It's good to see all of you this
morning. Let's take our Bibles, please,
and turn to the second Psalm. Psalm 2. Twelve verses in this psalm,
three verses in each stanza, and there are four stanzas, each one having reference to
our Lord Jesus Christ. in his sufferings, in his rejection
at the hands of men, in who he is and what he's commissioned
in this psalm to do, this is indeed a wonderful, wonderful
psalm. It is indicative of all the psalms
in that every last one of them, all 150 of them, are about what? Christ and Him crucified. Don't
let anybody ever tell you any different than that. This whole book is about Christ. It's not about what we ought
to do for Him. It's what He's already done for
us. And the work is done. God the Son has done it, and
therefore it lasts forever and ever and ever. Believers may
fall into sin, but they cannot fall out of grace. It cannot
be done. Before we start to read, let
us seek the Lord's face and ask him to Come down and speak to our hearts
in that voice that wakes the dead. Make thy people hear. Lord, thank you for letting us
meet in this place this day. Thank you for the precious statements
that we've already embraced, not only in our hymns, but in
the previous Bible class. And Lord, we come now to your
holy word and to one of the most glorious yet awful passages in
our Bibles regarding our precious Lord Jesus Christ. But if you
do not come and speak these words to the hearts and souls of your
people, we'll never hear. Lost sinners cannot ever find themselves.
We must be found of you. Lord, as we take these verses
to mean precisely what they say, to find no objection with everything
in this psalm, not wishing to change even a single word. Lord,
that you would bless these things in such a measure that those who are already your
children might rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And for all of those in this
place this day who do not truly know you, who may profess to
do so, but who do not, Lord, could this be the day of their
emancipation? Could this be the day that you
come down from glory and save one of Christ's sheep? Oh, we
pray that it does. We pray that it will. We pray
for everybody in this world who is preaching the true gospel
of Christ, no matter where or how far or how near, that your
hand of mercy and grace would be upon them. Give us the ability
to well consider what it is that we hear and that we read, that
you would make these statements in this psalm alive in our souls
for the rest of our days. We bless you and thank you, in
Jesus' name, amen. I think I've entitled this, Jehovah's
Anointed King. The heading in my Bible, which
I don't recommend this for a reference Bible for anybody else, I've
just been using it so long I can't change. It's where things are
on the page. I know exactly where they are. So I'll try not to indoctrinate
you with these things that I thought I believed a long time ago and
found out they weren't true. But I'm not talking about the
Scriptures themselves. I'm talking about the inspired
notes in many of our Bibles, you understand, which ain't inspired
at all. But these statements, oh, they're
just so precise. They're so brief. Take, for example,
the first stanza, which is the first three verses of Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing? Now this is talking about people
like us, concerning the God of heaven and earth in his threefold
character of beings, Why is it that we don't like God as He
makes Himself out to be in our Bibles? Why do we have problems
with this? Because it ain't about us, it's
about Him. That's the problem. Why do the heathen rage? The unbelievers of this world
of which we all were were a voting member at one time. And the people
imagine a vain thing. Why is it that we can't stick
to the revealed truth? Why do we have to imagine that
this book does not say what it says? Second verse. The kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together. For what? Against the Lord and
against his anointed. Saying, let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us. Let us declare ourselves
independent of God. That's what being lost is about. Now, the second stanza begins
at verse 4. Speaking of God, he that sits in the heavens shall
laugh. We have, in effect, said in that
first stanza, we're going to pull God off his throne. And
he's really worried, he just laughs at such fools as men are. Fools. We don't like the way
God's running things, we're going to run it ourselves. He that sits in the heaven shall
laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Side-splitting laughter. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, and vex them in his
sore displeasure." And here's what he says, "'Yet have I set
my King,' God's Son, the Lord Jesus, "'Yet have I set my King
upon my holy hill of Zion.'" And if everybody on this globe
conspired together, we can't pull him off that throne. He's
there forever and ever. This is Christ on his precious
throne of glory and grace. Now, beginning at verse 7, we
leave behind for the moment the kings and the great people of
the earth, as well as the Just run to the mill, lost people.
