to make his people holy and righteous to be able to stand
before him in that day of judgment. are disallowing Christ. They're
saying, I don't need this stone here. This is meaningless to
me. I don't need this. I don't need this salvation that
God's providing Christ. I'm good enough myself. I can
do it. If there's even a God at all, I'll be fine. It'll all
work out. And so they throw Christ aside
and show themselves to be disobedient to the salvation that God has
provided for his people. So in spite of their rejection,
though, in Psalm 2 6 it says, yet, the Lord says, yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. So in spite of our disapproval,
in spite of our hatred for God, in spite of our hatred for Christ,
God assures us regardless. This is the one whom I've chosen.
I have set my king on the throne. He's the one who has all authority
and all power to do his will and execute it here in the earth. There is a way that seems right
to man. And man says, no, that can't be. I just can't imagine
that that's the way God's going to do it. There's a way that
seems right to a man, but in the end, these are the ways that
lead to death. And I thought that way, and I
was in death, and bound in darkness and in death, until the Lord
said that what you're thinking and what you believe is not going
to save you, because you're mixing grace with works. And it's either
of grace, all of grace, or it's of works, all of works. You either
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that he has sent to save his
people from their sins, or you're adding to it and looking to your
works and you keep judging whether or not you're his child or not
by whether you're doing things good or not. You're either resting
in Christ fully or you're still looking to and trusting in your
works. And brethren, we all have that Arminian heart in us. We
all have that fallen nature. So I understand when it comes
up, it rises up and you get scared and you think, I'm such an Arminian.
Well, you are, and I am, too. That's what we are by nature,
and the Lord saves us from that works-based religion. Trust Him. Just rest in Christ. When it
rises up in your heart and you think it, just rest in Christ. Know that His blood is sufficient
to save you and wash you from your sins. But you who say, I
don't need Christ, I don't know about that, I forget about that,
and you refuse Him, you refuse to hear His word, just know you
shall stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in that day. So you might
think that you have an answer for him and that what you say
is going to go well, but I would say if you are looking to or
think that you're going to have some clever answer to say before
God that he's going to listen to you, just go home tonight.
If you make it home alive, go home tonight and just say it
out loud. Say what you plan to say to God
in that day if you're not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
just hear how hollow and vain it sounds because a lot of times
until you hear it coming out of your mouth, you realize, boy,
that's the dumbest thing I could have ever thought. But when you
hear it come out, you know, then you realize how stupid it sounds.
But may the Lord just have mercy and show us that our thoughts
and what we think we're going to be able to stand on. If it's
not Christ, we're not going to stand in that day. And it's a
mercy for the Lord to shake us and to crumble that and to bring
that little tower of a hope that we have down to the ground now
on this side of eternity that we might know our need of the
Lord Jesus Christ and look to him. Peter said, unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. So this is the Lord's choice.
He's made choice of his son, Jesus Christ, by whom he'll save
his people. Turn over to John 5. John 5,
24. Just to see is that you see and
you know that it's by the Lord Jesus Christ that he shall judge
the people. John 5, 22-24. Our Lord said,
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath set him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. And so there's
a lot of people that talk about God, and they say they believe
in God, but if you don't believe in the salvation, the Son that
He sent, the Lord Jesus Christ, then you don't love the true
and living God. You're not trusting in Him because
you don't love the Son. Because he who loves the Son
loves the Father. So, he's going to make sure that
we hear and love the Son, Jesus Christ. Alright. So back in Psalm
2, Psalm 2, verse 7. 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. So the word of God teaches us
over and over again that we're going to be judged in righteousness,
in righteousness, right? And that righteousness is the
Lord Jesus Christ, that we're going to be compared to or judged
against the righteousness of God, not your righteousness against
another man's righteousness. You might do okay against certain
people, you might do worse against many people, but it's not going
to be that way anyway. We're not being judged by other
people. We're being judged according
to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would understand
if you begin to examine your heart and look at your works.
Have I done enough? Is my heart right with the Lord?
Are my deeds good works? Are they going to be accepted
of the Lord? Have I done enough religious things so that God
will be pleased with me? But that's not how the Lord is
going to judge us. All of us, if that's how we're
judging, if that's how we're looking at it, we're all always
going to come up short, every one of us, because we've never
done enough to satisfy the holy law of God. We've never done
enough to make ourselves just before God. And if we're honest
and we look at those things, we look at our hearts, we look
at our past, we look at the things that we've done or haven't done,
and we realize, if I'm being honest, I don't measure up. I'm
not doing enough to please God and I never will be able to do
enough to please God because many of us have tried over and
over and over again to do it right and each time we failed
and we failed and we failed and we failed over and over again
and we thought I'm so so wicked so wretched so I don't know what
I'm going to do. And we thought that our whole
life was falling down around us and that we were surely cut
off from the living God and that finally our sin has caught up
to us and now God is bringing me to reckoning and for the rest
of my days I'm going to have to live knowing that I'm just
going to die and go to hell when it's all over. But you who've
been through that and that bitter pathway led to the joyful end
where you are today where your hope is now not in those religious
things that you did or didn't do, but in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you're so thankful that he did that because he shook all
your religion, all those things that were keeping you from the
Lord Jesus Christ. was your religion getting in
the way that was blinding you and keeping you in darkness because
you thought, I have to do these things. And God showed you, you're
not doing those things. So there's good news in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ because all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's what the scriptures teach.
