Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. Our message today is going to
come from Psalm 2. Psalm chapter 2. We are going
to look at the entire chapter. But first I want to point out
the first three words in verse 12. The first three words in
the last verse of this Psalm say, kiss the son, kiss the son,
the son of God, the son of God. That's the commandment of God,
the father to us. To every man and woman on this
earth, kiss the sun. That's our warning. That is the
warning to the entire world. And that is the reward. That's
the warning. And that is the reward. We better. We had better kiss the sun. And
if we belong to him, we get to. we will be allowed to. That is
our warning. And that's our reward. Kiss the
sun. This chapter declares, if you've
ever read Psalm 2 before, you probably are aware of this and
have seen this, but it declares man's ignorance, man's absolute
ignorance and man's rebellion. and man's weakness and man's
inability. It tears down the flesh of man,
gives no glory to man. This chapter declares God's sovereignty,
God's absolute sovereignty. It declares him to be on his
throne, seated and reigning on his throne. It declares what
he is going to do with all of those who are left in their sin
and will be left in their sin. And it declares what he is going
to do with all of those who have been given as an inheritance
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Two different types of people,
those who will be left in their sin and those who have been given
to Christ as an inheritance, those who belong to Christ. At
the end of this chapter, three things are commanded. And these
three things describe, as the end of verse 12 says, all they
that put their trust in him. All those who trust Christ and
belong to Christ, these three things describe those people.
They do these three things. Verse 11 says, serve the Lord
with fear. That's the first one. And then
it says, rejoice with trembling. That's the second one. And then
it says, kiss the sun. That's the third one. Now let's
look for a moment at man's ignorance and man's rebellion and man's
weakness before God. Psalm two verse one says, why
do the heathen rage? The heathen, the outcast, the,
those that are not naturally God's people, those who do not
deserve God's favor, which is us, all men and women by nature. Verse one says, 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." What those three verses
are asking is, why is man so ignorant? That's a wonderful
question. Why is man so ignorant? I'm included in man. Why is man
so naturally rebellious? And so weak. Verse one says he
is imagining a vain thing, an empty thing. Vain means empty. The scripture says man at his
best state is altogether vanity. That means empty man at his best
state is altogether empty. He imagines that he can do something
that he can't do. And he does. He imagines that he can take
counsel against the Lord and against his anointed, which is
Christ. He takes counsel against his
word. He takes counsel against his
will, as though he's going to go against the will of God. He
takes counsel against his way. And this is what he says, I don't
want your way. That's what man says to God. I don't want your way. I want
to break the bands of your way and I want to cast away the cords
that you say is going to be. I want to cast that far from
me. We're going to cast that away. I want your way to go away. Man ignorantly and rebelliously
says, I will not have salvation your way. And I'm going to tell
you, that's the truth. Had God left me to myself and
left all of us to ourselves, that's exactly what our flesh
would say. I don't want salvation your way.
I do not want salvation the way you've declared it to be in your
word. I will not have eternal life your way. Ultimately, what
the flesh of man says is, I will not have him to reign over me. I will not have that man reign
over me. That very rebellion is the reason
man is in the condition he's in. That very rebellion, the
very reason Adam and Eve took the fruit and ate of it. The
very reason is because in their hearts, they said, I will not
have that man reign over me. The tempter came and said, if
you eat that fruit, he won't reign over you anymore. You'll
be his equal. And they said, I like the sound of that. I will
not have that man reign over me. That rebellion and that wickedness
continued all the way to the cross. If you look at Acts chapter
four, it says in Acts chapter four, this is Peter and John.
They were brought before a council and they were threatened for
preaching the gospel because they were preaching the truth
of the word. Religion laid a hold of them and said, we don't want
to hear that false religion. And they were threatened and
brought before this council. And it says in Acts four, verse
23, and being let go, they went to their own company and reported
all that the chief priest and elders had said unto them. And
when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one
accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and
earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth
of thy servant David has 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. Verse 27 says, 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 gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done." You know what that
means? That means all of their raging
rebellion, all of it, all of their wickedness and everything
that they were doing, It was only accomplishing what God Almighty
had already predetermined to be done. They hung Christ on
a cross, meaning it for evil, but God meant it for good. He
meant it for the good, the eternal good of all of his people. God
used their ignorant rebellion to be the very means of bringing
the gospel to his people. Good news to his people. And
it's still the same today. It's the exact same way today.