Leaving all that behind, we come now to our Lord Jesus Christ
in verses 7, 8, and 9. It begins like this, after the
Father has said in verse 6, Yet have I set my King, King Jesus,
upon my holy hill of Zion, I will declare the decree, our Lord
Jesus says. The Lord has said unto me, you are my son. You are my son. This day have I begotten you. And then he continues, the father
speaking to the son. all the way through verse 9.
Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance.
Now, when did we meet with heathen last? In verse 1 of this psalm. Everybody who doesn't believe
in love and trust the Lord Jesus Christ is heathen. I don't care
if you're American or what we are. It has nothing to do with
it. Ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession." This whole world and universe
belongs to whom? The Lord Jesus Christ. And Him
alone. It ain't me and Christ. It's
Christ. Just Christ. He made this world
and everything in it. It belongs to him. It's his. He bought it with his blood. Verse 9, the father continues
to speak to his son. You shall break them with a rod
of iron. You shall dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel, a clay pot. And now in the final three verses,
the Holy Spirit seeks to speak to men who are mentioned already
in this psalm. He speaks to the common people
as well as to kings and those in authority. People at all levels
of society. People all over the world. American
people, South American people, and any other kind of people
there is in this world. This message is to you and me. Verse 10. Be wise now therefore,
O you kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son Lest he be angry, and we perish
from the way." Now look carefully at this next phrase. When his
wrath is kindled but a little, just a little of God's wrath. through Christ, to God-hating sinners, a clan
to which we all belonged, if we do not presently. We certainly
held membership, high-ranking officers in that club, for umpteen
years. Kiss the son lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. In this wonderful statement,
blessed are all they that put their trust in Him, in Christ. Is our trust in Christ? Now, everybody and his brother
will tell you to have a blessed day, but I'm telling you, here's
what blessing is. Blessed is the man Blessed is the man. Blessed are
all they that have been given God-given
faith, and it has been deposited in
one person, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, now we're going to go
back over this psalm, but I'm going to try to do it with some I don't know if I'm telling you
the truth, but I'm going to try to do it as quickly as I can.
I won't keep you unnecessarily. When I finish saying what I've
got to say, I'm finished. Sometimes that takes longer than
others. All right, here we go. Stanza number one. anointed Son of God is foreseen, anticipated before
He actually came to this earth. Goodness, I couldn't tell you
how many years, over maybe at least 1,500 years before Christ
ever came incarnate into this world. Yet the Bible is explicit
about what it says about God the Son. Why do the heathen rage? And
the people imagine a vain thing. This Lord Jesus Christ that,
according to Luke's gospel, Words are put on our tongues and we
are heard to say, we won't have this man reign over us. Give us a pagan king any day,
we don't want Christ. And that's still the opinion
of man. No matter at what point you check
his temperature, it's always going to be this. Until the grace
of God conquers our proud hearts. and brings us to Christ on our
knees, imagining a vain thing. In verse 7, Christ is called
the Son of God. In verse 6, He is called a King. In verse 8, the nations are His
possession. And in verses 10 through 12,
He is the one before whom kings are to bow. So back to stanza
1. We come now in verse 2 to the
kings of the earth and the rulers. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed. This then is nothing less than
rebellion. Absolute rebellion. We will not
have this man reign over us. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. And I'm going to do you one
better than Craig did at the Bible class this morning. I'm
going to have you turn to two scriptures and that's it. Alright? So I didn't get them printed.
Alright, here we go. The first one is Acts chapter
4. Acts chapter 4, verses 25, 26,
27, and 28. Chapter 4 of Acts, verse 25 and
following. Speaking of our Lord Jesus, who
by the mouth of your servant David has said, why did the heathen
rage and the people imagine vain things? Now, I wonder where the
apostles got that from? The same psalm we've been reading
this morning. The second psalm. who by the
mouth of your servant David is said, why did the heathen rage,
and the people imagine vain things? Why did the kings of the earth
stand up, and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against His Christ?" Now here is the New Testament
answer for that question. Verses 27 and 28. For of a truth
against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel, were gathered together." What were they gathered to do?