There's not a single one of us that can stand here above another
one and say, well, you sinned, but I didn't sin. Nope. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so We know
it's a mercy when God shows us that the wages of sin is death. Because it is, whether you believe
it or not, the wages of sin is death. So you who go to work
each day and you're laboring for a paycheck and you get a
check at the end of the week, that's your wages. You've earned
those things. And the Lord says your sin, the
sin that we do in our flesh every day, we're earning for ourselves
death. We're earning for ourselves a
debt. So, because that's the wages of sin, it's death. So,
I hope when you honestly examine your heart, you see and know,
I'm undone. There's nothing I can do to please
God. There's nothing I can do to make
myself righteous. And, but there's good news for
you who know yourselves to be sinners, who are capital S-I-N-N-E-R-S
sinners, that say, I am a sinner and I have no hope. in the things
that I do. There's good news. You know,
the apostle Paul in Romans 7, he himself is not an apostle
because he's a saintly man, because he was an exceptionally godly
man, that he's better than any of us. These are his words. He
said in Romans 7, 18, For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. And then he says in verse 24,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? God has provided the one that
shall deliver us sinners from the body of this death, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's provided the salvation.
If you look over in Romans 3, Romans 3 we see this. Romans 3 verse 20. Paul says, Therefore by the deeds
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ." And note what that's saying is our salvation
is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. It's not our faith in
Christ that saves us. What saves us is the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, it's unto all
and upon all then that believe, because when we believe, We're
bearing witness to, what we're doing is saying that God has
provided salvation in His Son. We're bearing witness to that.
We're saying, yes Lord, you are true. Everything I've done up
to this point has done nothing to save me. It's done nothing
to cleanse me of my guilt and my sin. You provided it fully
and completely in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on to say,
there's no difference for all of sin to come short of the glory
of God. so that the child of God isn't going around trying
to justify that he's a Christian because he's better than other
people. We're saying and confessing, I'm as much if not more a sinner
as everybody else. So it's not by my goodness that
the Lord has saved me and has shown me mercy, but rather He's
brought me to see that all my works have brought me to nothing.
They haven't done anything to help me or to save me. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. So being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, that is He set forth Christ to
be the means, the very means of forgiveness by whom He saves
His people through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance
of God To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that
he might be just in the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
So, this salvation, our Lord is declaring to us by setting
Christ upon that throne, He's declaring to us, this is my son. This is the one whom you are
to hear. This is the one who saves his people from their sins.
Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, that's what we're to preach,
and to declare, and to proclaim. that it's by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that He saves sinners. We who are heathens, vile, wretched
sinners, who have no claim to His mercy, no claim to His grace
by anything that we've done, but we've heard what He's done
through His Son, Jesus Christ, and we believe it. We can't help
but believe, and that's where our hope is, and we love Him
because God has made Him precious to us. For He has made us to
see and to know that it's not by our works, but by what He
Himself has done. And the psalmist says in verse
9, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And our Lord said it
this way, whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken,
but on whosoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder.
You who look to Christ, who hear what's being said and know yourselves
to be sinners, you who fall upon Christ, you'll be broken. You
will mourn for your sin, you'll be shown that you are a sinner,
and that nothing you've done is pleasing to the Lord. Christ alone pleases the Lord,
and that's why we come to Him in Christ. So you'll be broken.
He'll show you your sin. He'll show you over and over
your need of Him, but He'll show you how precious and wonderful
He is, how faithful a Savior He is, how He heals His people
and restores them. Those who are humbled under the
hand of Almighty God He'll raise them up in due time when it pleases
Him, when we are brought to see and know of a surety that Christ
is all, that He is sufficient to save even me, the most wretched
of all sinners. He said in Malachi 4.2, But unto
you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with
healing in His wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as
calves of the stall. All right, now very quickly,
Psalm, the last three verses, 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. Our Savior
is returning again, only this time it won't be weak and lowly
and entering in on a donkey, but this time it'll be triumphant.
as the sovereign king of all and he shall judge all the people
and he'll come and redeem those who are purchased by his blood,
those who he has marked out and given the spirit and has marked
them and preserved them and brought them to the light of his glorious
kingdom. He's returning for them and he'll
claim them and deliver them and bring them to be with him forever.
I'll just close with what Paul said to the Thessalonians in
2 Thessalonians 1, verses 7-10. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and they that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
and he shall come to be glorified in the saints and to be admired
in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. And that's our hope, brethren,
that he hasn't left us to himself. I know that the child of God
can suffer pain when they think back and feel guilty about their
sin and their foolishness and their folly and the things and
they look back They've gone away from the Lord and done so many
foolish things in their life, but God's not looking to our
goodness. He's not looking to our righteousness
to determine whether or not we're His child. He looks at His Son,
Jesus Christ, and all those who hope in Him and believe in Him
and have committed all things to Him, trusting Him that He's
provided salvation for them. They're His children. He loves
them, and He shall return and bring them to Himself. into everlasting
glory as his inheritance. I pray the Lord will take these
words, even where I fumbled, and just bless them to your heart,
help you to hear and to see and to know that Jesus Christ is
able to save even the vilest of sinners. He's a merciful Savior,
come to Christ. All right, let's pray, and then
we'll have a closing hymn. Our Lord, we thank you for this
night. Lord, we thank you for just blessing us, Lord, that
we can meet on a Wednesday, Lord. It's such an amazing thing to
think of what you've done here among this people, in this place,
Lord, that now the gospel is here and going out consistently. Lord, that now there's even a
Wednesday night service. Lord, we ask that you would bless
this people Bless us, Lord, for we need your Spirit, we need
your grace, we need your mercy. Lord, you know what fools we
are by nature. You know what sinners we are
by nature. Lord, we need the grace and the mercy that you
show to sinners in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, show us our
need of Him, and O Lord, especially show us how you have cleansed
us in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is our Savior.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.