What man does in his rebellion against Christ, in his rebellion
against the word, it only accomplishes the purpose of Christ. That's
all it does. Everything that man does in raging
against the word of God, It only accomplishes exactly what He
has predetermined to be done. He is reigning over everything. Everything. And back in our text,
in Psalm 2, it says in verse 4, he that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. Man in all of his ways and rebellion
against God and rebellion against the salvation of Christ, he that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision. Derision means mockery. He is
going to make a mockery out of them. Verse five says, then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Those who leave this world without
Christ, I pray that God might reveal to us the vitalness of
leaving this world with Christ. Because all of us, this is describing
every man in his flesh, all of us are vanity. All of us in our
best state are nothing but emptiness and vanity and rebellion. The
scripture says we were at enmity against him. That's what this
is describing. Those who die in their own sin, they're to
be pitied. And the reason is because but for the grace of
God, there go you and I. We all come from the same lump
in the flesh. We all had that conversation. All of us, we were all children
of wrath, even as others, but God who is rich in mercy. for
His great love, wherewith He loved us, quickened us together
with Christ." Even though we were raging against Him and rebelling
against Him, God quickened us together with Him. And that's
the only difference in a sinner who is redeemed, redeemed to
life, or condemned to death. That's the only difference. Whether
or not that sinner has been quickened together with Christ, whether
God did a work, that's the only difference. Whether God gave
the sinner and all of his sin to Christ, his son, and whether
Christ broke that sinner and dashed all of his sin to pieces
in the sacrifice of himself. It all comes down to whether
or not Christ suffered in the sinner's place. That's what it
all comes down to. Broke himself and bled in the
sinner's place. Well, the first five verses of
this chapter declare nothing but horrible news for man. That's
all terrible, terrible news concerning man and his wretched condition
before God. But in verse six, God declares
good news, good news for wretched man. He said in verse six, yet. This is man, this is the truth
of man, this is the truth of man's heart before God. Verse
six, he said, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of
Zion. I love how after the queen of
Sheba, you may know of her story. You may have read the story of
the queen of Sheba who came to ask Solomon some hard questions. She had heard of the wisdom of
Solomon and she wanted to come talk to him. And when she came,
she brought all these gifts with her that she thought he would
be so pleased with. And when she got there and saw
his greatness and saw how much God had given to him, and saw
the glory that God had shown to him as a type of Christ, as
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, when she saw him ascend
the throne, there was no more spirit in her. She was just in
awe. It just humbled her. And she
said, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee
to set thee on the throne of Israel. This is what God revealed
to her. She said, because the Lord loved
Israel forever. He made you to be their king
because he loved them. He made you to be their king. He gave them a gracious king
and a merciful king. The Apostle John in the book
of Revelation saw Christ in all of his majesty and all of his
glory and it says, he fell at his feet like a dead man. And
the Lord laid his right hand upon him and said, fear not,
fear not, I'm the one who's on the throne. Yes, you are what
this word says you are, but I'm the one who's on the throne.
I am the first. I am the last. I am the one who
has the keys of hell and death. Fear not, fear not. What he was
saying was, John, there's mercy to be had. There is mercy to
be had. Verse seven, he said, I will
declare the decree. Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. He said, I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said
unto me, meaning the father, my father, has said unto me,
thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and
I shall give thee the heathen, the heathen. Ask of me and I
shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. The father said to the son, if
you ask of me, If you ask, if you want them, if you desire
to have them over anything and everything else that there is
to have, I will give you the heathen. I will give you the
worst of the worst. I'll give you the outcast for
your inheritance. I'll give you the vilest of the
offenders. I'll give them to you for your
inheritance. If you ask me, the ones from
the uttermost parts of the earth, one man coined it this way, the
gutter most parts of the earth. If you want them, you can have
them. Christ said, I'll take them. I'll take them. Verse nine. He said, I'll break
them. I'll dash them into pieces like a potter's vessel. and I'll
make a new creation out of them. I'll wash them. I'll cleanse
them in my blood. I'll make it so that we can forgive
them. Everything that they are, everything
they've done, I'll do away with it. And I'll make it so that we can
forgive them and accept them back to ourselves. That's what Christ did for his
people. That's what he did for his people
in spite of his people. That's what makes the gospel
so glorious. He did it in spite of his people. It is true that
those who he did not die for those who he did not die for
those who leave this world in their rebellion against him.