Well, it turns out a whole lot less than what they wanted to
do. Verse 28, "...for to do whatsoever
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. Now, I'm apologizing for the
translators. I wish they hadn't have done
this. But this word in verse 28, determined, is translated
elsewhere in the New Testament, predestinated. I love predestinated grace. That's the only kind there is. It's the forever kind. You can't lose it. Nobody can
steal it from you. If you ever have it, you have
it forever and ever and ever. To do whatsoever your hand and
your counsel predestinated before to be done. And now, Lord, behold
their threatenings, and grant unto your servants that with
all boldness they may speak your word." Now, if that isn't a commentary
on Psalm 2, I don't know what is. I don't know what is. Let's look at this rebellion
against this anointed one. as it is foretold here in Psalm
2. There are five forms, five kinds
of resistance of seeking to prevent God from
doing what He said He's going to do. Now that is, you know,
if you've got an ounce of grace in your brain, you know that
can't be so. If God said He's going to do it, He's going to
do it. You know, we've got an expression, we're going to do
this. You know, hell or high water can't keep
us from doing it. Shoot. A gnat can keep us from
doing anything. People have died from breathing
a gnat or swallowing one in their mouth. And we're going to tell
God he can't do this? Man, that's dumber than dumb
can get. The first form of resistance
may be compared to maybe ocean waves. It uses the word in verse
1, rage. We live in a part of the world
that we have seen Many a hurricane come up the coast and come into
the state of North Carolina. And that, my friend, is raging. Raging. People are like people
with rabies. They're mad. We're rabid. In verse 2, it's called imagining. It is a plan or scheme of opposition
to God and to God's grace in Christ. The third one is found in verse 2.
These persons are said to be setting themselves. Not sitting, setting. That is,
they're virtually saying, I'm sitting here and I ain't moving.
No matter what. It's like resolving to do something. I promise myself that I will
not give in. If you've got enough boldness
to say that to God out loud, I'd be the one to want to hear
you. Because I don't believe he'll
pay you any mind. He'll do whatever he wants to
do with you. He'll save you or damn you one. One or the other. This religion
that we have on our hands today does not know the God of the
Bible. And if you don't know that, you're a blinder and a
bat. In the second verse also, it
says, taking counsel together. forming a confederacy. And in
verses 2 and 3 it says, saying, that's the last word in verse
2, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their
cords from us. So this saying is putting in
verbal form this determined Resistance against God. He wants to do this
and we ain't going to let him. Wonder who will win. Then we come to verses 4, 5,
and 6. Rebellion against this anointed
one is utter folly. Luke 16. Some of you guys don't ever turn
a leaf. I bet you got one of them tablets or whatever you
call them things, right? We ought to collect those before
we start. Make it a level playing field, you know. Oh my goodness. Luke 16, verses 14 and 15. And the Pharisees also, who were
covetous, heard all these things, and they
derided him. They laughed at him. They heard
what the Lord Jesus had to say and laughed in his face. And our Lord said to them, You are they which justify yourselves
before men. But God knows your hearts, because for that which is highly
esteemed among men is what? Abomination in the sight of God. If people like it, it's got to
be wrong. It's an abomination in God's
sight. Modern day Christianity is an
abomination to God. Churches will do anything to
get people to come. They'll do anything to get their
hand in your pocketbook. If they ever could find out that
when God calls a people to Himself, you don't have to beat up on
people to get them to do things. If the Lord is in it, He provides,
and if He ain't, He doesn't. You are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Abomination. So this rebellion that is recorded
here in the 2nd Psalm, and now particularly in the verses 4,
5, and 6, this rebellion is against Christ's anointed one, the Savior,
the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer. In verses 4-6, "...he that sits
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 sword his pleasure. Yet have I set my King upon my
holy hill of Zion." You know, there's all kinds of ways for
people to demand God giving us what we're asking for. I don't
know how long ago this took hold. I don't remember this as a teenager
in a country church similar to this. But now when people want
God to do something, if it hadn't rained in three months, you know,
we're going to all get together and we're going to take hands
and we're going to come up here on this, what people call an
altar. This is a pool pit. It ain't
an altar. You know, we're going to gang up on God. and get him
to do what otherwise he ain't going to do. Listen. Listen to me. If you want God's
ear, if you want His eye, you better go to Him in Christ
and forget all this other junk. Junk. Religious garbage is all
it is. You've got family in it and so
have I. You've got friends in it, and
so have I. This rebellion is an unholy rebellion. It is also an unsuccessful rebellion. I mean, if God is God, it has
to be unsuccessful. Ain't nothing takes place on
this earth that doesn't come through Him. That's right, that's
what I said. There ain't nothing that happens
on this globe or anywhere in this universe every day that
rolls by. Every little tiny detail, every
big major thing, whatever it is. God has purpose for it to
be or it would not be. God ain't dead. Just a bunch
of dead-headed sinners who don't know how to get out of the rain. This rebellion is self-defeating
and self-damning all at one time. Now we come to verses 7 and 8
and 9. The Lord Jesus, who is the Anointed
One, declares heaven's decree. He tells us what God has said
to him and what God has committed to him and promised to him. So let's look at these three
verses in that light. There are four parts to this
statement. This anointed one declares heaven's
decrees, and this a specific decree called the everlasting
covenant. Number one, the anointed one
is the only, only begotten son of God. God has but one begotten
son. All the rest of his sons and
daughters are made his in Christ by virtue of being born again. You can't be a believer without
being born from above. Born again. It's all over the
Bible. If you read behind Mr. Hawker very long, you'll certainly
run into it, because he's all the time mentioning it, for which
I'm very glad. So in verse 7, This anointed
one is the only begotten Son of God. Also in that same stanza,
in verse 8, our Lord is given power over all things. He's the governor, the ruler,
the owner of this universe. Here's what this means. Whatever
God's doing in this whole world on which we live, He's doing
it through Jesus Christ alone. He's not looking for an army. The Son of God is sufficient.
Completely sufficient. Also in verse 8, we have the
result of his intercession. Because the Father says, ask
of me. All God the Son has to do is
think it. Doesn't even have to say it.
And it's His. It's His. I know one thing. The average
Baptist doesn't want a God this big. They want that little peanut
God that can't do anything unless they let him. And that ain't
no God at all. Then we come to the ninth verse,
the last verse of this stanza. The rule of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be entire and complete. It can tolerate no additions
and no subtractions. Why? God does not and cannot
make mistakes. Now we're coming down to verses
10, 11, and 12. The Holy Spirit issues a summons,
and it is a summons for submission. Be wise, therefore, O you kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear. Serve
the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, with trembling. So when we rejoice in Christ, we ought to be careful what we
deduct from that. That we do not make ourselves
more than we truly are in His sight. And do not ever, not ever
attempt to make Christ smaller than He is. You can't do that. True believers won't do that. Now, there's a string of things
here in this last stanza, verses 10 through 12, that are five ways for this submissive
spirit to belong to the Lord's children. In verse 10, the kings,
and I take that can belong to us as well, are urged to be wise. Then it says in the same verse,
be instructed. Don't tell God you know everything. Tell Him you don't know anything.