It is true. He is going to break them with
a rod of iron. He is going to dash them into
pieces like a potter's vessel. All who are not caused to fall
on the chief cornerstone. The scripture says. All who are
not graciously caused to fall on the chief cornerstone, which
is Christ. The chief cornerstone is going
to fall on them. And he is going to ground them
to powder. But all who do fall, all who
are made to fall are going to lovingly be broken, broken to
him. That's what God's people are.
They're broken to Christ. And for all who are broken, verse
10 says. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Hear the instruction,
hear the commandment of the Lord. Be wise. And hear the word of
the Lord. He said three things. Verse 11,
serve the Lord with fear. Serve the Lord with fear. He
said, rejoice with trembling. And he said, kiss the sun. Lest
he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled,
but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. I want to do that. I want to
do that. I want to serve the Lord with
fear. Fear, the kind of scriptural
fear that you don't see much today. You don't see fear, the
fear of the Lord in man and in his worship before God. I want
to serve the Lord with fear. I want to rejoice with trembling.
We're dealing with a holy God. Who must punish sin and sin is
all that I am. And I want to put my trust in
him. I want to put my trust in him
and I pray you do too. I pray that you want to cast
your all on him. And what he did for his people.
There's a story in the scripture that perfectly illustrates what
it is for a mercy-begging sinner to do just that, to serve the
Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling and kiss the Son and
trust Him, cast their all on Him and trust Him. I believe
this story describes the heart and the desire of every redeemed
sinner. I believe it does. And I pray
that after hearing this story, It'll cause all of us to, in
the heart, do this very thing. Do this very thing. Serve the
Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, and kiss the sun.
The story is in Luke 7. If you'd like to read it with
me, you can turn over to Luke chapter 7, and it says in verse
36, One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him.
One of the Pharisees, now you have to understand a Pharisee
was a preacher. He was one of the religious leaders
of the Jews. He was a preacher. A preacher
asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into his house and eat with
him. And he went, the Lord went, it
says in verse 36, to the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And
behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner. All right,
a woman in the city, which was a sinner. Everybody knew she
was a sinner. She was a woman of the streets,
a woman of the night. She knew she was a sinner. Everybody
knew she was a sinner. Verse 37, And behold, a woman
in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat
at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash
his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her
head, and kissed his feet. and anointed them with the ointment. This woman has come in her sorrow
over what she is, what she's done and what she is. And she
brings her all. I'm sure that costly ointment
was the most prized possession she had. She brought her all.
And she came to the Lord and she cried over his feet and washed
his feet with her hair. That's worship. That's adoration,
that's begging. And she kissed his feet and anointed
them with the ointment. Verse 39 says, now when the Pharisee
which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself. He didn't
say this out loud, he said it in his mind, in his heart. He
spake within himself saying, this man, speaking of the Lord,
if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of
woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus
answering said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto
thee. Our Lord read his thoughts and said, I have something to
say to you. And he saith, Master, say on.
Our Lord said there was a certain creditor which had two debtors,
The one owed 500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing
to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? One owed 500, one owed 50. He
just forgave them both. Our Lord said, which one will
love him most? Verse 43, Simon answered and
said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said
unto him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath
not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she
loveth much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven. And they
that sat at meet with him began to say within themselves, who
is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, thy
faith have saved thee, go in peace. Faith, the faith of that
woman was not of herself. That was God's gift to her. God gave her that faith. And
he said to her, the faith that has been given to you, God has
caused you to put your trust in me and cast your all on me. And because of that, you are
a blessed woman. What she did did not cause her
salvation. It was the evidence that she
had been given salvation. When we serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling and kiss the sun, that's the evidence
of the salvation that has been given to us. That's the evidence.
And all of that evidence happens at his feet. It all happens at
his feet. Oh, to be drawn to the feet of
Christ. That's our warning and that's our reward. That is our
warning and our reward. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Bow down and kiss the feet of
the Son of God. May God enable us to do that.
That would be His gift to us. Our warning and our reward. Till
next week, the Lord bless His Word. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.