Then He'll send you a teacher. And that teacher is none other
than our Savior. Be wise. Be instructed. In verse 11, it is serving the
Lord with fear. With a reverence and an awe as
to whom it is we're speaking to. or being spoken to. Be instructed. Be instructed. Serve the Lord with fear. Then
in verse 11, also rejoice with trembling. With trembling. I know all of you have seen this,
and if you haven't, you ought to consider yourself blessed. Most churches have more than
just Baptists, but I don't know who all. I don't put any stock
in being a Baptist church. Whatever the name meant a long
time ago, it's dead. Dead. The average Baptist church in
America has two services on a Sunday morning. One is for the young
crowd and the other is for the old crowd. One of them is dancing
and jumping and singing, you know, the solid rock music. And the other ones are stiff-shirted
and straight-laced and all this stuff. But their God is just
as dead as the other God. One of my sisters complained
to me about that. That the preacher they had just,
I think she used the word hired, I'm not sure, but that's what
they did. And when he came and preached his
trial sermon, he was dressed in a three-piece suit and tie. And the first Sunday after he
got there, he came in the pulpit with blue jeans on and it blew
their minds. But what she didn't understand
was that the God that's being worshipped at the early service
is the same God that's being worshipped in the second one. And ain't neither one of them
God. So I didn't have a horse in that race. I don't know why
I need to talk to her about anything. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice
with trembling. Now we come to verse 12. Kiss
the Son. It's foolish for us to even think
of somehow, some way, we can just Not do what this book says we
must do. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry. To refuse to bow to Christ, to
embrace Christ, I'm not talking about physically. Spiritually
speaking, to embrace Him. To refuse this is to perish. There's no life for the soul.
There's no eternal life outside the gospel of Christ. All men lost as well as saved
are under Christ's rule. He rules to save. True blessedness is in submission
to Christ. So we go back now in verse 10
to this phrase, verse 12, this phrase, Kiss the Son. Kiss the
Son. In some cultures, in some countries,
It is a sign of love among equals. In some places, it is a sign
of subjection in inferior people, like servants or slaves or what
have you. And then it is the sign of adoration
in people who are worshiping the true and living God. It is
an expression. Kiss the Son. It is a kiss of
adoration. For example, this kiss the Son is the kiss
of reconciliation. You ought to remember this, so
I didn't think it necessary for us to turn to it. But in that
three-part parable that's in Luke chapter Fifteen, I think. The first part of that parable
has to do with the prodigal son. And this son, you know, got all of his inheritance. He went in a foreign country
and spent everything he had. And then he could only think
about his father's house where there was plenty of food. He
had been eating the same food as the hogs and pigs that he
was feeding. This prodigal son determines
that the first words he'll say to his father when he gets home,
make me one of your hired servants. I do not deserve to be your son. Ah, but that's the magic word.
I don't deserve this. Who said you could ever deserve
being made a child of God? privileges beyond any comprehension
on our part. Then it's the kiss of allegiance. It is the kiss of being happy
with Christ's government and His rule. My goodness, if we
can wake up every morning and the thought cross our mind, this
world is under God's control and it's in the hands of God
the Son. 24-7. Nothing can stop it or slow it
down or speed it up. It is what it is because it's
God. It's God. Then this kiss is also a kiss
of worship. And it's Illustrated in our Bibles
in many places, it is the kiss of affectionate gratitude. In
Luke chapter 7, to which we will not turn, the Lord Jesus has
gone to one of the Pharisees' houses for a meal. They offer
him none of the courtesies of the day. dust the dirt off. He's walking in a pair of sandals
and it's hot and dry. They don't bother to wipe his
feet off or let him put his shoes off and put on a pair of house
slippers or whatever. No, they only brought him here
to figure out who he is and what they have to do to get rid of
him. And this woman comes in, who's a notorious prostitute. She brings one of the most expensive
bottles of perfume that money could buy. And in those days,
the diners laid on some kind of cot with an elevated edge
at the table and then back to floor level at the back. And
she got behind where our Lord was, and washed his feet with
the tears that came out of her eyes, and anointed that whole bottle
of ointment on his feet. Now that, my friend, is the kiss
of adoration. Kiss the Son. Lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little." Do I know him? Do you know him? Does the character of your Christ
match the character in our Bibles? It must. There ain't but one. And everybody either has him
or they don't have him. All right, Mr. Rogers.